Spring 2022 | Catalyst | UTSA
Good to Know: Rocky Slavin Meet the mind behind some of UTSA’s most notable cybersecurity research
My relationship with UTSA has been a long and rewarding one. Because I was a first-generation, Hispanic student with parents who had not even graduated from high school, a collegiate future seemed daunting. After starting my academic career at UTSA, I eventually graduated with my B.S. in Computer Science in 2012. Near the end of my undergraduate studies, I was fortunate enough to get the chance to do research with a UTSA computer science faculty member, which led to me joining the graduate program and earning my Ph.D. in 2017. During that time, I developed a love for both teaching and research, which fueled my decision to pursue a career in academia. Once again, I was able to continue my relationship with UTSA—this time as a faculty member where I have had the privilege to help others on their own journeys. My story with UTSA is somewhat unique. Unlike most faculty here, I also obtained my Ph.D. at UTSA. Successfully defending my dissertation and being the first in my family to earn a graduate degree was my proudest moment with the university. In a way, I get to continually relive this experience by guiding my students through their own success stories. There is nothing quite like the feeling you get when you see a student’s expression as something suddenly clicks for them. Over time, I have seen my students become welldeveloped, independent computer scientists. Many of my recent publications have revolved around validating the privacy-related promises app developers make in their natural language privacy policies (those things no one reads when we install an app). My research has found a non-negligible amount of inconsistent privacy policies and misconfigured privacy settings. My hope is that this research will help developers and app users become more aware of privacy risk. In addition, my students use a variety of methods and disciplines to study security and privacy in mobile, Internet of Things, and smart home settings. Besides their own workspaces and computers, my students have access to various servers specialized in machine learning, virtualization and data storage.
Graduate students also gain more opportunities to study areas more specific to their interests. As a result, they can expect more success and freedom in their career path. Simply put, cybersecurity research is fun and rewarding. The research I conduct and the topics I teach are all things that are relevant to my everyday hobbies and interests. This is a crucial factor for everyone in anything they do if they are to be successful and happy. I enjoy watching my students improve and develop, both in the short term and long term. As with all learning experiences, a lasting knowledge of the material is my primary goal in the classroom.
Required Reading The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. “I believe The Lord of the Rings should be listed as the last book under the required reading section of your degree requirement.” Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable ObjectOriented Software by Gamma, Vlissides, Helm and Johnson. “This must-read for any software engineer introduces the fundamental idea of patterns as solutions to recurring problems in software design.” The Pragmatic Programmer by Andy Hunt and David Thomas. “This book transcends the details of evolving technology and provides a broad look at best practices and general advice for writing quality code.”
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