Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

CSEE Professor Dr. Alan Sherman (PI) and Dr. Rick Forno (Co-PI), Graduate Program Director, Cybersecurity have received an NSF grant of $2.5 million over five years to fund 22 students studying Information Assurance (IA) and Cybersecurity. The scholarships are part of the Federal Cyber Scholarship for Service (SFS) program.

Future scholars will come from UMBC’s undergraduate, graduate, and professional studies programs. In addition to a generous full-ride scholarship, scholars are granted an annual stipend during their last two or three years.  The yearly stipends are $20,000 for underdergraduate, $25,000 for M.S. and $30,000 for PhD students.  Students will also engage in paid summer internships with federal government agencies and have opportunities to carry out mentored research projects at UMBC and its cyber partners from government and industry.

“Our goal is to encourage students to pursue cybersecurity education at UMBC and then move into careers that can build upon their education,” explains Dr. Forno. “The SFS program is one way to do that, with the outcome being to provide educated, qualified and highly competent cybersecurity practitioners to the federal government.”

The scholarships will be coordinated through UMBC’s Center for Information Security and Assurance (CISA), and both CISA and UMBC’s Cyber Defense Lab (CDL) will play a key role in the overall academic experience of the SFS scholars.

Along with the monetary award come a few scholarship program requirements. During their scholarship period (typically two years), students are required to intern at a federal organization. After graduation, scholars must serve at a Federal agency in an information assurance position for one to two years, depending on their level of support.

During the upcoming 2012-2013 school year, the program will support two Masters students and two Master in Professional Studies students, though in the future, one B.S., two M.S., two M.P.S., and one Ph.D. students will be supported annually.

Degree-seeking students in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or any related field, including Electrical Engineering, Math, Physics, Information Systems, Public Policy, or Education, are eligible. “We are interested in fostering a diverse group of SFS scholars,” says Forno. “To that end, we intend to work closely with groups like CWIT and the Meyerhoff Scholars (among others) to help in our outreach and recruiting efforts in this critical academic discipline.” To learn more about applying for the scholarship, visit the CISA scholarship oppotunities page.

The grant will also fund a new one-day annual regional workshop that will focus on innovations for K-12, undergraduate, and graduate cybersecurity education. The goal is to develop "innovative, relevant, meaningful, and real-world oriented pedagogical materials that can be applied across the academic spectrum in conducting cybersecurity education."

The scholarship program, coupled with UMBC’s location at the “epicenter of cybersecurity,” will further mark UMBC as a pioneer in the field. “We all know that cybersecurity is a hot field and of critical national interest," says Forno. "UMBC’s strength in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, and related STEM fields, combined with our reputation for producing qualified technologitsts makes our participation in SFS very attractive both to the school and our current and future students.”

Tim Finin and Anupam Joshi have received a $400,000 research award from the NSF Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program for a three year project to investigate how to better manage security and privacy constraints while querying semantically annotated linked data sources. The project, Policy Compliant Integration of Linked Data, is a collaboration with researchers at M.I.T. and the University of Texas at Dallas.

The ubiquity of computing technology and the Internet have created an age of big data that has the potential to greatly enhance the efficiency of our societies and the well-being of all people. The trend comes with problems that threaten to prevent or undermine the benefits. An immediate concern is how to fuse, integrate and analyze data while respecting privacy, security and usage concerns. A second issue is allowing data to remain distributed, enabling its owners to maintain and control quality as well as to enforce security and privacy policies. A final underlying challenge is helping to produce sound and useful results by assuring that systems understand the meaning of the data being integrated and analyzing access and usage policies. For some domains, like health informatics and clinical research, solving these problems will have a significant impact on society.

This project explores an approach to solving these problems by developing a policy-compliant integration system for linked healthcare data. The system models data, schemas and policies using open Web standards such as Semantic Web languages, federates queries to independent Linked Data stores based on content, provides policy enforcement by modifying incompliant queries, and uses formal methods to guarantee correctness of key components.

