Author: New AI-enabled deep-learning method for breast cancer detection

Two UConn researchers have developed a new, artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled deep-learning approach to breast cancer detection. The Feature Fusion Siamese Network for Breast Cancer Detection developed by Dr. Clifford Yang, an Associate Professor of Radiology at UConn School of Medicine, and Sheida Nabavi, an Associate Professor at UConn’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering, analyzes mammograms using a new algorithm that reduces false positives.

Complete article here.

Author: Best Paper Award at ACM CHI 2023 Conference

Congratulations to Ehsan Ul Haque and Professor Mohammad Maifi Khan for Best Paper Award at ACM CHI 2023 Conference for their work “The Nuanced Nature of Trust and Privacy Control Adoption in the Context of Google”.

Author: The BEACH-CSE’s newest social space hosts its first event

We All Scream for Ice Cream!

CSE’s newest social space hosts its first event

By Alexandria Black, Student Writer

The BEACH hosted its first event – an ice cream social – on Thursday, March 9th. The event’s sponsor, Professor Laurent Michel, joined lifeguards, faculty and over 35 CS and CSE undergrads who enjoyed more than 8 pints of ice cream and every topping they could imagine. The BEACH, which is open Monday through Friday from 4-8pm, held the social to encourage students to see the space as more than just a place for homework help.

During the social, students engaged in an introduction to the room, games, getting-to-know each-other activities, and a suggestion session on how to further use the room to reach students’ needs.

WHAT is the BEACH?

The BEACH, which stands for Belonging, Engagement, Affinity Computer Hangout, is an initiative led by members of the CSE Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, Lara Chiaverini and Dr. Qian Yang.

After an intense search process to hire and train “lifeguards,” the doors to the BEACH officially opened on January 23rd. The vision behind the space was to encourage community building interactions between all levels of students, fostering rapport beyond the common major. The department hopes the space will encourage safety in sharing identities, particularly for students from underrepresented groups.

The BEACH has seven Lifeguards who are resources for students in the space. The Lifeguards themselves are undergraduate students. This decision to have students facilitate the room was to encourage a more organic connection and comfort for both social and academic growth.

Since its opening, the BEACH has seen an average of 40 students a week. As to what brings students in, some say the steady flow of snacks, the homework help from peers, the comfortable chairs, and some say all of the above.

 The BEACH is looking forward to hosting more student centered events throughout the semester. Workshops led by the SOE assistant director Theo Menounos and a student-led workshop sharing new projects by computer science undergraduates are currently scheduled for March and April, with more added every week.

All students are invited to visit the BEACH (ITE 360), Monday through Friday from 4-8pm. Visit the CSE website for more updates regarding programming in the BEACH!

Author: Systems Administrator 1

The Systems Administrator 1 provides technical expertise in support of the efficient, effective, and reliable operation of the Computer Science and Engineering Department’s educational IT systems and services. This is a full-time, 35-hour-per-week, permanent position at the Storrs campus.  Complete information is here.

Author: Kierans, Hazan, Dori-Hacohen paper Receives Award

A recent paper  “Quantifying Misalignment Between Agents” by PhD student Aidan Kierans, Hananel Hazan and Prof. Shiri Dori-Hacohen received the AI Risk Analysis Award at the NeurIPS ML Safety Workshop.

Author: Class III – Student Computer Programming Specialist – 313UST

UConn CLAS is  looking for an individual to join our software development team to perform testing and write some code. You’ll be working in a professional software development environment which will give you great exposure to how the whole software development lifecycle (SDLC) works.

https://uconn.studentemployment.ngwebsolutions.com/jobxJobdetailPrint.aspx

Author: Meet Yuan Hong

 

Rutgers University alumni and former Computer Science professor at Illinois Institute of Technology, Dr. Yuan Hong begins his next chapter as an associate professor in the Computer Science & Engineering Department, bringing his cyber security background to the land of the howling Huskies.

Yuan is highly passionate about cyber security. “Thirty years ago, most cyber security problems tied to national security problems. Now every device is connected to the internet and that collectively puts them at several risks and vulnerabilities.” This passion for cybersecurity led to him earning a prestigious NSF CAREER Award in 2021 titled Privacy Preserving Security Analytics: When Security Meets Privacy. His research lies in the intersection between security/privacy and data science, which is important to create “novel technologies for ensuring security and preserving user privacy in many different applications.” Yuan decided on UConn to pursue his research due to the significant collaboration opportunities in cyber security and other disciplines at UConn.

Yuan takes a philosophical approach to teaching. He sees it as a way to both give information to others and take in new information. “It’s rewarding for me if students can learn a lot from my courses.” Yuan believes that students need to take more value in cyber security due to the technological advancements of today’s age. “Maybe they don’t have enough awareness on those threats which is also a problem at this time.” Yuan hopes students use what they learn to take better care of their digital presence and keep an eye out for unknown attackers.

Everything is knowledge, no matter what specific type of knowledge it is. Yuan believes that “you should not only focus on the knowledge learned from the classes but also the methods you can develop to learn.” The material learnt and the method used to learn are both types of knowledge valuable for self-growth, so retain that knowledge. “When you know more problems, you’ll try to solve these problems independently. Then, you’ll get used to it.” As they always say, “practice makes perfect”.

If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Yuan Hong and his research, please visit his website for more information: https://yhongcs.github.io/

 

 

 

Author: ‘WiSFiRE’ Sparks Connections for Women Students and Faculty in STEM

Second edition of conference features UConn faculty, alumnae, and leaders who have blazed a trail in STEM careers.

Complete article is here.

Author: Student Spotlight: UConn Student Team Aims for the Moon with Lunar Rover Design

An interdisciplinary team of UConn undergraduates are finalists in the NASA Big Idea Challenge.  Complete story here.

Author: Student Spotlight: Sybille Légitime Receives Sarah Levitan Larie Fellowship

By Noor Majid, CSE student writer

Congratulations to Sybille Légitime! She is the recipient of the Sarah Levitan Larie Fellowship for 2021-22. This merit-based fellowship is awarded to a graduate student pursuing a degree in Computer Science & Engineering. It is in honor of Sarah Levitan Larie, who was a member of UConn’s first ever class of graduate students to receive a Master’s degree in Computer Science in 1979.

Sybille is in her second year as a Master’s student in CSE and is currently working in the lab of Professor Derek Aguiar. Her research projects center on the intersection of computational biology and machine learning, as well as educational outreach.

At the forefront of her research, Sybille asks herself two questions: “Is this interesting?” and “Is this useful?” She looks for novelty and ways to process new data. Sybille’s main project is to develop a predictive algorithm for Opioid Use Disorder based on genetic and environmental factors for eventual clinical implementation. She is currently in the model selection process of machine learning which, in short, means discerning the best algorithm from several viable models. Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) involves the misuse of prescribed opioid medication and is a prevalent healthcare issue in the United States. One of the preventative measures to combat the rise of OUD is improving the way opioids are prescribed, which is precisely where such an algorithm is needed. 

Sybille is also working on a Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Education project for math and science high school teachers in Connecticut. She is building instructional modules to help teach machine learning and artificial intelligence within current curriculum. Specifically, these modules teach about Convolutional Neural Networks and Object Detection by addressing the societal issue of solving wildlife poaching.

“I’ve always been [interested in] tech as a kid,” says Sybille. She wrote for the technology column of her high school newspaper and states her best article was about the inception of the iPhone 7. This interest followed her through her undergraduate studies, where she took her first computing course, and graduated with degrees in Computer Science and Business from Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.

Outside of her work at the UConn, Sybille has also been involved with the Society of Women Coders, an international non-profit organization that provides free coding and technological literacy training for young girls. She was a judge for the group’s Hackathon competition in 2020, which featured over 200 participants from 27 countries.

“Don’t be afraid of the myth [behind coding],” says Sybille when asked what she would like to say to younger students interested in computer science. “Take things one step at a time but go for it!”

In the future, Sybille is interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science with a focus on computational social science.

Author: Part-time Undergraduate Web Development Assistant with Greenhouse Studios @ UConn

Description: 

We have an immediate opening for a part-time position (8-10 hours per week, flexible scheduling) for an undergraduate web development assistant. Rising Sophomore or Junior preferred.

The Web Development Assistant helps design and develop web sites and web applications as a member of Greenhouse Studios (a highly-collaborative research unit and design studio). They work with our teams to design and implement layouts and features as well as maintain and manage content for a variety of web-based projects.

Responsibilities: 

• Understands project objectives, gathers project requirements, and designs web-based solutions to accomplish objectives.
• Plans, designs and develops web-based solutions, including web sites and web applications.
• Collaborates with a cross-functional team of designers, copywriters and others.
• Plans and conducts testing and debugging of applications and sites.
• Researches and stays apprised of emerging technologies, techniques and trends in the web development industry.
• Supports existing department web sites and applications.
• Performs related duties as required.

Skills: 

Required:

• Team player with desire to collaborate
• Self-motivated with ability to work independently
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Basic web development using HTML/CSS
• Experience with WordPress or aptitude/willingness to learn
• Familiarity with responsive web design principles
• Skills in time-management and prioritizing tasks
• Ability to “think on your feet” and manage overlapping tasks efficiently & effectively

Preferred:

• Comfortability with Javascript programming or aptitude/willingness to learn
• Experience with node/npm 
• Experience with web frameworks (Vue, React or Angular)
• Experience customizing web Content Management Systems (CMS), including WordPress, Omeka
• Experience with version control systems, especially git
• Interest in web design and user experience best practices

To apply, please send your resume to greenhousestudios@uconn.edu

Author: Student Administrative Assistant position

Job description: 

The Reducing Information Ecosystem Threats (RIET) Lab is seeking an assistant who will work directly with Prof. Dori-Hacohen as well as with our Research Assistants and external partners. You will have a chance to greatly improve our lab’s research output, thus having an incredibly high impact on some of the world’s most challenging problems. You will have a fair amount of autonomy on when and how to work within the scope of the lab’s needs. You will also be exposed to cutting edge research ideas and programs. 

Your tasks will include analyzing and tracking funding and publication opportunities, assisting in prioritization, keeping a close eye on a large number of (sometimes competing) deadlines, managing email & scheduling meetings, providing daily email and calendar digests, flagging key/urgent emails, and coordinating with other partners for scheduling and collaboration purposes. 

About Us: The Reducing Information Ecosystem Threats (RIET) Lab researches some of the most vexing threats to democratic nations, including disinformation, weaponized controversy, trust erosion on- and offline, and botnets, from a computational perspective. We use state-of-the-art technologies and collect petabyte-scale datasets from social networks. Our research focuses on threats to the information ecosystem online and to healthy public discourse from an information retrieval lens, informed by insights from the social sciences. Upcoming projects address the connections between m/disinformation and weaponized controversy, online and in social networks; and utilizing cybersecurity and graph theoretic approaches to detect malicious actors. Additionally, our research addresses fairness and bias in medicine. The RIET lab tackles these research questions from an AI ethics, fairness & safety perspective.

Job requirements: Undergraduate, reliable, conscientious, detail-oriented, flexible, self-motivated and able to self-manage, calm under pressure; being a good listener is a plus. Familiarity with GSuite required; familiarity with Outlook/Teams, Slack, Evernote, and/or GTD preferred. 

Number of current openings: 1
Hours: 10-15 hours/wk
Hourly rate: $14/hour
Timeframe: ASAP for Academic year (summer optional)
Contact Person: Shiri Dori-Hacohen
Contact email: shiridh@uconn.edu
Work Location: Remote
https://studentjobs.uconn.edu/university-employers/

Author: Student Spotlight: Anusha Nagella and Women in Computer Science Club

Author: Governor Lamont Visits, Signs Cybersecurity Bill at UConn Tech Park

On July 15, Governor Ned Lamont visited the University of Connecticut and the UConn Tech Park, in order to meet with several UConn Engineering faculty and sign strong legislation to combat cybersecurity threats across the state.  Complete story here.

Author: Research Experience for Undergraduates in Usable Cybersecurity Research

Research Experience for Undergraduates in Usable Cybersecurity Research

We are looking for an undergraduate student to work on research projects focusing on human factors in cybersecurity and risk communication during summer 2021. This will allow the student to get involved with exciting research projects with an impact on national security, interact with graduate students and learn what graduate study is all about. This is a great opportunity to improve communication, writing, and presentation skills.

Who can apply: Undergraduate students in CS/CSE/EE or related areas.

Duration:  8 weeks (To be ended Aug 27, 2021), maximum 25 hrs/week, $14.40/hr

Application Process:

• Email a transcript (an unofficial transcript is fine) to maifi.khan@uconn.edu.
• Arrange at least one (preferably two) reference letter to be sent to maifi.khan@uconn.edu

Author: Summer Internship in Aerospace at Stamford

A full time summer fellowship (stipend $4,000-$5,000) is available immediately with a UConn aerospace engineering startup company.  Research will involve hands-on design, testing and building of several drone platforms.  Location is on-site in the UConn technology incubator in Stamford, CT.   Technical “can-do” mindset required; background in mechanical, electrical, or computer engineering desired.

 This fellowship is an immersive research experience in technology innovation and entrepreneurship offered through the UConn TIP Innovation Fellows Program.  The summer fellowship requires a full-time commitment for 10 weeks.  Undergrad stipend is $4,000; Masters’ stipend is $5,000.   

 Eligibility: Any UCONN undergraduate or master’s student.  International students welcome.

 Send resumes to steve@bofilltech.com for immediate consideration.  

