- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Computer sciences grad creates one-stop-shop health care app

Ajani Oyindamola — Mon, 22 May 2017 16:58:46 +0000

Jyothsna Lankireddy wants to make health care more accessible and easier to understand.�� She is creating an easy-to-use app, “Digital Hospital and Medical Application,” that will allow users to input medical problems, find a diagnosis, and get medical advice. The app also will locate the nearest and best medical facilities, give first aid tips, and exercise and nutrition advice. The health app is Lankireddy’s final project for her master’s degree in computer science. She graduated May 13 from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. When Lankireddy was searching for a master’s program in the United States, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock came up as one of the top choices in her search. Coming to Little Rock was a welcome change after spending a week in Dallas when she first arrived in the country from India. “I was very shocked about the crowds and traffic in Dallas,” she said. “When I came to Little Rock, it was very pleasant, quiet, and cool. I enjoyed the greenery and parks.” Her first foray in the American workforce was Starbucks, where she learned how to make a lot of coffee, handle American currency, and better understand American accents. “At first, it was difficult, but I enjoyed working there,” she said. “American accents were very different, but now I understand how people speak.” Through a career fair at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Lankireddy found an internship at Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. She also worked as a technical assistant at Ottenheimer Library and as a research graduate assistant in Health Services. Working under Employee Wellness Coordinator Karl Lenser, Lankireddy was instrumental in supporting employee wellness efforts at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock.

Jo Lankireddy and Karl Lenser

“Her technical skills, work ethic and engaging personality have made her an exemplary contributor to the wellness program,” Lenser said. “Her motivation to succeed in both school work and as my GA has been impressive, and I use her as an example for my children when they begin to complain about work/school issues.” Her work in Health Services inspired her to create an app for her master’s degree project that would help people become healthier. “It’s a one-stop shop for health and wellness,” Lankireddy said. The app received second place during the Engineering and Information Technology Open House. �� Lankireddy has recommended ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s computer science program to many of her friends in India. She was especially inspired by Dr. Mariofanna Milanova. “As a professor, Dr. Milanova teaches everything,” she said. “She doesn’t just explain the theory. She explains how the information is used in reality, what research is going on, and what competitions are going on in the field. She gives many opportunities to the students.” Now that she has graduated, Lankireddy hopes to find a computer science job in Little Rock, so she can stay in the city she has grown to love. “I don’t want to leave Little Rock,” she said. In the upper right photo,��Jo Lankireddy graduates from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock May 13 at the Jack Stephens Center.��

��Vlog��ýLR team takes third place in Cyber Defense Competition

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 14:38:39 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Cyber Security Club recently earned the highest finish ever for an Arkansas university at the . ��Vlog��ýLR’s Cyber Security Club team, comprised of captain Andrew Lewis as well as Blaise Koch, Connor Young, Dylan Hailey, Jeffery Wooldridge, John Henry, Tommy Haycraft, and Yanyan Li, finished third in the March 12-13 competition at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. The team initially competed in a virtual qualifier with 22 other squads and was one of eight that advanced to the regional competition. During the regional event, participants spent two days simulating an information technology department at an imaginary health insurance company called Insuracomm. Each team was assigned a room with six computers and charged with tasks like running the company website, setting up an email server, developing social media policies, and handling information technology requests. However, their assignments got more complicated as professional testers constantly tried to sabotage their efforts. “We were asked to keep a bunch of industry services up and running, and that in itself is very difficult,” Koch said. “Professional penetration testers were tasked with bringing our services down. Think of them as legal hackers. They are the ones companies pay to find holes in their security before the bad guys do.” Mengjun Xie, faculty advisor of the Cyber Security Club, said the competition demonstrates to students how their cyber security skills can be used in the real world. “Everything is online. Data often becomes the most valuable asset for most companies, universities, and all types of organizations,” Xie said. “Once the students participate in this competition, they have a very strong motivation to learn. This national competition attracts so much attention.” One of the real-world problems the team had to investigate was the company’s vulnerability to an attack similar to what happened to Ashley Madison, the online dating website for married people that was hacked in 2015. Since the competition’s fake insurance company deals with health insurance, the team had to follow strict national laws that protect personal health information. “Every competition I have gone to you face a challenge in modern-day security,” Lewis said. “You never know what you will get with these competitions. Sometimes we build an entire network and then defend it against hackers. It is always changing. The idea is to learn about modern vulnerability and security issues. Everyone knows what happened at Ashley Madison. One of our assignments was to see if our website was vulnerable to the Ashley Madison attacks.” The College of Engineering and Information Technology and the Department of Computer Science sponsored the Cyber Security Club’s trip to the competition. Dr. Kenji Yoshigoe, chair of the ��Vlog��ýLR Department of Computer Science, noted a team from the university first competed in a regional qualifier merely three years ago. “Since then, the team has come a long way and became one of the dominating teams in the Southwest region,” ��Yoshigoe said. “On behalf of the Computer Science Department, I would like to congratulate them on their great accomplishment.” In the upper right photo, pictured in the front row, from left to right, are Mengjun Xie, Andrew Lewis, Blaise Koch, John Henry, and Yanyan Li. Pictured in the back row, from left to right, are Tommy Haycraft, Connor Young, Jeffery��Wooldridge, and Dylan Hailey.