This project provides new approaches to solving one of the most significant problems our society faces in the 21st century: benefiting from the integration of distributed linked data while respecting security, privacy, and usage requirements. The prototype tools and systems are incorporated into our educational activities and made available to others via appropriate open source licenses.

Ph.D. Dissertation Defense

A Trust and Reputation Mechanism Through
Behavioral Modeling of Reviewers

Yasaman Haghpanah

11:00am Tuesday 21 August 2012, ITE 325b, UMBC

Trust and reputation have become important topics in various domains, such as online markets, supply chain management, auctions, social networks, and e-commerce applications. With the significant increase in transactions with people and organizations especially in online markets, people need to interact with strangers with whom they have little or no previous interactions. Reputation information as a form of world of mouth in auctions and supply chain management and as a form of provided reviews and ratings on online websites are two different sources for modeling trust and reputation in order to mitigate the risk of not knowing a stranger before actually start interacting with that stranger.

In providing reputation information, people can have different behavior, such as being biased based on incentives or they can have different preferences and viewpoints. In this dissertation, I introduce a novel trust and reputation mechanism that models and learns a reputation provider’s behavior based on probability theory. This learned behavior is then used to re-interpret the reputation information, thus making use of the entire reputation data effectively, even if they are biased or based on personal viewpoints and preferences.I show the importance of learning the behavior of reputation providers using different patterns of being biased or having different preferences and satisfaction thresholds in three different settings of game-theory, an online rating website, and an online marketplace. My results show that learning the behavior of reputation providers in all three above settings helps individuals to more effectively aggregate and adjust reputation information in order to make decisions, thereby increasing their satisfaction and overall payoffs in their interactions.

Committee: Drs. Marie desJardins (Chair), Tim Oates, Tim Finin, Wolfgang Ketter and David Aha

Congratulations to Xianshu Zhu (CS, Ph.D.), who won the best student paper award at the 13^th IEEE International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration.

The conference, which took place last weekend in Las Vegas, is a forum to discuss how we can maximize the reuse of information with the creation of simple, rich, and reusable knowledge representations.

Xianshu’s paper, “Finding Story Chain in Newswire Articles”, seeks to do just that through a proposed walk based algorithm that can be used to find news story chains on the internet. The algorithm sifts through the huge and hard to navigate database of news articles on the internet, resulting in a simple way to track the evolution of a news story, without redundant articles.

Xianshu’s areas of study include data mining, text mining, information retrieval. The paper is closely tied to the research she’s doing for her Ph.D. thesis (advised by Professor Tim Oates), which she plans on finishing up in May 2013.

PhD Dissertation Preliminary Examination

On Optimizing Contrast Quality and Acquisition Time of
SSFP-Sequence-Based techniques for Structural and Functional
MR Imaging via Extended Phase Graph (EPG) Analysis

Albert Kir

1:00pm Wednesday, 15 August 2012, ITE 325b

The extended phase graph (EPG) formalism provides an excellent description of the magnetization evolution (considering the magnetization as a vector quantity in space and its change through time) for steady-state free precession techniques (sequences). This dissertation demonstrates its accuracy by applying it to analyze/optimize structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging. An optimization framework for a structural imaging technique, Magnetization-Prepared RApid Gradient-Echo (MP-RAGE), based on the EPG algorithm is established for obtaining optimal images with respect to image signal strength, contrast, and acquisition time. In addition, a functional imaging technique, True Fast Imaging with Steady-state Precession (TruFISP) with improved quantitative sensitivity is developed using EPG analysis.

Committee: Drs. Joel M. Morris (chair and co-advisor), Alan McMillan (co-advisor), Rao Gullapalli (co-advosor), Janet Rutledge and Tulay Adali

The IEEE Baltimore Electron Devices Society chapter, in collaboration with ARL, will be hosting a one day Colloquium on Energy Harvesting Devices at the University of Maryland, College Park on Tuesday, September 25, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Stamp Student Union Building, Benjamin Banneker Room (Room 2212).

