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

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Researchers Accepted to NSF I-Corps, Delta I-Fund Entrepreneurial Programs

John Hill — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 13:31:35 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock doctoral student and professor have been accepted into two early-seed entrepreneurial programs that will help support the commercialization of new technologies in Arkansas. Imran Sarker, a Ph.D. student in computer and information science from Bangladesh, and Dr. Mariofanna Milanova, a professor of computer science, are developing RightHand, an online marketplace fueled by artificial intelligence. RightHand connects service seekers and service providers within a short period of time and keeps service seekers informed about the update of requested service in real-time. “It’s not a new idea, but we are using a deep learning based recommendation system to help match service seekers and service providers in a quicker way,” Sarker said. “We are trying to add a real-time system in our system so you can always know when that service provider is coming.” Sarker and Milanova were accepted to the National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program as well as Winrock International’s Delta I-Fund program this summer. The was created in 2011 to help faculty and students in the sciences learn how to apply lean startup methods for bringing new technologies to the marketplace. With funding provided by the program and the support and mentorship provided by the site, researchers and students conduct market research, learn to identify product-market fit through interviews with potential customers, and develop prototypes. Teams will receive funding of up to $1,000 to support their initial customer discovery efforts during the program and an additional $2,250 if their team continues to pursue the commercialization of their technology/research. The Delta I-Fund is an early stage, proof-of-concept accelerator formed to train entrepreneurs in the eight-state Delta Regional Authority territory. Each startup team accepted into the program will complete 12 weeks of rigorous training, be matched to a mentor from the business community, and receive technical assistance or access to seed-stage investment capital. The team also received $7,500 in early seed funding from the Delta I-Fund.

Dr. Mariofana Milanova. Photo by Ben Krain.

They will complete the NSF I-Corps program in August and the Delta I-Fund program at the end of September. Sarker plans to complete the customer segment and value proposition, designs, and build a prototype of RightHand. Sarker said he is grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Delta I-Fund and NSF I-Corps programs. Without the support and mentorship, he wasn’t sure that RightHand would become a reality. Sarker also wants to thank Milanova for guiding him from the beginning of this research project. “When I started this idea, it was a raw idea,” Sarker said. “Right now, I am trying to turn my idea into reality. For example, I am doing customer interviews right so I can know what customer expectations are, will they like this project, and what they expect to pay. It’s a really good experience. I also got a chance to network with many people with very good experiences. We have wonderful mentors from industry and academia.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock will offer cybersecurity certificate through higher education partnership

John Hill — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 14:34:41 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is partnering with a higher education consortium led by the University of Louisville to offer an online Cybersecurity Workforce Certificate program funded by the National Security Agency (NSA). ��Vlog��ý Little Rock was chosen to participate in this project because of the college’s earned designation as an NSA Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense. “We are excited to work on this workforce program,” said Dr. Mariofanna Milanova, the project lead for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and a professor of computer science. “It will better position our state and country to defend against cyber adversaries.” As a part of the NSA grant, first responders, including police officers, EMTs, firefighters, and healthcare workers, and military veterans can participate in the program at no cost. In addition to the certificate, participants will be able to earn industry-recognized badges from tech leaders such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM. The certificate program focuses on enhancing student knowledge in the realm of cybersecurity foundational courses, while using healthcare data examples and use cases. Participants may complete a total of 24 modules during the six-month program. The modules will cover topics like artificial intelligence, cyber threat hunting, network security, data mining, blockchain, digital forensics, database security, cloud security, Internet of Things, post quantum cryptography, risk analysis, and robotics process automation analysis. ”There are three levels in this certification,” said Philip Huff, assistant professor of cybersecurity. “The explorer level provides foundational training in cybersecurity for IT professionals seeking to improve their understanding of cybersecurity. The practitioner level includes training for working in cybersecurity operations and includes topics in network security, cyber threat hunting, and forensics. Then the professional level includes several advanced topics in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cloud security.” The program is offered asynchronously online and includes virtual labs developed through the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Cyber Arena. Although fully online, instructors are available through virtual office hours, and each student will be assigned a success coach. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is working with the , a nonprofit organization that specializes in developing private-public partnerships that advance cyber operational objectives, to help test the cybersecurity curriculum through its existing cybersecurity boot camp, where participants are trained to become cybersecurity analysts. Researchers at the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Cyber Arena, an education and simulation model laboratory for cybersecurity learning, are developing next-generation tools for delivering and assessing the cybersecurity curriculum for the certificate program. This will provide an exciting research opportunity for students who are entering the new bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity that begins this fall. Each cohort has 40 spots available. The next cohort start dates are Nov. 22, 2021; Jan. 24, 2022; and March 14, 2022. Those interested may visit to apply for the Cybersecurity Workforce Certificate program. For more information, contact Sandra Leiterman at saleiterman@ualr.edu or visit the .