Author: 2021 Senior Design Project Competition Winners

Congratulations to the winners of Computer Science & Engineering’s 2021 Senior Design Project competition! This year’s competition, held on April 28th, featured 43 teams presenting projects sponsored by CT towns, industry, and the University. Each team of 2-5 students spent the year developing the project idea, impact, design, interface, and prototype to present at the competition.

The award winners are as follows:

 

First Place– Team 36: Path Planning with Deep Learning Nets

Team Members:  Nathan Choi, Jason Kim and Timothy O’Reilly

Team Sponsor:  Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories

Faculty Advisor:  Professor Fei Miao

 

Second Place– Team 39 – Remote Firearm Detection

Team Members:  Mathew Kirschbaum and Zachary Zambuto

Team Sponsor: Presco Engineering

Faculty Advisor: Professor Seung-Hyun Hong 

 

 

Third Place– Team 14 – Mental Health & Wellness Application

Team Members:  Saamiya Bhura, Erik Kriz, Paige Sheridan, Jordan Tsao

Team Sponsor:  UConn CSE Department

Faculty Advisor:  Professor Jacob Scoggin

 

 

The capstone Senior Design Project Program is a hallmark of success for engineering seniors. The projects were evaluated by a select group of professionals from industry and academia on overall quality and presentation. A description of all 2021 CSE Senior Design Projects are listed on UConn’s website: Senior Design Demonstration Day – 2021 | 2021 Computer Science and Engineering Projects (uconn.edu)

Best wishes to all our graduating seniors. We wish you all well in your future endeavors!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author: UConn Student Wins Top Honors at the 2021 ExploreCSR Workshop

Congratulations to UConn Senior Kiera Wolfe on her first place win at the 2021 Tri-State ExploreCSR Workshop! Kiera’s team, including students from Fordham University and New York City College of Technology, was led by UConn Assistant Professor Caiwen Ding. The team’s project titled Utility Monitoring in Data Centers explored the accuracy of two different forecasting models created using statistical machine learning and deep learning techniques in order to predict CPU usage workloads of virtual machines. “Ultimately, we implemented both an ARIMA model and an LSTM model,” said Kiera. “We found that our experimental results were in accordance with our hypothesis that the more advanced LSTM model would outperform the ARIMA model.”

The poster competition highlighted the completion of an 8-week computer science research experience sponsored by Google Research, Fordham University, University of Connecticut and Stevens Institute of Technology. “During this two-month workshop, my teammates and I learned so much about machine learning and gained hands-on experience designing, implementing, and testing forecasting models.” Kiera reflected. “On top of getting to meet and work with students from other universities, I was able to perform some very interesting research in the field of machine learning.”

 

Kiera was not the only UConn student to earn recognition at the competition! Awards were also presented to the following students:

Second Place:

Ashely Tang, “Quantum Deep Learning for Binary Classification”

Millenia Polanco, “Preference Detection using Eye Movement Gaze Cascade and Combinatorial   Fusion”

Third Place:

Ayushi Patel, Khori Francis, Kathryn Dyson and Nathan Choi, “Predicting COVID-19 Transmission in Connecticut Using Deep Learning”

Kate Piotrowski, “Quantum Convolutional Neural Network”

Saumya Shah, “Efficient Pruning for Deep Neural Networks”

Kayla Alston, “Spam Detectives: SMS Spam Detection”

Michaela Felipe and Aditya Kulkarni, “Recognition on Food Images”

Author: Student Administrative Assistant position opening in the CSE office for AY21-22

Attention Undergraduate Students,

The CSE department is currently accepting applications for up to 7 Student Administrative Assistant positions to help in the daily operations of the department. Please see the link here and apply.

https://uconn.studentemployment.ngwebsolutions.com/jobxJobdetailPrint.aspx?JobId=11743&win=True

 

Author: Senior Design Journey 2021: Using Lung Scans and Algorithms to Diagnose COVID-19

A group of five University of Connecticut computer science students are on the precipice of completing a Senior Design project that could not only aid researchers studying lung disease—but could be a boon for diagnosticians when it comes to COVID-19.  Complete article is here.

Author: Internships with Numerade

Dear Students,

Numerade is offering flexible, remote and paid internship opportunities! They have one educational opportunity to develop STEM content for middle school and high school students. The outcomes of this internship will provide you with experience developing project and time management, teaching, and increase subject matter expertise. If you’re interested in applying please go sign up at this link and select “content creator.”

They are also offering a Business Development/Marketing internship. In this role you will learn the principles of content marketing, creative copywriting, and sales best practices. If you would like to apply for this role please follow this link.  

Thank you!

Author: Assistant Professor Fei Miao Wins NSF CAREER Award

Assistant Professor Fei Miao’s Career award, titled “Distributionally Robust Learning, Control, and Benefits Analysis of Information Sharing for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles” brings the concept of self-driving cars one step closer to reality. While the science behind autonomous vehicles is extremely technical, the goal is quite simple: to create a system of connected auto cars that is safer and more efficient than current vehicles on the road today. Dr. Miao, whose research focus lies in building the foundations for the science of learning and control of cyber-physical systems to assure safety, efficiency and security for the application areas such as connected autonomous vehicles, intelligent transportation systems and smart cities, plans to do just that.

The rapid evolution of ubiquitous sensing, communication, and computation technologies has contributed to the revolution of cyber-physical systems (CPS). Learning-based methodologies are integrated to the control of physical systems and demonstrating impressive performance in many CPS domains and connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) system is one such example with the development of vehicle-to-everything communication technologies.

There are still a lot of challenges. To guarantee the safety of a “self-driving car” and the efficiency of the CAVs systems is not as simple as previously thought in a complicated and dynamic mixed traffic environment. “We need new theoretical foundations about how to connect vehicles, how to better integrate the strength of learning and control methodologies to utilize shared information to help the car recognize the environment,” says Miao. “Then it can make decisions on what action to take.”

The main challenges to be solved include (1) how to model dynamic system state and state uncertainties with shared information, (2) how to make robust learning and control decisions under model uncertainties, (3) how to integrate learning and control to guarantee the safety of networked CPS, and (4) how to quantify the benefits of communication.

To address these challenges, Dr. Miao’s CAREER proposal aims to design integrated communication, learning, and control rules that are robust to hybrid system model uncertainties for safe operation and system efficiency of CAVs.

The fundamental theory and algorithm principles will be validated using simulators, small-scale testbeds and field demonstrations to form a new framework for future connectivity, learning, and control of CAVs and networked CPS. Dr. Miao’s fleet of racing cars will eventually lead to full scale cars to demonstrate car-to-car and car-to-road communication. “This integrates the strengths of both learning and control to improve system safety and efficiency,” says Dr. Miao.

Visit Dr. Miao’s website to learn more about her research: http://feimiao.org/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author: CyberSEED Returns in Virtual Format

After a postponement last year, the annual CyberSEED event, hosted by Synchrony and The Connecticut Advanced Computing Center (CACC), is back on in a 100 percent virtual format.

CyberSEED 2021, which will take place on March 27, from 8:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m., will host teams from schools all over the United States, who will compete in a Capture the Flag-style competition focusing on a variety of cybersecurity challenges including a set of flags focusing on reverse engineering, web application security, network traffic analysis, cryptography, amongst others on the Cyber Skyline platform.

Student teams of 2-4 people will have the opportunity to win cash prices of between $250 to $3,000, hear from a panel of experts, and also get a chance to meet and hear from Synchrony’s own Chief Information Security Officer Gleb Reznik. The top three winners from last year’s competition included: Drexel University, University of Maryland, and New York University.

Registration is open until March 20. For more information on the event, and to register, please visit cyberseed.org.

By: Eli Freund, Editorial Communications Manager, UConn School of Engineering

 

Author: Web Developer for UConn School of Law

Professor affiliated with the School of Law (campus located in Hartford) is seeking assistance with a research project that requires setting up and maintaining a hosting solution for multiple R/Shiny apps for research and instructional purposes.  The professor’s scholarly research focuses on American employment law, tort law, and the origins of the American liability insurance market.  Statistical and technology skills are needed to analyze research data. A law background is not required.  

 Skills required: Command of R, Shiny, Docker, and the LAMP stack (Linux, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl). Familiarity with Shiny Server and Shiny Proxy. 

 Work Schedule and Commitment: Flexible work schedule. Work is remote, however when the Law School campus fully opens, in-person meetings (if needed) will be conducted on the Law School campus in Hartford. Must be available immediately upon hire and through December 2021.

To apply submit resume to:

Lisa.Ouellette@uconn.edu

Administrative Services Assistant

UConn School of Law Office of Student Employment

Author: CSE Graduate Student Pujan Joshi Wins Best Oral Presentation Award

Congratulations to Ph.D. student Pujan Joshi on his recent accomplishment! Pujan won a Best Oral Presentation award at the 2020 4^th International Conference on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics.

The paper titled, A Framework for Route Based Pathway Analysis of Gene Expression Data describes pathway analysis as a key step in genomics study to reduce the data complexity and associate prior biological knowledge. Over representation analysis (ORA), Functional class scoring (FCS) and Topology based (TB) analysis are considered the three generations of pathway analysis techniques. These methods only detect the differential activity of an entire pathway, thereby ignoring the importance of routes and sections within the pathway.

A novel route-based pathway analysis framework, Route based Pathway Analysis in Cohorts (rPAC), is also discussed in this paper. rPAC uses pathway topology in true sense by identifying and scoring individual routes within pathways. Activity scores and p-values are calculated for all signaling and effector routes from KEGG signaling pathways with transcriptomics data from each sample in the given cohort. Overall route activity in a cohort is assessed in terms of two summary metrics, “Proportion of Significance” (PS) and “Average Route Score” (ARS). A systematic evaluation based on large number of simulated data showed rPAC significantly outperforming the traditional pathway analysis methods. Case studies of three epithelial cancers from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) repository revealed that some pathway routes (e.g. tight junction, Th17 cell differentiation, adipocytokine signaling etc.) can notably differentiate cancer types, while other pathway routes that are related to lipid metabolism and adipocytes metabolism are co-regulated in different cancers. While most of the findings are corroborated by the current understanding of cancer biology, many previously uncharacterized mechanisms were identified by rPAC analysis, exhibiting the potential to yield new insights into cancer phenotypes.

Additional collaborators on the paper include UConn’s Computer Science & Engineering faculty Seung-Hyun Hong, Dong-Guk Shin and graduate student Honglin Wang and Molecular and Cell Biology professor Charles Giardina and student Brent Basso.

Author: Jinbo Bi is Using machine learning to better understand the genetic basis for substance use disorder.  

UConn researcher Jinbo Bi is Using machine learning to better understand the genetic basis for substance use disorder.  

Using Big Data to Identify Genetic, Neural Bases for Substance Use Disorder 

-UConn Today. January 22, 2021. Anna Zarra Aldrich ’20 (CLAS), Office of the Vice President for Research 

Author: Meet Assistant Professor Ghada Almashaqbeh

CSE’s newest faculty member gives a glimpse into her journey, research, and what lies ahead

Although she has only been at the university for a few weeks, assistant professor Ghada Almashaqbeh is quickly making a name for herself. Set to give her first talk as a UConn professor at this year’s virtual Grace Hopper Celebration in early October, this newcomer already has the real-world experience backing her research. Reflecting on her journey, Ghada shares what led her to computer science and her decision to leave industry for academia.

Ghada’s childhood in Jordan was typical of the time. It wasn’t until computers started popping up in the late 1990’s that she began exploring the idea of a career in engineering. “Most women studied medicine or went into teaching. Going to engineering school was not widely accepted by society.” In 2005, Ghada was one of only a dozen women to receive an undergrad degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The Hashemite University.

Still intrigued by computers, she was first introduced to cryptography after earning her masters degree in Computer Engineering. She then came to the United States to pursue her Ph.D. in Computer Science at Columbia University. “I was surprised to get to Columbia and see so few women in my program. Women in the U.S. have more freedom in their career choice, but some of the same stereotypes exist.”

It was her thesis at Columbia that would lay the groundwork for her subsequent career move. As she talked about her research, people began encouraging her to take it to the next level.  “Startups were spreading,” says Ghada. “With the success of Bitcoin, people were more willing to put money down.” Together with her co-advisor and another engineer, Ghada cofounded CacheCash, a distributed content delivery service powered by a cryptocurrency, based on the concepts outlined in her PhD thesis titled, “CacheCash: A Cryptocurrency-based Decentralized Content Delivery Network.”

While the experience as an entrepreneur working with industry was invaluable, Ghada felt a pull to return to academics and research. After a year and a half with CacheCash, she decided to pursue teaching at the university level.

She first met UConn professors Amir Herzberg and Bing Wang at the2019 IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security in Washington, DC. “Then UConn just kept popping up,” Ghada says. “I interviewed at other schools, but none felt like a good fit. It is different when you feel like the department is a family.”

Ghada is quickly settling into her new role as assistant professor in the Computer Science & Engineering department. Her research in security, privacy and cryptography – in particular, building decentralized blockchain and cryptocurrency-based services and securing them through cryptographic and economic means – caught the eyes of professors Laurent Michel and Ben Fuller, who are mentoring her through the Connecticut Advanced Computing Center. “I get excited when my research is useful,” she says. I want to solve problems, not just publish papers. It starts with the real world.”

Her talk at this year’s virtual Grace Hopper Celebration titled “Rethinking Systems: A Path Towards Secure Equitable Resource Markets”, is just one more feather in her cap. Speaking alongside dozens of the most influential women in the technology field, Ghada has not only established herself as a researcher, but also as a role model for women pursuing a career in engineering.

What’s next for Ghada? “You know when you are a kid and your parents do everything for you and you can’t wait to get out on your own?” she asks. “That’s how I feel now. I’m ready to decide how to run my projects, find my own students and be a successful advisor so I can get the best out of them like my advisors did for me. A successful student is the culmination of all the work I put in to get here.”

To read more about Ghada’s research, visit her website.

Author: Zap Partners with the UConn School of Engineering to Advance Decentralized Finance (DeFi) & Applications (DApps) using the Zap Protocol

Every year, the University of Connecticut School of Engineering partners with hundreds of industry leading companies and government agencies through the university’s Senior Design Program. Teams of 3-5 seniors, each mentored by an engineering department faculty member, collaborate with these entities by working on real world projects. Zap is currently working with a team of UConn seniors on the bleeding edge of decentralized finance and application development through education, experimentation, and the creation of them.

Zap Protocol provides a suite of smart contract templates for developers to easily create and deploy tokenized products and services in a fully decentralized way. Each template is powered by a bonding curve – a technology which uses algorithmic market making and an immutable pricing index to provide full liquidity. This solution eliminates the need for centralized exchanges and other third-party services when offering a redeemable token on the blockchain. Product/service providers and consumers can interact in a peer-to-peer digital marketplace to instantly exchange tokenized goods and services. A few use-cases include the monetization of data, decentralized fundraising & development bounties, tokenized equity in real estate, issuing an ERC-20 token, or tradable futures markets.

“This is a great opportunity for the computer science students and the financial-technology industry,” said Dr. Phillip G. Bradford, director of the Computer Science program at the UConn Stamford campus and faculty mentor for the Zap team. “This opportunity helps grow a strong talent pipeline in Connecticut, in general, and Stamford in particular.”

Every Senior Design project is a two-semester capstone required for all School of Engineering seniors to graduate. The project teaches students how to work collaboratively in a real-world setting and allows employers to gain first-hand experience with potential future employees who work on their project.

“The Zap Protocol and the development teams behind it are true industry leaders who work every day to build revolutionary software for decentralized finance and other applications,” said Nick Spanos, founder of Zap Protocol. “We are excited to partner with UConn’s School of Engineering to advance DeFi by developing and deploying oracles powered by bonding curve technology.”

Learn more about the Senior Design Project: https://seniordesign.engr.uconn.edu

Contact: charles.maric@uconn.edu

Learn more about Zap Protocol: zap.org | medium.com/the-zap-project |

Contact: stefan@zap.org

 

Author: CS Alum Paul S. Cheney Inducted into the 2020 Academy of Distinguished Engineers

Congratulations to Computer Science alum Paul S. Cheney on his induction into the Academy of Distinguished Engineers! The Academy recognizes School of Engineering alumni and friends for their exemplary contributions to the engineering profession through research, practice, education, policy, or service. As leaders and model citizens, these individuals bring honor to UConn Engineering.

Cheney, who graduated in 1984 with a B.S. in Computer Science, along with nine other members of the 2020 class were honored virtually by the Academy on September 18, bringing the total number of inductees to 246 since 2003. Click here to read more about Paul Cheney and his fellow inductees’ outstanding achievements in the fields of engineering.

Author: Research Experience for Undergraduates Position at Yale/VA Learning Based Recovery Center

 

REU program: We participate in the NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), which provides research experience and funding for excellent and inquisitive undergraduate students. The goal of the REU program is to train undergraduate students in conducting research, applying and proposing appropriate research methods, as well as preparing research papers and reports. This position is at the Yale/VA Learning Based Recovery Center.

 

Expectations: The REU student will be expected to conduct research, develop and evaluate methods and algorithms on an NSF-funded project, which focuses on collecting, extracting, annotating, and analyzing motion capture data from participants performing a set of physical tasks. The student will contribute to the development and improvement of our recording and annotation system, including data extraction and analysis methods. The student will be expected to have some degree of autonomy – to conduct research and make progress by actively proposing ways and research methods to improve the current system (study administration and data collection/analysis). They will be participating in weekly research meetings, reporting on their progress and the overall development of the system, discussing current and future potential improvements, as well as to participate and observe the data collection sessions.

 

Requirements:

• Be a US citizen or a green-card
• Be enrolled in an undergraduate degree program, and preferably studying computer science or a related field of
• Be available to work part-time for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. The workload is expected to be 10 hours a week, and the pay rate is $15/hr.
• Be able to work independently and have good written and communication
• Be able to develop, maintain, and develop user-friendly software

 

Preferred Skills:

• Be able to design applications using C#, Python, or JavaScript with HTML and
• Data Mining and/or Statistical Analysis (e.g. Scikit-learn, SPSS, )
• Supervised and unsupervised machine learning (e.g., classification, clustering)
• Computer vision methods (e.g., OpenCV, Deep Learning)
• Experience in research and report

 

We would like to hire an REU student to start working with our team as soon as possible. Please upload your resume and cover letter (optional) at https://rb.gy/t2xjmi. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. This position is part-time, and it is for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. For any questions, please send an email to maher.abujelala@yale.edu

Author: Professor Fuller discusses Work-From-Home Cybersecurity on NBC Connecticut

Professor Ben Fuller provides some work-from-home cybersecurity tips in this interview.

Author: Dr. Johnson Receives Grant Award to Develop Software for Handwriting Recognition

CSE, Library partnership brings 19th century documents into the 21st

Imagine you are a history scholar. You need historical documents that mention the political structure of a town from the 19th century that no longer exists. You spend months, maybe years, searching thousands of scanned, handwritten documents looking for even one sentence that could help paint the picture.

So you ask yourself, why can’t a computer do this for me? University Librarian Greg Colati posed this very question when he reached out to CSE Associate Professor in Residence Joe Johnson. The two pulled in a few more colleagues, put their heads together and got to work. The result; a project funded by LYRASIS titled “Unlocking the Past: Handwritten Text recognition for 19th Century Manuscripts.”

While Optical Character Recognition (OCR) has been around for over 20 years, its value with handwritten historical documents is limited. Dr. Johnson’s research in neural networks suggests that a computer can be “trained” to recognize a set of handwritten documents from an author, and possibly from a small group of authors who may be influenced by each other in the same time period.

Using seven volumes of John Quincy Adams’ diary, Johnson and Colati are expanding the framework built by CSE undergrad Matt Mulhall in 2019. Matt spent that summer creating a training set of over 16,000 images of 22 different characters. Johnson and Colati hope to use this data to further develop computer recognition of words, then lines, and finally sentences. “Neural networks are all the rage right now,” says Dr. Johnson, “but you need a tremendous amount of annotated historical manuscript data which we just don’t have, hence the staged approach.”

The text recognition project will provide a foundation for developing a large-scale, open source software for handwriting recognition for historical documents. This project lays the groundwork for the ultimate expected outcome of creating improved access to handwritten historical documents, which will have a major impact on research in the humanities.

LYRASIS is a non-profit organization whose mission is to support enduring access to the world’s shared academic, scientific and cultural heritage through leadership in open technologies, content services, digital solutions and collaboration with archives, libraries, museums and knowledge communities worldwide. The grant is part of their Catalyst Fund which provides support for new ideas and innovative projects that explore, test, refine and collaborate on innovations with community-wide impact.

To read more about this project, please visit the UConn library blog: https://blogs.lib.uconn.edu/news/2020/07/#.XylXsUBFwuz

Author: Dr. Jinbo Bi Appointed as the Frederick H. Leonhardt Computer Science Chair

The University of Connecticut Board of Trustees recently approved the appointment of Associate Department Head Jinbo Bi, Ph.D. as the Frederick H. Leonhardt Computer Science Chair in the School of Engineering. In her ten years of service at UConn, Dr. Bi’s has established a research program in the areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence and their application to medical diagnosis and treatment that has gained national and international recognition.

Dr. Bi’s outstanding record of funding – awards totaling over $7 million in competitive federal funding as sole or co-PI – establishes her as a leading researcher in the CSE department and in her field. She is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2017, she was awarded the highly competitive MidCareer Independent Scientist Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Dr. Bi’s many professional leadership roles include serving as the General Chair of the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine, advisor for NIH’s Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Addiction (NIAAA) strategic planning for innovation in machine learning and big data analytics, and a highlighted speaker at the International Behavioral and Neural Genetics Society. She also received the 2019 Women Innovators and Leaders Award from the Connecticut Technology Council and the 2019 Distinguished Woman in STEM Award from Bay Path University.

The Frederick H. Leonhardt Computer Science Chair was established in November 1983 through a generous grant from the Fairfield County Community Foundation to endow a chair in Computer Science at the UConn Stamford Campus. Given the evolving needs of the University, the Chair was relocated in 2015 to the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Storrs campus. Dr. Bi’s outstanding scholarship, leadership, and accomplishments make her an excellent choice for appointment to the Frederick H. Leonhardt Computer Science Chair.

Author: Internship Program at the Stanford Healthcare Innovation Lab (SHIL)

The Stanford Healthcare Innovation Lab (SHIL) is right now seeking talented software developers to join us ASAP for a project related to early detection of COVID-19. Join our team and be on the forefront of the effort to control this pandemic threat!

The positions are available in the form of full-time/part-time temporary positions, for a period of at least 3 months. 

Candidates with interests and/or experience in the following three areas are desired:

• Pervasive Computing in Healthcare (Area: MOBILE DEVELOPMENT)
  • Mobile programming (iOS and Android development):
    • Preferably experienced in swift / java
    • Preferably familiar with wearable data

 

• Scalability of Large-scale Healthcare Applications (Area: CLOUD )
  • Cloud infrastructure (e.g., Google Cloud, AWS, Microsoft Azure) 
  • Large-scale computing frameworks (e.g., Kubernetes, Terraform)

 

• Large-scale Security and Privacy (Area: SECURITY )
  • Security configuration management (e.g., Cloud Security)
  • Vulnerability management (e.g., verify, mitigate, patch mechanisms)
  • Anonymized genetic data sharing (e.g., encryption, anonymization techniques)

 

• Web application (Area: WEB DEVELOPMENT)
  • Proficiency in HTML, CSS , JavaScript, Go, and Ruby for rapid prototyping
  • Proficiency in Databases (e.g., SQL)
  • API web integration

 

Please send an email to shil-internship@stanford.edu with the subject of “<Area>: Internship COVID-19 Program: YOUR_NAME” and attach your resume/CV/transcripts.

Important: Please make sure to add your area of interest (e.g., “CLOUD: Internship COVID-19 Program: John Smith”)

The Stanford Healthcare Innovation Lab (SHIL) is applying our expertise on the science and ethics of genomics to build a new collaborative model of science focused on transforming the practice of medicine. This new paradigm of patient-centered medicine monitors the entire genome of individuals to vastly improve disease prediction, prevention, and treatment of conditions such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, schizophrenia, and many others.

Here are some news coverage around our study:
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/05/28/wearable-coronavirus-detect/

   https://www.wsbtv.com/news/2-investigates/scientists-say-your-fitness-tracker-could-help-diagnose-predict-coronavirus/CV52ZJSMAVEFPOVQDLGZPG3FMI/

   https://video.foxnews.com/v/6150301876001#sp=show-clips

Stanford Healthcare Innovation Lab (SHIL)

Author: CSE Professor Qian Yang Awarded Grants to Optimize 3D Printing Methods

Author: CSE Undergraduate Keegan Yao Receives 2020 SURF Award

Congratulations to Keegan Yao on receiving the UConn Summer Undergraduate Research Funds (SURF) Award for his project titled: Phylogenetic Tree Completions with Minimal Robinson-Foulds Distance. SURF Awards support full-time undergraduate students in summer research or creative projects.

Keegan’s project focuses on the development of novel algorithms for optimal completion of incomplete phylogenetic trees. This problem arises naturally whenever phylogenetic trees with non-identical leaf sets must be compared, but no efficient algorithms currently exist for the problem. Keegan’s research project seeks to develop the first such algorithms. Keegan, slated to receive a dual degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, is mentored by Computer Science & Engineering Professor Mukul Bansal.

This year’s SURF awardees were selected from an exceptionally strong group of applicants representing diverse areas of academic study. A complete list of UConn SURF awardees is available at https://ugradresearch.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/323/2020/05/2020-SURF-Awards.pdf.

Author: Berk Alpay Named 2020 University Scholar

Congratulations to Berk Alpay on being named a 2020 University Scholar. One of the most challenging and prestigious programs for UConn undergraduates, the University Scholar Program allows students to design and pursue an in-depth research or creative project and to craft a learning plan that supports their interests and academic goals. Berk’s project, titled Combinatorial and Statistical Approaches for Robust Prediction of Gene Expression from Genomic Features, focuses on understanding how variation in genotype produces differences in gene expression is critical to explaining the underlying mechanisms of disease, and can be used to discover genetic risk factors. CSE Professors Derek Aguiar, Mukul Bansal and Mathematics Professor Katherine Hall serve as mentors for the project.

Berk is no stranger to major awards at UConn. He was named a 2019 Goldwater Scholar, the nation’s premier scholarship for undergraduates studying math, natural sciences, and engineering. He was also a Holster Scholar in 2018, a highly selective enrichment opportunity for first-year Honors Program students that promotes independent research during the summer following a student’s freshman year. Berk is currently on track to graduate in 2021 with a dual degree in Computer Science and Mathematics.