Invited speakers include:

Dr. Edward Shaffer, Army Research Laboratory
Prof. Vikram Dalal, Iowa State University
Prof. Santosh Kurinec, Rochester Institute of Technology
Dr. James Horwitz, Dept. of Energy (DOE)
Prof. Edward Yu, University of Texas,Austin
Prof. Rajendra Singh, Univ. of South Carolina
Prof. Agis IliadisUniv. of MD, College Park

Panel discussion on paths to reliable, efficient and low cost solar cell development (Dr. Anu Kaul/NSF, Chair, Dr. Mike Wraback ARL, Mr. Scott Stephens, DOE).

Attendance is free. To register, please contact: Dr. Naresh C. Das () or Dr. Victor Veliadis ()

For more information, visit the website and download the flyer.

Photo: devanwells.blogspot.com

While The Wire has been referred to by critics as “the greatest TV drama of all time,” its portrayal of Baltimore isn’t exactly an all-encompassing one.  Because despite its reputation, Charm City has a lot that makes it charming: a growing entrepreneurial spirit, top-notch universities, and a pool of untapped talent.

The brains behind Baltimore unWIREd recognize that. “The point of Baltimore unWIREd is to find out what we can accomplish by connecting these points of strength. Together we can create change — developing solutions to critical social problems and make a difference,” explains the website.

From August 24-25, the event brings together innovators, creatives, and government officials to brainstorm and mingle. On Friday there will be a series of “lightening talks” on efforts that are currently underway. Saturday follows an “open campus” model, as participants break into teams and tackle a key social problem. Baltimore unWIREd is followed by Groundwork in September, a hackathon focused on putting these strategies and solutions to the test.

For more information about unWIREd, visit the website.

Baltimore unWIREd takes places from August 24-25 in John Hopkins University’s Maryland Hall.

PhD Preliminary Examination

Design and Analysis of Underwater
Acoustic Networks with Reflected Links

Lloyd Emokpae

2:00pm Monday, 13 August 2012, ITE 325b, UMBC

Underwater acoustic networks (UWANs) have applications in environmental state monitoring, oceanic profile measurements, leak detection in oil fields, distributed surveillance, and navigation. For these applications, a set of nodes are employed to collaboratively monitor an area of interest and track certain events or phenomena. In addition, it is common to find autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) acting as mobile sensor nodes that perform search-and-rescue missions, reconnaissance in combat zones and coastal patrol. These AUVs are to work cooperatively to achieve a desired goal and thus need to be able to, in an ad-hoc manner, establish and sustain communication links in order to ensure some desired level of quality of service. Therefore, each node is required to adapt to environmental changes and be able to overcome broken communication links caused by external noise affecting the communication channel and due to node mobility. In addition, since radio waves tend to get absorbed in the water, it is common for most underwater applications to rely on acoustic rather than radio channels for long range communications. However, acoustic channels pose multiple challenging issues, most notably the high transmission delay due to slow signal propagation and the limited channel bandwidth due to high frequency attenuation. Furthermore, the inhomogeneous property of the water medium affects the sound speed profile while the signal surface and bottom reflections leads to multipath effects.

In this dissertation proposal, we address these networking challenges by developing protocols that take into consideration the underwater physical layer dynamics. We begin by introducing a novel surface-based reflection scheme (SBR) which takes advantage of the multipath effects of the acoustic channel. SBR works by using reflections from the water surface, and bottom, to establish non-line-of-sight communication links. SBR makes it possible to incorporate both line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight links by utilizing directional antennas, which will boost the signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver while promoting non-line-of-sight usage. Furthermore, we employ a directional underwater acoustic antenna which is composed of an array of hydrophones that can be summed up at various phases and amplitudes resulting in a beam-former. Networking protocols have been developed for node discovery, localization, medium access arbitration and geographical routing to exploit the SBR communication model.

