Institute of Computing and Cybersystems (ICC) Blog

Fall 2021 Finishing Fellowship Nominations Open

Published May 19, 2021

by Debra Charlesworth, Graduate School

Applications for Fall 2021 Finishing Fellowships are being accepted and are due no later than 4 p.m. June 30 to the Graduate School. Please email applications to gradschool@mtu.edu.

Instructions on the application and evaluation process are found online. Students are eligible if all of the following criteria are met:

Must be a Ph.D. student.
Must expect to finish during the semester supported as a finishing fellow.
Must have submitted no more than one previous application for a Finishing Fellowship.
Must be eligible for candidacy (tuition charged at Research Mode rate) at the time of application.
Must not hold a final oral examination (“defense”) prior to the start of the award semester.

Finishing Fellowships provide support to Ph.D. candidates who are close to completing their degrees. These fellowships are available through the generosity of alumni and friends of the University. They are intended to recognize outstanding Ph.D. candidates who are in need of financial support to finish their degrees and are also contributing to the attainment of goals outlined in The Michigan Tech Plan.

The Graduate School anticipates funding up to 10 fellowships, with support ranging from $2,000 to full support (stipend plus tuition). Students who receive full support through a Finishing Fellowship may not accept any other employment. For example, students cannot be fully supported by a Finishing Fellowship and accept support as a GTA or GRA.

Dr. Junqiao Qiu Awarded $174.8K NSF pre-CAREER Grant

Published May 14, 2021

By Karen Johnson

Dr. Junqiao Qiu, Computer Science, has been awarded a two-year, $174,797 NSF pre-CAREER grant, which supports research independence among early-career academicians

The project is titled, “CRII: SHF: GPU-accelerated FSM computations with advanced speculation.”

Dr. Qiu’s research focuses on parallel computing, programming systems, and compiler optimization.

He is a member of the Scalable Architectures and Systems research group of the Institute of Computing and Cybersystems (ICC).

View the grant on the NSF website.

Abstract

Finite State Machine (FSM)-based computations have played critical roles in a variety of important applications, ranging from cyber security and data analytics to software engineering and hardware design. Due to the growing data volumes and limitations on computer processing power, nowadays FSM efficiency is greatly constrained, and a new dimension of efficiency optimization is desired. This project proposes a novel framework to enhance the computing efficiency of FSM-based computations on GPUs. The combination of GPU acceleration and speculative parallelization developed in the proposed framework shows promise for boosting performance of FSM computations and presents the potential to optimize even more general non-FSM computations.

This research investigates how to build up the synergy between highly-parallel GPU architectures and FSM computations. The key idea is exploring multiple dimensions of parallelism for increasing compute utilization as well as reducing data-movement overheads. Additionally, this research designs and integrates advanced speculative parallelization into FSM computations. The advanced speculative parallelization not only enables more effective predictors on different FSMs, it also provides efficient speculative-thread scheduling. All these optimizations will be built into a framework that further explores the trade-offs between different objectives and automatically optimizes application configurations based on the given objectives. Finally, this research seeks to enlarge the applicability of the envisioned results, and it brings the preliminary exploration about a new dimension of computing efficiency for irregular computations as well as applications associated with speculative parallelization.

Dr. Qiu’s lab has openings (RA/TA support) for self-motivated students who are interested in doing system research. For more information, please email Dr. Qiu at junqiaoq@mtu.edu.

Pursue a Cybersecurity Career with this Generous NSF CyberCorps Scholarship

Published May 12, 2021

By Karen Johnson

Apply now for Michigan Tech’s 2021-22 cohort of Cybersecurity Scholars and jumpstart your cybersecurity career!

The deadline to apply is June 1, 2021.

This generous scholarship opportunity provides up to three years of tuition and annual stipend.

Then, following completion of your degree, you’ll work in a cybersecurity-related position for a federal, state, local, or tribal agency for up to three years– a period equal to the length of your scholarship.

See full guidelines, requirements, and application information on the SFS website: mtu.edu/sfs.

Eligible Degree Programs

Ready to apply? Visit mtu.edu/sfs

Questions? Email sfs@mtu.edu

Or Contact: Project PI Profesor Yu Cai, or any key faculty member: Professor Jean Mayo, Professor Todd O. Arney, Professor Bo Chen, Professor Chee-Wooi Ten, Professor Kedmon N. Hungwe, and Dr. Laura Kasson Fiss.

The Michigan Tech SFS Program

The SFS program at Michigan Tech involves multiple programs and departments, including the College of Computing and its departments of Applied Computing and Computer Science; the College of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and the College of Business’s Management Information Systems B.S. program.

“The U.S. is facing a significant shortage of well-trained and well-prepared cybersecurity professionals,” said Dr. Yu Cai, professor of applied computing and the principal investigator of the grant. “This new scholarship will continue to develop Michigan Tech’s national and international reputation as a leader and innovator in cybersecurity education, research and outreach activities.”

The five-year, $3.3 million NSF grant provides up to three years of full scholarship support for 20 Michigan Tech undergraduate and graduate students.

