Penn State National Science Foundation Center for Health Organization Transformation
(Penn State CHOT) - An Industry-University Cooperative Research Center
2020 College of Engineering Graduate Open House  Exhibition


On Feb. 14, the Penn State College of Engineering hosted an open house for prospective graduate students to learn about the college and its research opportunities. CHOT participated in the open house to promote the center and to provide research opportunities. During the event, students had the chance to meet with CHOT faculty members and scholars to learn more about CHOT in detail.
Penn State CHOT Research Highlights  
Gradient Mechanism to Preserve Differential Privacy and Deter Against Model Inversion Attacks in Health Care Analytics

Alexander Krall, a CHOT scholar, developed a novel gradient mechanism to maintain differential privacy while also mitigating the risk of model inversion attacks in health care information systems.

Advanced sensing technologies, driven by the Internet of Things, have caused a sharp increase in data availability within the health care system. The newfound availability of data offers an unprecedented opportunity to develop new analytical methods to improve the quality of patient care. Data availability, however, is a double-edged sword. Malicious attacks and data breaches are increasingly seen in the health care field, which result in costly disruptions to operations. Adversaries exploit analytic models to infer participation in a dataset or estimate sensitivity attributes about a target patient. This paper is aimed at developing a differentially private gradient- based mechanism and
assessing its utility in mitigating the impact of these attack risks within the context of the intensive care units. Experimental results showed that this methodology is capable of greatly reducing the risk of model inversion while retaining model accuracy. Thus, health systems that employ this technique can be given more peace of mind that high-quality services can be delivered in such a way that privacy is preserved.

This research has been submitted to the 42nd Annual International Conferences of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC 2020).


CHOT Leadership
Hui Yang
Co-Chair, IEEE Technical Committee on Automation in Health Care Management

Hui Yang, the site director of CHOT at Penn State, will serve as a co-chair technical committee member for IEEE Automation in Health Care Management (AHM).

Technical committees focus on the research content of AHM by tracking technical developments and encouraging innovation in applications, theory, models, initiatives, and other technical areas. He will provide his expertise to address editorial issues to improve the quality of AHM. There has been growing interest in health care delivery systems worldwide coupled with a recent influx of funding into the area. Due to rapid development in information and network technology, smartness and interconnectivity have become a central issue in health care delivery. Automation is important for health care delivery systems engineering. In recent years, the significant changes in health care delivery and the rapid development in data analytics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and wearable devices have generated numerous opportunities for innovation in automation for smart and interconnected health care delivery systems. In addition, many new challenges have emerged in order to apply and implement these innovations. Such opportunities and challenges have significantly expanded the scopes of traditional automation science and engineering.
CHOT Scholars
Cheng-Bang Chen
Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Miami

Congratulations to Cheng-Bang Chen, a CHOT scholar, who will start a new position as an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Miami, starting in fall 2020. Chen completed his doctoral degree from the Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State, supervised by Dr. Hui Yang and Dr. Soundar Kumara. His research interests include data-driven analytics and optimization, nonlinear system dynamics, explainable modeling and complex network theory for modeling, monitoring, and control of large-scale complex systems with applications in health care, manufacturing, and social science.
Upcoming Events
Spring 2020 IAB Meeting
April 2-3, 2020
University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky

The NSF CHOT 2020 Spring Industry Advisory Board (IAB) Meeting will be hosted by the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 2-3, 2020. IAB members and potential members, faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students will discuss and develop industry-driven research topics with feedback from IAB members for the new research cycle. More information about the meeting will be posted on the CHOT website as it becomes available. Click here for  more information.


ICDS Symposium 2020
March 16-17, 2020
State College, Pennsylvania

The ICDS 2020 Symposium - The Data Deluge: Opportunities and Challenges - seeks to connect researchers from Penn State and beyond around topics and tools for data management and manipulation, data analytics, data visualization, data integrity, and related topics. By fostering discussions around these issues, ICDS plans to both advance science using interdisciplinary approaches and increase the societal impact of Penn State research. The symposium will begin with an industry night and poster session on Monday, March 16, followed by a full day of programming on Tuesday, March 17 that will include several panel discussions, structured small group collaborations, networking opportunities, a keynote address, and more. Click here for  more information.


IEEE EMBC 2020
July 20-24, 2020
Montréal, Québec, Canada

The IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society will host the 42nd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in conjunction with the 43rd Annual Conference of the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society on July 20-24 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Click here for more information.


IISE Annual Conference 2020
May 30-June 2, 2020
New Orleans, Louisiana

The Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) will host the IISE Annual Conference & Expo in New Orleans, Louisiana. Leaders in the field will join up-and-comers and students to network, gather new ideas, and learn about innovative tools and techniques - resulting in lasting career connections. Click here for more information.


IEEE CASE 2020
August 20-24, 2020, Hong Kong

The IEEE CASE is the flagship automation conference of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and constitutes the primary forum for cross-industry and multidisciplinary research in automation. Its goal is to provide a broad coverage and dissemination of fundamental research in automation among researchers, academics, and practitioners. The theme of the conference is  Automation Analytics. Click here for more information. 
NEW CHOT Website
We have just redesigned and launched the new CHOT website! Check it out for information about our new projects and exciting activities.


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