Fall 2020 UF Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering, Bytes: A News Magazine

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BYTES DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

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UF NUMBER 6 AMONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

2021

A NEWS MAGAZINE | 2020

SPOTLIGHT:

WOMEN MAKING HISTORY PAGE 14 & 15

Stephanie Carnell, Ph.D.

First Native American woman to earn a Ph.D. from CISE

Brianna Posadas, Ph.D. First Latina to earn a Ph.D. from CISE

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: ELECTION SECURITY

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

AI UNIVERSITY

Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D., testifies at a hearing by the U.S. House Committee.

The Nietens found each other and a community in the Gator Nation.

UF announces a $70 million public-private partnership with NVIDIA.

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CHAIR’S MESSAGE

achievements. A handful received awards and recognitions, including an Innovator of the year award (Page 9), a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (Page 8), and a mentoring award (Page 7).

We also had a faculty member named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Page 11), and one elected as a member of the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida (Page 7).

Dear colleagues, alumni and friends, This past year has seen unprecedented changes in universities nationwide. As we begin a new year, we must look back at our struggles and successes and know we have become stronger as a community because of them.

The 2019-2020 academic year gave us much to be proud of at the University of Florida Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering. We were redesignated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Research (Page 22), and UF Online, which houses the online computer science degree, among others, was ranked No. 4 (Page 23) among the nation’s best online bachelor’s programs.

This summer, UF announced an artificial intelligence partnership with NVIDIA “that will catapult UF’s research strength to address some of the world’s most formidable challenges” (Page 24).

Our students brought incredible successes to the department. This summer, two women made departmental history (Page 14) when they graduated: Stephanie Carnell was the first Native American woman to earn a Ph.D. in department history, and Brianna Posadas was the first Latina to earn a Ph.D. in department history. The UF Student Infosec Team (UF-SIT) took first place at New York University’s CSAW Competition (Page 16) and first place regionally in the CyberForce Competition (third nationally) (Page 17).

The department’s faculty celebrated many

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With November quickly approaching in the midst of a global health crisis, it’s even more important to make sure everyone can vote safely and successfully, which is why I shared my research on voting security as I testified before a U.S. House Committee (Page 12) and why I created the inLine Ticketing System to lessen health risks while voting (Page 13).

This past spring, all of our classes were moved into a virtual environment, with our staff and faculty working remotely, and continued to be online throughout the summer semester, which saw an increase in the number of student enrollments. As we progress through the fall and into the spring semester, we want to reiterate that our priority continues to be the health and safety of the UF community.

For the first time, our biannual CISE Career Fair, which provides students with the opportunity to network with companies for future jobs and internships, was held virtually. We felt it was essential to provide this networking opportunity for our students and corporate partners, while also keeping everyone as safe as possible. Our fall 2019 event saw the largest attendance of both companies and students (Page 26), and we hope this virtual event was as beneficial and as successful.

Thank you for your continued support of our department.

Be well,

Juan E. Gilbert

Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D. The Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor CISE Department Chair

UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

FACTS & FIGURES

BY T E S 2 02 0

C H A I R ’S M E S S AG E ............ 2 FAC T S & F I G U R E S ..............3 N E W FAC U LT Y .................. 4

BY THE NUMBERS CISE’S FACULT Y & STUDENTS ARE AMONG THE MOST DIVERSE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE PROGR AMS NATIONWIDE.

FAC U LT Y N E W S ............ 5 -1 3

AMONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES UF CISE RANKS*:

24 PATENTS GRANTED*

WOMEN MAKING H I S T O RY......................... 1 4

16

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S T U D E N T N E W S ......... 16 -17 A LU M N I N E W S ........... 1 8 -19

5 STARTUPS CREATED*

A LU M N I S P O T L I G H T: DA N & T E R E S A N I E T E N .... 2 0 D E PA R T M E N T N E W S ... 2 2 -2 5

GRADUATE COMPUTER ENGINEERING PROGRAM

11 ACTIVE GRANTS MORE THAN $1 MILLION

E V E N T S ..................... 2 6 -2 7

*From 2012-2020

Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D. T H E B A N K S FA M I LY PREEMINENCE ENDOWED PROFESSOR & D E PA R T M E N T C H A I R

Tamer Kahveci, Ph.D. C I S E A S S O C I AT E C H A I R O F A C A D E M I C A F FA I R S

Patrick Traynor, Ph.D. C I S E A S S O C I AT E C H A I R FOR RESEARCH

Allison Logan, MA MARKETING & C O M M U N I C AT I O N S P E C I A L I S T NEWSLET TER EDITOR *T h e p h o t o s i n t h i s m a g a z i n e w e re ta k e n p ri o r t o t h e g l o b a l p a n d e m i c a n d a re n o t re f l e c t i v e o f t h e U n i v e r s i t y ’s c u rre n t s a fe t y m e a s u re s .

IEEE ACM AAAS

12 FELLOWS

14 % 58 % 55 %

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UNDERGRADUATE COMPUTER SCIENCE PROGRAM

*U.S. News & World Report

OF THE 75 BLACK WOMEN ENROLLED IN COMPUTER SCIENCE PH.D. PROGRAMS NATIONWIDE ARE AT CISE. 2019 CRA DATA

OUT OF 38 PH.D. STUDENTS ENROLLED IN THE HUMAN-CENTERED COMPUTING PROGRAM, 58 PERCENT ARE WOMEN. 2020 DEPARTMENTAL DATA DOMESTIC STUDENTS COMPRISE 55 PERCENT OF CISE’S PH.D. ENROLLMENT. 2020 DEPARTMENTAL DATA

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NSF CAREER AWARD WINNERS

TENURE/TENURE-TRACK FACULTY

CISE.UFL.EDU

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NEW FACULTY

The Department Welcomes

3 NEW FACU LTY James Fairbanks, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Dr. Fairbanks’s research focuses on programming languages; concurrency, parallelism and high-performance computing; and database, data science and informatics. His work focuses on using programming language theory and algebraic techniques for designing and developing large scale software for technical computing problems. Dr. Fairbanks earned his Ph.D. in Computational Science and Engineering in 2016 from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Before coming to UF, he worked at the Georgia Tech Research Institute on data analysis and highperformance computing.

Kiley Graim, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Dr. Graim’s research focuses on bioinformatics. Her other research interests include computational biology; database, data science and informatics; and machine learning. She earned her Ph.D. in Biomolecular Engineering in 2016 from the University of California Santa Cruz. Dr. Graim’s research operates at the confluence of life science research and computer science. Her lab develops machine learning models that integrate diverse large-scale genomics data to address key questions in human health and disease. Her overarching goal is to map the mechanisms of human diseases and to enable development of personalized therapies.

Sara Rampazzi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Dr. Rampazzi’s research focuses on investigating security risks and developing hardware and software defense strategies against hardware-based and physics-based attacks. Her research areas include cyber-physical systems security, embedded-systems design, modeling, and simulation with applications in health care, automotive, and the Internet of Things. Dr. Rampazzi earned her Ph.D. in electronics, computer science and electrical engineering in 2014 from the University of Pavia. Before coming to UF, she was a research investigator in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan.

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UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

FACULTY NEWS

Manuel Bermudez Retires From CISE After 34 years Manuel Bermudez, Ph.D., an associate professor, recently retired from the department after 34 years.