Building on an interest in artificial intelligence and neural networks since high school, Berk began research in bioinformatics with Professor Derek Aguiar in 2019. “Berk’s research shows that by incorporating non-linear and non-additive interactions between genomic variants, we can build better models to impute both continuous and discrete expression for many genes,” says Professor Aguiar. “His work lays a foundation for follow-up methodological or experimental research, e.g., associating changes in imputed gene expression from genome-wide association study data with disease.”

Author: Song Han Awarded Promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure

 

Congratulations to Dr. Song Han on his promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure. Dr. Han received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012 and joined UConn’s Computer Science & Engineering department faculty in 2013. His research areas include Industrial Internet-of-Things, Cyber-Physical Systems, Wireless Powered Communication, Real-Time Data Analytics and Machine Learning.

Dr. Han’s research is currently supported by National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Emerson Automation Solutions, Texas Instruments, Microsoft Research and UConn Health Center. He was appointed as a Castleman Term Professor in Engineering Innovation in 2020, which recognizes outstanding faculty members who embody exceptional achievements and the deep commitment to research, education and outreach. 

We wish Song continued success!

Author: Doctoral Students Awarded Fellowships

Congratulations to 14 Ph.D. students who were awarded a Predoctoral Fellowship on May 11, 2020! These prestigious awards are given to outstanding students to further their progress toward degree completion.

Saad Quadar received the department’s top honor – the Taylor L. Booth graduate fellowship. This fellowship, named after UConn alum and CSE department founder Taylor L. Booth, is awarded to a doctoral student intending to pursue a faculty career at an American university upon completion of their Ph.D.

Departmental Research Excellence Awards were presented to Yanyuan Qin, Theodore Jensen, Zigeng Wang and Chao Shang.

Departmental Research Fellowship recipients included Fatemeh Zare, Md Abdullah Al Fahim, Songyang Han, Shweta Ware, Hasan Iqbal, Guannan Liang, Sohaib Ahmad, Tianyu Wang and Xia Xiao.

Congratulations to everyone on your recent award and accomplishments!

Author: CSE Recognizes Senior Design Project Competition Winners

Congratulations to the winners of Computer Science & Engineering’s 2020 Senior Design Project competition! Top honors go to Team 5: Cloud Developer Management Dashboard and Team 17: Process Visualization.

Second place was also a tie between Team 16: Secure Embedded Architecture and Team 27: Cloud-Based Fuel Management System. Third place goes to Team 24: Visual Inspection Automation.

The projects were evaluated by a select group of professionals from industry and academia on overall quality and presentation. This included the project idea, impact, design, interface, demo of the prototype, and the students’ communication skills.

The awards were presented by Dr. Joseph Johnson, Senior Design Coordinator, Associate Professor in-Residence and Associate Director of Undergraduate Programs in Computing.

Click here to view all projects and the 34 teams in the CSE department.

The winners of this year’s Senior Design Project Program Competition:

First place

Team 5- Cloud Developer Management Dashboard

Sponsor: Lockheed Martin, Advisor: Dr. Joseph Johnson

Team members: Tyler Cromwell, Cristian Gutu, Nick Huynh and Michael Welch

Team 17- Process Visualization

Sponsor: Unilever, Advisor: Dr. Dong-Guk Shin

Team members: Xuan Chau, Chris Lo, Martin Place and Yijiang Yu

 

Second Place

Team 16- Secure Embedded Architecture

Sponsor: Pratt and Whitney, Advisors: Dr. Bing Wang and Dr. Jerry Shi

Team members: Agean Binan, Benjamin Buchmeier, Taeyoung Park, Ethan Pernal and Patrick Thompson

Team 27- Cloud-Based Fuel Management System

Sponsor: Veeder-Root, Advisor: Dr. Seung-Hyun Hong

Team members: Andrew Canova, Nicholas Hajek, Rishi Mehta and Michelle Tsun

 

Third Place-

Team 24- Visual Inspection Automation

Sponsor: Jonal Labatories, Advisor: Dr. Wei Wei

Team members: Timothy Goodwin, Juhyeon Lee, James Liebler and Emily Maciejewski

 

Best wishes to all our graduating seniors. We wish you all well in your future endeavors!

Author: Virtual Senior Design Demonstration Day 2020

The capstone Senior Design Project Program is a hallmark of success for engineering seniors. Mentored by faculty and industry engineers, students work to solve real-world engineering problems. Students learn principles of design, ethical issues affecting engineering decisions, professional communication, and the day-to-day implications of intellectual property.

Each year, dozens of leading companies, most of which are based in Connecticut, suggest a problem, assign a technical representative, and mentor the senior engineering students as they develop meaningful solutions. The program gives graduating seniors hands-on experience working on projects that make a difference right here in our community.

This year, the Senior Design projects are featured virtually to celebrate the creativity and innovation of our graduating seniors. We invite you to watch the welcome video from the School of Engineering Dean, Kazem Kazerounian, and view Computer Science & Engineering project videos from 34 teams. The clips highlight the students’ research and problem solving, design method, and construction of a working prototype. Enjoy!

Author: Postdoctoral Research Associate

Author: Assistant or Associate Professor-in-Residence

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Connecticut invites applications for a non-tenure track position at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor-in-Residence at the Storrs campus. The successful candidate will primarily contribute to the department’s teaching program but is encouraged to pursue his or her research interests and collaborate within the department.  Complete information is here.

Author: Dr. Sheida Nabavi Wins Prestigious CAREER Award

Author: Firmware Engineer Internship with Perkin Elmer

Author: Professor Qian Yang Co-Organized First Annual Women in STEM Frontiers in Research Expo (WiSFiRE)

The School Of Engineering held the Women in STEM Frontiers in Research Expo, also known as WiSFiRE, for the first time—bringing together, and celebrating some of the important research and journeys of female faculty in the School. The conference was organized by Assistant Professors Anna Taraknova (Mechanical Engineering) and Qian Yang. 

According to Eli Freund, Editorial Communications Manager, “Intended as a celebration of women in STEM, and their accomplishments, undergraduates and graduate students were treated to panel discussions on insights into a scientific research career and talks on topics such as humanizing engineering and the next generation of bridge infrastructure in the United States. 

Author: Internships with The Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine

Author: Summer 2020 Undergraduate Research at UConn Health Center

Author: Computation and Neuroscience Research Assistant Opportunity at Yale University

Author: Half RA position in Biomedical Image Processing

We are looking for a motivated and resourceful student (graduate or advanced undergraduate) who is interested in biomedical image processing.

This is a half RA position for the Spring 2020 semester.  

Responsibilities

–           Develop a pipeline to read and analyze  x-ray images

–           Develop image processing and machine learning methods to detect and localize imagining biomarkers

–           Summarize and analyze the results

–           Prepare reports

 

 Requirements

–           Working knowledge of programing languages such as  Python, MATLAB and C

–           Experience in image processing

–           Familiar with machine learning  

–           Able to work in Linux environment 

–           Strong communication and  time-management skills

 

 

If you are interested please send your CV to sheida.nabavi@uconn.edu.

Author: Dr. Han Receives Multiple Grant Awards

The Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Laboratory directed by Dr. Song Han has recently received multiple external and internal grants to support the design, analysis and implementation of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) systems and their applications in a variety of industrial domains.  The first NSF project “PFI-TT: Developing a Configurable Real-time High-speed Wireless Communication Platform for Large-scale Industrial Control Systems” aims at the development of an ultra-high-speed real-time wireless communication platform to support emerging large-scale industrial sensing and control systems. The second NSF project, “CPS: Small: Collaborative Research: A Secure Communication Framework with Verifiable Authenticity for Immutable Services in Industrial IoT Systems”  is a collaborative project with the University of California at Santa Cruz and will design and analyze the performance of a secure two-way communication framework to support verifiable and immutable services within and among multiple connected IIoT systems.  The third NSF project, “CCRI: Planning: Collaborative Research: A Software-defined Wireless Communications Network Research Infrastructure for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Research Community” is a collaborative project with Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the University of Texas San Antonio which aims at the planning and design activities for a software-defined wireless network infrastructure for the IIoT research community.

Along with the NSF projects, Dr. Han received the UConn Research Excellence Program Award for his project “Towards Real-Time Data Retrieval with Mobile Edge Devices in Wireless-Powered Industrial IoT Systems” which aims at the design of novel real-time data retrieval technologies in wireless-powered IIoT systems for battery-less and sustainable operations.

Dr. Han is also a key research participant of the recently funded NASA Resilient ExtraTerrestrial Habitats institute, which includes a team from UConn – in a partnership led by Purdue University and including Harvard University and the University of Texas at San Antonio.  According To UConn Today, the UConn team will seek to design and operate resilient deep-space habitats that can adapt and recover from expected and unexpected disruptions. The new institute will receive as much as $15 million over a five-year period to fund its work of designing and ultimately creating a prototype of an autonomous, resilient, deep-space habitat that is capable of functioning with and without the presence of a human crew.

Author: Be Part of CyberSEED 2019-An Exciting Cybersecurity Event

The University of Connecticut, a leader in hardware cybersecurity, and Synchrony, the fintech market powerhouse are joining forces to sponsor CyberSEED, an exciting cybersecurity event October 19, 2019. Timed to coincide with the annual National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the event features a cyber wargame competition – with prizes awarded to the best performing contestants.  Competitors will face off this October on the expansive UConn Storrs campus in a ballroom atmosphere for bragging rights, cyber education and cash prizes. The sponsor commitment is significant: the grand prize winner in this cyber wargame will take home $15,000.

 

Early registration for the October 19^th event is recommended to guarantee participation. The event is free and registrations are open now at http://cyberseed.org

Author: CSE and ECE Hosts Research Experience for Undergraduates Program

The Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) and Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Departments hosted a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program with the theme of “Trustable Embedded Systems Security Research” this past summer. The National Science Foundation sponsored the REU program that hosted 11 undergraduate students from 10 U.S. universities. It lasted for 10 weeks and culminated with a workshop-style final presentation by each REU student on August 2, 2019. The students, supervised by with their faculty mentors, worked on a wide range of research topics on embedded system security and trustable computing. They attended regular professional workshops on improving communication, writing, and presentation skills. Most REU students participated in weekly reading group meetings to learn about state-of-the-art research papers with graduate students. They also attended the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Conference on Communications and Network Security in Washington DC. Dr. Bing Wang was the main organizer of the program and 10 faculty members from both CSE and ECE Departments supervised the REU students.

Author: Engineering Alumni Brothers Create UConn’s First Cybersecurity Instructional Lab

The Computer Science & Engineering Department is pleased to share news from the UConn Foundation and the School of Engineering.

In response to the growing field of cybersecurity, two University of Connecticut alumni brothers have donated $1 million to create a new cybersecurity curriculum and launch Altschuler Cybersecurity Lab, UConn’s first cybersecurity instructional lab.

Samuel ’50 and Stephen Altschuler ’54, who earned their UConn bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering, will cut the ribbon on the new lab, located on the first floor of the Information Technology Engineering (ITE) Building, sometime in summer 2019.

When fully launched, the lab will be dedicated to teaching hands-on cybersecurity to all Computer Science and Engineering freshmen, as well as other undergraduates and graduate students. A special freshman curriculum is being developed to teach cyber-hygiene in software and hardware and learn about vulnerabilities in commercial-off-the-shelf devices, Internet-of-Things devices, equipment to test the security and integrity of electronic election/voting systems, smart power-meters and power grid devices. The curriculum will also cover website security, secure configuration of networks and networked systems, and security of network routing. The UConn CSE Department is home to more than 800 undergraduate and 150 graduate students.

Stephen Altschuler (far left) and Sam Altschuler (far right) stand with their undergraduate scholarship recipients at a ceremony in 2015. (Christopher Larosa/UConn Photo)

 

Author: CSE Features 41 Projects at Senior Design Day

Each year, more than 100 leading manufacturing companies, pharmaceutical and medical firms, consulting practices, utilities as well as local, state and federal government agencies partner with the UConn School of Engineering through Senior Design Projects. Computer Science and Engineering had 41 teams this year, with most of the teams being sponsored by industry.

Every Senior Design Project is a two-semester course required for all School of Engineering seniors to graduate. Each team of 3-5 seniors is mentored by Engineering faculty collaborating with the sponsor.

The winners of this year’s Senior Design Competition are as follows:

First Place – Secure Embedded Architecture for the 1042 Processer
Team 26
Team Members: Brandon Renick, Cameron Morris, Killian Greene, Jacob Boislard
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Bing Wang
Sponsor: Pratt & Whitney

 

 

 

 

Second Place – Predictive Maintenance through Digitalization of Manufacturing Indictors
Team 37
Team Members: Nathan Hom, Mike Marandino, Kyle Berry, and Jon Simonin
Faculty Advisors: Drs. Song Han, Mousumi Roy
Sponsor: Radio Frequency Systems

 

 

 

 

 

Third Place – Synchrony Financial Voice Experience
Team 3
Team Members: Mariem Ouni, Richie Viscardi, Fitch Spencer, and Zachary Galica
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Yufeng Wu
Sponsor: Synchrony Financial

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to all the participants of Senior Design day for a job well done!

