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

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Celebrates Computer Science Educators

John Hill — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 15:23:59 +0000

It’s Computer Science Education Week, an annual call to celebrate the contributions of students, teachers, and partners in the field. We are highlighting our innovative Department of Computer Science with an in-depth interview with Dr. Albert Baker, chair and professor since 2018. What is the current state of the department? We currently have 210 undergraduate majors, of which 46 are pursuing our new cybersecurity degree program. We also have 35 students in the MS in Computer Science program. When I started, we only had nine. We also have 15 doctoral students. With this growth in our graduate programs, we’ll see more of our graduate students moving on to academic as well as industry careers. With the initiatives we are undertaking to develop and promote our interactive immersive technologies (AR/VR) programs, I think we will begin to see solid growth in that area as well. What kind of opportunities are available in the department? Our programs open opportunities on two career paths. One is software developer, which is a pretty broad area that includes programming, software design, performance testing, quality assurance, etc. We also have a game option. The game industry is very competitive, but the skills our students get are applicable in interactive immersive technologies (AR/VR) applications in education and training, medical applications, and industrial design. There are an increasing number of opportunities for our students in this emerging area. We have much to highlight in this emerging area of interactive immersive technologies. The Emerging Analytics Center has fabulous facilities for hands-on development and research in that area. Drs. Ivan Conde, Arya Basu, and Jan Springer all have expertise in this area. This is an area of strength for the department, and I am happy about the opportunities that we provide students. I tell prospective students and their parents that we have good opportunities in interactive immersive technologies, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and machine learning, mobile applications, user interface and user experience, and computer graphics/data visualization. If a student has an interest in any of these areas, this is a great place to study. The opportunities for undergraduate students are particularly noteworthy because we have funded positions for students to work on grant funded research as well as industry projects. Those kinds of opportunities for undergraduate students are rare at other universities. How has the department changed since you started? Dr. Carolina Cruz-Neira, former director of the Emerging Analytics Center and former chair of the Department of Computer Science, asked me to develop a stronger sense of community in the department, particularly with undergraduate students. We restored the charter for the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Student Chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery. The ACM is the largest professional society for computing professionals. The dhapter is very active. One of their impactful service projects has been the program to refurbish donated computers and make them available at no cost to students through the COVID pandemic. They have placed over 90 machines repairing hard drives, reinstalling operating systems, and handing out computers to students who needed them. We have continued to innovate the department’s curriculum. In computer science, things are constantly changing. We’ve added courses accessible by students outside our department. For example, we will now have in the catalog a sophomore-level course that is an introduction to machine learning using a no-code environment. This means students who have no coding experience can take the course. One of the most important changes in the department has been the new degree in cybersecurity and some very important industry partnerships. Why has your department taken a lead in promoting cybersecurity education? We’ve been very strategic in the way we’ve laid a foundation for cybersecurity. Huge credit goes to Drs. Philip Huff and Erin Finzer for the creation of CyberLearn. (��Vlog��ý Little Rock received a $1.96 million workforce development grant from the Arkansas Office of Skills Development in the spring to form the Cyber Learning Network, a consortium of seven University of Arkansas System campuses to expand and diversify workforce education in emergent cyber technologies.) With CyberLearn, we are implementing a resource and course sharing network between the partner campuses. For example, if a ��Vlog��ýPB student needs to take a cybersecurity course this summer that is not being offered on that campus, they can register for that ��Vlog��ýPB course, pay ��Vlog��ýPB tuition fees, and actually take the course offered here at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. In addition, with the addition of the National Cyber Teaching Academy funded, in part, by a grant from the NSA, we are training high school teachers so they can teach cybersecurity in Arkansas high schools. The State of Arkansas is requiring one credit in computer science as a graduation requirement for all students starting with the Fall 2023 freshman class. Cybersecurity is one of the ADE-approved computer science pathways meeting this requirement. We have a partnership with cyber industry leader and have really good outreach to the cyber industry in Arkansas. I’m excited about the holistic strategic approach we are taking with cybersecurity training and workforce development. What is coming up for the future of the computer science department? Certainly, cybersecurity will continue to grow and progress rapidly. We are also receiving tremendous feedback on our interactive immersive technologies initiatives. The Emerging Analytics Center (EAC) has been recognized as one of the top AR/VR research and development labs in the country. Between the EAC and the Cyber Arena, we are offering students opportunities unique in the State of Arkansas and beyond. What else would you like to add? I’m proud of the way the department office is running now. Chris Thompson (administrative assistant III) has been fantastic. I would also give a shoutout to Seth Cook who has worked as a GA in the office for the last three years and maintains our social media presence and department website. We are now much more organized and efficient through their efforts. Being in Arkansas has been a productive place to work in that I’ve had an opportunity to meet people at levels that I wouldn’t have had access to in larger states. Lee Watson, CEO, Forge Institute, and Bill Yoder, Executive Director of , are at the top of the list. They are doing tremendous work. Tina Moore and Kelly Griffith at the Arkansas Department of Education are also great to work with. These are just some of the talented Arkansans I’ve had opportunities to work with. The Industrial Advisory Board of the department is proving to be a tremendous asset as well and providing excellent guidance to me and the department. Brian Stack, Chief Scientist & Cofounder, LeapXL, chairs our advisory board. I appreciate the leadership he is providing. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and the State of Arkansas are proving to be fertile places to develop innovative, state-of-the-art programs and initiatives in the computing sciences that will help us develop a future-ready workforce. I genuinely appreciate the opportunity I’ve had to serve the Department, College, University, and State of Arkansas.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Nerd Night to Highlight Donaghey College of STEM