Dr. Bermudez came to the University of Florida as a CISE assistant professor in 1985. His research focused on programming languages, and he made several important contributions in the area of syntax analysis in compilers.

Throughout his time at CISE, Dr. Bermudez took on many roles. He became the Latin American Outreach Coordinator in 2000. He spent time as a faculty coach for the Integrated Product and Process Design (IPPD) program at the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering beginning in 2001, where he helped students to develop software solutions for Dell, Lockheed-Martin, General Dynamics, Infotech, Entertainment Arts, and Disney.

In 2018, Dr. Bermudez was awarded the Founders Medal by LACCEI (Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions). He was the department’s Graduate Coordinator from 1986 to 1988.

This involved one committee that handled graduate affairs, recruiting, admissions and curriculum.

“During this time, we completely rewrote the Ph.D. program, giving it the structure that (mostly)

still stands today,” he said.

Dr. Bermudez was also the ABET Coordinator from 2005 to 2012, and prepared the Computer Engineering ABET Self-Study in 2006 and 2012.

“In 2012 our department was From left: Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D., chair of CISE, presented the first to place Manuel Bermudez, Ph.D., with a plaque to commemorate his all our supporting time at the department during a fall 2019 faculty meeting.

ABET accreditation documentation online for ABET universities and conferences in Latin Evaluators to see, instead of keeping America. it all on paper,” Dr. Bermudez said.

“Thirty-four years is a lifetime. I can Dr. Bermudez was named a Fulbright hardly believe the changes in the Scholar three times. The first time computing discipline since I started was from 1996 to 1997 where he using punched cards over 40 years spent a year doing research and ago,” Dr. Bermudez said. “Throughout teaching at the University of Costa my career, I always told my students Rica. The second time was from that the future of computing looked 2003-2004, and the first half of brighter, more exciting and more 2004-2005, when he did research, challenging than ever. I believe that is taught, and wrote a textbook at the still the case today.”

Universidad de los Andes, in Merida, The department is thankful to Dr. Venezuela. He was also a visiting Bermudez for his dedication to the lecturer at the University of Costa department and the University of Rica from July to December in 2014.

Florida. Dr. Bermudez was presented Dr. Bermudez also gave over a with a plaque at a departmental hundred invited talks at many gathering in fall 2019.

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FACULTY NEWS

3 Faculty Members Receive UF Term Professorships Faculty members Lisa Anthony, Ph.D.; Prabhat Mishra, Ph.D.; and Jorg Peters, Ph.D., were selected to receive the University of Florida Term Professorship award for 2019-2022.

Lisa Anthony, Ph.D., Associate Professor Research Areas: Human-Centered Computing, Machine Learning, Natural User Interfaces, Child-Computer Interaction, Gesture Recognition, Speech Recognition

The University Term Professorship was established in 2016 and is presented to 250 eligible faculty members annually. Selection of the professorships is based on an assessment of academic accomplishments by either a faculty advisory committee and/or the department chair and approved by the dean of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. Each award runs for 3 years and provides a $5,000 per year salary supplement.

Prabhat Mishra, Ph.D., Professor Research Areas: Embedded and Cyber-Physical Systems, Energy-Aware Computing, Formal Verification, Hardware Security and Trust, Post-Silicon Debug, System-on-Chip Validation Jorg Peters, Ph.D., Professor Research Areas: Graphics and Visualization, HumanCentered Computing, Geometric Design

Mishra Named a UF Research Foundation Professor The University of Florida Research Foundation (UFRF) has named Prabhat Mishra, Ph.D., a professor, a UFRF Professor for 2020-2023.

Dr. Mishra’s research interests include embedded and cyber-physical systems; energy-aware computing; formal verification; hardware security and trust; post-silicon debug; and system-onchip validation. He is the research director for the Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World and a faculty member of the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research.

Dr. Mishra earned his Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from the University of California at Irvine in 2004 and an M.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1996. Prior to joining UF, he worked in industry at Intel, Motorola, Sasken, Synopsys and Texas Instruments.

Dr. Mishra is an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Distinguished Scientist, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and served as an ACM Distinguished Speaker during 2016-2019. He has published seven books and 25 book chapters, has eight patents/copyrights, and more than

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150 research articles in premier international journals and conferences. He received the UF Term Professorship twice, in 2017 and 2019, and he received the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/ Mentoring Award in 2019.

UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

FACULTY NEWS

Gilbert Elected as ASEMFL Member Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D., The Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and chair, was recently elected as a member of the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida (ASEMFL). Dr. Gilbert was elected because of his pioneering human-centered computing research focused on societal issues and his national leadership in advancing diversity in higher education.

“It is a significant honor to be a member of the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida,” Dr. Gilbert said. “Our research aligns with the mission of the academy, which includes providing science, engineering and medicine studies to the people of Florida on existing and emerging topics. The work we do in voting aims to advance the state of the art in voting and inform society about these advances.”

Dr. Gilbert leads the Human-Experience Research

Lab, which is focused on designing, building, and evaluating computational technologies as they relate to the human condition and reflecting on how these technologies affect society.

“The mission also includes inspiring future generations of researchers,” he said. “We do this in the lab where we advise Ph.D. students and work with undergraduate students on our projects. We have been very successful in advancing diversity in higher education in the lab and in CISE, where we have one of the most diverse computing sciences programs/departments in the nation.”

Dr. Gilbert is a Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science, of the Association for Computing Machinery, and of the National Academy of Inventors. He is also a National Associate of the National Research Council of the National Academies and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Butler Receives Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/Mentoring Award Kevin R. B. Butler, Ph.D., a holder of the Arnold and Lisa Goldberg Rising Star Associate Professor in Computer Science, has been selected as a 2020 Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/ Mentoring Awardee.

“I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with amazingly talented and motivated students who have achieved tremendous success,” Dr. Butler said. “Having the privilege to work with these students is one of the most inspiring parts of my work, and this award is a testament to them.”

Dr. Butler is the associate director of the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research and a University Term Professor. His research focuses on the security of computer systems and networks. His recent work has included securing embedded systems and

protocols, establishing the trustworthiness of data and maintaining its provenance, mobile device security, protection of Internet traffic and the SSL infrastructure, and attacks and defenses against the cloud infrastructure. Other research areas of interest include securing Internet routing, malware propagation, applied cryptosystems, adversarial machine learning, cyber-physical systems, and trustworthy computing.

The Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/Mentoring Award recognizes excellence, innovation and effectiveness in doctoral student advising and mentoring.

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FACULTY NEWS

Chu Receives Career Award From NSF Sharon Lynn Chu, Ph.D., an assistant professor, has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Her project will investigate the design of wearable technologies to connect learning across formal and informal contexts, especially for elementary and middle school students, focusing on science topics.

Dr. Chu’s research focuses on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) specializing in cyberlearning (technologies to support learning) and positive computing (technologies for health and well-being).

This award will allow Dr. Chu to investigate how to connect fourththrough sixth-grade students’ out-of-classroom experiences with in-classroom science instruction through the use of wearable and visualization technologies.

“Resources from the CAREER award will enable me to chart new and

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exciting territories on how contextaware wearables can be used to support a learning paradigm that is more connected across time and space,” Dr. Chu said. “Investigation of wearables have, thus far, been mainly focused on their use to support health practices.”