Author: Dr. Robert McCartney Wins Top Ten Symposium Papers of All Time Award

Congratulations to Professor McCartney for recently being recognized for his publication “A Multi-institutional Study of Peer Instruction in Introductory Computing” being selected 4^th best among the “Top Ten SIGCSE Symposium Papers of All Time”. As a capstone to its 50th annual SIGCSE Technical Symposium, leaders of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) are celebrating the ideas that have shaped the field. The top ten papers were chosen from all of the papers that have been presented at the SIGCSE Technical Symposium over the last 49 years.

“In 1969, the year of our first SIGCSE symposium, computing education was a niche specialty” explains SIGCSE Board Chair Amber Settle of DePaul University, of Chicago, USA. “Today, it is an essential skill students need to prepare for the workforce. Computing has become one of the most popular majors in higher education, and more and more students are being introduced to computing in K-12 settings. The Top Ten Symposium Papers of All Time Award will emphasize the outstanding research that underpins and informs how students of all ages learn computing. We also believe that highlighting excellent research will inspire others to enter the computing education field and make their own contributions.”

Author: Technology Field Engineer

Our client is looking for a talented professional to join our team as a Field Engineer. This position is responsible for handling PC hardware break fix calls at various locations. Ensuring customer satisfaction and solving issues in an efficient and pleasant manner are essential for this position. The Field Engineer is a key contributor to the success of managing our client’s IT environment.

Why You Will Love This Job

To successfully perform the requirements for this position, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Ability to work on multiple priorities and/or tasks simultaneously
• Excellent listening and communications skills, both verbal and written
• Strong customer relationship skills
• Organized, detail oriented and self-motivated
• Ability to provide and maintain detailed documentation on each job
• Strong computer skills and the ability to effectively communicate
• Must be comfortable and have excellent knowledge of Dell desktop systems
• Advanced knowledge of all Microsoft Workstation Operating Systems and Applications including Microsoft Office
• Ability to take ownership of an incident and remain in contact with the client thru completion
• Problem-solving abilities and ability to meet reasonable deadlines
• Ability to build positive and collaborative relationships
• Willingness to develop professionally
• Must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.

The Must Haves – Skills & Requirements

• 2+ years’ experience in desktop computer support
  • Dell
• 2+ years’ experience with a ticketing system
• 2+ years’ experience managing email systems
• The following education/experience are preferred:
  • A+ Certification
  • Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)
  • Office 365
  • Field Service Experience
  • Hardware Experience

For further information go here.

Author: Software Engineer with UCARR-NOAA

This position involves the design, development, testing, and deployment of cloud-based software solutions in support of National Ocean Service/ Office of Coast Survey’s NOAA nowCOAST GIS web mapping portal (nowcoast.noaa.gov) and NOAA’s future Precision Navigation data dissemination services and applications. nowCOAST is used by mariners, homeland security personnel, emergency managers, risk managers, and search and rescue operations. NOAA’s future Precision Navigation data dissemination services will enable commercial ships to safely and efficiently navigate and operate in close proximity to the seafloor, narrow shipping channels, or other hazards. This position will be located at the NOAA-University of New Hampshire Joint Hydrographic Center on the beautiful UNH campus in Durham, NH.

Details here:

https://ucar.silkroad.com/epostings/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.jobinfo&jobid=218629&company_id=15947&version=1&source=ONLINE&JobOwner=992748&startflag=1   

 

Author: Programmer, 10 hours/week for UConn KIDS

10 hour/week Programmer Position, UConn KIDS (Kids in Developmental Science)

UCONN KIDS is a consortium of researchers across the university who study child development.  We have compiled a database of contact information from families interested in having their children participate in our research, and are about to launch a custom web application interface that will make the database accessible to approved researchers.  The web application will also enable smooth coordination and scheduling of family/child participation within and amongst labs. 

Our development programmer will soon be stepping down, and we have funds to employ a student programmer on retainer at 10hours/week for the next 12 months.  Their responsibilities would be to fix bugs in the current web app and write new code as needed for additional functions. 

Desired skills:

Object oriented programming

Front end and back end coding

Html and Java script

Ruby on Rails

Compensation:  $25/hour for 10 hours/week, for 52 weeks.  Strong possibility that position will be renewed for another year.

If interested in this position, please send your resume to letitia.naigles@uconn.edu

Author: Associate Software Engineer with Zygo, Middlefield, CT

Associate Software Engineer
Location: Middlefield, CT
Experience Required 0 – 3 Years
Education Required Bachelor’s Degree or preferred PHD.
Relocation Provided Some Relocation May Be Available

Position Description
Seeking recent grads for a software Engineer role to join our Metrology Solutions Division in Middlefield, CT.
The selected candidate will develop, code, test, and debug new software and enhancements to
existing software under the direction of senior developers. Our development approach fosters
communication and collaboration across multiple scientific disciplines and provides all
members of our team’s opportunities to contribute creatively to our projects. This position
supports growing workload in application development for the Metrology and High-Precision
Optical Fabrication markets.
The ideal candidate is a motivated self-starter who is excited about technology.
Opportunities:
•Work with peers, senior staff, R&D and marketing personnel. You will not be pigeon-holed.
The faster you learn, the more you can grow.
•You will learn how to operate a variety of high-tech instrumentation.
•Learn surface metrology fundamentals, and about various types of filtering, surface analysis,
measurement methods, plotting, visualization, and more as part of your work.
Duties and Responsibilities:
•Produce quality software products that meet or exceed standards
•Implement and unit test all code
•Ensure new functionality is compatible with existing code
•Follow established corporate processes and procedures
•Assist with all aspects of software life cycle development
Position Requirements: As this is an entry level position, we have realistic expectations
about the existing skill set.
What’s important is hunger for growth.
Exposure to, knowledge of and/or experience with the following will enhance the attractiveness
of candidates:
• C#
• C/C++
• .NET Framework 3.0/3.5/4.0/4.5/4.6
• NUnit
• Python
• Visual Studio
• Team Foundation Server
• OpenGL
• WPF
Requirements
Education and Other Requirements:
B.S. Degree in Computer Science, Computer
Engineering or related field required with 0-5 years of software development experience.
Prior engineering experience (including internships and coops) a plus.
Apply instruction:
Email resume to miakennedy@tsrecruitment.net
Phone:773-960-4968

Author: Fully funded PhD candidate in Netherlands, deadline May 1

As part of a recently granted H2020 project in the secure society domain (topic SU-DRS02-2018-2019-2020: Technologies for first responders) I am currently advertising a fully-funded PhD position for 4 years. The PhD project is called “UAV/drones to support first responders, using advanced computer vision and machine learning”. We need someone with a solid background in the geosciences or robotics, with excellent expertise in computer vision and photogrammetry, and very good programming skills. More details in the attached a flyer. The link for the position and the application form can be found here.

Author: iOS App Developers with Student Startup Co.

My name is James and I am a Junior at Radford University Studying Management. I have recently founded a startup with fellow students focused on increasing student engagement for small and medium sized universities through the use of mobile apps. I am reaching out to you because we are currently in need of additional app developers, specifically ones who know swift (the programming language for IOS). I am hoping you would be able to distribute the attached letter to your Juniors, Seniors and possibly graduate students within the Computer Science department in the hopes that one or two of them would be interested in joining our team and becoming a potential partner.

 

Thank you,

 

James Overton

Radford University Management Major 2020

Radford AMA – President

Radford Honors Academy

COBE Student Advisory Board

Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity

 

Author: CSE Department Ranked Among Best Departments in the World for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

The Computer Science & Engineering department has been recognized as the 9th best department in the world, tied with Princeton for computational biology and bioinformatics research by csrankings.org which provides a metrics-based ranking of top computer science institutions around the world. This ranking is based on publications in the top computational biology and bioinformatics conferences over the last ten years. The department has many faculty members working in this research area, including Professors Derek Aguiar, Mukul Bansal, Jinbo Bi, Ion Mandoiu, Sheida Nabavi, Sanguthevar Rajasekaran, Dong-Guk Shin, Yufeng Wu, and others. Congratulations to all on this extraordinary accomplishment!

 

 

#	Institution	Count	Faculty
1	► Carnegie Mellon University	17.7	12
2	► University of California – Los Angeles	12.0	8
3	► University of California – San Diego	6.9	3
4	► University of California – Berkeley	6.2	5
5	► Massachusetts Institute of Technology	6.1	6
6	► Pennsylvania State University	5.9	3
7	► Duke University	5.8	2
8	► Tel Aviv University	5.6	4
9	► Princeton University	5.5	2
9	► University of Connecticut	5.5	4

Author: Summer 2019 Research opportunity

Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence to Dynamic Loading Predictions

We are looking for highly motivated students (one undergraduate and one MS) who are interested in a summer research opportunity related to failure of materials used in ships and submarines. This is a 10-week computational project with compensation. Students must be fluent in python and Matlab and interested to learn “Deep Learning” computational programs. The students need to be US citizens and be willing to work at the government research lab during summer. This summer, the students will work in Storrs. The undergraduate applicants must have GPA greater than 3.0, graduating in May 2020, and be willing to apply for a 2-year MS degree. We are also looking for Masters students graduating in May 2020 and be willing to apply for a 3-year PhD program.

The proposed work will investigate the predictive capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to incoming dynamic loading profiles. Predicting incoming dynamics loads will pave the way to highly advanced active damping systems that uses surrounding sensing network and AI to improve the safety and performance of the payloads in the United States Navy (USN). Moreover, the AI’s predictive capabilities would also improve the autonomy of undersea weaponry systems. The emphasis of this work will be on understanding the fundamental mechanisms of applying AI networks to sensor data and determine methods of extrapolating future performance of the payload structure from this data. During this effort, existing published experimental data from implosion events will be used as the data needed for the AI analysis. The outcomes from these efforts will then be used to construct and validate methods of coupling AI systems to sensor data.

If you are interested, please email Prof. George Lykotrafitis by April 20.

Author: Summer Internship with State of Connecticut DEEP

The State of Connecticut, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), Water Protection and Land Reuse Bureau, Water Planning and Management Division, Water Monitoring Unit, is seeking to hire a Seasonal Resource Assistant to assist with database maintenance management, and analysis of water quality monitoring data. The office location is the DEEP headquarters in Hartford, CT.

 

Length of Position: Starting approximately May 10, 2019. Positions are 1,040 hours in duration.

The positions are thirty-five (35) hours per week, Monday – Friday, 8:00 am- 3:30 pm (hours flexible).

The pay rate varies from $11.00 to $14.00 per hour depending on education and experience. There are no benefits with these positions.

The seasonal employee will assist the Water Monitoring Program with data management, data analysis and quality control for water quality monitoring and water resources planning. Duties include evaluating large data sets for inaccurate information; working to ensure data compatibility with EPA databases; analyzing data; developing database queries, developing interactive tools for data assessment, developing charts, graphs, and maps to aid in data interpretation. Additional duties may include literature searches, and other duties as assigned.

The ideal candidate would have college level course work and/or experience in one or more of the following; principles of database design; computer networks; computer programming in R, Python, SQL and Javascript; computer operating systems; data mining; data visualization; and mapping.

Official posting and instructions for application can be found here:

https://www.jobapscloud.com/CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?R1=190208&R2=3492VR&R3=002

Author: Visit Cadenza Innovation at UConn Job Fair this Thursday

We are reaching out as Cadenza will be at the UCONN Job Fair this coming Thursday, March 28th from 11 AM to 3 PM at the Gampel Pavillion…. we would love to see you and to get some of your students to stop by! 

 As you know, UCONN and Cadenza Innovation are already collaborating with both an undergrad Management and Engineering for Manufacturing (MEM) project for laser welding and metals and with the graduate MBA program for battery energy storage system financial modelling in addition to our work with UCONN’s Institute of Materials Science for our carbon program.    

 Cadenza Innovation is entering an exciting growth stage and we are looking to hire seniors/recent graduates for open full-time Assistant Electrical Engineer and Assistant Mechanical Engineer positions.   See the attached two job descriptions.   We are also looking for more senior engineers – and we would love to get your recommendations!

   Please feel free to forward these job descriptions to anyone with a strong mechanical or electrical engineering background who you think might be interested in working at Cadenza and could contribute to our team.  And please send them to our booth this Thursday to discuss opportunities including open positions and summer/fall internship programs. Our website and home page video at www.cadenzainnovation.com may provide for additional information.

Author: DoD Cybersecurity Scholarships

The Department of Defense is making available several scholarships for students who are interested in working in the area of cybersecurity.  Cybersecurity includes a wide variety of fields including System/network administration and operations, Systems security engineering, Information assurance systems and product acquisition, Cryptography, Threat and vulnerability assessment, Web security, Operations of computer emergency response teams, Computer forensics, Defensive information operations, and Critical information infrastructure assurance.

These scholarships are for the 2019-20 academic year and are open to juniors, seniors, and graduate students.  The scholarships are very generous as they provide full tuition and fees plus $25,000 stipend for room and board ($30,000 for grad students).

Scholarship recipient requirements:
  Must be US citizen
  Junior, senior or graduate student in Fall 2019
  Degree in CS, CSE, CMPE, EE, or MATH
  Maintain a 3.2 GPA (3.5 for graduate students)
  Accept federal appointment as an intern
  Work for 1 year for the DoD post-graduation

If you are interested in these scholarships, let me know and I can provide you with application forms.  

*** IMPORTANT: Applications are due Feb 28th so please get in touch with me as soon as possible ***

Laurent Michel

CSE Associate Head

Author: Undergraduate Research Assistants needed in Cognitive Development Lab, Fall 19 semester

Author: Graduate Research Assistant with Dr. Khan

Applications are invited for a Graduate Research Assistant position in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Connecticut (preference will be given to students interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering).

