“Cyber Shark Tank” competitions are pitch events where cybersecurity startups present their innovations to a panel of expert judges (often CISOs and venture capitalists) to win funding, mentorship, and industry recognition.

Based on 2025 and early 2026 industry data, top cybersecurity “Shark Tank” style competitions and pitch events are the following:

CYSE 587/SYST 687 & CYSE 787 is a course led by George Mason University’s (GMU) Cyber Security Engineering faculty. The course focuses on designing and engineering secure cyber-physical systems, with projects involving vulnerability assessments, security threat analysis, and defense strategies for complex systems like Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) or industrial control systems (ICS).

Students will also develop technical and professional skills through their project work.

CYSE 587 and SYST 687 students work in Teams A thru E.  CYSE 787 students design and develop their projects on their own.