The 2019 Trusted CI Open Science Cybersecurity Fellows are:
Shafaq Chaudhry, Assistant director of graduate and research IT at the University of Central Florida. Shafaq's research interests include public safety communications, wireless networks and Software-Defined Networking. She is the Central Florida coordinator for Aspirations in Computing (AiC) program of National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and the president of the Women in EECS group at UCF. Shafaq has been serving on the reviewer committee for the Grace Hopper Celebration conference since 2017.
Matias Carrasco Kind, Senior research and data scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Matias is an expert in scientific cloud computing and scientific platforms.His interests in astrophysics are in cosmology, extragalactic astronomy, machine and deep learning, especially in large scale structures, galaxy formation and evolution, and photometric redshift estimation. He is also interested in data-intensive science, data visualization, image processing, web applications, scientific platforms, software engineering and architecture, and cyberinfrastructure in general.
Gabriella Perez, Research technology compliance specialist at the University of Iowa. Gabriella has served as the University of Iowa’s Research Technology Compliance Specialist since the position was created in May 2017. She is the primary campus point-of-contact for technology compliance questions among researchers and the campus OneIT network of technical specialists who utilize the campus computing cluster. She serves as a cybersecurity and compliance liaison with the Division of Sponsored Programs, the Human Subjects Office, and the UI Libraries.
Aunshul Rege, Associate Professor with the Department of Criminal Justice at Temple University. Anushul has been researching proactive cybersecurity in the context of cybercrimes against critical infrastructures for over 10 years. Specifically, her research examines adversarial and defender behavior, decision-making, adaptations, modus operandi, and group dynamics. Aunshul is also passionate about educating the next generation workforce across the social and hard sciences about the relevance of the human factor in cybersecurity through experiential learning.
Chrysafis Vogiatzis, Assistant professor at North Carolina A&T State University. Chrysafis' current research interests lie in network optimization and combinatorial optimization, along with their vast applications in modern socio-technical and biological systems. One of the main axes of his research is focusing on the study of centrality metrics in biological, social, and infrastructure networks, in order to identify groups and persons of interest.
S. Jay Yang, Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Jay is currently a Professor and the Department Head for the Department of Computer Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology and also serves as the Director of Global Outreach in the Center of Cybersecurity at RIT. His research group has developed several pioneering machine learning, attack modeling, and simulation systems to provide predictive analytics and anticipatory cyber defense. His earlier works included FuSIA, VTAC, ViSAw, F-VLMM, and attack obfuscation modeling.
The Fellows will receive training consisting of a Virtual Institute, providing 20 hours of basic cybersecurity training over six months. The training will be delivered by Trusted CI staff and invited speakers. The Virtual Institute will be presented as a weekly series via Zoom and recorded to be publicly available for later online viewing. Travel support is budgeted (during their first year only) to cover fellows’ attendance at the NSF Cybersecurity Summit, PEARC, and one professional development opportunity agreed to with Trusted CI.
The Fellows will be added to an email list to discuss any challenges they encounter that will receive prioritized attention from Trusted CI staff. Trusted CI will recognize the Fellows on its website and social media. Fellowships are funded for one year, after which the Trusted CI Fellows will be encouraged to continue participating in Trusted CI activities in the years following their fellowship year.
After their training in the Virtual Institute, Fellows, with assistance from the Trusted CI team, are expected to help their science community with cybersecurity and make them aware of Trusted CI for complex needs. By the end of the year, they will be expected to present or write a short white paper on the cybersecurity needs of their community and some initial steps they will take (or have taken) to address these needs. After the Fellowship year Trusted CI will continue to recognize the cohort of Fellows and give them prioritized attention. Over the years, this growing cohort of Fellows will broaden and diversify Trusted CI’s impact.
About the Trusted CI Fellows Program
Trusted CI serves the scientific community as the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, providing leadership in and assistance in cybersecurity in the support of research. In 2019, Trusted CI is establishing an Open Science Cybersecurity Fellows program. This program will establish and support a network of Fellows with diversity in both geography and scientific discipline. These fellows will have access to training and other resources to foster their professional development in cybersecurity. In exchange, they will champion cybersecurity for science in their scientific and geographic communities, and communicate challenges and successful practices to Trusted CI.
Fellows come from a variety of career stages. They demonstrate a passion for their area, the ability to communicate ideas effectively, and a real interest in the role of cybersecurity in research. Fellows are empowered to talk about cybersecurity to a wider audience, network with others who share a passion for cybersecurity for open science, and learn key skills that benefit them and their collaborators.