Preferred qualifications include:

1. Proficiency in computer programming. The project involves developing system monitoring tools, animation, and websites. 
2. The project involves designing and running user studies focusing on cybersecurity behavior, both in-lab and survey style.
3. Will require learning advanced statistical analysis techniques. 

Interested applicants can email their CV/inquiry to maifi.khan@uconn.edu

Author: Now accepting applications to the fifth annual B.I.G. Summer Research Program

Bruins-In-Genomics (B.I.G.) Summer Research Program is an 8-week full-time immersion program for undergraduates interested in learning about Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Genomics — and developing some of the skill-sets that are critical for 21st century Biological and Biomedical Research, and Precision Medicine.

 

We are now accepting applications to the fifth annual B.I.G. Summer Research Program, to be held June 24 to August 16, 2019, at UCLA. Next summer’s program offers introductory workshops in bioinformatic methods for genomics and computational biology followed by in depth, hands-on training in one of UCLA’s many participating laboratories. Areas of research include:

• Biomedical Genetics and Genomics

• Neurogenetics

• Cancer genetics

• Population Genetics

• Microbiome analysis

• Immunology

• Host pathogen interactions

• Ecosystem modeling

 

In addition, B.I.G. Summer offers career development workshops, graduate school preparations, and networking opportunities for undergraduates interested in quantitative and computational biology.

 

Fellowships are available that cover stipends of $400 to $5000, on-campus housing, and roundtrip travel to/from Los Angeles.

 

Please spread the word among colleagues and undergraduate students! If you know an undergraduate who is thinking about a career in computational biology, please encourage them to apply by forwarding this email and the attached PDF.

 

JUNE 24 TO AUGUST 16, 2019

APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 4, 2019 at 5:00PM PST

 

For more information on upcoming and past B.I.G. Summer programs, please visit our webpage:

https://qcb.ucla.edu/big-summer/

Author: Dr. Rajasekaran Announces New Leadership Team

Department Head, Sanguthevar Rajasekaran recently announced that the following highly accomplished key leaders have joined his cabinet as Associate Department Heads. He is looking forward to working with them in realizing the vision of the Department and accomplishing the goals of the School of Engineering.

Dr. Jinbo Bi: Associate Department Head for Research and Strategic Initiatives

Dr. Bi graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2003 with a Ph.D. in Mathematics. After graduation, she joined Siemens as a Principal Scientist and worked for them until 2009. Subsequently she was funded by the Department of Defense to be a Senior Scientist working on machine learning tools for triage management at Massachusetts General Hospital. She then joined the University of Connecticut as an Associate Professor in 2010. She has published extensively in top machine learning venues and is well funded by such agencies as the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health.

Dr. Laurent Michel: Associate Department Head for Undergraduate Studies and Industry Relations

Dr. Michel received a B.S. and a Sc. M. in Computer Science from Les Facultes Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix in 1993 in Namur, Belgium. He later received a Sc.M. in 1996 and a Ph.D. in 1999 in Computer Science from Brown University. Dr. Michel joined the Computer Science and Engineering department in 2002 as an Assistant Professor and has been a Professor since 2017. His research interests focus on the design and implementation of domain specific languages for combinatorial optimization and cybersecurity. He has published extensively in these areas in top venues. He is well funded from the National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and industry. He is a member of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and served as the Associate Department Head from 2014 to 2018.

Dr. Alexander Russell: Associate Department Head for Graduate Studies

Dr. Russell holds a B.A. in Mathematics and a B.A. in Computer Science from Cornell University, awarded in 1991. He holds two graduate degrees from MIT: a M.S. in Computer Science in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1996. After postdoctoral positions at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Berkeley, he joined the University of Connecticut in 1999. He is currently the Director of the Voting Technology Research Center and a Senior Research Fellow at Input Output Hong Kong. He has published extensively in top security venues. He is well funded from such prestigious agencies as the National Science Foundation and the State of Connecticut.

 

 

Author: Dr. Sanguthevar Rajasekaran Appointed New Department Head

Dr. Kazem Kazerounian, Dean of the School of Engineering, recently announced the appointment of Dr. Sanguthevar Rajasekaran – Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor as well as UTC Chair Professor – as the next Department Head of the Computer Science and Engineering Department effective February 1^st, 2019. Dr. Rajasekaran will be taking over the role from Dr. Reda Ammar, who had graciously accepted to be the interim head for the past few months. 

Dr. Rajasekaran received his M.E. degree in Automation from the Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore) in 1983, and his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Harvard University in 1988. Currently he is the Director of the Booth Engineering Center for Advanced Technologies at the University of Connecticut. Before joining UConn, he served as a faculty member in the CISE Department of the University of Florida and in the CIS Department of the University of Pennsylvania. During 2000-2002 he was the Chief Scientist for Arcot Systems. His research interests include big data analytics, bioinformatics, parallel algorithms, data mining, and randomized computing. He has published over 350 articles in journals and conferences. The best-known algorithms for many fundamental problems have been invented by him. He has co-authored two texts on algorithms and co-edited six books on algorithms and related topics. He has been awarded numerous research grants totaling 20 million from such agencies as the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security. He is an elected member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Author: Gift to the Fred J. Maryanski Memorial Fund for Computer Science

A special thank you to Mrs. Karen Maryanski for her generous gift to the Fred J. Maryanski Memorial Fund for Computer Science. Fred was the first Department Head of Computer Science & Engineering from 1986-1989. Her support enables our students to become leaders, problem solvers and innovators who help improve our state, the nation and our world.

After celebrating our Centennial in 2016, UConn Engineering is now at the beginning of a new chapter in our history – the Next 100 Years. Our mission, before any other, is to educate future engineers – to keep the intellectual life blood of this state, region and nation flowing. Thank you for helping to accomplish this mission.

Author: Apply for expenses-paid Design Nation Conference, NYC, 3/8/19

Design Nation is an all-expenses-paid conference for undergraduate students interested in design, UI/UX, product development, computer science, and more. We’ve featured executives from Design Matters, Pentagram, Microsoft, Facebook, Adobe, Google, and more. Students will have a chance to speak one-on-one and network with these executives.  Applications due 1/25/19.

Author: Dr. Bing Wang and Team Win Best Paper Award

Congratulations to Professor Bing Wang and her students Yanyuan Qin and Chaoqun Yue for winning the prestigious Best Paper Award for their research project entitled “ABR Streaming of VBR-encoded Videos: Characterization, Challenges and Solutions” at CoNEXT 2018, a top  computer networking conference. Yanyuan and Chaoqun are co-authors of the paper and Yanyuan is the leading author. This is a joint project with Krishna Pattipati from the Electrical Computer Engineering Department, collaborators Drs. Shuai Hao and Subhabrata Sen from AT&T – Research and Dr. Feng Qian from Indiana University.

Author: Computation and Neuroscience Research Assistant Opportunity at Yale University

There is a computation and neuroscience research assistant position available in my laboratory for 1-2 years, appropriate for a student or recent graduate who wishes to spend at least 1 year doing full time research before pursuing a career or graduate studies in computation and neuroscience related fields (Computer Science, Bioengineering, Neurobiology, MD/PhD, etc.).

 

My research is on normal brain mechanisms of consciousness and loss of consciousness during epileptic seizures (see alsohttps://medicine.yale.edu/lab/blumenfeld/). Ongoing projects include functional neuroimaging with simultaneous EEG, behavioral testing, pupillometry and machine learning. In addition, we perform in vivo electrophysiology and fMRI recordings from animal models of epilepsy to investigate cortical and subcortical network interactions. This position involves participating in a multi-disciplinary team, working on improving computational methods for localizing brain activity and treating epileptic seizures. Research or work experience in computer programming especially with MATLAB and mathematics is essential; experience in neuroscience or equivalent advanced coursework in these fields is also highly desirable.

 

Ample opportunities will also be available for exposure to Applied Mathematics, clinical Neurology, Neurosurgery, and related fields depending on the student’s interests. Mentoring will be provided on how to pursue a career in computer science and neuroscience research, or on how to combine basic research and clinical work through a career in academia.

 

Interested applicants should send a brief cover letter, CV or resume, and three letters of reference via email to:hal.blumenfeld@yale.edu
Note: due to high demand please do not send inquiries without attaching a CV/resume

______________________________________________

Hal Blumenfeld, MD, PhD
Loughridge Williams Professor

Director, Yale Clinical Neuroscience Imaging Center (CNIC)
Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience and Neurosurgery 
Yale University School of Medicine
333 Cedar Street
New Haven, CT 06520-8018
Tel:   (203) 785-3865
FAX: (203) 737-2538
email: hal.blumenfeld@yale.edu

https://medicine.yale.edu/lab/blumenfeld/

http://cnic.yale.edu/

---

Author: Lei Li Wins Best Paper Award at ACM Conference

Ph.D. student Lei Li won the “Best Student Paper” award at the ACM Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Health Informatics (ACM-BCB 2018) for his research paper titled “An Integer Linear Programming Solution for the Domain-Gene-Species Reconciliation Problem”, coauthored with his advisor Dr. Mukul Bansal. This paper introduces the first exact algorithm, based on integer linear programming, for solving an important NP-hard problem in comparative genomics. Congratulations Lei and Mukul for your outstanding accomplishment!

 

Author: Dr. Russell Leads Voting Technology Research Center

 Voting security is imperative to the election process, especially with the growing threat that states experience from hackers. The work in Connecticut is being led by Alexander Russell, director of UConn’s Voting Technology Research Center which advises the state on the use of election technology, investigates voting solutions and voting equipment, and develops and recommends safe-use procedures for electronic systems used in the electoral process. Please see the complete article featured in UConn Today.

Author: CS Internship with Precision Combustion Inc.

Job title: Full Stack Engineer Intern
Description: You will lead the design and development of a full stack setup to handle data streams for testing and monitoring multiple electromechanical systems.
Desired Skills:
• Database schema design
• REST API generation and test automation
• MySQL (or another preferred database is fine)
• SQL
• Front-end experience (Angular, React, Vue, etc.). Mobile development a plus
• Testing frameworks/tools like Jasmine, Postman, etc

Education:  Computer Science Major

Please note, we are not able to sponsor visas.
To apply for this North Haven position, send resume to mhyatt@precision-combustion.com

Author: Research & Strategy Summer Analyst with UBS Asset Management

Overview of Real Estate & Private Markets
UBS Asset Management, Real Estate & Private Markets provides a comprehensive range of real estate investment advisory services in a variety of investment structures. Operating through its primary legal entity, UBS Realty Investors LLC., the firm manages USD 32.4 billion of total assets on behalf of over 500 clients in core, core-plus, value-added and participating mortgage strategies as of December 31, 2017.
UBS Realty Investors launched its first open-end real estate fund in 1978 and today has 200 professionals working in three primary offices in the US. The firm is headquartered in Hartford, CT with regional offices in Dallas, TX and San Francisco, CA.

Our website address is www.ubs.com/realestate

Position Description
Summer Analyst will support the Research & Strategy team based in Hartford, CT. Our internship position offers a fun and collaborative environment where applicants can learn on-the-job skills and apply them immediately to support real-life strategies. Interns must have the ability to interact professionally across departments as well as with third-party companies or individuals. We are doing fun visual analytics including modeling using statistical programs (i.e., R-Project) and data visualization (i.e., Tableau). Candidates that display a passion for data analytics and business intelligence will be highly encouraged to apply. Candidates must be enrolled in either a four-year bachelor’s degree program or graduate program with an expected graduation date after August 2019. Responsibilities may include:
•Review data processes related to underwriting markets and contribute to the development of new andmore efficient means of utilizing data.
•Participate in performance and strategy meetings to review trends.
•Support our economists in developing new models for diversification, performance, and tactical markets.
•Assist in writing and pulling data in reply to client questions.
• Occasional travel to properties is possible.
Qualifications
•Undergraduate or Graduate students with expected graduation date after August 2019.
•Ability to develop good working relationships with others and be a valuable team player.
•Time Management and organizational skills.
•Basic knowledge of data analytics and visualization
•Oral and written communication skills as well as experience with Microsoft-based products,particularly Word and Excel, is a must. An understanding of pivot tables, vlookups, and keyboardshortcuts is desired but not a prerequisite.
•Proficiency in Tableau, R-Project, and Python would be highly valued.

We can offer a stimulating working environment, a culture of mutual respect and commitment to maintaining the highest ethical standards. If you would like to work for a global organization where individual contribution counts and where your ambitions and abilities can make a difference, please apply for this position.

To Apply

All candidates must apply on or before November 25, 2018, by sending an email with a resume and cover letter to SH-Non-Employee@ubs.com, make the subject line UBS Hartford research internship.
If you have questions, send an email with subject line UBS Hartford research internship to Vasilios Diakogeorgiou  or Jenna Castrovillari .

Author: Dr. Song Han and Research Team Win Best Paper Award

The IEEE International Conference on Industrial Internet 2018 recently announced that Dr. Song Han and his research team won the Best Paper Award for their research entitled, “RT-DAP: A Real-Time Data Analytics Platform for Large-scale Industrial Process Monitoring and Control”. The co-authors include Tao Gong, Mark Nixon, Eric Rotvold, Kam-yiu Lam, and Krithi Ramamritham.

