Institute of Computing and Cybersystems (ICC) Blog

You are invited to spend one-zero-one-zero—that is, 10 minutes—with Dr. Charles Wallace on Wednesday, December 9, from 5:30 to 5:40 p.m.

Wallace is associate dean for curriculum and instruction and associate professor of computer science in the College of Computing at Michigan Tech. Wallace is a researcher with the ICC’s Human-Centered Computing and Computing Education research groups.

In his informal discussion, Dr. Wallace will talk about computing at Michigan Tech, his research on how humans can better understand, build, and use software, and answer your questions.

We look forward to spending 1010 minutes with you!

Join 1010 with Chuck Wallace here.

Next week, on Wednesday, December 15, at 5:30 p.m., Assistant Professor Dr. Nathir Rawashdeh, Applied Computing, will present his current research work, including his use of artificial intelligence for autonomous driving on snow covered roads, and a mobile robot using ultraviolet light to disinfect indoor spaces.

Did you miss 1010 with Chuck Wallace on December 9? Watch the video below.

Play – 1010 with … Chuck Wallace, Assoc. Prof, Computer Science, December 9, 2020.

Joel LeBlanc, senior research scientist, Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI), will present the lecture, “Testing the Validity of Physical (Software) Models in Inverse Problems,” at 3 p.m. Friday, Read the blog post.

Mechanical Engineering student Umamaheswar Puttur will presdent a mster’s defense, “Development and Experimental Investigation of Lung-Inspired 3D-Printed Desiccant-Coated Heat Exchanger,” on Wednesday, December 2, 2020, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Puttur is advised by Sajjad Bigham.

Attend virtually here.

Electrical and Computer Engineering MS student Adesoji Tolulope Bello will defend at 2 p.m. Thursday (Dec 3) via Zoom.

The title of his presentation is “Implementation of the Channel-Aware Routing Protocol in the Network Simulator for Underwater Acoustic Communication Networking.” Bello’s advisor is Zhaohui Wang (ECE).

by Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics

The next virtual Graduate Seminar Speaker will be held at 4 p.m. tomorrow (Dec. 3) via Zoom. Sarah Sun (ME-EM) will present “E-Logo: Embroidered Wearable Electronics.”

Sun is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics and an affiliated associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Michigan Tech since 2014.

 Today (Dec. 1) is #GivingTuesday, a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.

GivingTuesday was created in 2012 and has grown into a global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.

How you can participate at Michigan Tech:

• Support any area of campus
A gift to Michigan Tech or any specific area of campus will help us prepare students to create the future. Give now.

• Help Michigan Tech students through scholarships and fellowships
Scholarship/fellowship funding is Michigan Tech’s top strategic priority. This is especially true now with the need created by COVID-19. Donor-funded scholarships/fellowships come through two sources — the Annual Scholarship/Fellowship Fund and the Endowed Scholarship/Fellowship Fund. Learn more.

• Make a gift to the Husky Emergency Assistance Fund (HEAF)
The HEAF has been established to help provide financial relief for the Michigan Tech campus community (students and employees) who are experiencing financial hardship as a result of crises (including COVID-19). Donate to the HEAF.

• Donate food or resources to the Husky Food Access Network
The on-campus food pantry has helped hundreds of students in their time of need. Make a financial donation or email huskyfan@mtu.edu to coordinate a food donation during social distancing protocol.

Last year, GivingTuesday generated $2 billion in giving, just in the United States, and inspired millions of people worldwide to volunteer, perform countless acts of kindness, and donate their voices, time, money, and goods.

Join the movement! Make a gift to Michigan Tech today.

Computer Science graduate student Ann Ciesla will present her master’s defense on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. The presentation is titled, “Digital Skills Assessment: A Tool for Assessing the Digital Literacy of Older Adults.”

Ciesla is advised by Associate Professor Charles Wallace, Computer Science.

Attend the defense virtually here.

Assistant Professor Sidike Paheding, Applied Computing, will present his lecture, “Deep Neural Networks for UAV and Satellite Remote Sensing Image Analysis,” on Dec. 11, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. via online meeting.

Paheding’s research focuses on the areas of computer vision, machine learning, deep learning, image/video processing, and remote sensing.

The lecture is presented by the Department of Computer Science. Join the Zoom lecture here.

Lecture Abstract

Remote sensing data can provide non-destructive and instantaneous estimates of the earth’s surface over a large area, and has been accepted as a valuable tool for agriculture, weather, forestry, defense, biodiversity, etc. In recent years, deep neural networks (DNN), as a subset of machine learning. for remote sensing has gained significant interest due to advances in algorithm development, computing power, and sensor systems.

This talk will start with remote sensing image enhancement framework, and then primarily focuses on DNN architectures for crop yield prediction and heterogeneous agricultural landscape mapping using UAV and satellite imagery.

Speaker Biography

Paheding is an associate editor of the Springer journal Signal, Image, and Video Processing, ASPRS Journal Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, and serves as a guest editor/reviewer for a number of reputed journals. He has advised students at undergraduate, M.S., and Ph.D. levels, and authored/coauthored close to 100 research articles.

Bo Chen, Computer Science, has been awarded a Fall 2020 REF Research Seed Grant (REF-RS) for his project, “Towards Secure and Reliable Decentralized Cloud Storage.” Funding for the 12-month, $25,800 award begins on January 1, 2021.

“This grant will provide significant help to advance my current research,” says Chen. “This is really exciting news for me.”

Bo Chen is a researcher with the ICC’s Cybersecurity and Computing Education research groups.

As a recipient of the REF seed grant, which is awarded by the Michigan Tech Office of the Vice President for Research, Chen will participate in review and feedback for the next round of REF proposals. View the full list of Fall 2020 REF award recipients here.

Abstract

A decentralized cloud storage system eliminates the need of dedicated computing infrastructures by allowing peers which have spare storage space to join the network and to provide storage service. Compared to the conventional centralized cloud storage system, it can bring significant benefits including cheaper storage cost, better fault tolerance, greater scalability, as well as more efficient data storing and retrieval, making it well fit the emerging Internet of things (IoT) applications.

While bringing immense benefits, the decentralized cloud storage system also raises significant security concerns, since the storage peers are much less reputable than the traditional data centers and may more likely misbehave.

This project thus aims to build a secure and reliable decentralized cloud storage system which can serve as the cloud infrastructure for future IoT applications. The project will actively investigate two fundamental security issues faced by the decentralized cloud storage system: 1) How can we prevent the malicious storage peers from stealing the data? 2) How can we ensure that once the data are stored into the system, they are always retrievable even if the storage peers misbehave?

To address the aforementioned issues in an untrusted p2p environment, the PI will integrate efficient integrity checking with the blockchain, as well as the broadly equipped secure hardware like Intel SGX. The PI will also broaden the educational impact of the proposed project by actively involving both graduate and undergraduate students from the MTU cybersecurity programs.

by Vice President for Research Office

The Vice President for Research Office announces the Fall 2020 REF awards. Thanks to the individual REF reviewers and the REF review panelists, as well as the deans and department chairs, for their time spent on this important internal research award process.

Research Seed Grants:

• Sajjad Bigham, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
• Bo Chen, Computer Science
• Daniel Dowden, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Ana Dyreson, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
• Hassan Masoud, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
• Xinyu Ye, Civil and Environmental Engineering