Dr. Chu will work with teachers and students from two schools in Alachua County, Fla.: PK Yonge Developmental Research School and The Caring and Sharing Learning School. It is estimated that at least 200 students will be involved over the five years of voluntary research, with a new round of students each year. A dashboard application will support teachers in tailoring their classroom science lesson plans.

Workshops will also be conducted to introduce teachers to the concept of connected learning, and the associated technologies.

“A large part of our focus is to also

UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

design the technologies such that teachers are able to use them in real authentic contexts to support the learning of their students,” Dr. Chu said.

The project will help researchers further understand how to design wearable technologies for connecting learning across contexts and will inform a framework of teaching science that is better grounded in students’ everyday experiences with science concepts.

The project will lead to more personally relevant student learning, and ultimately, to an educational approach that is more receptive to a diverse student population.

Dr. Chu holds a BSocSci in Communications & New Media from the National University of Singapore, an M.S. in Computer Science & Applications from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. in HCI from Texas A&M University.

FACULTY NEWS

Lok Receives Innovator of the Year Award Nearly 150 innovators celebrated their fiscal year 2019 achievements at UF Innovate | Tech Licensing’s second annual Standing InnOvation event. Benjamin Lok, Ph.D., a professor whose inventions showcase the value of human-computer interactions, received the Innovator of the Year award for 2019.

“Much of Dr. Lok’s work uses virtual humans and mixed reality to train communication skills,” said Dr. David Norton, the vice president of the Office of Research, who introduced Dr. Lok at the event. “His technology is at work in Shadow Health — and he hasn’t stopped creating yet — serving 1,500 plus nursing schools, providing more than 200 million virtual patient encounters a year.

“Ben’s future is bright — and so is the award we want to give him today as this year’s Innovator of the Year.”

Dr. Lok is a founder of Shadow Health, an education company that trains health professional students using virtual patient experiences. The company has grown to a team of 100 members from its original two founders.

While accepting his award, Dr. Lok encouraged the innovators in the room enjoying the reception at UF Innovate | The Hub to continue working with Tech Licensing to maximize the potential of their inventions

From left: Tech Licensing Director Jim O’Connell, UF President Dr. Kent Fuchs, Dr. Benjamin Lok, and Office of Research Vice President Dr. David Norton at the 2019 event.

— and urged them to consider starting a company.

Those attending had disclosed, licensed or optioned a technology in FY19.

“How can you increase the impact of your career?”

Dr. Lok asked attendees. “The challenge that I give to all of you is this: Every three months spend some time reflecting ‘what’s the best way I can make an impact with my career?’ And, hopefully, part of that might include disclosing an invention.”

Invention of the Year for Blockchain Technology Each of the seven licensing teams in UF Tech Licensing chose one invention disclosed in FY19 to be an Invention of the Year. The office receives nearly 350 invention disclosures each year; each licensing officer selected one technology.

Among the winners was My T. Thai, Ph.D., a CISE professor, and Drs. Thang Dinh, Lan Nguyen, and Truc Nguyen for what licensing officer Dr. Rick Croley said was the “best embodiment of the wildly popular block-chain technology.” At the event, Thai received recognition for “OptChain: Optimal Transactions Sharding for Scalable Blockchain.”

This was the first year that technologies were highlighted as “inventions of the year.” Jim O’Connell, assistant vice president for commercialization and director of UF Innovate | Tech Licensing, welcomed each winner to the stage to receive a light bulb trophy for the accomplishment.

“The event is intended to be a ‘standing ovation’ for our innovators,” O’Connell said. “It’s also a ‘standing invitation’ for them to continue working with our office. As you can tell by the varied types of inventions awarded here tonight, the technologies that come through our office cover a wide spectrum.

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FACULTY NEWS

Helping Nursing Students During the Pandemic

video games, to train communications skills?” Dr. Lok said. “How do you train someone to talk to someone else?”

One potential casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic might have been nursing programs. But thanks to a virtualpatient interaction program created by Benjamin Lok, Ph.D., a professor, they weren’t.

Through a combined effort of more than 100 researchers from the field of medicine, psychology, computer science, and education, Dr. Lok and his team created Shadow Health, a software program. It focuses on training educators and students with a conversationbased simulation for patient interaction in clinical settings.

Because personal protective equipment was in high demand, nursing students, such as those at Liberty University in Virginia, could not enter hospitals to gain clinical practice experience required for graduation.

Certainly, the need to train the next generation of nurses on the front line of patient care had never been greater, but traditional routes to getting experience were not possible.

“Our students are going to get their hours, there is no question about it, and the Board has come up with a few exceptions to help get our students ready to go,” said Shanna Akers, dean of the Liberty University School of Nursing.

One of those exceptions was the move to use Shadow Health’s Digital Clinical Experiences, which provides virtual patient encounters for undergraduate and graduate nursing students. Dr. Lok co-founded Shadow Health.

He and his research group began working in the realm of virtual reality around 16 years ago. This thought process led Dr. Lok and his team to explore high-stakes patient communication in the medical field.

UF Innovate | Tech Licensing connected David Massias, a local entrepreneur, with Dr. Lok to create Shadow Health.

Massias encouraged Dr. Lok to use his computerized virtual patients to help the nursing field. UF graduate, Aaron Kotranza, Ph.D., worked with Massias and Dr. Lok and also co-founded Shadow Health.

Creating an environment for doctors and nurses to improve communication skills has led Shadow Health technology to be implemented in UF’s College of Nursing and over 1,800 partner schools. One-quarter of all nursing students in the U.S. and Canada are using Shadow Health in their training, Dr. Lok said.

By Denielle Smith and Kyle Chambers UF Innovate | Tech Licensing.

“Currently, thousands of nursing students are able to continue their preparation by using Shadow Health’s virtual patients to practice clinical reasoning and therapeutic communication skills,” Dr. Lok said.

Liberty University adapted its program to a virtual format, adding 500 hours of required clinical practice by using virtual clinical simulations with digital patients created by Dr. Lok and Shadow Health.

Dr. Lok created a virtual patient interaction system that allows future healthcare providers to practice their communication skills. His technology that built Shadow Health started with a question.

“How can we use virtual characters, the ones we see in

A patient from Shadow Health’s Pediatrics Digital Clinical Experience.

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FACULTY NEWS

A National Effort to Define K-12 AI Curriculum Christina Gardner-McCune, Ph.D., an associate professor, is working on a project to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) curriculum for grades K-12. Dr. Gardner-McCune is co-chair of the AI for K-12 Initiative (AI4K12), which was established by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and the Computer Science Teachers Association to determine what students in each grade should know about artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics.

The research was recently featured in the National Science Foundation-funded 2020 STEM for All Video Showcase. The video, “Sparking AI Curiosity With the AI4K12 Initiative,” looks at how to engage K-12 students by introducing them to Five Big Ideas in AI. 1. Perception. How do computers see and make sense of the world outside? What happens when a device uses facial recognition? Or when another tool uses objectrecognition?

2. Representation and reasoning. How does AI “think?”

How does it make sense of problems? Students should come away with an understanding of how AI creates representations of the world.

3. Learning. How do computers learn? They learn from receiving massive amounts of data, and so what they learn depends on what’s in the data, and what

decisions a designer or developer is actually asking the computer to make.

Christina Gardner-McCune, Ph.D.

4. Natural interactions.

How do humans design AI so they can interact with it? How can concepts that humans understand be incorporated with AI tools and platforms?