John Hill — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 15:40:06 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host Nerd Night Oct. 19 to highlight the exciting opportunities, research, and activities taking place in the Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Nerd Night will take place from 5:30-7 p.m. in the Engineering and Information Technology Building and the Engineering Technology and Applied Sciences Building at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. The free event is open to the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock community and members of the public. Any prospective student who is interested in a Donaghey College of STEM program and their families are especially encouraged to attend to see all the college has to offer. “Nerds have fun too! I am excited for us to display how nerds have fun,” Dean Lawrence Whitman said. “This will be a great night to see lots of different fun things and maybe learn a little along the way. Nerds make the world go around and have fun doing it. We hope this is a long tradition on our campus.” Current and prospective DCSTEM students can learn about opportunities in the college including research opportunities, leadership programs, honors societies, careers, and student organizations. Exhibitors will showcase their opportunities with demonstrations and hands-on activities. Some of the exhibitors that will be on hand for public demonstrations include:

Internet of Science of Things Lab with Raspberry Pi demonstrations and more
Emerging Analytics Center with a Trojan Man augmented reality demo
National Society of Black Engineers with ghost rocket demonstrations
Arkansas Department of Education and Easterseals Arkansas with assistive technology gaming system demo

Basu Joins ��Vlog��ý Little Rock as Computer Science Professor, Emerging Analytics Center Fellow

