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.

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November 2021

November 15, 2021

David Schwartz, director of the School of Interactive Games and Media, was guest editor with Alenka Poplin of Iowa State University of a special issue of Gaming and Geospatial Information, which features several peer-reviewed articles in the area of geogames/location-based games.

September 2021

September 15, 2021

Olivia Gallucci, a second-year computing security and computer science student, presented on “The Effectiveness of Threat Mitigation in Layers of the Open Systems Interconnection Model,” at the 2021 Women in Cybersecurity International Conference Sept. 8 in Denver. Her research was created under Sylvia Perez-Hardy, associate professor of networking and systems administration. Gallucci also published three articles in the September edition of Cyber Defense Magazine about the international Black Hat conference in Las Vegas: “Gold Optis: Most Innovative and Socially Conscious Technologies at Black Hat”; “Silver Optis: Innovative and Socially Conscious Technologies at Black Hat”; and “Bronze Optis: Innovative Technologies at Black Hat.”

August 2021

August 31, 2021

Jonathan Weissman, senior lecturer of computing security, authored Principles of Computer Security: CompTIA Security+ and Beyond Lab Manual (Exam SY0-601). The hands-on guide contains more than 90 lessons and labs that help readers master key cybersecurity concepts, preparing them for the widely recognized CompTIA Security+ certification exam. Find the book on Amazon.
August 23, 2021

Farhad Akhbardeh, a computing and information sciences Ph.D. student, published a paper at the ACL-IJCNLP 2021 main conference on “Handling Extreme Class Imbalance in Technical Logbook Datasets,” together with Associate Professor Cecilia Alm, Assistant Professor Marcos Zampieri, and Associate Professor Travis Desell, who are affiliated with the computing and information sciences Ph.D. program.
August 23, 2021

Eman Abdullah Alomar ’18 MS (software engineering), a computing and information sciences Ph.D. candidate, and Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer, assistant professor in the Department of Software Engineering, presented “Can refactoring be self-affirmed? A study on how developers document refactoring activities” at IWOR@International Conference on Software Engineering on May 28. The team received the Best Paper and Best Presentation Awards.

July 2021

July 29, 2021

Rajendra Raj, professor of computer science, was elected the 2021-22 Chair of ABET’s Computing Accreditation Commission on July 17. As Commission Chair, Raj will oversee ABET accreditation reviews of more than 165 bachelor’s programs in computer science, cybersecurity, data science, and related computing disciplines across the U.S. and the world.

June 2021

June 2, 2021

David Schwartz, director of the School of Interactive Games and Media, was named an associate editor of Entertainment Computing. The journal publishes original, peer-reviewed research articles in all aspects of digital entertainment, new media, entertainment computing, gaming, robotics, toys, and applications.
June 2, 2021

Konstantinos Papangelis, assistant professor of interactive games and media, received the Outstanding Emerging Scholar award from RIT’s Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. He was noted for launching the Niantic x RIT Geo Games and Media Research Lab and establishing the JLL New Media Research Group at RIT.

May 2021

May 26, 2021

Ammina Kothari, associate professor in the School of Communication; Cecilia Ovesdotter Alm, associate professor in the Department of English; and Reynold Bailey, professor in the Department of Computer Science, along with REU students Shubhra Tewari (Whitman College) and Renos Zabounidis (University of Massachusetts Amherst) published the article “Perceptions of Human and Machine-Generated Articles” in the journal Digital Threats: Research and Practice.

March 2021

March 30, 2021

Konstantinos Papangelis, assistant professor of interactive games and media, received a grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation for “Extending Our Reach: A mHealth Intervention to Promote Healthy Eating in Mexican Immigrant Farmworker Families.” The project aims to cultivate healthy eating habits for local migrant workers through an intervention program and app. Papangelis and an RIT student will work with University of Rochester professors to develop a low fidelity prototype of the app and conduct usability studies.