Cyril Etornam Nyavor
👋 I'm a final-year Computer Engineering student at the University of Ghana, and most of what I do sits somewhere between security, cloud infrastructure, and the less glamorous work of keeping systems from breaking.
I spent two stints at the University of Ghana IT Directorate building and hardening the campus network: configuring Cisco switches, setting up VLANs, chasing down fiber issues, and fixing whatever broke that week. It's where I learned that most security problems are really infrastructure problems nobody caught in time.
Earlier this year I competed in picoCTF 2026 and placed #147 out of 1,131 on the Africa leaderboard, working through binary exploitation, web security, cryptography, and forensics. I've since finished AmaliTech's AWS re/Start program and earned the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification.
I spend more time in the terminal than is probably healthy, and I'm increasingly curious about offensive security. Most of what I build starts from the hardware layer up.
Experience
Oct – Dec 2025
Network Engineering Intern · University of Ghana IT Directorate
Mar – May 2025
Network Engineering Intern
- Configured and secured Cisco switches using SSH and Port Security, preventing unauthorized management access and MAC spoofing.
- Implemented VLANs to optimize traffic flow and establish internal security boundaries across department networks.
- Troubleshot real-world network incidents, identifying how hardware faults and environmental factors create security and availability risks.
- Managed fiber optic ODFs and structured cabling to ensure the physical integrity of the enterprise backbone.Optical Distribution Frame: the patch panel where fiber trunks terminate and cross-connect.
- Gained practical exposure to segmentation, DMZ concepts, DHCP behavior, and access management.
- Cisco IOS
- VLANs
- SSH
- Port Security
- DHCP
- Fiber ODF
Jan 2023 – Jan 2027 (expected)
BSc Computer Engineering · University of Ghana
- Computer Networks
- Network Security
- Operating Systems
- Distributed Systems
- Data Communication
- Software Engineering
Projects
NKWA
GenAI emergency dispatch copilot for Ghana's 112 line.
- Full call pipeline (transcription, translation, AI triage, GPS-to-landmark, first-aid audio) to a dispatcher brief in under 30 seconds.
- Language routing sends Twi, Ewe and Dagbani to Khaya AI and English to Amazon Transcribe, with DynamoDB caching to stay inside a 100-request monthly quota.
- FastAPI
- React
- Amazon Bedrock
- Khaya AI
- DynamoDB
5th of 10 teams · AWS GenAI Hackathon 2026Network Anomaly Detection
FYPFinal year project: automated monitoring and fault forecasting.
- SNMP polling across campus network infrastructure for proactive fault detection.
- IoT sensors correlate environmental stressors with network metrics; Random Forest and XGBoost classify anomalies.
- Python
- ESP32
- SNMP
- XGBoost
In progressNetwork Defense Simulations
Enterprise network security lab.
- Simulated enterprise network with VLAN segmentation and department-level traffic isolation.
- Port Security configurations mitigating MAC spoofing and unauthorized hardware access.
- Packet Tracer
- VLANs
- ACLs
- Port Security
Acoustic Pest Guardian
FFT-based smart deterrent system.
- Real-time FFT audio pipeline identifying pest frequency bands.
- Spectral flatness analysis with serial output for threshold calibration.
- ESP32
- Arduino
- C++
- FFT
Competitions
Carnegie Mellon University · 9–19 March 2026
picoCTF 2026
51Flags Captured8,900Points Scored#147 / 1,131Africa RankCompeted in one of the world's largest international cybersecurity CTF competitions, placing in the top 13% on the Africa leaderboard.
- Binary Exploitation
- Web Security
- Cryptography
- Forensics
- Reverse Engineering
AmaliTech · 23–27 June 2026
AWS GenAI Hackathon 2026
72hrsBuild Sprint5th / 10Team Rank10Team SizeBuilt NKWA, an AI-powered emergency dispatch system for Ghana's response infrastructure, during a 72-hour build sprint.
- Generative AI
- AWS Cloud
- Real-Time Systems
- Multilingual NLP
Stack
- Python
- TypeScript
- JavaScript
- C++
- React
- Next.js
- FastAPI
- PostgreSQL
- Docker
- AWS
- Linux
- Git
- Cisco
- Kali Linux
- Figma
Certifications
- Google AI Professional CertificateIn progress
Coursera / MoCDTI · 2026