John Hill — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 12:46:36 +0000

Dr. Aryabrata Basu, an expert in virtual reality and digital visualization, has joined the University of Arkansas at Little Rock as an assistant professor of computer science and research fellow for the Emerging Analytics Center, the university’s premier research center for virtual/augmented reality, visualization, and interactive technologies. “I am very excited to join ��Vlog��ý Little Rock,” Basu said. “I have already met the great faculty members and support staff in the Department of Computer Science and the Emerging Analytics Center, and I look forward to the teaching and research opportunities to come. There is a lot of potential here to expand upon, and I want to bring new paradigms of visualization to the people through the Emerging Analytics Center.” Basu’s research includes human-computer interaction, investigating human spatial decision making in virtual reality, and enhancing virtual reality immersive experiences in education. Some of his past projects include the ,��, and . “Dr. Basu’s enthusiasm is infectious. During the interview process, Dr. Basu reached out to Dr. Ghosh in the Department of Chemistry to explore research collaboration opportunities,” said Dr. Albert Baker, chair of the Department of Computer Science. “This bodes extremely well for cross-disciplinary collaboration. With his expertise in extended reality (AR/VR), natural user interfaces, computer graphics, AI, and haptics, he will enhance and expand research and teaching in established opportunity areas offered by the department. His record of research in the application of his expertise in the healthcare field opens exciting opportunities for research funding. We welcome Dr. Basu with open arms.” A native of Kolkata, India, Basu joins ��Vlog��ý Little Rock from Emory University, where he spent six years as a visual information specialist and research scientist at the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship. He was responsible for creating digital media and 3D models through graphic design, imaging processing, and data visualization for digital scholarship programs as well as researching new methods of visualizing data, including 3D, virtual reality, and augmented reality. Basu has a bachelor’s degree in information technology from West Bengal University of Technology in India and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Georgia. Basu and his wife Dipannita live in Little Rock with their four-year-old son Aaron.

Students Create Immersive Games During Virtual Reality Camp at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

John Hill — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 13:25:22 +0000

About a dozen junior high and high school students spent a week learning how to create immersive games and virtual reality content for Meta during a virtual reality summer camp held Aug. 1-5 at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Students learned how to create immersive games for the Meta Quest and Meta Quest 2 using the program, Unity, in the Emerging Analytics Center at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. At the end of the camp, students are set up with developer accounts if they want to continue to create games and other virtual reality content for Meta. Camp participants included Granger Colclasure, an 8th grader at Episcopal Collegiate; Lucas Campbell, an 8th grader at Episcopal Collegiate; Cohen Harris, a 7th grader at Robinson Middle School; Isaiah Johnson, a 9th grader at Jacksonville High School; Delores Meadows, a 9th grader at Jacksonville High School; Samuel Reyes, an 8th grader at Our Lady of the Holy Souls School; Caiden Ross, a 7th grader at Mabelvale Middle School; Aiden Team, a 10th grader at eStem Charter High School; Tripp Sanders, an 8th grader at Our Lady of the Holy Souls School; James Skaletski, a high school student from Germany; and Cedric Wade Jr. a 9th grader at Bryant Junior High School. James Skaletski, a rising 12th grader in Germany, took the camp while he was visiting family in Arkansas. “I think the camp is really cool,” Skaletski said. “We are learning to make games and implement them into virtual reality. You can create any game you can think of and then play it. For a career, I want to become a video editor, so some of the skills I’m learning in camp are similar to that and will be helpful in the future.” Philip Bryan, a graduate student in computer science, said students learned how to use the Unity program to create immersive games for the Meta Quest or Meta Quest 2. “Unity is a useful program to make games and fun tools,” Bryan said. “It’s a really useful skill to have. I hope the students keep involved in computer science. There are a lot of styles of games they create so I hope they keep using Unity. We also set them up with a developer account for the Meta in case they want to continue to develop games.” ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students and researchers in the Emerging Analytics Center led the summer camp. They include Phillip Bryan, Parikshya Bhandari, Wesley Ferguson, Colin McNerny, Cecily (Danica) Mobley, Carlos Ochoa, Adam Perry, and Kimari Watson.

Middle and high school students created immersive games for the Meta Quest Virtual reality platform during a VR camp for youth at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Photo by Ben Krain.