About the NSF Scholarship

Protecting worldwide digital infrastructure has become an urgent focus of industry and government. And employment in this sector is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years.

In response, the National Science Foundation CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service (SFS) program was introduced as a nationwide program to recruit and train the next generation of information technology professionals, industrial control system security professionals, and security managers.

Start Your Cybersecurity Career with this Generous CyberCorps Scholarship

Published May 12, 2021

By Karen Johnson

Apply now for Michigan Tech’s 2021-22 cohort of Cybersecurity Scholars and jumpstart your cybersecurity career!

The deadline to apply is June 1, 2021.

This generous scholarship opportunity provides up to three years of tuition and annual stipend.

Then, following completion of your degree, you’ll work in a cybersecurity-related position for a federal, state, local, or tribal agency for up to three years– a period equal to the length of your scholarship.

See full guidelines, requirements, and application information on the SFS website: mtu.edu/sfs.

Eligible Degree Programs

Ready to apply? Visit mtu.edu/sfs

Questions? Email sfs@mtu.edu

Or Contact: Project PI Profesor Yu Cai, or any key faculty member: Professor Jean Mayo, Professor Todd O. Arney, Professor Bo Chen, Professor Chee-Wooi Ten, Professor Kedmon N. Hungwe, and Dr. Laura Kasson Fiss.

The Michigan Tech SFS Program

The SFS program at Michigan Tech involves multiple programs and departments, including the College of Computing and its departments of Applied Computing and Computer Science; the College of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and the College of Business’s Management Information Systems B.S. program.

“The U.S. is facing a significant shortage of well-trained and well-prepared cybersecurity professionals,” said Dr. Yu Cai, professor of applied computing and the principal investigator of the grant. “This new scholarship will continue to develop Michigan Tech’s national and international reputation as a leader and innovator in cybersecurity education, research and outreach activities.”

The five-year, $3.3 million NSF grant provides up to three years of full scholarship support for 20 Michigan Tech undergraduate and graduate students.

About the NSF Scholarship

Protecting worldwide digital infrastructure has become an urgent focus of industry and government. And employment in this sector is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years.

In response, the National Science Foundation CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service (SFS) program was introduced as a nationwide program to recruit and train the next generation of information technology professionals, industrial control system security professionals, and security managers.

Undergrad Summer Lab Positions: Autonomous Driving Research

Published May 12, 2021

By Karen Johnson

Conference on Applied Cryptography: Call for Participation

Published May 11, 2021

By Karen Johnson

The 2021 EAI International Conference on Applied Cryptography in Computer and Communications (AC3 2021) takes place May 15-16, 2021.

Register for the virtual conference here.

Dr. Bo Chen, Computer Science, founding general chair of the new EAI conference, says the conference has brought together researchers, developers and practitioners from around the world who will focus on, discuss, and explore the area of applied cryptography in computer and communication systems.

Conference Topics

Conference topics include all aspects of applied cryptography, including symmetric cryptography, public-key cryptography, cryptographic protocols, cryptographic implementations, cryptographic standards and practices, as well as using cryptography to solve real-world problems.

Technical Program

The AC3 2021 technical program includes four main conference tracks at which 11 papers will be presented virtually in oral presentations.

Track 1 – Blockchain
Track 2 – Authentication
Track 3 – Secure Computation
4 – Practical Crypto Application. Aside from the high-quality technical paper presentations, the technical program also features two keynote speeches, and one technical workshop.

Keynotes

The two keynote speeches will be delivered by Prof. Kui Ren (ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow), Zhejiang University, China; and IEEE Fellow Prof. Robert Deng, Singapore Management University.

Workshop

A workshop, the First International Workshop on Security for Internet of Things (IOTS 2021), includes four technical papers which aim to develop cryptographic techniques for ensuring the IoT security. The conference, originally planned to be held in Xiamen China, was moved it online for the health and safety of participants.

Register to participate in the virtual conference here. Use the “Sign up for free access to the livestream” option.

European Alliance for Innovation (EAI) is an international professional community and a nonprofit organization. The goal of EAI is to empower the global ICT research and innovation community, and to promote cooperation between European and International ICT communities.

EAI Conferences span the globe with opportunities to meet, explore, and contribute to the world of ICT research. With 100+ annual events (including MobiQuitous, SecureComm, etc.), EAI is one of the world’s most prolific scientific communities.

EAI Conferences are published via Springer’s LNICST and EAI’s EUDL, and they are indexed in all leading indexing services, including EI, ISI, Scopus, CrossRef, Google Scholar, dblp, MAS, EBSCO, Microsoft Academic Search, CiteSeerX, and more.

Sidike Paheding, AC, Awarded R-D Grant by Purdue University

Published May 11, 2021

By Karen Johnson

Sidike Paheding (AC/ICC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $19,037 research and development grant from Purdue University. The two-year project is titled, “Cybersecurity Modules Aligned with Undergraduate Computer Science and Engineering Curricula.”

The project aims to serve the national interest by improving how cybersecurity concepts are taught in undergraduate computing curricula.

The grant is a sub-award of a $159,417 Purdue University NSF project . View that project here.

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving how cybersecurity concepts are taught in undergraduate computing curricula. The need to design and maintain cyber-secure computing systems is increasingly important. As a result, the future technology workforce must be trained to have a security mindset, so that they consider cybersecurity during rather than after system design. This project aims to achieve this goal by building plug-and-play, hands-on cybersecurity modules for core courses in Computer Engineering, and Computer Science and Engineering. The modules will align with the curricula recommended by the Association for Computing Machinery and will be designed for easy adoption into computing programs nationwide. Modules will be designed for integration into both introductory and advanced courses, thus helping students develop in-depth understanding of cybersecurity as they progress through their computing curriculum. It is expected that the project will encourage more students to pursue careers or higher degrees in the field of cybersecurity.

The project will examine how the modules may be best integrated into existing curricula and the effects of the modules on student learning and interest in cybersecurity. Assessment will leverage several methods including (a) a task load index to quantify rigor, (b) surveys to gain insight into the development of students’ security mindset and perceptions of cybersecurity, and (c) analysis of learning using analytical course rubrics. Deliverables of this project will include a suite of plug-and-play cybersecurity modules for Computer Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering courses that span from introductory to advanced levels and that meet standards for content breadth and depth. The results will be disseminated through publications, presentations, press releases, and social media to ensure that project outcomes are shared widely. The NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.

Chinmay Kondekar, MS in Electrical Engineering Graduate, 2021

Published April 30, 2021

By Karen Johnson

Graduation Celebration Friday

Published April 30, 2021

By Karen Johnson

ICC

by Mark Wilcox, University Marketing and Communications

Michigan Tech is celebrating the accomplishments of more than 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students who completed their degrees by the end of the spring 2021 semester. Despite the lack of a formal ceremony due to COVID-19 restrictions, more than 600 undergraduate and graduate students are expected to participate in a physically distanced celebration tomorrow (April 30) throughout the afternoon.

The Graduation Celebration website shines a spotlight on the graduating class and provides links for graduates, their families and friends, and the community. Graduates and alumni can share their favorite memories and view profiles created by the Class of 2021.

Among the undergraduates, 99 will graduate cum laude, 116 magna cum laude and 68 summa cum laude. In the Graduate School, there will be 31 doctorates awarded, along with 203 Master of Science degrees, 46 graduate certificates, 27 Master of Business Administration degrees, two Master of Forestry degrees, five Master of Geographic Information Science degrees, and 46 graduate certificates.

The Air Force ROTC and Army ROTC will conduct a joint commissioning ceremony at 7:30 a.m. Saturday (May 1) at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. Eleven cadets will be commissioned as officers in the Air Force and five cadets will be commissioned as officers in the Army. Due to limited seating, a livestream ceremony will be available via Zoom.

One of the highlights of Michigan Tech’s traditional commencement ceremony is an address by a member of the graduate class. Even without a formal ceremony, remarks by this year’s student speaker, Tanner Sheahan, can be viewed on the Celebration Messages page of the Graduation Celebration website.

Sheahan, a chemical engineering major from Bay City, Mich., is enthusiastic about the message he’ll share with his class. “I love writing, and I think I have a knack for telling stories. I had fun — this has been a great experience,” he said.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, Sheahan’s internship last summer was conducted virtually, but it had a very positive outcome. “The situation really opened up extreme doors and led to a job as a sales operations manager at Nalco Water, an Ecolab Company in Naperville, Illinois,” he said.

University President Rick Koubek congratulated MTU’s newest alumni. “On behalf of Michigan Tech’s entire faculty and staff, we wish you the very best in your future endeavors and trust you will do great things with your degree from Michigan Tech,” said Koubek. “Congratulations again on this tremendous accomplishment.”

Read more about tomorrow’s celebration in yesterday’s Tech Today.

Husky Innovate Students Win Top Prizes in New Venture Online Competition

Published April 30, 2021

By Karen Johnson

by Husky Innovate

For the 11th year running, Central Michigan University and Michigan Tech collaborated to offer Tech students a chance to compete at CMU’s New Venture Competition. 2021 marked the second year the pitch competition was held online as the New Venture Online Competition (NVOC).

Despite the challenges of a pandemic and a virtual platform, our students persevered, honed their pitches and won top prizes. This year’s NVOC winners were also winners at the 2021 Bob Mark Business Model Pitch Competition held at Tech in January. All of their hard work and effort paid off!

Congratulations to this year’s MTU winners:

In the 2020-track 10-minute pitch category, Team Focus with Ranit Karmakar won the Best Overall Venture Award for $25,000. Watch Karmakar’s pitch.
In the two-minute pitch category, Team The Fitting Room with Jordan Craven won third place for $1,000. Watch Craven’s pitch.
Team Recirculate with Hunter Malinowski won an honorable mention award for $750. Watch Malinowski’s pitch.