5. Social impacts and ethics. This focuses on helping students understand the ethical and societal implications of AI, and the implications of how those systems are designed.

Researchers on the team are hoping that teachers become aware of the AI4K-12 initiative so they can incorporate the Five Big Ideas and resources into their curriculums.

“AI is being used everywhere,” Dr. Gardner-McCune said.

“It is imperative that students begin learning about it as young as possible.”

More information can be found on the AI4K12 website.

Helal Named a 2019 Fellow of AAAS Abdelsalam (Sumi) Helal, Ph.D., a professor, was named a 2019 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for distinguished contributions to the field of pervasive computing, particularly in assistive environments supportive of aging and independent living.

Dr. Helal is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and was named to the AAAS Section on Information, Computing and Communication.

Prospective AAAS Fellows are nominated from the AAAS general membership and elected via a process that is finalized by the AAAS Council, the organization’s member-elected governing body. In 2019, 443 members nationwide were awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. AAAS Fellow’s lifetime honor.

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FACULTY NEWS

Gilbert Testifies on Election Security Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D., The Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor, testified as an expert witness regarding election security during a hearing by the House Administration Committee in January. Dr. Gilbert, who has been conducting research on elections for more than 15 years and who was one of two academics asked to testify, shared his expertise in voting system security, accessibility and usability.

Dr. Gilbert, department chair, shared with the Committee some key recommendations from the 2018 National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine consensus report titled, “Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy.” He was a member of the committee that authored the report.

“In the academies report, we recommended that we have a national center to do research around [securing elections],” he said. “That is a necessity.”

In 2003, Dr. Gilbert and his research

team developed Prime lll, the “first open-source universal design” voting system that accommodates persons with and without disabilities and provides a paper printout of the ballot. His design preempts the separate-but-equal connotation of asking only persons with disabilities to use a ballot-marking device.

“If we were to design these machines so they’re only used by people with disabilities, an adversary finds that as a happy day because all they have to do is target a specific group,” he said. “Universal design, meaning more people using those machines, gives you greater security.

The likelihood of catching errors increases as a result of that.”

Dr. Gilbert also addressed the issue of voter verification as a primary means of enhancing election security. He emphasized that recent studies did not find that voters could not verify their ballots, only that they did not and that simply reminding voters to take this step increased

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verification by as much as 70 percent. Gilbert announced that later this year his team at the University of Florida will introduce a “transparent voting machine” that addresses the issues of verification by all users, further enhancing election security.

“Securing the Vote” was the result of a two-year National Academies’ study conducted by experts from elections administration and policy, cybersecurity, accessibility, and law.

Over the course of the study, the committee reviewed extensive background materials. It also held five meetings where invited experts spoke to the committee about a range of topics including voter registration, voting accessibility, voting technologies and market impediments to technological innovation, cybersecurity, postelection audits, and the education and training of election workers.

The Academies’ report recommended that elections be conducted using human-readable

FACULTY NEWS

paper ballots. It said that these ballots could be marked by hand or by machine, using a ballot-marking device and that they may be counted by hand or by machine, using an optical scanner.

“Currently, there is no known way to secure a digital ballot. At this time, any election that does not employ paper ballots cannot be secured,” Dr. Gilbert said. “Therefore, the report recommended that Internet voting, and specifically the electronic return of marked ballots, should not be used at this time.”

House Administration Committee Chairperson Zoe Lofgren commended Dr. Gilbert on the presentation of the report’s findings and the excellent work done by the National Academies.

She noted that the report was “the guts of what we ended up putting in our SAFE [Securing America’s Federal Elections] Act that’s now pending in the Senate.”

Dr. Gilbert concluded in his testimony that, “As a nation, we have the capacity to build an elections system for the future, but doing so requires focused attention from citizens; federal, state, and local governments; election administrators, and innovators in the academy and industry. It also requires a commitment of appropriate resources.

“Representative democracy only works if all eligible citizens can participate in elections and be confident that their ballots have been accurately cast, counted, and tabulated.”

Gilbert Creates inLine Ticketing System To Lower Health Risk When Voting As people across the country head to the polls over the next few months, a concern on many minds is how to stay safe while voting.

With the COVID-19 pandemic surging nationwide, what can election officials do to ensure everyone has the ability to vote without risking their health?

Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D., has created a ticketing system to help voters maintain social distancing while exercising their right to vote. Dr. Gilbert saw a need down to the local level and filled it.

“Everyone wants to feel safe while they are casting their vote,” he said. “The inLine Ticketing System lowers voters’ risk of contracting COVID-19 by reducing the length of lines and reducing the amount of time people need to stand close to others.”

After identifying the concerns of sending thousands to the polls during a pandemic, Dr. Gilbert started working on an easy-to-use system that allows poll workers to hand out tickets to voters waiting in line. These tickets are printed out on an as-needed-basis and given to voters as the lines get long. Each ticket is printed with a QR code, along with a date and time to return for voting. As voters return at their designated time, the QR code is scanned, and they proceed to vote.

Dr. Gilbert said he hopes this app will encourage voters to participate in this year’s election.

“The inLine Ticketing System takes the risk out of waiting in line because your ticket holds your place,” he said. “Voters can keep their distance and come back at their designated time to vote as they normally would.”

The inLine Ticketing System has many applications beyond voting, such as reducing lines at COVID-19 testing sites.

For more information on how the app works, to view a video demo and to download the app, visit Dr. Gilbert’s website.

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FEATURED STUDENTS

Stephanie Carnell, Ph.D.

First Native American woman to earn a Ph.D. from CISE

Brianna Posadas, Ph.D. First Latina to earn a Ph.D. from CISE

SPOTLIGHT: TWO WOMEN MAKE HISTORY AT UF This was a barrier-breaking year for the CISE Ph.D. program.

This summer, two women made departmental history when they graduated: Stephanie Carnell was the first Native American to earn a Ph.D. in department history, and Brianna Posadas was the first Latina to earn a Ph.D. in department history.

According to the Taulbee Survey, which started documenting Ph.D. graduates by race and gender in 2013, only one American Indian or Alaska Native woman has received

a Ph.D. in computing from 2013 to 2019. This would make Dr. Carnell, the second Native woman to receive a Ph.D. in computing nationwide since 2013.

Dr. Carnell graduated with a doctoral degree in Human-Centered Computing (HCC) and was a member of the Virtual Experience Research Group, which is directed

by Benjamin Lok, Ph.D., a professor.

Dr. Carnell’s research investigates how we can use virtual humans to help medical students improve their communication skills with patients.

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Her dissertation explored how medical and healthcare students communicate with virtual humans by studying their message production, or how they craft the questions they ask virtual humans.

“I looked into general patterns of students’ message production with virtual humans and whether providing students with example messages could affect their message production in later interactions,” Dr. Carnell said.

Dr. Posadas, who wants to pursue agricultural technology policy and

FEATURED STUDENTS

usability in agricultural engineering design, passed her dissertation defense in April and graduated this summer with a doctoral degree in Human-Centered Computing. As she pursued her degree, Dr. Posadas was part of the Human-Experience Research Lab, directed by Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D., the Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and department chair, where she worked on projects including an all-accessible voting machine called Prime III, accessibility in autonomous vehicles, and trust in AI. She was the first of Dr. Gilbert’s students to defend her dissertation remotely because of campus restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Looking toward the future, these women hope to have a positive impact on society.