This is the second year for the virtual reality camp. Sandra Leiterman, managing director of the Cyber Arena, said she came up with the idea for the camp last year when she heard kids talking about the types of virtual reality games they wanted to play. “I thought it would be a great idea if we taught students how to build the games that they really want to play,” Leiterman said. “I hope that the kids will take home the confidence that they can create and that they can have a career building games that they and others will enjoy. Of course, in the long term, I hope that they come back to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock as computer science majors who work at the Emerging Analytics Center!”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Community Coding Day Dec. 4

John Hill — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 15:19:39 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host a free Community Coding Day on Saturday, Dec. 4, to encourage members of the community to learn more about computer science education and innovations in Arkansas. The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Engineering and Information Technology Building at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. It is sponsored by CSforAR and ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Emerging Analytics Center. The family friendly event will include demonstrations on coding, robotics, cybersecurity, augmented and virtual reality, and hacking. This event celebrates the start of Computer Science Education Week on Dec. 6, an annual call to action to inspire K-12 students to learn about computer science, advocate for equity in computer science education, and celebrate the contributions of students, teachers, and partners in the field. The event is free and open to the public. No prior experience in computer science or coding is necessary to attend. Parking will be available in lots 8 and 13 at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. For more information, email csforar@ade.arkansas.gov.

U.S. Sen. John Boozman Visits ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, NuShores Biosciences

John Hill — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 18:28:29 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock and its spinoff company, NuShores Biosciences, received a visit from Sen. John Boozman Oct. 29 to check out the ongoing research and scientific advancements at the institutions. Sen. Boozman first visited NuShores Biosciences to get a firsthand look at innovative labs and projects underway in central Arkansas. NuShores CEO Sharon Ballard and Dr. Alex Biris, director of the Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences, gave the senator a tour of the facility and reviewed the initiatives to commercialize the bone and tissue regeneration technologies. “I’m grateful for Sen. Boozman’s support of NuShores and our licensor ��Vlog��ý Little Rock,” Ballard said. “He asked great questions and enjoyed discussing our science and manufacturing efforts with our team. It was quite the energy boost to have a sitting senator take such interest and encouragement in our work!” Sen. Boozman also learned about the manufacturing processes for the NuCress Bone Scaffold that has been developed at NuShores with funding from the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Army Medical Command. “NuShores is doing groundbreaking work to help improve bone regeneration technology, and I enjoyed getting to learn more about its operation and research, which could ultimately help prevent amputations,” Sen. Boozman said. At ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, the senator toured the Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS), the Emerging Analytics Center (EAC), and the Cyber Arena in the Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics to see the amazing projects taking place in information science, computer science, cybersecurity, and augmented and virtual reality. “Sen. Boozman’s visits are always a delight,” said Dr. Lawrence Whitman, dean of the Donaghey College of STEM. “We appreciate his support of the vital research at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and the manner in which he engages us to ensure that we are providing impact for all Arkansans.” Sen. Boozman and his staff have worked with the university for the last several years in helping secure federal funding for many of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s research projects focused on national security. “The important research conducted at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is leading to breakthroughs and discoveries that enable us to better safeguard our country against emerging threats,” Sen. Boozman said. “I’m proud to support the development of innovative strategies advanced by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock researchers that offer solutions to enhance our national security and preparedness.” In , Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy endowed chair and distinguished professor of information science and director of COSMOS, shared how his research team is using social media analysis to defend against global disinformation threats. One example is COSMOS’ in partnership with the Arkansas Attorney General’s office. COSMOS’ research is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Defense and National Science Foundation. “We deeply appreciate Sen. Boozman for his unwavering support to the research conducted at COSMOS for strengthening the social and cognitive security apparatus that is furthering the U.S. Department of Defense’s mission, particularly enhancing force protection and operation security against adversarial information operations,” Agarwal said. “During the visit, Senator Boozman inspired and encouraged to keep up the groundbreaking research that is of national and strategic importance.” In the Cyber Arena, Sen. Boozman met several students enrolled in ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s new cybersecurity degree program, which is working to fill the gap of qualified cybersecurity professionals needed to protect network security throughout the country. “We appreciate Sen. Boozman’s work to bring cybersecurity workforce development and research opportunities to Arkansas. Our students have tremendous talent and creativity in developing solutions to defend the nation, and the senator works hard to continue providing them with opportunities to make use of those talents.” said Philip Huff, assistant professor of cybersecurity. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock has received numerous grants and created partnerships for workforce education and cybersecurity. These grants are helping ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to provide K-12 cybersecurity education to students in Arkansas, the country’s first graduate certificate in cybersecurity education, and a for first responders.