Graduate Spotlight on Esther Mead

John Hill — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 20:02:48 +0000

Esther Mead is graduating from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock this month with a Ph.D. in integrated computing with an emphasis in information quality as well as post-doctoral research position to continue her research at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (). “Obtaining a Ph.D. represents the self-actualization of my highest academic goal,” Mead said. “It’s sort of like reaching the summit of a great mountain that you have been struggling to climb for several years. This has been my goal since I began my academic journey, and to have finally reached the summit is like a dream come true. I only wish that my father could have seen it.” Mead is a first-generation college student who earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a Bachelor of Business Administration, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Central Arkansas. She then taught marketing research and consumer behavior courses at San Diego State University for four years before returning to Arkansas to help care for her father, who had been diagnosed with prostate and bone cancer, and to pursue a Ph.D. “Although I was leaving a great position at SDSU, I could take the opportunity to achieve my highest academic goal,” Mead said. “When I arrived back home, however, I discovered that the problem was a lot more complicated than I had anticipated. Not only was my father suffering, but my youngest sister and her young son were also suffering from problems. Both my sister and her son have learning and behavioral disorders, and since they and my parents were all living in the same household, there was a great amount of disorder and tension.” Mead said she took one year to fully concentrate on helping her family. She cared for her father and helped her sister find a job and move to a new apartment before Mead moved to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. In 2016, Mead entered the master’s degree program in business information systems at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. She discovered COSMOS after enrolling in the integrated computing doctoral program. “I was impressed by the level of professionalism and societal impact of the work that I had read that was coming out of the organization, and was immediately interested in figuring out a way to become part of the team,” Mead said. “As part of COSMOS, I have been privileged to be part of several important research works. These include numerous analyses of bots, toxicity, and misinformation campaigns on social media platforms.” Her research has aided in the identification and subsequent mitigation of malicious actors that infiltrate the public information space that have drastic effects on society. One of the research projects Mead participated in was a website that tracks the spread of misinformation regarding COVID-19. “There was a tremendous amount of disinformation circulating on social media platforms about COVID-19, which several of my family members believed!,” Mead said. “This led me to become involved in a COSMOS-led effort to create and curate a website that kept track of these various COVID-19 misinformation items and provided disproof. Additionally, I am continually taking great care to ensure that my elderly mother is staying safe, and likewise for my sister and her son.”�� During her time at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Mead has found many mentors in the computer science and information science departments. “, for example, not only has given me the most professional and technical advice I have ever received as a student, but he is also extremely empathetic and optimistic,” Mead said. “Additionally, Dr. Mariofanna Milanova has given me a tremendous amount of one-on-one guidance and support. Dr. Elizabeth Pierce is another professor for which I have an extreme admiration. Dr. Pierce has given me her valuable time to talk about research ideas and life in general. And, Dr. John Talburt, who has not only given me valuable advice about research, but has also provided his time to simply chat whenever I needed it.” Now that Mead has achieved her long-term goal of earning her doctorate, she has accepted a position as a post-doctoral researcher at COSMOS and will continue research regarding numerous aspects of social media data analysis and online behavioral studies, mentor new student researchers, and hopes to become a professor again in the future. “I am extremely proud of Esther,” Agarwal said. “She is everything a professor could ask for in a graduate student – intelligent, motivated, dedicated, communicator, leader, team player, and educator. She will inspire a generation of students to learn, achieve, and aspire.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock joins coalition to launch health care cybersecurity curriculum and pilot focused on veterans and first responders

John Hill — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 19:53:57 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is part of a coalition of universities and industry partners that are developing a curriculum to increase cybersecurity talent focused on health care with $6.3 million in funding from the National Security Agency.�� Vlog��ý Little Rock will work with the University of Louisville, the University of North Florida, Bluegrass Technical and Owensboro Technical, the , and a coalition of industry partners to develop a training curriculum focused on health care cybersecurity. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock will receive $640,000 for the three-year grant. “As health care data generation becomes increasingly complex, it is absolutely critical that patient health information be secure and protected. Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies enable new methods of data protection,” said Dr. Mariofanna Milanova, professor of computer science and principal investigator on the grant for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. The pilot phase of the health care cybersecurity workforce certificate initially will provide free�� training for 200 first responders and military veterans. The certificate incorporates technology industry badging from Microsoft, IBM, and Google as well as hands-on applied learning and gamification components. Participants will learn how to protect information systems used by patients, providers, and payers in the health care industry.

Lee Watson, CEO of Forge Institute

��Vlog��ý Little Rock will work with the Forge Institute, a nonprofit organization that specializes in developing private-public partnerships that advance cyber operational objectives. The Forge Institute will help test the cybersecurity curriculum through its existing cybersecurity boot camp, where participants are trained to become cybersecurity analysts. “Our team is proud of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock for being selected to participate in this research consortium led by the University of Louisville,” said Lee Watson, CEO of Forge Institute. “The team at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock has a deep bench of capability in researching and developing new tools and models for education delivery. This collaboration between the Forge Institute and ��Vlog��ý Little Rock will allow us to develop, better tailor, and test cybersecurity curriculum for the veteran and first responder communities.” Program participants will complete the three-level certificate program in six months through online courses led by instructors from coalition institutions, gaining expertise in artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain, internet of things (IoT), machine learning. and other areas.

Philip Huff

The curriculum will employ innovative training tools including gamification and make use of anonymous datasets and use cases provided by industry partners. Once developed, the curriculum will be available to other institutions free of charge for one year. The first cohort of 30-40 students is expected to be enrolled in spring 2021.�� Each of the schools in the coalition is a NSA-designated and contributes interests, experience, and skills aligned with health care cybersecurity systems. Researchers at the , an education and simulation model laboratory for cybersecurity learning, will develop next-generation tools for delivering and assessing the cybersecurity curriculum. This will provide an exciting research opportunity for students who are entering the new bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity that will begin in the fall 2021 semester. “I’m excited to work on this research project with the NSA. As a 15+ year veteran in cybersecurity, I have seen first-hand the challenges of developing a qualified workforce,” said Philip Huff, assistant professor of computer science and cybersecurity at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “Cybersecurity is a complex field, because the tools, tactics, and techniques criminals use are ever evolving. To help address this concern, we will be developing training on cutting-edge technologies to help grow a more competitive cybersecurity workforce.” The upper right photo shows Dr. Mariofanna Milanova. Photo by Ben Krain.

Milanova receives Faculty Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors award for College of Engineering and Information Technology

John Hill — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 16:43:22 +0000

Dr. Mariofanna Milanova, professor of computer science, is being honored as the 2020 Faculty Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors award winner for the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock College of Engineering and Information Technology. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock will reveal the university-wide winners of the 2020 Faculty Excellence Awards at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 23, on the Faculty Excellence website��and the.�� “It has been clear since my arrival at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock that Dr. Milanova is one of the strongest research faculty members in the College of Engineering,” said Dr. Albert Baker, interim chair of the Department of Computer Science. “Her expertise in computer vision, machine learning, and artificial intelligence places her work at the leading edge of what is rapidly becoming one of the most important areas of research across many disciplines – machine learning.” Milanova’s research in artificial intelligence and machine learning has been awarded multiple grants in recent years, including from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security. Her research team has significant experience working on projects in emotion-recognition technology, such as recognizing emotions related to depression, pain or stress, emotions in fake face videos, and recognizing the gesture, behavior, and activities of people.�� “Her funding and research collaborations in health and security areas are important as these are areas of national priority and will continue to attract funding and have many research challenges ahead,” said Dr. Adel Elmaghraby, professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Louisville. “Dr. Mariofanna Milanova has also chaired several international conferences and edited or coedited several books and proceedings in addition to her own publications. This is a clear indication that she has gained international recognition in her field and will continue to do so.” Dr. Milanova tries to create a bridge between research, workforce needs, and the classroom. She brings industry partners into her classes, so the students learn about different ideas and real-world problems from industry. Current students are participating in several of her research projects and grants. “Over the past ten years, Dr. Milanova has not only mentored budding high school researchers participating in the High School Research Program, but she has effectively worked with ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students and exposed them to different areas of her research,” said Vernard Henley Jr., assistant dean of the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology. “Dr. Milanova has been able to involve ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students in cutting edge research while encouraging them to inquire about other potential applications of the research.” Millanova is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a Fulbright alum, and has been nominated as an International Association of Pattern Recognition (IAPR) Fellow.�� Milanova has a master’s degree in electrical engineering, master’s degree in artificial intelligence, and Ph.D. in computer vision and machine learning, all from Technical University in Sofia, Bulgaria. She also completed post-doctoral research in computer vision at the University of Paderborn in Germany and post-doctoral research in biomedical engineering at the University of Porto in Portugal.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock team wins $10,000 in Arkansas Governor’s Cup

John Hill — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 15:59:03 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock team won $10,000 and third place in the Walton Family Foundation Graduate Division of the Arkansas Governor’s Cup for their business plan pitch for a technology that creates Avatar-based chatbots. The awards were announced during a virtual awards ceremony on April 9. Team Face-to-Face consists of Joseph Kready, a senior computer science major from North Little Rock, and Thomas Marcoux, a doctoral student in computer and information science from France. Both team members are researchers at the Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS), a research group run by Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy endowed chair and distinguished professor of information science at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “We feel honored by this award,” Marcoux said. “We have put a lot of time and effort in the business plan and are very excited to see our work pay off and receive some validation for our ideas.” Face-To-Face is an innovative technology that creates Avatar-based chatbots that replace existing text-based chat bot solutions. The technology was developed based on research by Dr. Mariofanna Milanova, a professor of computer science. “The idea stemmed from Dr. Milanova’s research on measuring mood through text and tonality,” Marcoux said. “While we were exploring different markets for the competition, we realized the potential to apply that research to improve chatbots and give them some emotional intelligence.” What makes Face-to-Face unique is that similar products aren’t taking advantage of audio-visual technology to improve chatbots. “With avatars, we can display emotion during the conversation at a level that’s never been done before,” Kready said. Team mentor and coach Martial Trigeaud, an adjunct business professor at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, said he was very happy with the team’s performance and noted that Face-to-Face is the first ��Vlog��ý Little Rock team to place in the Graduate Division of the Arkansas Governor’s Cup since 2009. “The business plan they presented was really good,” Trigeaud said. “We’ve worked since August on different points of the business model. I am very pleased with all the hard work from the students.” Now that the Arkansas Governor’s Cup is over, Marcoux and Kready plan to conduct more research and improve their product before seeking additional entrepreneurial funding opportunities. “While developing the idea, we discovered quite a few hurdles to overcome,” Marcoux said. “The development of dynamic avatars is a new space and requires much research and development. Given current events, we plan on building test implementations of avatar-based chatbots and improving the technology stack in this area before seeking further funding.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock students win $4,000 prize in Business Plan Competition

John Hill — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 15:55:48 +0000

Three students from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock have won a $4,000 prize in the e-Fest Business Plan Competition for their pitch for CloudCare, a smart baby monitoring app designed by a ��Vlog��ý Little Rock professor.�� The CloudCare Team was announced as one of 25 finalists from North America in the . Members of CloudCare include Claire Herman, a junior finance and economics major from Bigelow, Philip Plouch, a sophomore computer science major from Little Rock, and Justin Priest, a junior finance and economics major from Jacksonville. “Being able to build and develop a viable business plan while still pursuing our respective degrees has been an incredible experience,” Herman said. “It’s definitely been challenging, but we are grateful for the opportunity to grow both professionally and academically while representing ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Creating a video pitch came with its own unique challenges, but we enjoyed the exciting opportunity to represent CloudCare.” The team was pitching CloudCare, a smart baby monitoring app that works alongside the parent by generating real-time push notifications based on a baby’s movements and breathing patterns. The technology was developed by Dr. Mariofanna Milanova, a professor of computer science, and her research team. “The app is unique as it uses smart technology to send real-time notifications to parents based on best sleeping practices,” Herman said. “For example, best sleeping practices recommend that babies sleep on their back. If a baby were to turn on its stomach, the parent would immediately receive a notification reminding them to let the baby sleep on its back. The app also tracks a baby’s sleeping patterns so that parents can make the best choices for their baby.” Finalists for e-Fest usually receive an all-expenses paid trip to the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship in Minneapolis for a three-day competition and networking event in April, where they compete for $250,000 in prize money. However, this year’s event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to support from the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation, the student teams received a $3,000 award, and their universities received a $1,000 grant. “We are grateful for our advisor, Martial Trigeaud, who provided invaluable insight and guidance, Dr. Milanova and her team for developing the technology and their continued support, and the College of Business,” Herman said.

Doctoral student creates software that can detect emotions

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 22 May 2019 12:47:32 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock graduate has created a computer program that can identify emotions on a person’s face in real time.�� Suzan Anwar, of Little Rock, graduated May 11 from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock with a Ph.D. in computer and information science. In August, she will begin a new position as an assistant professor of computer science at Philander Smith College, where she has taught robotics courses for the past year. �� Anwar and her dissertation advisor, Dr. Mariofanna Milanova, professor of computer science, created a face analysis package that uses face and eye detection and eye tracking software to recognize emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, and surprise. The second part of the system can track the position of a person’s head and what their eyes are looking at when they feel a specific emotion. The software has the potential for a variety of real-world applications. “I’d like for it to be used in the medical field to help kids with special needs,” Anwar said. “It can be used in marketing to see what products are grabbing people’s attention. In education, you can use it for non-native speakers to see what emotions they experience while learning a new language.” The software has already been used to ensure that weary truck drivers do not fall asleep at the wheel. “A trucking company uses it to give alerts to truck drivers who are falling asleep while driving,” Anwar said. “An alarm will go off on the driver’s phone, and the trucking company will receive a call to say they have a driver asleep.” Anwar also sees a future for the application in security to identify people who are about to commit a criminal act. “We’ve previously worked on a project for airport security,” she said. “We can link facial and emotion recognition with behaviors to learn if a person is acting suspiciously. When we see images or videos of attacks in the news, the people responsible are often acting suspiciously. If someone had noticed, I think eventually we could avoid a lot of these attacks.” Anwar earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science in Iraq, where she worked as a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at Salahaddin University for 12 years. “My husband (Jarjees Khaidir) started here in 2009 while I was back in Iraq completing my master’s degree,” she said. “He encouraged me to apply to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock after he saw how good the Department of Computer Science is.”

Suzan Anwar is a graduate student researching real-time facial recognition and eye-gaze estimation. Photo by Ben Krain.

Now that her studies are completed, Anwar, her husband, and three children are going on a trip to visit her family in Iraq before she begins her faculty position at Philander Smith in August. The couple has two daughters, 14 and 17, as well as a 4-year-old son, whom Anwar calls her “Ph.D. baby,” since she had him during her first year of doctoral studies. As an instructor and research assistant at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Anwar’s research all began with a memorable trip to Arkansas Children’s Hospital. “I had a course with Dr. Milanova, and you have to submit a project at the end of the semester,” she said. “We took a trip to Arkansas Children’s Hospital, where the researchers showed us a computer with a special camera. Children with autism would sit in front of the computer, and it would do emotion detection and eye gaze analysis. The problem is that kids don’t want to sit still for the research. The researchers asked if we could develop software that can detect emotions and gaze estimation on a tablet.” After a year, Anwar and Milanova completed a program that can track the children’s emotion and eye gaze all while they are playing games on a tablet. “The kids don’t even know the system is working while they are playing on the tablet,” Anwar said. “Children with autism don’t often look people in the eye. Sometimes, they only communicate through games. We saw that children show emotion while they are playing on the tablet, and the researchers are hoping to learn how this can help children with autism communicate better.” At ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Anwar has won several awards, including the Outstanding First Year Ph.D. Student Award and the Top Ph.D. Student Award from the Department of Computer Science. Additionally, she has won the Applied Innovation Award and Outstanding Publication Award at the College of Engineering and Information Technology Open House.

