Computing Quarterly: February 2023

Research news, awards, events and more from the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences at RIT.

FEATURED HIGHLIGHT

BRIAN TOMASZEWSKI NAMED FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR

Brian Tomaszewski, professor in the School of Interactive Games and Media and Director of the Center for Geographic Information Science and Technology has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award in Geography - Cartography for the 2023-2024 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Dr. Tomaszewski will spend the 2023-2024 academic year at the Poznań University of Technology in Poznań, Poland for his project: Spatial Data Science Research and Education on Ukrainian Refugees in Poland.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

TWO RIT CYBERSECURITY PROFESSORS WIN META RESEARCH AWARDS

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AWARD ROUNDUP: FEBRUARY 2023

Hanif Rahbari, assistant professor of Computing Security, has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. This project refines and refocuses existing V2V communication and security protocols jointly, without an overhaul, to support post-quantum algorithms, given the hardware limitations. By developing security protocols and backward-compatible (and cross-layer) communication techniques, this project outlines a staged transition over the next two decades into a quantum-resistant C-V2X ecosystem.

Justus Robertson, assistant professor of Interactive Games and Media, has received a CRII award from the National Science Foundation. This project will develop a novel experience management architecture to quickly navigate around dead-end situations during real-time interaction with a human participant. The architecture is based on recent advances in deep reinforcement learning for general game playing. This experience management platform will enable new forms of real-time training and education applications.

Yidan Hu, assistant professor of Computing Security, has received a CRII award from the National Science Foundation. This project is the first attempt to study Local Differential Privacy (LDP) under correlation to improve data utility while keeping the same level of data privacy as existing LDP mechanisms, which includes 1) proposing sound LDP mechanisms for improved data utility by considering the existing attribute level correlation, and 2) designing joint perturbation mechanisms for better utility-privacy trade-off by introducing well-controlled correlations among users.

Game Design and Cybersecurity faculty collaborate on grant from US Military Academy to develop resilience game focused on protecting critical infrastructure

David Schwartz (PI), Jessica Bayliss (Co-PI), and Brian Tomaszewski (Co-PI), all of Interactive Games and Media, have received a grant from the United States Military Academy, to research and develop a resilience game that focuses on protecting critical infrastructure. This project seeks to expand the scope of Army Cyber Institute’s Jack Voltaic game with a new framework called “P4,” which is a game that collects Perceived threats, offers options for Protection, and allows Players to Practice through various scenarios. The proposed game will focus on the impact of cybersecurity attacks on national locations to help communities anticipate and prepare for attacks. This project involves collaboration between RIT’s ESL Global Cybersecurity Institute (ESL GCI), Niantic Geo Games and Media Research Lab, Center for Geographic Information Science & Technology, and the Console Development Lab.

IN THE NEWS

ASHIQUE KHUDABUKSH'S RESEARCH FEATURED ON COVER OF SUNDAY NEW YORK TIMES

Ashique KhudaBuksh’s research employs machine learning in large data sets to detect and better understand patterns in a socio-political context.

Read the article on The NY Times' website

PUBLICATIONS AND RECOGNITION

Rajendra Raj, professor of Computer Science, has received the ABET Fellow distinction for "For substantial contributions in advancing computing accreditation and improving relevance to industry needs, including leading efforts to establish accreditation criteria for new computing disciplines and new degree levels. is an honor that recognizes individuals that surpass normal expectation by dedicating notable time and effort to achieving our endeavors.” Visit ABET awards page.

Leon Reznik, professor of Computer Science, has published a new book "Intelligent Security Systems: How Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science Work for and Against Computer Security.” The textbook synthesizes techniques and emphasizes practical and actionable strategies that can be immediately implemented to harden computer systems against threats. Learn more.

Ashique KhudaBukhsh, assistant professor of Software Engineering and his collaborators from Carnegie Mellon University (Ramon Villa Cox, Helen Shuxuan Zeng, and Kathleen Carley), won the best-paper runner up at the 13th International Conference on Social Informatics (Soc Info 2022), for their paper entitled: "Linguistic and News-sharing Polarization During the 2019 South American Protests."

Facing Black Women: Shugabanni: solo exhibition at Rochester Contemporary Lab by W. Michelle Harris, March 3-6

W. Michelle Harris, associate professor Interactive Games and Media, has been invited for a solo exhibition at the Rochester Contemporary Lab space (March 3 - May 6): Facing Black Women: Shugabanni by W. Michelle Harris. This installation features a mosaic video portrait of just a few of the Black women of Rochester who shape this place into a community. “Shugabanni” means “leaders” in the Hausa language. The mosaic tiles are portraits of Black women: Anna Murray Douglass plus her daughters and a granddaughter, as well as nurses, teachers, writers, and shugabanni like Elizabeth Freeman, Frances Watkins Harper, Mary Mahoney, Mary Peake, and Harriet Tubman, and the women and girls who sat for portraits for the W.E.B. DuBois “American Negro” exhibit at the 1900 World’s Fair.

Exhibition Information

MORE FEATURED NEWS

NEW MS IN AI DEGREE INTRODUCED

New graduate degree aims to prepare well-rounded AI professionals from diverse backgrounds.

More Info →

ESL GCI HOSTS COLLEGIATE PENETRATION TESTING COMPETITION GLOBAL FINALS

The world’s best cybersecurity students came together at Rochester Institute of Technology to face-off in the Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition (CPTC) global finals Jan. 13-15.

More Info →

RESEARCH TEAM AWARDED NIST GRANT TO DEVELOP STANDARDS-BASED EDUCATION MODULES

New work includes topics in smart energy grid security, sustainability, and infrastructure resiliency.

More Info →

OF NOTE

Golisano College faculty members recognized as top 2% of cited scientists in their fields by Stanford University study

Edith Hemaspaandra, professor in the Department of Computer Science and Qi Yu, professor in the School of Information were recognized as top-cited scientists in their fields, according to a Stanford University study published by Elsevier. The study, published annually, aims to identify the world’s top 2 percent of scientists using standardized information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions, and a composite indicator.

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

COLIN MCDONALD '22 (COMPUTER SCIENCE)

McDonald ’22 (computer science) and his software development agency, Moonsworth, were named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2023 in the Games category. Through the company that he co-founded while in college, McDonald is now making it easier for millions of people to play and explore in the video game Minecraft.