Earlier this month, another of Dr. Han’s paper received the Best Paper Award Nomination from the ACM International Conference on Embedded Software (EMSOFT), 2018. EMSOFT is a premier venue in Embedded Systems community and a part of the Embedded System Week (ESWeek). The paper, “Real-Time Data Retrieval with Multiple Availability Intervals in CPS under Freshness Constraints” was written in collaboration with Chenchen Fu, Peng Wu, Minming Li, Chun Jason Xue, and Yingchao Zhao. It is published in a special issue of IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems.

Author: Project Systems Engineer with Axiom Technology, Stamford, CT

Company overview

Axiom Technology Group is a full-service IT integration and managed services company providing end-to-end technology and support solutions to small and mid-market businesses. Axiom’s Professional Services Team begins by partnering with clients to provide a wide variety of strategic planning, design and executive consulting services. Axiom then assembles a committed team of Project Specialists to work with clients and internal IT departments implementing customized technology solutions. To insure optimal benefits of the customized technology and continued client satisfaction, Axiom provides a dedicated Support Team to deliver ongoing individualized service to the customer.

Axiom recruits and retains the best, most enthusiastic industry talent to create a progressive and collaborative culture. We hire individuals who share common goals, as well as a commitment to continue personal development.

Job Overview

A Project Systems Engineer at Axiom is an experienced technical engineer with a strong understanding of the Microsoft & VMC technology stacks and has considerable experiencing designing, configuring, and administering environments at the server, storage, and systems layer.  A Project Systems Engineer will be involved in designing and implementing solutions for Axiom clients that range from small businesses with 15-50 employees up to midmarket organizations with hundreds of servers and thousands of employees. 

Axiom project engineers work in small, dynamic teams to take a project from the detailed design stage through stand-up and go live before handing the environment over to either the internal support team at the client or back to the support team at Axiom that manages the client environment.  Projects are led by Project Managers and Project Technical Leads and are staffed by project engineers as needed to successfully execution a project.  Project engineers may work on multiple projects at the same time and are expended to be capable of define the activities and effort levels necessary to accomplish their assigned activities. 

Communication skills are essential to the success of the Project Engineer as work with a wide variety of technical and business users in multiple client environments. 

Responsibilities

Daily Responsibilities – Client & Internally Facing

• Support the development, design, and budgeting of systems architectures for various Axiom clients.
• Work with solutions architecture resources to plan and design solutions for client’s technology challenges
• Work with project managers and project technical leads to provide engineering input into project plans, identify actions that need to be executed to deliver projects, identify effort levels to execute those actions, and to identify any dependencies that project managers need to account for.
• Design, build, and implement projects for client environments that range from small and simple technical platforms to large and complex mid-market environments.
• Participate in onsite and remote client deployments and provide cutover support and day-after support for projects.
• Perform root cause analysis on complex issues in client environments to identify root causes and identify resolution plans.
• Review system implementation and performance as to implement system enhancements if needed.
• Develop standardized deployment documentation where necessary to document build standards.
• Perform research and development exercises to identify technology solutions to client problems when no standardized Axiom solution exists.
• Document the technical architecture and configuration of client environments and participate in knowledge transfer discussions as necessary.
• Participate in internal and client facing project status meetings as necessary
• Participate in internal and client facing engineering discussions as necessary to support complex troubleshooting efforts.
• Insure that all security standards are followed and properly established to prevent unauthorized access to privileged data and information.

Daily Responsibilities – Operational

• Documenting client issues and resolutions to maintain internal knowledge base
• Accurately record daily time sheets
• Seek appropriate guidance from team members when faced with challenges
• Provide collaborative feedback to teammates
• Participate in training and orientation updates
• Provide daily or weekly status reports as requested by Manager or client
• Partake in afterhours Level III escalations roster
• Provide status reports as required by Director and/or client.
• Participate in staff development and growth programs to ensure continued technical learning

Skills required

General Skills

• Must be able to work independently and/or in a team environment
• Ability to deliver valuable and professional IT services to external clients
• Self-motivated and accountable to own client issues to resolution regardless of magnitude
• Solid time management and organizational skills to efficiently complete assigned tasks
• Excellent communication skills to ensure successful resolution to client issues
• Strong written communication skills to participate and assist in the creation of comprehensive documentation
• Ability to provide knowledge transfer to other members of the support team
• Ability to interact professionally with a diverse group of colleagues and clients
• Ability to work on site at client locations with respect to client’s work environment & staff
• Capable of maintaining a clam cool composure even when navigating challenging situations and frustrated clients

Technical Skills

• Windows Desktop Operating Systems thru Windows 10
• Windows Server Operating Systems thru 2016
• Design, Configuration, and Administration of Active Directory and Group Policy Objects
• Design, Configuration, and Administration of Mobile Device Management & Enterprise Mobility Management
• Design, Configuration & Administration of Exchange Server Farms thru 2016 
• Design, Configuration, & Administration of Office 365
• Design, Configuration, and Administration of Physical & Virtual Server Infrastructure
• Design, Configuration, and Administration of SAN’s and Shared Storage
• Configuration, and Administration of VMware or HyperV
• Solid Experience with Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services
• Configuration & Administration SQL, Citrix, & RDS Farm experience a plus
• Strong Experience of Networking including TCP/IP, Switching, VLAN’s, Routing, & Wireless
• Configuration, & Administration of Cisco or Meraki Firewalls

Education and Experience

Minimum of 5 years of post-education IT work experience mandatory

Associates Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or similar mandatory

Experience with call tracking / ticket management system, Autotask preferred

Experience with Managed Services, IT Integration and/or Consulting experience a plus

Contact

 Candidates can submit their resume through recruiting@thinkaxiom.com

Author: Project Network Engineer with Axiom Technology, Stamford, CT

Project Network Engineer

Company overview

Axiom Technology Group is a full-service IT integration and managed services company providing end-to-end technology and support solutions to small and mid-market businesses. Axiom’s Professional Services Team begins by partnering with clients to provide a wide variety of strategic planning, design and executive consulting services. Axiom then assembles a committed team of Project Specialists to work with clients and internal IT departments implementing customized technology solutions. To insure optimal benefits of the customized technology and continued client satisfaction, Axiom provides a dedicated Support Team to deliver ongoing individualized service to the customer.

Axiom recruits and retains the best, most enthusiastic industry talent to create a progressive and collaborative culture. We hire individuals who share common goals, as well as a commitment to continue personal development.

 

Job Overview

A Project Network Engineer at Axiom is an experienced technical engineer with a strong understanding of HP, Dell, Cisco, & Meraki technology stacks and has considerable experiencing designing, configuring, and administering environments at the network and communications layer.  A Project Network Engineer will be involved in designing and implementing solutions for Axiom clients that range from small businesses with 15-50 employees up to midmarket organizations with hundreds of servers and thousands of employees. 

Axiom project engineers work in small, dynamic teams to take a project from the detailed design stage through stand-up and go live before handing the environment over to either the internal support team at the client or back to the support team at Axiom that manages the client environment.  Projects are led by Project Managers and Project Technical Leads and are staffed by project engineers as needed to successfully execution a project.  Project engineers may work on multiple projects at the same time and are expended to be capable of define the activities and effort levels necessary to accomplish their assigned activities. 

Communication skills are essential to the success of the Project Engineer as work with a wide variety of technical and business users in multiple client environments. 

Responsibilities

Daily Responsibilities – Client & Internally Facing

• Support the development, design, and budgeting of systems architectures for various Axiom clients.
• Work with solutions architecture resources to plan and design solutions for client’s technology challenges.
• Work with project managers and project technical leads to provide engineering input into project plans, identify actions that need to be executed to deliver projects, identify effort levels to execute those actions, and to identify any dependencies that project managers need to account for.
• Design, build, and implement projects for client environments that range from small and simple technical platforms to large and complex mid-market environments.
• Participate in onsite and remote client deployments and provide cutover support and day-after support for projects.
• Perform root cause analysis on complex issues in client environments to identify root causes and identify resolution plans.
• Review system implementation and performance as to implement system enhancements if needed.
• Develop standardized deployment documentation where necessary to document build standards.
• Perform research and development exercises to identify technology solutions to client problems when no standardized Axiom solution exists.
• Document the technical architecture and configuration of client environments and participate in knowledge transfer discussions as necessary.
• Participate in internal and client facing project status meetings as necessary
• Participate in internal and client facing engineering discussions as necessary to support complex troubleshooting efforts.
• Insure that all security standards are followed and properly established to prevent unauthorized access to privileged data and information.

Daily Responsibilities – Operational

• Documenting client issues and resolutions to maintain internal knowledge base
• Accurately record daily time sheets
• Seek appropriate guidance from team members when faced with challenges
• Provide collaborative feedback to teammates
• Participate in training and orientation updates
• Provide daily or weekly status reports as requested by Manager or client
• Partake in afterhours Level III escalations roster
• Provide status reports as required by Director and/or client.
• Participate in staff development and growth programs to ensure continued technical learning

Skills required

General Skills

• Must be able to work independently and/or in a team environment
• Ability to deliver valuable and professional IT services to external clients
• Self-motivated and accountable to own client issues to resolution regardless of magnitude
• Solid time management and organizational skills to efficiently complete assigned tasks
• Excellent communication skills to ensure successful resolution to client issues
• Strong written communication skills to participate and assist in the creation of comprehensive documentation
• Ability to provide knowledge transfer to other members of the support team
• Ability to interact professionally with a diverse group of colleagues and clients
• Ability to work on site at client locations with respect to client’s work environment & staff
• Capable of maintaining a clam cool composure even when navigating challenging situations and frustrated clients

Technical Skills

• Strong Experience of Networking including TCP/IP, Switching, VLAN’s, Routing & Wireless
• Design, Configuration, & Administration of Complex Multi-Site Networks including MPLS, Internet, Routing Protocols (Static, RIP, BGP, EIGRP)
• Design, Configuration, & Administration of HP, Dell, Cisco or Meraki Networking Stacks
• Design, Configuration, & Administration of Cisco or Meraki Firewalls
• Experience with Intrusion Detection Systems, Content Filtering, and SIEM platforms
• Configuration, & Administration of Basic Network Access Control Solutions like 802.1x, RADIUS, etc.
• Configuration & Administration of SAN’s and Shared Storage
• Configuration & Administration of Physical & Virtual Server Infrastructure
• Configuration & Administration of VMware or HyperV
• Configuration & Administration of Active Directory and Group Policy Objects
• Configuration & Administration of Mobile Device Management & Enterprise Mobility Management
• Configuration & Administration of Exchange Servers thru 2016
• Configuration, & Administration of Office 365
• Windows Desktop Operating Systems thru Windows 10
• Windows Server Operating Systems thru 2016
• SQL, Citrix, & RDS Farm experience a plus
• Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services experience a plus

Education and Experience

Minimum of 5 years of post-education IT work experience mandatory

Associates Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or similar mandatory

Experience with call tracking / ticket management system, Autotask preferred

Experience with Managed Services, IT Integration and/or Consulting experience a plus

 

Contact

Candidates can submit their resume through recruiting@thinkaxiom.com

 

 

 

Author: Dept. of Linguistics seeks foreign language speakers for Spring 19 semester

The Department of Linguistics may be seeking a native speaker of a lesser-studied language to serve as a language consultant for a course in Linguistic Field Methods in Spring 2019. The position will be paid. The manner and amount of pay may depend on the candidate’s status at the university. 

Requirements:

– Native speaker of a less commonly studied language.  Native speakers of indigenous and minority languages and dialects are especially encouraged to apply.  At this time, we do not need speakers of major international languages including: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian or other European languages; Chinese, Japanese, Hindi or Urdu. 

Author: Professor Khan Wins NSF Career Award

A special congratulations to Dr. Mohammad Khan for his latest accomplishment of winning an NSF CAREER Award receiving $559,786 over five years for his research project: “The Role of Emotion and Social Motives in Communicating Risk: Implications for User Behavior in the Cyber Security Context.” The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.

Professor Khan notes that many cyberattacks are preventable if end users take precautionary measures, such as keeping systems updated, but they often fail to do so. His proposal builds upon theories of risk communication, emotional intelligence, and self-determination to design new approaches to cybersecurity risk communication and training. The goals are to enable users to assess risks, costs, and benefits consistently and correctly, to promote task-focused coping responses, and to facilitate their internalization of values, promoting spontaneous diffusion of cybersecurity knowledge. By enabling non-expert users to make informed security decisions through raising cybersecurity risk awareness and self-efficacy development, this project directly addresses an increasingly serious threat to economic growth and national security. This project also creates cybersecurity research and training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students, and members from the underrepresented groups through outreach initiatives.

This is our faculty’s 13th NSF Career Award since the turn of the Century. To learn more about Maifi and other UConn awardees, see the article in UConn Today. Best wishes to Maifi for continued success!

Author: Impact Fellowship 1/2/19-1/16/19 in NYC

The Impact Fellowship is a 2-week program in NYC for tech students who want to build a better world! Fellows will team up and create their own social startups that address the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The program will also feature workshops with advanced software engineers, speakers from the social impact arena, and a pitch competition at the culmination of the fellowship! Learn more and apply at www.impactlabs.io/fellowship

Author: DHS Careers Webinar – 10/16/18

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recognizes the serious nature of the cybersecurity challenges, and has compelling cybersecurity missions that draw candidates seeking to join a team that makes a difference to secure cyberspace. Now more than ever, DHS must recruit, develop, and retain a talented and diverse cybersecurity workforce.

