The ETSII researcher, Sergio Pérez, wins the 'Santander Business Competition Cyber'

Raul Garcia Hemonnet

Sergio Pérez Peló, researcher within the 'Group for Research in Algorithms for Optimization' (GRAPH, in English) of the Escuela Técnica Superior en Ingeniería Informática and a graduate of this same center took part in this cybersecurity competition organized by Banco Santander, "as a hobby, it was something that interested me and I tried it". The bet went well for him, since now a total of 15.000 euros will be shared with the 4 members of his team. For Sergio, winning was “a joy, since there were quite powerful people from the world”.

To get there, Sergio had to go through two phases, one online, in which 365 young people over the age of 18 with less than 5 years of experience took part, and one face-to-face, in which the 50 with the best score passed.

In this second phase, teams of 4 people were randomly assembled to face each other in an attack-defense test. “We were 6 hours in which we had 10 services that had to be kept active. At that time we had to attack the services of the other teams and 'patch' (defend) ours”. Teams earned points for attacking, defending, and maintaining service availability.

Quick problem resolution

What Sergio Pérez is mainly dedicated to is trying to find a way to solve mathematical problems quickly, for this, in GRAFO, they use "heuristics and metaheuristics, which is a way of applying an indicative algorithm to an operation, method that can lead to a faster solution than if we apply an exact algorithm”, points out Sergio, who is pursuing a doctorate in this field.

The group works on this matter to achieve an optimization of the processes that take place in the development of Artificial Intelligence.

After his doctorate, Sergio's goal is to continue researching and combine this activity with teaching at the Rey Juan Carlos University.