Newsmakers | Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences

Highlighting the professional and academic accomplishments of College of Computing and Information Sciences students, faculty, and staff.

Newsmakers are a quick and easy way to acknowledge the professional and academic accomplishments of RIT students, faculty, and staff, such as publishing an article in a scholarly journal, presenting research at a conference, serving on a panel discussion, earning a scholarship, or winning an award. Newsmakers appear in News and Events as well as the "In the News" section on faculty/staff directory profile pages.

Submit a Newsmaker

June 2023

June 29, 2023

Jay Yang, professor in the Department of Computer Engineering, principal investigator, and Justin Pelletier, director of the GCI Cyber Range and Training Center, co-PI, received a grant from the National Science Foundation to research and develop a novel dual-track learning program for cybersecurity practitioners. The idea is to instill an entrepreneurial mindset when educating the knowledge and skills (in using data analytics and AI for cyber defense operations) for cybersecurity analysts and engineers (dual roles) to work with each other in response to cyber incidents. This is a collaborative grant with the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education.
June 27, 2023

Naureen Hoque, computing and information sciences Ph.D. candidate, co-authored two papers titled “Circumventing the Defense against Modulation Classification Attacks” and “Countering Relay and Spoofing Attacks in the Connection Establishment Phase of Wi-Fi Systems” with Hanif Rahbari, assistant professor of computing security, at the 16th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (WiSec) 2023, held May 29-June 1 in Surrey, United Kingdom.
June 27, 2023

Naureen Hoque, computing and information sciences Ph.D. student; Cullen Rezendes ’22 (information security and forensics), ’22 MS (computing security and information assurance); and Hanif Rahbari, assistant professor of computing security, published and presented their paper on “Systematically Analyzing Vulnerabilities in the Connection Establishment Phase of Wi-Fi Systems” at the IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security in October 2022.
June 15, 2023

Nate Mathews, computing and information sciences Ph.D. student; Mohammad Saidur Rahman, Ph.D. candidate in computing and information sciences; and Matthew Wright, chair of the Department of Computing Security, presented “SoK: A Critical Evaluation of Efficient Website Fingerprinting Defenses” at the 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy on May 22 in San Francisco. The group presented along with members of University of Minnesota and Ewha Womans University. In addition, Rahman and Wright along with a member of the cybersecurity firm Mandiant presented the poster “Towards Continual Learning for Malware Classification.”
June 8, 2023

David Schwartz, director and associate professor in the School of Interactive Games and Media, and Jessica Bayliss, professor in the School of Interactive Games and Media and director of the Console Development Lab, will present “Game Design for Critical Infrastructure Resilience: Game Engine Integration with Geospatial Technology” at the 91st Symposium of MORS (Military Operations Research Society) on June 15. The peer-reviewed presentation includes IGM faculty Brian Tomaszewski and Chao Peng; IGM graduate Emily Nack, an analyst for the Army Cyber Institute; and researchers from the U.S. Cyber Command and U.S. Army Futures Command. This work involves past collaboration with RIT AEOP and demonstrates the growth of RIT research in geogames and cybersecurity.

May 2023

May 15, 2023

Alexander G. Ororbia II, assistant professor of computer science, recently had an article selected by the editors of Nature Communications to be featured in the Neuromorphic Hardware and Computing collection. “The neural coding framework for learning generative models,” published in 2022, was featured under the “Brain-inspired Computing and Algorithms” category on May 5.
May 11, 2023

Tae “Tom” Oh, professor in the School of Information, was elected as the 53rd Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA) president on April 8. As president, Oh will meet with Korean diplomats, top officials, and presidents of science and technology research agencies and institutes to represent KSEA and perform fundraising. The nonprofit professional organization has more than 7,000 registered members, with 70 local chapters and 13 technical groups across the United States. The KSEA US-Korea Conference 2023 will be held Aug. 2-5 in Dallas.

April 2023

April 21, 2023

Brian Tomaszewski, professor in the School of Interactive Games and Media and director of the Center for Geographic Information Science and Technology, co-presented a talk about geospatial game development with software company Esri at its “Bridging the World of 3D GIS and Game Engines” meeting on April 11.

March 2023

March 27, 2023

Michael Zuzak, assistant professor in computer engineering, has been granted an award from the National Science Foundation for a project titled, “CRII SaTC: Design Space Modeling for Logic Obfuscation to Enable System-Wide Security during IC Manufacture and Test.” This project explores how mathematically rigorous models can be created to optimally distribute security resources throughout complex computer chips to protect them from security threats during manufacturing.

February 2023

February 27, 2023

Zhizhuo Yang, Ph.D. student in computing and information sciences; Gabriel Diaz, associate professor in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science; Reynold Bailey, professor in the Department of Computer Science; Alexander Ororbia, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science; and Brett Fajen, professor in cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, published “A neural active inference model of perceptual-motor learning” in the journal Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience.