College of Engineering and Computing

Zhuangdi Zhu

Tama Moni — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 17:23:41 +0000

Zhuangdi Zhu Tama Moni Mon, 03/11/2024 - 13:23

Assistant Professor, Department of Cyber Security Engineering

Contact Information

Campus: Fairfax
Building: Research Hall, room 343
Email: zzhu24@gmu.edu

Personal Websites

Zhuangdi Zhu

Biography

Dr. Zhu obtained her PhD from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Michigan State University in 2022, advised by Dr. Jiayu Zhou. She was a Senior Data and Applied Scientist at Microsoft in 2022-2023. Her research interest resides in both applied and fundamental Machine Learning. Her long-term research goal is to develop accountable AI systems with robustness, privacy, scalability, security, and ethics in holistic Machine Learning life cycles. She has been developing principled algorithms that facilitate Knowledge Transfer across heterogeneous domains. Her recent research largely involves Federated Learning and Reinforcement Learning. More details can be found on her website.

Degrees:

PhD, Computer Science, Michigan State University

Alexandre Barreto

Tama Moni — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 17:20:22 +0000

Alexandre Barreto Tama Moni Tue, 08/15/2023 - 13:20

Associate Professor, Department of Cyber Security Engineering

Contact Information

Building: Research Hall
Email: adebarro@gmu.edu

Biography

Alexandre Barreto has applied his significant experience as an air traffic and air defense infrastructure manager to a career specializing in the field of cybersecurity and networking, which in conjunction with his research on cyber impact assessment, has led to applications in cyber and transportation security, and decision support systems in defense and critical infrastructure areas. These topics are at the core of his classroom activities at both graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as his research path. Barreto is a researcher in impact assessment and secure air transportation protocols and developed innovative applications and extensions that aid in the fight against cyber-warfare. He received his MS and PhD from Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica in Brazil.

Degrees

PhD, Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, Brazil

Zhengdao Wang

Tama Moni — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 14:20:42 +0000

Zhengdao Wang Tama Moni Fri, 08/04/2023 - 10:20

Professor, Department of Cyber Security Engineering

Contact Information

Campus: Fairfax
Building: Research Hall, Room 331
Email: zwang52@gmu.edu
Phone: (703) 993-1578

Personal Websites

Personal Website

Biography

Zhengdao Wang’s interests lie in the areas of machine learning, cybersecurity, communications, signal processing, and information theory. Before joining George Mason University, he was a professor at Iowa State University from 2002 to 2023, during which time he also served as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation in the Division of Electrical, Communications, and Cyber Systems from 2020 to 2022.

His work has been recognized with several best paper awards, including the IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Magazine Paper Award in 2003, the IEEE Marconi Paper Prize Award in Wireless Communications in 2004, and the EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing Best Paper Award in 2008. He served as an Associate Editor for several IEEE and international journals and played leading roles in the organization of several international conferences and workshops. He served as the Regional Director at Large of the IEEE Signal Processing Society for Regions 1-6 (USA) in 2017 and 2018. He was elected an IEEE Fellow in 2016.

Degrees

PhD, Electrical Engineering, University of Minnesota (2002)
MS, Electrical Engineering, University of Virginia (1999)
BEng, Electronic Engineering and Information Science, University of Science and Technology of China (1996)

Mohamed Morsy

Tama Moni — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 13:40:00 +0000

Mohamed Morsy Tama Moni Fri, 08/04/2023 - 09:40

Associate Professor, Department of Cyber Security Engineering

Contact Information

Building: Research Hall
Email: mmorsy@gmu.edu

Biography

Before joining the Department of Cyber Security Engineering at George Mason University as an adjunct faculty in 2022 and then as a full-time Associate Professor in 2023, Dr. Morsy served at various locations as senior system engineer and senior research scientist. He served as part-time faculty in electrical engineering and applied science at George Washington University (2002-2004), then as Department Chair of Electronics and Communications at ITT (2004-2016).

Dr. Morsy also served as an adjunct Professor at Fairfax University of America (formerly Virginia International University) (2009-2023), as adjunct faculty at ECPI University (2017-2020), and as adjunct professor at Northern Virginia Community College (2017-2023).

He also served as a member of the ITT National Electronics Curriculum Committee (2005-2016). He participated in the curriculum development of graduate and undergraduate CIS courses at Fairfax University of America and EE courses at NOVA.

Dr. Morsy has authored/coauthored several technical journal articles and conference papers (cited in the web IEEE). He received numerous teaching performance awards, certificates of outstanding achievements, and certificates of appreciation from the IEEE Communications Society.

He is a Life Senior Member of the IEEE. He is an Editor of the International Journal of Research Publications (IJRP)

He received his Doctor of Science (DSc) degree in Electrical Engineering and Communications from George Washington University, Washington DC, and his Master of Science (MSc) degree in Electrical Engineering and Microwaves from Assiut University, Egypt.

Degrees

PhD, Electrical and Communications, George Washington University

Jair Ferrari

Tama Moni — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 20:31:37 +0000

Jair Ferrari Tama Moni Thu, 08/03/2023 - 16:31

Associate Professor, Department of Cyber Security Engineering

Contact Information

Building: Research Hall
Email: jfeldens@gmu.edu

Biography

Jair Ferrari is an associate professor in the Department of Cyber Security Engineering. He will teach courses in Unmanned Air Systems Security (CYSE499/685/750), topics in Cyber Security Engineering, and Systems Engineering Principles (SYST 205). He does research in the C4I and Cyber Security Center in projects related to Unmanned Air Systems detection and simulation, C4I, and cybersecurity.

He received his PhD in Industrial Engineering from Concordia University. An MSc in Systems Engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. An MSc in Business Administration from Brasilia University and BASc from the Military Aviation at the Brazilian Air Force Academy.

Ferrari was a former Brazilian Air Force officer (Colonel), maritime patrol pilot, electronic warfare specialist, portfolio manager of aeronautical and defense research and development projects, coordinator, and instructor of electronic warfare courses. He was a researcher and teacher assistant in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial, and Aerospace Department of Concordia University.

Research

Systems Engineering - Requirement Engineering and Analysis, Systems Architecture, Test and Evaluation Methods.
Cyber Security - Detection, Countermeasures and Protective Measures of Unmanned Aerial Systems; UAS Detection Network Architecture, Optimization, and Simulation.
C4I Systems - Tactical Optimization Planning of Aerial and Naval Operations; Electronic Warfare.
Business Administration - Quantitative Assessment of Customer Service Quality; Organizational Studies.

Degrees

PhD, Industrial Engineering, Concordia University (Montréal, Canada)
MSc, Systems Engineering, Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey, CA)
MSc, Business of Administration, Brasilia University (Brasilia, Brazil)
BASc, Military Aviation, Brazilian Air Force Academy (Pirassununga, Brazil)

Anomadarshi Barua

Tama Moni — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 20:18:16 +0000

Anomadarshi Barua Tama Moni Thu, 08/03/2023 - 16:18

Assistant Professor, Department of Cyber Security Engineering

Contact Information

Building: Research Hall, Room 347
Email: abarua8@gmu.edu
Phone: 703-993-6760

Personal Websites

Anomadarshi Barua Website

Biography

Anomadarshi Barua is an assistant professor in the Department of Cyber Security Engineering at George Mason University. His research interest broadly lies in the areas of system design and its security, particularly focusing on healthcare assistive systems, industrial control systems, sensors, and robotics. He leads the System Design and Security research group, which focuses on designing and improving the security of multimodal systems using secured software/hardware implementations of multimodal data. He uses audio, visual, pressure, vibration, mmWave, and electromagnetic data from multimodal systems and provides targeted solutions by combining data, sensors, and systems. He publishes in top-tier security conferences like ACM CCS, USENIX, ACSAC, RAID, and CHES and system conferences, like HOST, ICCPS, and ICCAD. He also has worked in several industries in North America and Europe, such as Intel Corporation (USA), Solidigm (USA), Nordic Semiconductor (Norway), and IDEAS (Norway).