Sen. John Boozman visits with Dr. Alex Biris and other workers at NuShores Biosciences.

“The State of Arkansas is providing outstanding support for research and teaching in computer science and cybersecurity,” said Dr. Albert Baker, chair of the Department of Science. “The federal support Sen. Boozman has secured for productive research programs at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is producing actionable results for the state and the nation. We are genuinely appreciative that the senator took the time to review the funded research projects.” Dr. Jan Springer, director of the , discussed the work the center is doing to enhance the nation’s border security. “Our team in the Emerging Analytics Center showcased their work on automated detection of organic threats in x-ray scans for Sen. Boozman,” Springer said. “Throughout this project, the senator has emphasized the importance of innovating border security and has helped us tremendously in securing funding for developing tools and techniques to meet this national priority.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Virtual Reality Summer Camp Aug. 2-6

John Hill — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 19:55:23 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host a virtual reality summer camp in August for junior high and high school students. The university’s Emerging Analytics Center will host the camp for students in grades 7-12 from noon to 5 p.m. Aug. 2-6 at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Students will spend an action-packed week creating a virtual reality tour for the Oculus Quest or Oculus Quest 2. “Virtual reality is an important part of our lives today and allows us to create almost any type of environment for education, training, and more,” said Sandra Leiterman, managing director of the Cyber Arena. “The new Oculus Quest 2 is a popular ‘toy’ for a lot of people today. Our thought is rather than buying games and simulations, we want to teach kids how to create their own content for Oculus. In a technology-driven world, it’s important to harness the creativity of our young generation that will hopefully lead them into future careers within virtual or augmented reality.” Access to a Facebook account is required to build Oculus content. Students must also bring their own Oculus device. The cost of the camp is $100. Those interested in attending may fill out the .

Internet Safety Month Student Profile: Ethan O’Leske

John Hill — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 15:40:12 +0000

In celebration of Internet Safety Month, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is profiling students researchers working in this area. Tell us about yourself? My name is Ethan O’Leske. I was born and raised in Little Rock, AR, and am currently pursuing a B.S. in Computer Science at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. From my early adolescence, I was drawn to technical skills like software development and programming, because it helped me understand the technology I interacted with everyday. As I reflect on my three years spent at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, I find that these skills have drawn me towards cybersecurity, in large part due to work at a research center on campus, the Emerging Analytics Center. Why did you choose ��Vlog��ý Little Rock? While I liked that ��Vlog��ý Little Rock was in my hometown, the main reason I chose ��Vlog��ý Little Rock over other local universities was because of its focus on research and student involvement. This focus allows for a much deeper and meaningful education, through professionally applicable experience and a closer connection to what we study. I believe it is ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s commitment to student-led research that sets it apart from other universities. What do you find interesting about your major? I find that computer science as a major is often oversimplified. In reality, it leads to a broad range of careers and industries, from cybersecurity specialists to user experience designers to software developers. It’s fascinating how many different trajectories a professional can experience from one major. I would discourage students from thinking that computer science is not for them, without looking at these career potentials. This major can be highly technical, artistic, philosophical or interdisciplinary, depending on the specific route. What kind of research and projects are you working on at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock that are related to internet safety? The primary research project I have been involved in regarding internet safety is called Spartan, which I work on through the Emerging Analytics Center. Spartan is a vulnerability management application intended to be used as a tool by cybersecurity specialists. A vulnerability is anything on a cyber device that can be exploited by a malicious actor to compromise the security of the cyber system. Even moderately sized companies could have hundreds of devices that may have vulnerabilities to be exploited by anyone with an internet connection. Spartan is intended to help these companies track the vulnerabilities that apply to their system and patch them in the most efficient way. To achieve this, we have implemented technologies such as artificial intelligence and natural language processing to automate a lot of the work done by cybersecurity specialists everyday. Many of the companies funding the research for this project are in critical infrastructure industries, who use tools like these to ensure the utilities we rely on cannot be interfered with. Since June is Internet Safety Month, do you have any advice for how people can keep themselves safe online? Any form of security is all about practicing good habits and having a plan. For internet safety, it’s important to form good habits such as not posting private information publicly, using a password manager with strong passwords, updating devices promptly to receive any security patches and only using trusted internet resources. Inevitably, there may come a time where precautions fail, and it’s important to know what to do in these circumstances. For example, if one’s credit card information is stolen, then they must know how to report the theft. There are many good online resources to ensure you are prepared; one example would be the United States’ Government disaster and emergency preparation public service campaign called Ready (). What do you plan to do after you graduate? What is your future career? One advantage about computer science and cybersecurity is the breadth of opportunities that exist for both entry-level and established professionals. While this is exciting, it does make it harder for me to nail down exactly which opportunity to leverage. I have aspirations to earn a graduate degree in computer science, but I may choose to enter the workforce in either software development or cybersecurity if there is an opportunity to do so. Is there anything else you’d like to add? One of the biggest events of 2021 has been the onset of ransomware attacks targeting small-to-medium-sized companies, such as JBS and the Colonial Pipeline. Though these attacks are symptoms of how institutions like companies and governments have approached cybersecurity over the past couple decades, they dealt a disproportionate amount of harm towards individuals. These recent events should highlight the importance of cybersecurity, and the dangers of not taking these issues as seriously as experts suggest. Many of us worry about our personal cybersecurity, but, in our interconnected world, we are increasingly more reliant on the cybersecurity of our critical infrastructure, financial institutions, industries and others. It is important that we all make ourselves aware about these issues and speak out where it is necessary. We can only do so much by ourselves. Collectively, we have the power to make our communities safer and more secure.

