Before she could say motherboard, Michelle McAveety was playing with computers.
From tinkering on an early MacIntosh computer while sitting in a booster seat to building PCs with her dad at the age of 6 to programming in high school, the 百媚导航 computer engineering major has grown up surrounded by wires, code and curiosity.
鈥淚 remember being in the garage and seeing all these ribbon cables in the PC and I had no idea what it was, but I always thought it was cool,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hen fast forward to middle school, where I found myself playing video games a lot, so I was just always near a computer. I eventually learned how to build my own computers from my dad.鈥�
Today, the Judy Genshaft Honors College student has three internships under her belt and service as a leader on the competitive CyberHerd cybersecurity team.
Rooted in green and gold
McAveety grew up in a Bulls family with strong roots in the mathematics area.
鈥淢y parents are both 百媚导航 professors in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics, so I got to see the university a little bit before maybe your average student would.鈥�
That鈥檚 why it made sense for her to choose 百媚导航 when she had early admissions opportunities while still in high school.
鈥淥n paper, I was still in high school, but I was spending all my time then on the 百媚导航 campus, taking classes at 百媚导航 and exploring the campus.鈥�
This is when she had an 鈥渁-ha鈥� moment.
鈥淕iven my close connection to computer hardware from building computers at a young age, I found that while I enjoy knowing how the computer works, not just that it works, that at a more fundamental level I like to know what is going on inside of the machine, the physical components.鈥�
So, she chose to study computer engineering, with a minor in mathematics.
Though she is just starting her upper-level courses, McAveety says that a computer architecture course has been the most eye-opening class thus far. She was able to examine computers from multiple layers, learning about processing units, assembly language and the way that computers handle instructions and the logic of higher programming languages.
鈥淲e focused on the central processing unit and how it鈥檚 structured, how commands are processed and the distinct stages involved. The hardware components were working together to bring code to life and it was fascinating.鈥�
Internships complement classroom learning
Her coursework and her curiosity opened doors to several high-impact internships, including a couple of notable ones at Chainguard, a leader in software supply chain security. Her first role focused on developer enablement, where she created technical tutorials and contributed to Chainguard Academy鈥檚 documentation to help engineers work more securely. She later returned as a software packaging engineer, where she automated secure nightly builds and delivered software packages free from known vulnerabilities. These roles taught her how technical expertise, clear communication and cybersecurity best practices intersect to make modern software safer.
And that鈥檚 what led her to CyberHerd.
A competitive cybersecurity team
McAveety joined 百媚导航鈥檚 competitive cybersecurity team early in her college career. She saw it as a chance to sharpen her technical writing skills and build expertise in a high-impact field. She has taken on capture-the-flag contests and large-scale challenges aimed at designing resilient systems. She鈥檚 participated in multiple regional and national challenges, including the Southeast Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition, where her team earned second place and secured a spot at the Global CPTC and the U.S. Navy鈥檚 .
Her coding and technical writing skills proved particularly valuable in the CRAM Challenge hosted by the U.S. Navy鈥檚 Surface Warfare Center. In the months-long competition, the team developed a scoring methodology to assess cyber resilience and proposed a full defensive redesign of a hypothetical networked system.
鈥淚t was intense,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e had to digest pages of technical data, model threat scenarios and then deliver a plan that was measurable and secure.鈥�
CyberHerd took home second place and a $40,000 cash prize.
Faculty member and coach Marbin Pazos Revilla called McAveety a leader on the team.
"Michelle joined the CyberHerd leadership team just within two semesters of becoming a member of the competitive team, and for good very reasons: She is always helping the team stay focused on the task at hand, she is organized, has strong coding and analytical skills, genuinely cares about others, and takes charge when leadership is needed," he said. "Her contributions have helped transformed the way the team communicates and documents processes, which are essential skills to aim at podium spots in major competitions. She is a role model that inspires others in and outside of the team."
What comes next
While she has great interest in how the computer works 鈥渓ow down in the tech stack,鈥� as she says, McAveety has discovered that this links nicely with where she envisions her future career: at the intersection of cybersecurity and computer engineering.
鈥淚 find myself wanting to go in the security engineering direction, particularly the hardware security realm,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat would marry together the cybersecurity experience that I've been developing as well as the more technical aspects of my major.鈥�
It鈥檚 a path that perfectly blends her childhood curiosity with a field shaping the future and McAveety is ready to help secure it.