Dr. Carnell hopes to contribute to society’s understanding of how people communicate, either with computers or with each other. And Dr. Posadas wants to bring more attention to agricultural technology policy.

“Many of the same privacy and ownership issues over data that are occurring in other tech spaces are also occurring in agriculture,” Dr. Posadas said. “But there is very little literature in this area, especially in the United States. Agriculture is an industry that touches everyone, and we should be more concerned about how the industry is regulated.”

During her time at UF, Dr. Carnell was a founding member of the Society for Advancing Chicanos/

Hispanics and Native Americans and of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society.

“I hoped that my (small) participation in both of these groups have helped in setting them up for long-term success,” she said. “I never had access to these types of groups in my undergraduate career, so being able to be a part of clubs like this is new and exciting.”

Dr. Carnell said she thinks these groups are great for promoting wider representation in the sciences and for building interdisciplinary networks and support systems. She gave credit for the creation of these groups at UF to Alex Hernandez, a Ph.D. candidate in the Whitney Lab; Brendan David-John, a CISE Ph.D. student; and Mikaela David-John, a master’s student at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Dr. Posadas is currently a postdoctoral technology fellow at Media Democracy Fund. During her time at UF, she co-founded the Latino-Hispanic Organization of Graduate Students (LOGRAS), volunteered at Farm to School Alachua, spoke with elementary classrooms through Skype a Scientist, and served as the graduate ambassador for the UF chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.

Dr. Carnell said her tribe is the Adai Caddo, which is a state-recognized tribe in Louisiana, and she is a member through her maternal grandfather, Julius.

Dr. Carnell received her master’s degree in computer science from UF

and her bachelor’s degree in physics from Samford University. When she applied to graduate school at UF for a degree in computer science, Dr. Carnell said she knew she wanted to do something interdisciplinary.

Her undergraduate studies had been a mix of the humanities, social sciences and sciences, and she was interested in pursuing a similar mix of research.

“My original plan to pursue that mix at UF was to create my own interdisciplinary research while pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering,” she said. “But when the HCC Ph.D. program was added, I decided to switch immediately.”

As a first-generation student, Dr. Posadas is the first person in her extended family to pursue a Ph.D. She is a McKnight doctoral fellow and a UF graduate school fellow. Dr. Posadas received her master’s degree in agricultural and biological engineering from UF and her bachelor’s in engineering from Harvey Mudd College.

Dr. Posadas learned about the program after a fellow student and now HCC graduate Marvin Andujar, Ph.D., (Ph.D., HCC, ’17) suggested she speak with Dr. Gilbert. Her goal had been to work in engineering with a focus on how people use the tools we build.

“I hadn’t heard of HCC before, and coming from engineering I wasn’t sure I would qualify,” she said.

“But after talking to Dr. Gilbert and learning more about the diverse projects the lab did, I felt it was a good match for me and what I wanted to do.”

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STUDENT NEWS

UF-SIT Team Takes First in Pwny Race at CSAW Competition Walking into New York University for Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW), the Kernel Sanders team didn’t know they would leave as champions. Owen Flannagan, a junior competing on behalf of the University of Florida team, swept through the bracket beating No. 1 seed Perfect Blue to win first place in the Pwny Race.

The team is part of the UF Student InfoSec Team (UFSIT), a group composed mostly of students from the CISE department. Four students from UF-SIT went to CSAW, a student-led cybersecurity competition. Each student (Joshua Haddad, Blas Kojusner, Nozomi Watanabe, and Flannagan) was able to solve challenges throughout the 36-hour event.

The Pwny Race was a competition in which each team chose one binary exploitation enthusiast from their team who could exploit a server the quickest from scratch.

Flannagan, a computer science major, was chosen by his team. The participating member’s screen was broadcast live online during each race, adding extra pressure to an already intense experience.

“Normally, there are important parts of binary exploitation in which you must do static analysis in different tools. However, every time I switched between tools I felt like there were things that I missed, and I knew that the commentators would catch that,” Flannagan said. “Luckily, I have streamed myself on Twitch practicing before, so I am relatively used to the pressure of being watched live.”

Though most of the competition took place in a large room with attendees working on their laptops, the Pwny Race participants were secluded where they couldn’t receive any help from teammates and were unaware of how their competitors were doing. Due to his success, Flannagan competed in four races over a period of 8 hours.

View of the Kernel Sanders computer and hacked device.

Credit: NYU Tandon: Elena Olivo

During the final round, Flannagan hit a bit of a snag because he was using the wrong operating system.

“It almost cost me my win,” he said.

But he was able to finish first, leaving with a victory.

View the live stream to see just how close the final moments of the competition were.

Beyond the Pwny Race success, other students from the University of Florida placed in a handful of events.

Grant Hernandez, Hunter Searle and Claire Seiler, along with Flannagan, placed third in the Embedded Security Challenge, with an honorable mention going to Jacob Crain, an undergraduate research assistant from the UF Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Hadi Abdullah, a Ph.D. student, placed second in the Applied Research competition for his paper titled “Practical Hidden Voice Attacks against Speech and Speaker Recognition Systems.” And team G8rs, consisting of Hernandez, Searle and Abdullah, placed third in the Security Quiz Bowl.

“The depth and breadth of knowledge exhibited by University of Florida students at CSAW speak to the excellence of their program and the dedication of these students to take on some of the most difficult challenges society faces,” said Ramesh Karri, an NYU Tandon professor and the faculty leader for CSAW. “In

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17 years of CSAW, we have never seen a university’s teams win medals across so many categories — and UF’s valuable contributions to the very first Logic Locking competition in the world will advance scholarship in this vital emerging field. Our congratulations go out to the students and faculty mentors of the University of Florida.”

In the Logic Locking Conquest, students were challenged to solve the problem of securing chips during the manufacturing process. During the preliminary round, teams worked on a chip design devised by students and mentors at NYU Abu Dhabi and UF to either find the key or devise a new one in order to protect the circuitry.

UF-SIT is open to all students at UF. The group generally participates in 50-60 competitions each year, varying in scale and duration and a majority are online. This year the group has participated in more than 45 competitions so far. UFSIT funding comes from student government, and the group is always seeking sponsors for student travel to these types of competitions.

UF-SIT Team Places First In CyberForce Competition The UF Student InfoSec Team (UF-SIT) placed first at the Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) during the 2019 CyberForce Competition out of 15 participating teams and placed third nationally out of 104 teams.

This is the Department of Energy’s fifth iteration of its cyber defense competition, designed to inspire and develop the next generation of energy sector cybersecurity professionals. The competition featured 105 collegiate teams from 32 states and one territory, with participants ranging from undergraduate freshmen to Ph.D. candidates.

Each team competed regionally at 10 of DOE’s national laboratories, with the UF-SIT group competing at ORNL. Each

team is scored on its ability to safeguard the infrastructure against attacks while keeping the system running. Creative or innovative ideas and defenses are also rewarded in the scoring.

According to the DOE, the competition challenged teams with not only defending 1 of 4 system scenarios — an energy company’s solar generation facility, electric substation, data center, or manufacturing plant — but communicating with the other three infrastructures to monitor and maintain the integrity of the system as a whole.

