The Eye of the Tiger

Computer science major Noah Kabiri is no stranger to high-adrenaline competition. As an elite coder and winner of hackathons in only his second year at George Mason, this ambitious sophomore performs a balancing act on par with elite college athletes training to go pro. 

Kabiri’s passion for cybersecurity started early thanks to television. “I remember always seeing the cool hacker guy on the TV shows,” he says. “He's typing on his computer and doesn't stop. As a kid I was like, I want to be that guy!”  

Growing up in Springfield, Virginia, Kabiri started teaching himself to code in elementary school, before he really understood what coding was. Then in sixth grade, he tried to make his first app—a calculator in C++. “This app was so bad. I wasn't good at coding so you could only add two numbers at a time, and there was no order of operations,” he says with a laugh.  

At Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Kabiri was exposed to hands-on computer work and niche fields. He continued to teach himself as well, so his skills were developed enough to land a software development internship at Seamless Migration toward the end of his senior year in high school. 

Now Kabiri attends as many competitions and conferences as possible. His hackathon team, which included fellow students from the College of Engineering and Computing recently took third place at a National Defense Industrial Association hackathon, where they addressed a need in the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance category.   

Their product was a SaaS (software as a service) that takes footage and video feeds from anywhere—drone surveillance video, infrared, geospatial satellite images, security cameras, body cams, and more—and analyzes the environment. While the competition only looks for proof of concept over the 72-hour project period, Kabiri believes that he can take the project forward. 

“I have this really high drive to be successful and want to make as much out of this experience as possible,” says Kabiri. “I want to be as well-rounded as possible, but that means I’m working 40 hours a week along with school.”  

For Kabiri, this means taking care that he doesn’t burn out. To help avoid that, he moves his body regularly and takes time to decompress. He does this by attending 6:30 a.m. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes and weekly knitting club meetings—he’s currently making a blanket. “My evenings are very hectic, so I like getting up early to move.” 

While his rigorous time management and the discipline of a professional athlete allow him to pursue his goals, Kabiri admits that it leaves him little time for anything else. “I have to stay off of social media, and I miss some things I want to do. I haven’t watched Netflix in forever.” 

Since Kabiri is only in his second year of college, he is still figuring out his direction. He would like to use his skills for good–possibly cybersecurity or defense. He likes making things that add value to people’s lives or that they enjoy using. For now, he keeps strengthening his skills and his eye on the prize.