Khaund to begin new career as senior data scientist at Walmart

John Hill — Wed, 19 May 2021 13:53:15 +0000

After studying at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock as an exchange student in 2013, Tuja Khaund, a native of Dibrugarh, India, couldn’t stay away. “It was very exciting at first,” Khaund said. “I had never been out of my country. It was one of the biggest challenges. We got to learn about different cultures and people and we made a lot of friends. It was quite the journey.” After her study abroad experience, Khaund returned to Little Rock as a full-time computer science student in 2014. Now she is graduating with a Ph.D. in computer and information science and a new career as a senior data scientist at Walmart Inc. Khaund first met with Walmart recruiters during a campus job fair in 2020. She was offered an internship and spent last summer creating a 3D augmented reality application to visualize Walmart sales across the country. In her new role as a senior data scientist, she will join the NexTech Data Science Team at Walmart. She will specialize in graph theory. “My work will focus on what I’ve been doing in my Ph.D., and I will extend that knowledge to work for Walmart,” Khaund said. “I will use information about consumers and consumer relationships through graphs. One example is to understand customer behavior based on their shopping patterns. That is a very popular problem that companies are trying to solve. I will utilize my knowledge on graph theory to solve problems in that domain.” As a graduate student, Khaund spent one year studying virtual reality and augmented reality in the Emerging Analytics Center before joining the Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS). Her research focuses on social media data analysis, social computing, and network analysis. More specifically, it focuses on cyber forensic analysis of blogs and Twitter content in order to detect covert connections and digital footprints of a website, a user, or an organization. She has also extended her research to study issues on other social media platforms such as YouTube and Telegram. “Our students come from different parts of the world,” said Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor of Information Science and director of COSMOS. “Many of them belong to minority and underrepresented groups in STEM disciplines – a cause that COSMOS champions and celebrates. Tuja will work as a senior data scientist at a Fortune 500 company. She has done tremendously well with her dissertation and has an exciting career awaiting her.” Khaund has also participated in the 2020 Computing Research Association Grad Cohort for Women, which helps graduate students prepare for careers in the computer science industry. She serves as web chair for the International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, & Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation. Khaund completed her dissertation, which presents a methodology to assess how online campaigns are coordinated. Khaund began by studying how social bots, automated accounts on social media websites that mimic the social behaviors of humans, are used during natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. “Social bots help automate many socio-technical behaviors such as tweeting/retweeting a message, ‘liking’ tweets, following users, and coordinating with or even competing against other bots,” Khaund said. “Social bots exist as benign bots such as advertising bots, entertainment bots, etc. as well as malicious bots such as spam bots, hackers, and influence bots.” As social bots become more sophisticated, some of these bots operate independently and autonomously for years without getting noticed or suspended. Furthermore, some of the more advanced social bots exhibit highly sophisticated coordination and communication patterns with complex organizational structures. “There is a lot of work going on to tackle a problem that is quite challenging for social media platforms and for anyone who is trying to stop malicious activities during events,” Khaund said. “Malicious actors have become more advanced. They know what tactics people are using to track them. Previously, it was easier to look at a profile and recognize a fake account. They have since evolved and are now becoming more immune to detection algorithms. They are finding new ways to remain hidden and undetected.” She analyzed a Twitter dataset with accounts that were suspected of being used to influence the 2016 presidential election. She then trained a machine learning model to assess the level of coordination within an online information campaign. “My model is promising enough to accurately describe a high coordination social network or a low coordination social network,” Khaund said. “My model can be replicated or used across different social media platforms. It leverages social network theories to understand the structure of a communication network and analyzes various network measures to label communities in a graph.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock partners with Forge Institute, U of A to Advance Applied Research In Cybersecurity to Support National Defense

John Hill — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 22:51:43 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is partnering with the and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, to advance applied research in areas that support national defense, including cybersecurity. This partnership is a first-of-its-kind opportunity in Arkansas and will lead to competitive research, collaboration opportunities, and create a platform for economic growth and job creation. The partnership will focus on next-generation cybersecurity defensive capabilities for industrial control systems (ICS/SCADA) to further the protection of the nation’s critical infrastructure. Initial university collaborators will be Philip Huff, assistant professor of cybersecurity at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, and Dr. Chris Farnell, managing director of the National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission (NCREPT) testbed at U of A. “The Emerging Analytics Center at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock has been working with the Forge Institute for over a year,” Huff said. “We are pleased to extend this collaborative effort to work on some of the nation’s most challenging cybersecurity artificial intelligence problems. This collaboration will enable access to applied research opportunities for Arkansas students and research faculty.” The joint team will leverage the capabilities of the , the National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission (NCREPT) testbed at U of A, and the professional and experienced team and capabilities of the Forge Institute. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and U of A are designated as academic centers of excellence by the National Security Agency and U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The U of A is also a U.S. Department of Energy center of academic excellence. This collaboration brings together the best resources, research, and capabilities of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and U of A, along with the unique capabilities and relationships of the Forge Institute. Forge Institute will collaborate with key researchers to enable access to unique research opportunities in support of the nation’s national defense. “We are excited to partner with ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and ��Vlog��ý Fayetteville to develop innovative solutions that will help address our nation’s complex and growing cyber and national security challenges,” said Lee Watson, chairman and CEO of Forge Institute. “By connecting to and building upon the existing cyber and defense sector in the State, we are establishing a foundation to drive innovation that will directly lead to high-paying jobs for Arkansans. I’m excited about this collaboration and how it will better position our state and country to defend against advanced cyber adversaries and grow the State’s economy.”

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

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Celebrates Computer Science Educators

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Nerd Night to Highlight Donaghey College of STEM

Basu Joins ����Vlog��ý Little Rock as Computer Science Professor, Emerging Analytics Center Fellow

Students Create Immersive Games During Virtual Reality Camp at ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Community Coding Day Dec. 4

U.S. Sen. John Boozman Visits ����Vlog��ý Little Rock, NuShores Biosciences

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Virtual Reality Summer Camp Aug. 2-6