Six students from UF-SIT went to Tennessee for the event : Ben Simon (captain), Owen Flannagan, Cole McMullen, Claire Seiler, Nozomi Watanabe and John Woodman.

Student Wins Best Paper at ACM IVA 2019 Mohan Zalake, a Human-Centered Computing Ph.D. student, received the best paper award at the Association for Computing Machinery’s 2019 International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (ACM IVA).

Zalake’s paper, “Internet-based Tailored Virtual Human Health Intervention to Promote Colorectal Cancer Screening: Design Guidelines

from Two User Studies,” provides guidelines for future developers who intend to use virtual agent-based healthcare interventions to influence user behaviors.

The research was conducted in collaboration with Janice Krieger, Ph.D., professor at the UF College of Journalism and Communications, and Benjamin Lok, Ph.D., a CISE professor.

From left: Mohan Zalake; Dr. Gale Lucas, USC Institute for Creative Technologies; Dr. Hendrik Buschmeier, Bielefeld University, Germany; and Dr. Stefan Kopp, Bielefeld University, Germany at ACM IVA in 2019.

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ALUMNI NEWS

creation and overnight installation to bring Disney’s world-renowned animatronics to life.

In order to remain true to each to character and their story, Kausar worked closely with animators and producers at Walt Disney Animation Studios. “We talk to production, we learn about their vision and storytelling aspects,” Kausar said.

“There’s so much collaboration with all these different teams.”

Photo of Sahar Kausar by Casey Wolfe, Disney Internships and Programs Communication.

Alumna Turns Internship into Full-Time Position at Disney Ever wonder how your favorite Disney characters come to life in beloved Disney Parks attractions across the globe? Professional intern Sahar Kausar (BSCE ‘16) helped the Walt Disney Imagineering team create animatronic magic during her Show Programming Animation internship, then turned that experience into a full-time role as an Associate Technical Animator.

Kausar began her journey at Walt Disney Imagineering as a professional intern with the Play Disney Parks team during the app’s launch, working on interactive set pieces at attractions like Space Mountain and Peter Pan’s Flight.

On this team, Kausar was able to apply the art and engineering skills she learned in school and discover

how the two communicate with each other in the experience design space.

“I was excited about the opportunity to work on hands-on, real-world projects and to see our guests fully immerse themselves when they visit the parks,” she said.

Kausar knew immediately that Walt Disney Imagineering was a great fit and began supporting Show Programming Animation in a co-op position while earning her master’s degree in computer graphics for emerging technologies.

Later, she extended her time with the team as a fall 2019 professional intern. Her day-today internship responsibilities included rigging, animation, tool

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She and her show programming teammates partnered with everyone from Mechanical Engineers to Figure Costumers to create each animatronic.

Kausar’s favorite project during her internship was working on the upcoming “Beauty and the Beast” attraction at Tokyo Disney Resort.

She loved having the opportunity to collaborate with cast members overseas and work with seasoned animators, including a few artists from the 1991 “Beauty and the Beast” film.

“It was the first project where I was actually able to move the animatronics around and test out the rigs,” Kausar said. “So, that was mind-blowing.” Overall, Kausar found the experience “so inspiring and humbling.”

During her internship, Kausar learned a lot about designing with the consumer in mind and designing specifically for theme parks. Further, it provided practical applications for her two greatest passions: art and tech.

“If you’re someone who’s passionate

ALUMNI AWARDS

about art and engineering, this is a great company to do those things,” she said. “It’s an amazing learning experience.”

Finally, Kausar credits her internship with helping her develop soft skills that have helped guide her transition into a full-time role. “It helped me with building my own confidence,” she said.

Now, Kausar continues to support the animation team at Walt Disney Imagineering on a variety of exciting projects. She said she is thrilled to be applying her animation and digital production skills in this new capacity.

Kausar also recently had the opportunity to represent The Walt Disney Company as the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Foundation Scholar. She will be representing Walt Disney Imagineering at the 2020 D.I.C.E. Summit and the Game Developers Conference to “help promote a more inclusive environment for women in the industry and inform others about bridging the gap between the technology, film, gaming and themed entertainment industries,” both endeavors that she is very passionate about.

To other interns hoping to embark on long-term careers with the company, Kausar offers the following advice: “Keep learning, growing and making valuable connections both in and outside of your current role and team. Believe in yourself. Keep dreaming and making magic!”

Article originally published on the Disney Internships & Programs website.

Alumni Honored at Gator100 The Gator100 recognizes and celebrates the 100 fastest-growing Gator-owned or Gator-led businesses in the world each year.

No. 65: Securifera Inc. – Ryan Wincey (MSCE ‘12) Wincey is the founder and president of Securifera Inc. in Irvine, Calif.

Securifera assesses the network security posture of its clients over long term red team engagements, through tasks that include open-source intelligence gathering, email phishing, vulnerability research, exploit development, scripting (Python, Ruby, Powershell, VBScript, Bash), remote administration tool development, and network operations using commonly used security tools (Metasploit, Nmap, Maltego, Canvas, Kali).

No. 66: LeadingAgile, LLC – Mike Cottmeyer (BSCE ‘90) Cottmeyer, CEO of LeadingAgile LLC, serves as his company’s resident champion of core agile values and principles. He is a thought leader and industry disrupter in the field of enterprise-focused agile transformation. Cottmeyer has given back to the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering by serving as the Entrepreneur in Residence from May 2016 to the present. In this role, he works with college faculty and student entrepreneurs to help them become more innovative and successful in starting, operating, and managing companies.

Alumni Named in 40 Under 40 Awards The annual 40 Under 40 awards program was established to recognize UF alumni under the age of 40 whose achievements positively reflect The Gator Nation.

Meher Kasam (MSCE ‘12) Kasam is a senior software engineer at Square. He can be described as a seasoned software engineer, a champion of accessibility and inclusion, an AI expert, an author, a sought-after public speaker and last but not least, a proud UF alumnus. His work at Microsoft Research yielded several projects that have impacted millions of people with accessibility needs worldwide, including those with visual, hearing, learning and motor impairments. Kasam is a tireless advocate for breaking down barriers to full inclusion and equality for disabled persons and other underrepresented communities.

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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

ALU M N I S P O T L I G H T : DAN & TE RE SA N IE TE N Finding a Community in the Gator Nation Engineering may not have always been a dream shared by triple Gators Dan and Teresa Nieten. Dan (BSECE ’92; MSCE ’04; Ph.D., CE ‘11), at one point, wanted to be an astronaut, and Teresa (BSECE ’92; MSCE ’04; Ph.D., CE ‘11) wanted to be a veterinarian. But eventually, they found their way to engineering, to the University of Florida and, in the spring of 1990, to each other.

Each of them came to UF at different points in their lives and, coincidentally, ended up working toward the same degrees. Both Dan and Teresa Nieten were from military families. So, they were used to constantly adapting to new environments. But they were also used to the feeling of being part of a bigger military family, and they found that community in the Gator Nation.

“In the CISE department we were a pretty close-knit group, working in computer labs evenings and weekends, getting together in study groups,” said Teresa Nieten about her time at CISE. “The third floor of the CISE building was a home away from home.”

Several years ago, the Nietens decided to give back to their home away from home by creating a scholarship for undergraduate CISE students. This year, The Nieten Award for Undergraduate Students, which focuses on first-generation and military dependent students, was awarded for the first time to Jack Wittmayer.

“Dan and I both grew up in military families and were first-generation

students,” Teresa Nieten said. “As such, we have seen how difficult it can be to have enough roots by the time a military dependent starts looking at college to find the local scholarships.”

Today, Teresa Nieten works for Ocean Insight where she combines her computer engineering and data science experience. She has contributed to developing solutions ranging from determining the

Dan and Teresa Nieten with their son, Brandon, when (left) Teresa graduated with her Ph.D. in the spring of 2011 and Dan graduated with his Ph.D. in the summer of 2011.

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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

L3Harris and NASA, where he spent 10 years working on projects like the Space Shuttle program Checkout and Launch Control System and the Constellation program (the next phase of the manned space program). He also received a Silver Snoopy award for his contribution to the manned space program.

Dan and Teresa Nieten with their son during a family vacation to Disney World in September of 2019.

moisture level of fruit and detecting contaminants in foods to measuring industrial coatings and determining when complex industrial processes are complete.

“I also transformed the way that machine learning and analysis are done at Ocean Insight,” she said.

“I developed a tool called Ocean Intelligence that allows individuals without machine learning or software backgrounds to analyze

their data using complex machine learning algorithms.”

Dan Nieten works for Express Scripts and has two roles: director of the Data Science and Advanced Analytics for Pharmacy Services, and principle data scientist. He said his team is responsible for developing analytical solutions that provide operational insights. Before working at Express Scripts, he worked at a handful of places including IBM,

After meeting during their undergraduate years and eventually getting married, the pair had their son, Brandon Alexander, as they were completing their dissertations.

For the Nietens, giving back to their community and supporting several charities and causes (cancer research, childhood diseases, Parkinson’s, veterans organizations, etc.) is essential. And including their son in that process is equally as important.

“While we have been very blessed, we have not had an easy path getting to where we are, there was a lot of hard work, ups and downs,” Dan Nieten said. “With that in mind, it is important to help others when you have the opportunity. It’s also important to set the example for our son and others that paying it forward is fundamental.”

Support the CISE Department Making a commitment and giving back to the department can make a tremendous difference to our faculty, staff and students. There are a variety of ways in which to make an impact including improving infrastructure, student scholarships, professorships, or endowed chairs.

For more information on making a gift, please contact: Sarah Johnson Senior Director of Development Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, 330 Weil Hall P.O. Box 116595 Gainesville, FL 32611 sjohnson@eng.ufl.edu | 352-392-6795

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DEPARTMENT NEWS

UF Designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Research The University of Florida has been re-designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Research (CAE-R) through academic year 2024. This designation puts UF in an elite group of universities that meet the federal government’s criteria for providing educational and research opportunities in cybersecurity.

UF has held this distinction since first receiving accreditation in 2014 and will continue to hold this designation through 2024. Joseph N. Wilson, Ph.D., a CISE associate professor, coordinated the renewal effort and accepted the certificate on behalf of the department at The Colloquium – For Information Systems Security Education (CISSE) conference in Las Vegas, Nev., in June 2019.

“This designation is an example of our commitment to serving the

State of Florida and the nation in an area of extreme need,” said Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D., The Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and department chair. “Cybersecurity touches nearly every aspect of our daily lives. An educated workforce is needed to address issues and threats in this area. We are committed to conducting research to address these threats and issues, as well as producing an educated workforce.”

The National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security jointly sponsor the CAE program. The goal is to “reduce vulnerability in our national information infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in cyber defense and producing professionals with cyber defense expertise.” There are over 270 colleges and universities across 48 states, the District of Columbia,

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and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico designated as CAEs in cyber defense. Institutions are designated based on their degree programs and close alignment to specific cybersecurity-related knowledge units (KUs), validated by top subject matter experts in the field.

UF CAE-R designation emphasizes graduate education and research in the following areas: Principles; Security Mechanisms/Functionality; Architectures; Assurance; Analysis; and Non-technical Information Assurance Issues.

This designation makes students at UF eligible for recruitment that might otherwise not be available to them and scholarships like the National Science Foundation’s CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service program.

DEPARTMENT NEWS

UF ONLINE RANKED NO. 4 IN ONLINE BACHELOR’S PROGRAMS The University of Florida sets a new standard as a modern research university with national recognition for both traditional classroom programs and online pathways. UF Online, the online undergraduate experience, has risen to No. 4 in the country for best online bachelor’s programs according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 rankings.

With foresight and investment from the State of Florida, UF has been able to launch a fully online set of bachelor’s programs delivered by UF’s award-winning faculty. The program serves just over 4,000 undergraduates and offers 25 degree programs. Now at No. 4, it’s time to stand up and holler because the Gator Nation is showing the country what’s possible when it focuses on expansive access through academic excellence via more versatile learning formats and programs.

U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 rankings also recognize UF Online as the No. 2 online bachelor’s program

in the country for veterans. This separate list of rankings by U.S. News recognizes universities that provide excellent online education paired with robust support for student veterans and active duty service members. Through UF Online, students not only have access to UF’s renowned faculty and degree programs but also the UF Collegiate Veterans Success Center, Office of Student Veteran Success, and Collegiate Veterans Society— wherever their orders take them.

With the rise to No. 4 in the nation for online bachelor’s, UF Online moves up and above the longstanding online programs at Arizona State University and Penn State World Campus. The rise can be attributed to UF Online’s success in categories such as: average class size (29), affordable tuition, faculty credentials, selective admissions, technologies and services available to students (ranked No. 1 nationally), the low debt of graduates, and the strong academic outcomes

of UF Online students, including high student retention and degree completion.

“All UF Online programs are taught by our campus faculty, with affordable tuition and fees, and our online Gators earn the very same degrees as their residential peers. This model is unique in the country and I’m so proud to see it recognized by U.S. News in 2020 as a top approach to online learning,” said Evangeline Tsibris Cummings, assistant provost and director of UF Online.

UF Online is made possible by 10 colleges and hundreds of faculty, academic advisors, and staff, all working to deliver hundreds of online courses to thousands of online students each semester. Launched just six years ago, UF Online has celebrated the graduation of over 2,000 Gators.

The online undergraduate degree in computer science is the largest UF Online program.

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DEPARTMENT NEWS

Artist’s rendering of University of Florida’s new AI supercomputer based on NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD architecture.

UF Announces $70 Million Artificial Intelligence Partnership with NVIDIA The University of Florida recently announced a public-private partnership with NVIDIA that will catapult UF’s research strength to address some of the world’s most formidable challenges, create unprecedented access to AI training and tools for underrepresented communities, and build momentum for transforming the future of the workforce.

The initiative is anchored by a $50 million gift — $25 million from UF alumnus Chris Malachowsky and $25 million in hardware, software, training and services from NVIDIA, the Silicon Valley-based technology company he co-founded and a world leader in AI and accelerated computing.

Along with an additional $20 million

investment from UF, the initiative will create an AI-centric data center that houses the world’s fastest AI supercomputer in higher education.

Working closely with NVIDIA, UF will boost the capabilities of its existing supercomputer, HiPerGator, with the recently announced NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD™ architecture. This will give faculty and students within and beyond UF the tools to apply AI across a multitude of areas to improve lives, bolster industry, and create economic growth.

“This incredible gift from Chris and NVIDIA will propel the state of Florida to new heights as it strives to be an economic powerhouse, an unrivaled leader in job creation and an international model of 21st-century know-how,” said Florida Gov. Ron

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DeSantis. “Over the coming years, tens of thousands of University of Florida graduates with this unique AIoriented background will create their futures and ours, transforming our workforce and virtually every field and every industry here in Florida and around the world.”

UF’S NATIONAL AI LEADERSHIP The partnership will be central to UF’s vision to be a national leader in the application of AI, including an expansive plan to elevate its reach and impact in research, teaching, and economic development. It provides a replicable framework for future public-private cooperation, and a model for addressing society’s grand challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration. By

DEPARTMENT NEWS

deploying AI across the curriculum, this powerful resource will address major challenges such as rising seas, aging populations and data security.

“UF’s leadership has a bold vision for making artificial intelligence accessible across its campus,” said Malachowsky, who serves as an NVIDIA Fellow. “What really got NVIDIA and me excited was partnering with UF to go broader still, and make AI available to K-12 students, state and community colleges, and businesses. This will help address underrepresented communities and sectors across the region where the technology will have a profound positive effect.”

EXTENSIVE COLLABORATION WITH NVIDIA NVIDIA’s technology powers twothirds of the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers, including eight of the top 10. The third-generation HiPerGator will have access to NVIDIA’s most advanced AI software and integrate 140 NVIDIA DGX™ A100 systems with 1,120 NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs and highperformance NVIDIA Mellanox HDR 200Gb/s InfiniBand networking to deliver 700 petaflops of AI performance.

UF is the first institution of higher learning in the U.S. to receive DGX A100 systems, which are designed to accelerate diverse workloads, including AI training, inference, and data analytics.

NVIDIA will also contribute its AI expertise to UF through ongoing support and collaboration across the following initiatives:

• The NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute will collaborate with UF on developing new curriculum and coursework for students and the community, including programing tuned to address the needs of young adults and teens to encourage their interest in STEM and AI. • UF will become the site of the latest NVIDIA AI Technology Center, where UF Graduate Fellows and NVIDIA employees will work together to advance AI. • NVIDIA solution architects and product engineers will partner with UF on the installation, operation and optimization of the NVIDIAbased supercomputing resources on campus.

• Establishing UF’s Equitable AI program, led by Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D., department chair. The effort is convening faculty members across the university to create standards and certifications in developing tools and solutions that are cognizant of bias, unethical practice and legal and moral issues.

INTEGRATED AI CURRICULUM, INTELLIGENT-DECISION SUPPORT, EQUITABLE ACCESS As a comprehensive institution, UF has a goal of bringing together students and faculty from across campus and the state. It will be among the nation’s first to integrate AI across all disciplines and make it a ubiquitous part of its academic enterprise. It will offer certificates and degree programs in AI and data science, with curriculum modules for specific technical and industryfocused domains. The initiative includes a commitment from UF

to hire 100 more faculty members focused on AI. “More than ever before in my lifetime, people around the country and the globe are looking to universities to expand access to higher education and technology and to level the field of opportunity for all,” said UF President Kent Fuchs. “UF intends to meet that challenge, and this partnership will help us do it.”

To ensure no community is left behind, UF plans to promote wide accessibility to these computing capabilities and work with other institutions to develop a talent pipeline able to harness the power of AI through several initiatives. These include: • Creating partnerships with industry and other academic groups, such as the Inclusive Engineering Consortium, whose students will work with members to conduct research and recruitment to UF graduate programs. The effort is led by Damon Woodard, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

“This initiative will allow us to recruit and equip a diverse, talented cadre of faculty and students across multiple disciplines and bring them together with colleagues from government and the private sector to find solutions to our most important problems,” said Cammy Abernathy, Ph.D., dean of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.

By Steve Orlando, Assistant Vice President of Communications, University Relations

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EVENTS

CISE CAREER FAIR SEES LARGEST ATTENDANCE In its 25th iteration, the CISE Career Fair saw its largest attendance of students and companies to date during the Sept. 23, 2019, event. Over five hours, more than 1,200 students passed through check-in to meet with representatives from 37 companies.

opportunity to meet students and alumni with a major or interest in computer science and computer engineering.

This year, the Career Fair welcomed 6 new companies, which included Facebook, Macy’s Tech, Amgen and Synopsys.

The Career Fair was held at the heart of the University of Florida campus in the Reitz Union’s Grand Ballroom. The purpose of the Career Fair is to connect students and alumni with industry representatives from companies large and small looking to hire interns and full-time employees.

Of the more than 1,200 attendees, 63 percent were undergraduate students. About 25 percent of total attendees and 27 percent of graduate student attendees were women. A majority of attendees currently study in the CISE department, but others came from the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and the Warrington College of Business, among others.

The event allows attendees time for brief conversations with company representatives to interview or ask questions about applying for jobs. Companies have the

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**All photos taken during the Fall 2019 event.

EVENTS

Advisor Receives Award for Staff International Educator of the Year Adrienne Cook, the department’s graduate academic advisor, recently received the Staff International Educator of the Year Award at the college level by the UF International Center. Approximately 84 percent of the students Cook advises are international students.

The International Educator of the Year Awards honor the outstanding contributions of faculty and staff to the internationalization of the University of Florida and the impact of those contributions on students, international partners, and university stakeholders.

“Receiving this award means a great deal to me,” Cook said. “The work I do has always been to make a difference in people’s lives. Receiving this award recognizes that I am successful in attaining my goal of helping students achieve their dreams.”

Cook has been an academic advisor for about 21 years. She previously spent 15 years as an undergraduate advisor in the UF Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and has been with CISE for six years.

Currently, Cook advises more than 500 master’s students and 146 Ph.D. students. She said she believes that students need an advocate,

especially the international students.

Cook’s advice for those interested in working as an advisor is to “be dedicated and make sure that this is truly your calling.” And for international students coming to UF, she says to “work hard and build bridges with other students and faculty. Be proud of your accomplishments and seek advice.

Do not hesitate to see me.”

“Adrienne’s door is always open, which is representative of her heart and her commitment to the university,” said Jasmine Bowers, Ph.D., who graduated this summer.

2019-2020 CISE Scholarship & Award Recipients The department congratulates the following award and scholarship winners. These students were selected by the awards committee because they have outstanding records of academic performance as well as significant contributions to society.

UNDERGRADUATE Cottmeyer Family Scholarship Patriel Stapleton • Lauren Newman Belkum

GRADUATE • Adam D Van

Matthew Martin Memolo Memorial Scholarship Jing Low • Yadi Qian Gartner Group Information Technology Fund Drew Gill • Olivia Jacques-Baker • Schuyler Gleaves • Allison Wu • Jason Chen • Rafael Alfonzo Marcelino • James Boultinghouse • Jenny Baik Nieten Scholarship Jack Wittmayer

Harris Corporation Communication Graduate Fellowship Julia Woodward • Isaac Wang • Yerika Jimenez Brendan David-John

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Gartner Group Graduate Fellowship Ngoc Lan Nguyen • Joseph Isaac • Pedro Guillermo Feijoo Garcia • Imani Sherman • Xiaohui Huang • Kimberly Ying • Pan He • Aishat Aloba • Kiana Alikhademi • Amanpreet Kapoor • Kingshuk Mukherjee • Dinh Trung Truc Nguyen • Hadi Abdullah • Luis Vargas • Yuzhu Dong

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