Indian students complete summer research program at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 13:15:39 +0000

A group of nine students from India completed internships in cutting-edge research areas at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock this summer.�� Dr. Seshandri Mohan, professor of systems engineering, initiated the international exchange program between ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and Vishwaniketan, an institution affiliated with the in India. Participants included Rahul Sharma, Yash Dutt Sharma, Shubham Gupta, Tanya Gupta, Yanshshree Anil Patil, Mohan Patle, Varad Anil Deshpande, Vatsal Paresh Gala, and Rajeev Kishore Sugandhi. The partnership brought Vishwaniketan students who are pursuing undergraduate degrees in engineering, computer science, information technology, and mechanical engineering to Little Rock for a six-week research internship from June 19 to July 29. Upon completion of the internships, the students returned to their home universities to complete their degrees. ��Their completion of the international research internship will give them an advantage on their resumes. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock has previously conducted similar exchange programs with Pondicherry University, SRM University, and Don Boscoe University, all in India. Mohan said many of the students who participated in these internships returned to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to pursue a graduate degree. “The students say they are enriched by this experience beyond what they expected out of it,” Mohan said. “They understand how to take responsibility and pursue research internships. Hopefully, some of them will return to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock.” The students conducted research and experiments in four areas: robotics mentored by Dr. Andrew Wright, associate professor of systems engineering, and graduate assistant Trigun Maroo; entity resolution mentored by Dr. John Talburt, professor of information science and Acxiom Chair of Information Quality, and graduate assistant Yumeng Ye; machine learning mentored by Dr. Mariofanna Milanova, professor of computer science; and Internet of Things mentored by Mohan and graduate assistant Hadi Salman. In the Internet of Things project, interns Mohan Patle, Yashshree Anil Patil, and Shubam Gupta built devices that can be used in smart homes. According to Mohan, Internet of Things refers to devices that are connected to the Internet. Currently, the world contains more than 12 billion internet-connected devices, a number which could increase to 50 billion by 2020. Students programmed smart sensors to perform a variety of smart home functions. They programmed pressure sensors that could be used to build a smart refrigerator, range sensors that can detect motion to know when to activate lights, and a rain sensor that could be used to control shutters. As part of the machine learning project, interns Vatsal Gala and Varad Deshpande helped build a system that can predict the sentiments for commercial products by analyzing images and reviews posted on an ecommerce website. “Thousands of websites are selling millions of products online showing their images and stating the description of the product,” Milanova said. “The opinion mining is done by extracting various features from text and images that depict various sentiments. The most important part of the project was to train the machine on this set of extracted features and calculated data so that the machine can predict the values of sentiment for a new product (entity).” In the entity and identity resolution project, interns Tanya Gupta and Rahul Sharma used an open source software package called OYSTER that was developed at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to determine when records in an information system are about the same entity or different entity. Entities can be students, patients, customers, products, and locations. Entity and identity resolution is especially important in health care so patients can receive the proper treatment. “If you don’t bring together all of a patient’s records of diagnoses, tests, and previous treatments, it could easily lead the patient’s healthcare providers to make the wrong treatment decisions,” said Talburt, who mentored the interns. “Conversely, mixing the information together from two different patients could have many adverse consequences as well.” Gupta and Sharma took to OYSTER so well that they are considering using OYSTER to start a small business in India to help companies with entity resolution and data integration problems. In the upper right photo, nine college students from India completed six-week internships in cutting-edge research areas at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock this summer. The students also visited Gov. Asa Hutchinson at the Arkansas Governor’s Manson in Little Rock. Pictured, from left to right, are Yash Dutt Sharma, Yashshree Anil Patil, Tanya Gupta, Rajeev Sugandhi, Shubham Gupta, Sachin Sharma, Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Seshadri Mohan, Rahul More, Rahul Sharma, Vatsal Gala, Mohan Patle, and Varad Anil Deshpande.

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

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Researchers Accepted to NSF I-Corps, Delta I-Fund Entrepreneurial Programs

����Vlog��ý Little Rock will offer cybersecurity certificate through higher education partnership