Degrees

PhD, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine
MS, Embedded Computing Systems, University of Southampton and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
BS, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

Giuseppe Ateniese

Tama Moni — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 20:05:54 +0000

Giuseppe Ateniese Tama Moni Tue, 02/14/2023 - 15:05

Professor and Eminent Scholar, Department of Cyber Security Engineering and Department of Computer Science

Contact Information

Building: 339 Research Hall, Fairfax
MSN: 6B1
Phone: (703) 993-6758
Email: ateniese@gmu.edu

Personal Websites

Professional Webpage

Biography

In addition to being a Professor and eminent Scholar in Cyber Security Engineering, Giuseppe Ateniese is also a CCI Faculty Fellow in the Computer Science and Cyber Security Engineering departments. He was a Farber Endowed Chair in Computer Science and Department Chair at Stevens Institute of Technology. In addition, he was with Sapienza-University of Rome, an Assistant/Associate Professor at John Hopkins University, and one of the JHU Information Security Institute founders.

Degrees

PhD, Computer Science, University of Genoa (2000)

Research Interests

Cloud Security
Cybersecurity
Applied Cryptography

Google Scholar

Peggy Brouse

Tama Moni — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 19:02:43 +0000

Peggy Brouse Tama Moni Tue, 02/14/2023 - 14:02

Professor, SEOR; Professor and Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Cyber Security Engineering

Contact Information

Building: 338 Research Hall, Fairfax
MSN: 6B1
Phone: (703) 993-1502
Email: pbrouse@gmu.edu

Biography

Dr. Brouse is the architect of the first-of-its-kind BS in Cyber Security Engineering in the nation. The program was developed to focus on cyber-physical systems and equip students to take a proactive approach to cyber security in engineered systems. She designed the program to use a systems engineering approach to cyber security integration in systems development.

Tanvir Arafin

Tama Moni — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 16:36:51 +0000

Tanvir Arafin Tama Moni Tue, 02/14/2023 - 11:36

Assistant Professor, Department of Cyber Security Engineering

Contact Information

Email: marafin@gmu.edu

Biography

Tanvir Arafin's work focuses on hardware security and trust issues in emerging computing platforms. His work has been published at flagship venues in hardware design and security, such as IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration Systems, IEEE Transaction of Computers, ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design, and Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference.

Novus Security Inc. cofounders win $50,000 for web3 cybersecurity app

Teresa Donnellan — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 20:16:21 +0000

Novus Security Inc. cofounders win $50,000 for web3 cybersecurity app Teresa Donnellan Mon, 11/28/2022 - 15:16

Early in 2022, Dominique Calder’s relative lost almost $20,000 to a cryptocurrency scam.

“[W]hen I was helping the family member go through stuff,” the PhD candidate in Computer Science at George Mason University explains, “I was able to pretty much pinpoint back to the server where this origination happened.”

Emanuel Perez (left) and Dominique Calder. Photo by Storm Calder of 13News Now (WVEC)

A few months later, when Calder's mentee and friend Emanuel Perez described an idea for a business to make the web3 space—where much cryptocurrency dealing takes place—more secure, Calder was eager to help. Perez came up with the idea for the business when he noticed a phishing scam in a group chat for investors interested in cryptocurrency.

“This is happening all across the community—even to people who know stuff about crypto. They are still getting scammed, because scammers are just that good.” Calder said.

By early November, as finalists in the Black Ambition Prize contest, Calder and Perez won $50,000 to develop Novus Security, Inc.

Novus Security Inc.

Calder and Perez started the business in March 2022 and applied for Black Ambition at the end of June, primarily to gain some exposure, says Calder.

“It's really gotten some great attention,” Calder says. