Young Faculty Open New Avenues of Inquiry

Young Faculty Open New Avenues of Inquiry Krishnan Pillaipakkamnatt, PhD (Computer Science) Department of Computer Science Chairperson and Professor csckzp@hofstra.edu Hofstra University promotes itself as an institution that primarily serves undergraduate students. We professors pride ourselves on maintaining an intense focus on teaching our diverse body of students. However, this does not mean that we compromise on the quality of our research endeavors. All full-time faculty members in the computer science department sustain active research programs that engage undergraduate students. Here are highlights of exciting and innovative projects our assistant professors are involved in.

Dr. Rajesh Kumar works in the domain of applied biometrics. Imagine your phone has been stolen. You are worried that the thief might get into your bank account or read your embarrassing text messages. Dr. Kumar has developed a method to automatically de-authenticate sensitive phone apps even before you realize the phone’s been pinched. He is now investigating techniques to detect fake profiles on social media by analyzing users' typing patterns. It is not all fun and games, though. A major direction of his research is in strengthening the security of behavioral biometrics-based authentication systems against active adversaries. The methods and materials used in these projects include data collection from human subjects, application of statistical and machine learning techniques, and testing these systems under adversarial environments.

Dr. Jianchen Shan and his team have focused on improving multithreading performance in modern multi-tenant clouds. They have developed practical solutions that let multiple cloud service renters--think streaming channels like Netflix and Disney Plus--peacefully coexist on the same servers while using less energy. The results have been published in premier system conferences. The next frontier for his research efforts involves improving serverless computing. These are services in which renters pay only for computing resources actually used, as opposed to the old-fashioned way in which renters pay for the machine, whether or not they actually use it. Improvements in serverless computation will be beneficial in terms of time, money and energy savings.

Prof. Oren Segal has ongoing research collaborations with groups at Northwell Health’s Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. His current areas of interest include pre-natal estimation of the weight of a child at birth and predicting the number of viable eggs harvested during In Vitro Fertilization. In both areas the idea is to use machine learning techniques and artificial neural networks to improve upon the state-of-the-art prediction models to help physicians mitigate risk and improve patient experience. The end goal of this research is to provide physicians with tools that they can use to improve the quality of patient care.

All three professors actively involve students in their research activities. If these problems interest you, send them an email and ask if you can participate!