Little Rock to host international digital forensic, security conference

Shanna Fitzgerald — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 22:32:45 +0000

Some of the world’s leading digital security experts are coming to Arkansas, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. �� Vlog��ýLR will host the fourth International Conference on Digital Forensic and Security — the symposium’s first appearance in Arkansas — April 25-27, 2016. �� The conference connects digital forensics and information security researchers, as well as experts and policymakers, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and a discussion of best practices and latest developments.��

Dr. Coskun Bayrak

Topics include data privacy, digital forensics, cryptography, information security, and soft computing. The symposium will include keynote speeches, presentations, and tutorials. Dr. Coskun Bayrak, graduate coordinator and professor of computer science in the ��Vlog��ýLR Department of Computer Science, is chairing the conference, and eight of the 11 members on the organizing committee have ��Vlog��ýLR connections. After observing the impact, importance and influence of past conferences, Bayrak decided to work to bring the gathering to Arkansas. Sponsors include ��Vlog��ýLR and the symposium’s technical co-sponsors: the (IEEE) and . IEEE is the world’s largest professional organization dedicated to advancing technology. Scientific research papers will be published through the conference. After the submission and review process, they will be released to the IEEE Xplore digital library and scientific paper indexers. For more information about submitting papers, . For more details about the conference, .��

��Vlog��ýLR students impress at JOLT Hackathon

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 21:44:09 +0000

University of Arkansas at Little Rock students played a key role when competitors from throughout Arkansas gathered for a unique cyber security-themed “hackathon.” The JOLT Hackathon, a 24-hour capture-the-flag competition held Oct. 17 at The Venture Center in downtown Little Rock was the first of its kind in the state. As the state’s best and brightest software developers, engineers, and students gathered for a “game of codes” that featured technical puzzles of increasing difficulty, a group from ��Vlog��ýLR worked behind the scenes challenging competitors with progressively more complex puzzles. ��Vlog��ýLR Cyber Security Club members and local technology professionals served as “puzzle masters,” monitoring the game as it unfolded and deploying additional puzzles and clues to make the experience truly responsive for competitors. “The ��Vlog��ýLR Cyber Security Club students were impressive,” said Venture Center President and CEO Lee Watson. “Many of them stayed up more than 40 hours, preparing puzzles and then monitoring and supporting the actual competition itself.” ��Vlog��ýLR puzzle masters included ��Vlog��ýLR students Dylan Hailey, Tommy Haycraft, Andrew Lewis, and Brandon Gray. ��Vlog��ýLR IT staff member Daniel Spillers also helped with the competition. “It was an experience to see so many people come together and show their support for a growing tech community,” Lewis said. “It’s nice to have it here in the heart of Arkansas.” Community engagement and service are part of the program with the Cyber Security Club, said Dr. Mengjun Xie, co-adviser of the club and ��Vlog��ýLR assistant professor of computer science. “This collaboration with Arkansas Venture Center on the JOLT Hackathon event demonstrates our expertise in computing and security education, and our commitment to promoting the public’s awareness of security and engaging the public with cyber security practices,” Xie said. Dr. Kenji Yoshigoe, chair of the ��Vlog��ýLR Department of Computer Science, also is a club adviser.

��Vlog��ýLR students involved in the recent JOLT Hackathon are pictured with university leaders and others who led or participated in the event run by The Venture Center. (Not pictured: student Tommy Haycraft )

JOLT provided participants the chance to hone established technical abilities as they developed practical soft skills like teamwork, collaboration, and communication. Competitors included a wide range of ages and backgrounds, and they worked in diverse teams with varied skills. Students from Arkansas School for Mathematics, Science and the Arts (ASMSA), as well as seasoned professionals from the Little Rock-area community, joined the competition. “I’m glad to see something like this taking place in Arkansas,” Gray said. “This is the first competition like this that I can remember, so I hope this grows into something grander.” The competing team with the most completed puzzles at the end of the 24 hours won. Following the event, that honor belonged to the “Space Goats,” a group of local professionals who narrowly defeated “That One Team” from ASMSA to claim bragging rights and the JOLT title. Watson said programs like JOLT enhance the growing technology community in Little Rock. “In order to build viable, scalable, and investable companies, we have to attract, develop, and retain technical talent,” Watson said. IBM Bluemix, a service cloud product from IBM, allowed participants to work and compete on a real-world platform and environment, developing and honing skills relevant to the current market and technology landscape. The Venture Center provides expertise and solutions for partners in business, government and education to bolster the economic development of Central Arkansas. To learn more about The Venture Center, .

High school student earns university degree with honors

Taylor Aldana — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 22:02:54 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student not only earned an Associate of Science degree with honors, but he also conducted research and gave presentations with the chair of the Computer Science Department. Perhaps most impressive: William Yang is only a sophomore at ��Vlog��ýLR — and he’s still in high school. Yang, a National Science Foundation research scholar, is a concurrent student at ��Vlog��ýLR and Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, earning his associate degree on Aug. 14. He already has served as a student researcher with Dr. Kenji Yoshigoe, chair of the ��Vlog��ýLR Computer Science Department and director of both the ��Vlog��ýLR Computational Research Center, and the National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education. The collaborative research of Yang and Yoshigoe in the interdisciplinary computer science and biomedical science fields received recognition, and one of their award-winning, highly accessed articles, was selected for DASH — . �� On July 30, Yang and Yoshigoe presented a tutorial, to an international audience at the World Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Applied Computing in Las Vegas. The tutorial was extended to four hours because of the strong audience interest. �� Yang said the associate degree he earned as an early scholar at the university with a 4.0 GPA is “a showcase of the excellent academic environment and remarkable research strength of ��Vlog��ýLR.” He noted that the website Computer Science Degree Hub ranked the university’s computer science department among . Besides his , Yang is a NSF research scholar at Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin for the NSF iPlant genomics project. “My educational and research experience at ��Vlog��ýLR is thrilling,” Yang said. “��Vlog��ýLR is a leading research university, and I have learned a great deal of science at ��Vlog��ýLR.”

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock