As a lifelong computer user, undergraduate Josh Dafoe has always thought that it would be amazing to work to improve computer systems, helping people harness the vast potential of these machines in everyday life.
He says that pursuing a computer science degree is giving him a better understanding of how he may do this, while his minor in mathematics adds strong foundations with which to explore the mathematics inherent in computing systems.
“There is so much I can do in CS,” says Dafoe. “There is so much to learn and explore while all of the tools to do so are right in front of me, all the time. I really like being able to learn about something interesting, and explore its consequences in real-time.”
Dafoe has been awarded a 2023 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), for which recipients conduct a research project under the guidance of a Michigan Tech faculty mentor. Highly competitive, the SURF fellowship is awarded to only about 16 Michigan Tech undergraduate students each year.
“I applied for the SURF award to better have the means to pursue my research goals,” says Dafoe. “The award will let me focus more on learning and researching the things that interest me, and building systems that shape the future.”
For his SURF project, Dafoe will work with Associate Professor Bo Chen, Computer Science department, in the Secure and Privacy (SnP) lab where Dafoe has worked as an undergraduate research assistant since summer 2022. They will pursue Chen’s National Science Foundation (NSF) research project, “Hardware-assisted Self-repairing in Decentralized Cloud Storage against Malicious Attacks.”
Dafoe will be working on aspects of a decentralized cloud storage system, which allows users to outsource their data to any “peer” who wishes to provide data storage to the system.
“This is different from the traditional centralized cloud storage where the data are outsourced to large companies maintaining significant storage resources,” says Dafoe. “The benefits of such a system are that it can be faster, more secure, and less expensive. The novelty of our approach is in how the system is secured to provide potentially higher security as well as less system burden on data maintenance than current solutions.”
“This project can make an impact in a developing area of computer science that is likely to have a significant impact on users of computing systems,” says Dafoe. “Decentralized cloud computing will bring about significant interconnectedness between all computing devices, which is key to maximizing the utilization of these systems.”
Dafoe says that Bo Chen has been very supportive in his undergraduate research, providing him with research problems to tackle, discussing ideas, suggesting research directions, and providing the resources necessary to perform the research well.
“I have learned a lot about the problems I am researching while working with Dr. Chen and have gained competency in performing independent research through his guidance,” says Dafoe.
Dafoe co-authored a research poster published in the proceedings of the 2022 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, November 2022. The poster, “Data Recovery from Ransomware Attacks via File System Forensics and Flash Translation Layer Data Extraction,” is co-authored by Michigan Tech CS graduate student Niusen Chen and Bo Chen.
Dafoe expects to graduate in 2025. And while not yet fully committed, he is very interested in pursuing a graduate degree in a field of computer science.
Outside the Lab
Outside of the lab and the classroom, Dafoe has been involved with His House Christian fellowship since the first week of his first year on campus. He holds a leadership position with the fellowship.
“My involvement with His House has taught me so much about what it is to be a Christian and has built up both my ability and desire to understand the biblical stories, which are foundational to my life in faith,” says Dafoe. “It has provided a great community of people with whom I have become good friends and had many great experiences.”
“I also love the local area, with many amazing outdoor experiences. It is a great area to explore many hobbies and interests,” he says.
His House Christian Fellowship is a ministry that reaches out to college and university students with the story of Jesus Christ. Currently, 12 Michigan colleges and universities have His House ministries, according to the organization’s website.