As part of this focus, DHS will host a DHS Cybersecurity Webinar on October 16, 2018 from 1:00-3:00PM (EST). The webinar will provide information on cyber missions, cyber career opportunities, and the federal hiring and application process. Participating DHS Components include: Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the Office of Chief Information Officer (OCIO).

Registration is required to attend at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WWGMLBG. Attached is the webinar flyer for your reference.

Author: Annual Trivia Contest Kicks Off Semester for Graduate Students

Following introductions from faculty and staff, the main event of the day began- The Graduate Student Trivia Contest!  After careful and painstakingly detailed research by some of UConn’s faculty, a pool of questions was constructed consisting of such important CS research material as “What wireless encryption standard would you recommend to your worst enemy?” and “Where exactly would a lost professor end up after wandering the hallways?”  These questions were then given out one at a time to seven teams of students.  After fierce competition we were left with a clear winner of team 3 consisting of Jordan Force, Hasan Iqbal, Md Fahim, Saad Quader, and Sarah Peck who each received $50 in Amazon gift money.  Congratulations to all students who competed!

Author: VOLUNTEERS WANTED FOR RESEARCH STUDY IN SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

The ability to communicate the results of scientific research is fundamental to a career as a scientist. The ability of scientists to communicate science to non-scientists is fundamental to science literacy and public policy, as illustrated by the intelligent design and climate change debates. This project investigates how effectively graduate students in STEM disciplines communicate simple scientific concepts verbally, and whether their effectiveness improves over time. Participants will be required to sit for two short (< 3 minutes) video recordings, 3 months apart, during which they will explain a science topic. Graduate students in any area of science, technology, engineering or mathematics who have NOT received any formal communications training are eligible to participate. Participants will receive $100 for completion of two video recordings ($40 upon completion of the first video; $60 upon completion of the second video), and will benefit from feedback on their communications skills at the completion of the study.

Sign-ups are closed.

To learn more about this research, contact Margaret Rubega (margaret.rubega@uconn.edu).

Author: CSE Introduces New Faculty

Interim Department Head, Dr. Reda Ammar is pleased to announce the addition of 3 new faculty to the departments growing list of accomplished scholars.

Dr. Derek Aguiar joins the department as an Assistant Professor. He received his Ph.D. from Brown University and his research interests are probabilistic modelling, computational biology, machine learning and algorithms.

Dr. Qian Yang joins the department as an Assistant Professor. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University and her research interests are machine learning for physical science, computational math and applied algorithms.        

Dr. Ahmad Jbara joins the department as an Assistant Professor in-Residence. He received his Ph.D. from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his research interests are program comprehension, code complexity metrics, software engineering, systems engineering, object-process methodology and secure usability.

Author: Alexander Russell, Qiang Tang and Hong-Sheng Zhou Awarded NSF Grant

The National Science Foundation awarded a $300,000 grant to Professor Alexander Russell for his project “SaTC: CORE: Medium: Collaborative: Theory and Practice of Cryptosystems Secure against Subversion”. The grant is a collaborative effort with 2 CSE alumni; Dr. Qiang Tang, an Assistant Professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology and Dr. Hong-Sheng Zhou, an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. The total budget for the grant is $1.2 million. The discipline of cryptography provides the basic digital tools used across the globe to ensure data privacy and authenticity. With the broad deployment of these tools–often invisibly embedded in commercial software or hardware–an unconventional but devastating breed of cyberattacks have emerged. These attacks involve deploying a cleverly subverted version of a cryptographic tool that appears to function normally, but in fact deliberately reduces security in a covert way that is known only to the subverting party. Such an attack can be carried out by the author of a software package, the manufacturer of a hardware device, or a third party who has contrived to interfere with the deployed product. Recent high-profile incidents of this kind have highlighted the threat associated with these attacks. This project is a comprehensive study of security in this setting, including development of formal models that permit rigorous reasoning about security, design and analysis of new cryptographic tools that resist subversion, and explicit recommendations for hardening the existing cryptographic tools in widespread use.

Author: Firmware Engineer at RacePoint Energy

Full-time position for Fall 18 semester in Osterville, MA.

Experience with one or more of the following:

• Programming languages: C, python or swift.
• Debugging hardware with a logic analyzer and/or oscilloscope.
• Writing code for an embedded device such as RPi, Beaglebone, Arduino.
• Soldering skills.
• Familiar with schematic capture and/or PCB layout.

Other tasks may include:

• Prototype assembly
• Re-flashing firmware
• Installing components in Alpha systems and lab systems
• Writing and running test plans
• QA on release candidates and writing bug reports
• Improving manufacturing automation with python scripts
• Writing embedded C code and debugging hardware issues
• Work with Swift code on an embedded device and/or setup and configure embedded linux.

About the company:

RacePoint Energy develops hardware and software to manage microgrids and all energy related things in a large home or business.  We make breakers, thermostats, lighting controllers, etc.  The company is a few years old and recently started shipping product.  The environment is start-up and fast-paced.

For further information and to apply please contact:

wilson.callan@racepointenergy.com

https://www.racepointenergy.com

Author: IT Specialist and Cyber Systems Lecturer positions at U.S. Coast Guard Academy

The United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT, is accepting job applications for the following two positions:

1. Permanent, full-time, Information Technology Specialist: This position is a computer network specialist for the Department of Engineering at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. This person will serve as an Information Technology (Computer Network) Specialist to support the Electrical Engineering and Cyber Systems undergraduate academic programs at the United States Coast Guard Academy. Applications are now being accepted on USAJOBS and the application period will close on July 17, 2018. More information about the duties and requirements for this position as well as how to apply are on the USAJOBS website:
   https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/504166500

2. Two-year, full-time Lecturer position in Cyber Systems. This new faculty member will become part of our team here within the Electrical Engineering and Cyber Systems Section of the Department of Engineering and duties include teaching/developing coursework in Computer Science and Cyber Systems. A doctorate or master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Information Systems or closely related field is required. The application deadline is July 23, 2018, and the vacancy announcement along with instructions on how to apply is available on the USCGA website:
   https://www.uscga.edu/jobs/

Author: Dr. Bradford Receives Stamford Faculty Recognition Award

The 2018 UConn Stamford Faculty Recognition Award goes to Dr. Phillip Bradford, Associate Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Dr. Bradford is an excellent teacher in the classroom, who is also active in the community, with business partners, and helps UConn and local high school students engage in experiential learning projects year round. He has been instrumental in launching and managing the campus’s new Computer Science major, and represents his department at open house events and recruiting visits.

Author: Innovations Programmer with B2B Gateway

International software development firm specializing in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Advanced Data Connectivity (ADC) seeks an Innovations Programmer.

 

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or another computer programming field.

 

Location:

Corporate Headquarters in Hope Valley, Rhode Island

 

Salary:

Based on experience

 

Responsibilities:

• Work will include web and desktop application development.
• Primary language is C# (WinForms and ASP.Net) with other work in classic asp and JavaScript.
• Work with Senior Programmers on projects, seeing them through from the design phase to production and maintenance.
• Must be able to gather requirements and recommend solutions to problems facing the business or clientele.
• Will work individually, and as a team, to create new projects, provide troubleshooting and maintain existing programs.
• Applicant should be able to read existing code, troubleshoot, and update programs while maintaining data structure and functional integrity. 
• Will need to communicate closely with other Programmers.

 

Required Skills

• Bachelor’s degree required in computer science or computer programming. 
• 2+ year experience is preferred but not required.
• Applicant should be familiar with .Net programming and Visual Studio.
• Must have a good understanding of OOP, preferably in C#
• Additional skills preferred are ASP.Net, classic asp, SQL Server, JavaScript, html & CSS.
• Must have a working knowledge of database technologies including the ability to read and write SQL Queries.
• Must be willing to learn new technologies as scope of projects assigned grow in difficulty.
• Must have good communication skills, and work well with other staff including less technical departments.
• Must have good attention to detail.
• Must be secure with asking questions in order to gain the knowledge and understanding of the tasks at hand.

 

B2BGateway is looking for a high energy, friendly and engaging individual who takes pride in the company. The position requires an individual who possess time management and organization skills in order to complete critical tasks in a timely manner.

 

Contact Information

Please apply online at https://www.b2bgateway.net/careers or send your resume to HR@B2BGateway.Net. Be sure to include the title of the position you are applying for in the subject line of the email.

Author: Programmer with B2BGateway

Responsibilities

• Work with senior programmers to develop software required to meet the needs of clients. This includes being able to gather information from the client and analyze a client’s needs to determine if we could help them do things better or easier.
• Assist in the development of Configuration Management and Quality Assurance (CMQA) procedures for software development/maintenance.
• Provide telephone and e-mail support to customer base for technical issues.
• Work with customer base end-users during software installation and implementation phase to install and configure software as needed.
• Work with customer base end-users during software installation and implementation phase to install and configure software as needed.
• Will work individually, and as a team, to provide troubleshooting and maintenance of pre-existing programs.
• Applicant should be able to parse an existing program, troubleshoot, and update the program while maintaining data structure and reliability.
• Will need to communicate closely with our customer Support Engineers.
• Will be responsible for reviewing morning reports, troubleshooting issues with programs and making updates as necessary.

Required Skills

• Bachelor’s degree required in computer science or computer programming
• Primary language is Winbatch with additional skills needed in asp 3.0, C#, asp.net, sql server, javascript, html, css, and sql.
• Must have a working knowledge of database technologies including the ability to read and write SQL Queries.
• Need to communicate clearly/effectively with customers by telephone and e-mail.
• Must have clear and articulate language and communication skills.
• Must have good time management skills.
• Must have experience with all Microsoft Office applications such as Microsoft Office Suite (MS Access vital), Outlook, Windows Explorer (directory hierarchy and navigation) and Windows XP.
• Must be secure with asking questions in order to gain the knowledge and understanding of the tasks at hand and be mature enough to take responsibility for shortfalls or errors.
• Must have excellent organizational skills and be able to function in a demanding atmosphere.

 

B2BGateway is looking for a high energy, friendly and engaging individual who takes pride in the company. The position requires an individual who possess time management and organization skills in order to complete critical tasks in a timely manner.

 

Contact Information

Please apply online at https://www.b2bgateway.net/careers or send your resume to HR@B2BGateway.Net. Be sure to include the title of the position you are applying for in the subject line of the email.

Author: IT and Computer Support Technician with Network Support Co.

Please contact me regarding this computer support position I am looking to fill for my client, The Network Support Company in Danbury, CT.  This is a company with a highly collaborative/collegial work environment.  The company has been ranked by MSP Mentor as one of the Top 100 MSPs in North America since 2012.

We are seeking a highly-motivated IT/workstation technician/computer support technician with a maximum of one-to-two years of IT work experience.  A Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems or Computer Science is preferred.   They would also consider a current student working toward either a MIS or CS degree, with some work experience, who would be available to work full-time days.

 

Karla Hammond

860-267-2690

karlahammond@sbcglobal.net

 

Published: 6/11/2018

Author: Jinbo Bi and Song Han win NSF Award in the CISE Robust Intelligence Program

Congratulations to Drs. Jinbo Bi and Song Han on winning an NSF Award in the CISE Robust Intelligence program. The three year $450,000 research project is titled “Multi-view Latent Class Discovery and Prediction with a Streamlined Analytics Platform.”

This project addresses the latent class discovery and prediction problem by deriving novel and efficient approaches, including multi-view co-clustering, multi-view subspace clustering, multi-objective optimization of co-training, and multi-modal deep learning methods. Parallel and distributed algorithms will be developed to implement and scale up these methods. A streamlined analytics platform will be constructed to maximize the utility of the proposed approaches in real-world applications.

 

 

Author: Senior Design Day Features Projects from 33 Teams

CSE hosted a record number of senior design teams this year with 33 teams presenting their projects on April 27, 2018. Each year leading technology, manufacturing, and insurance companies, financial institutions, medical firms, consulting practices, as well as local and state government agencies partner with our department with Senior Design Projects. These are cost-effective ways to work with Computer Science & Engineering seniors on a company project or a technical design challenge without a large investment.
     Each project was staffed by a team of 3-6 students working under the guidance of a faculty advisor. Projects were judged by a group of evaluators from industry and academia. Evaluations were based on the overall quality of the project and its presentation including: project idea, impact, design, interface, the poster, demo of the prototype, and the students’ communication skills. Winners received prizes for placing first, second, and third.

This year’s outstanding projects included:
First Place-Team 7, “Inferencing Based on Machine Stoppages”, Members: Peter Polis, Michael Feldman, Daniel Camilliere, Michael Pappas, Patrick Guyer and Michael Presch. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Swapna Gokhale.
Second Place-Team 18, “A Visual Euclid’s Elements”, Members: Soumya Kundu, Sailesh Simhadri, Ian Dechene, Drew Monroe and Joe Sweeney. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Donald Sheehy.
Third Place-Team 16, “Smart Hotels”, Members: Arun George, Brian Matuszak, Rafal Bezubik, Chris Skoczylas, Kevin Schumitz and Rich Infante. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Reda Ammar and Dr. Sanguthevar Rajasekaran.
Third Place-Team 31, “Hartford Steam Boiler Nameplate Recognition System”, Qiansheng Hu, Chris Peterson, Chengchen Zhang, Eddie Huang, Hunter Hollant and Michael Gentile. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Dong-Guk Shin.

Congratulations to all seniors for another successful Senior Design Day and we wish you continued success in all your endeavors!

Author: JavaScript Engineer with SportsHub