To complete the dissertation, we plan to first extend the SBR scheme to be robust to Doppler frequency shifts. In our original implementation of SBR, we assume little to no drift between communicating nodes which might be acceptable for some applications. However, when dealing with AUVs, the effects of Doppler could affect the proposed channel impulse response recovery process if it is not handled properly. Thus, we plan on fine-tuning the SBR recovery mechanism to adjust for Doppler frequency shifts in real-time. Secondly, we plan on extending the proposed medium access arbitration protocol to account for varying water surface and bottom roughness which we assumed to be flat in our preliminary simulations. Thirdly, we intend to extend the proposed routing algorithm to account for multiple metrics, e.g., network delay, error rate and energy. Finally, we plan on building an acoustic modem prototype which utilizes a multimodal directional transducer to validate the SBR scheme. We also plan on validating the SBR scheme on the proposed acoustic modem using a water tank.

Committee: Drs. Mohamed Younis (Chair), John Pinkston, Tulay Adali and Ryan Robucci

Photo courtesy baltimoretech.net

Take a look at the interactive map developed by Baltimoretech.net. The map identifies the locations of Baltimore startups, accelerators, incubators, investors, and more. It even shows which start-ups are hiring.

You know the saying: It’s not what you know, but who you know that matters.

Well, it’s a saying for a reason.

If you want to have an edge in today's economy, having friends in high places can only help. Baltimore is a growing hotbed of startups with a burgeoning technology community. Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur, or just want to mingle with a few like minds, here are five organizations, sites, or projects that you should check out to help you connect with Baltimore's technology community.

Innovate Baltimore:

Co-founders Tina Tyndal (brand strategist and marketing guru) and Benjamin Walsh (Producer, Bethesda Softworks) started Innovate Baltimore as a social community for creative technology leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals, and enthusiasts in Baltimore. “Our mission includes providing individuals with networking and educational opportunities which will allow them to generate new ideas, foster entrepreneurship and strengthen the technology community in the region,” explains the website.

Get involved: Innovate Baltimore has regular meet-ups. Check out Innovate Baltimore’s September Networking Social: September 21^st at The Get Down.

Baltimore Node:

Since 2009, Baltimore Node has been a member-run hackerspace that offers a collaborative environment where people can hack, craft, and make interesting things. Members have 24/7 access to the space and free use of the shared equipment and tools. Plus, the space brings together like-minded tech enthusiasts for potential collaborations. Anyone can join, as long as they can contribute $50 in monthly dues.

Get Involved: Baltimore Node meetings happen every other Thursday. They also sponsor workshops and events.

Baltimoretech.net:

Curious about the faces behind Baltimore’s start-ups? Take a look at Baltimoretech.net, which is basically a social networking tool for local entrepreneurs, developers, designers, Social Media “Ninjas”, and investors. Here you can check out the profiles and projects of over 200 people who’ve made a name for themselves in the community. The site also lists notable Baltimore startups, local events, and job opportunities. For students interested in getting involved, but who don’t know what’s out there, this is a great database of information.

Get Involved: Go ahead, browse a little. Then reach out to a company or person that catches your eye. While you’re at it, why not make your own profile.

Technically Baltimore:

Get your local tech news here. A collaborative project between Technical.ly and local entrepreneur extraordinaire Mike Brenner, this news site just stepped into the tech scene. The site is dedicated to the three following areas:

• Entrepreneurship and business innovation for job growth/retention
• Smarter workforce and opportunities for digital access/education
• Civic hacking and workflow management for govt policy/reform

Get Involved: Sign up for their weekly newsletter, follow them on Twitter, and Facebook.

Ignite Baltimore:

Voted “Best Nerd’s Night Out” by the City Paper, Ignite Baltimore brings together 16 thinkers from a range of disciplines to share one idea in five minutes on stage. These mini-lectures span from technology to science to art to anything you can imagine. The purpose is to encourage conversation and collaboration across cultures and disciplines. It’s also an opportunity to network with other like-minded individuals.

Get Involved: Ignite Baltimore #11 is schedule for October 18, 2012 in MICA’s Brown Center. Or, if you’ve got something to say, why not submit a proposal?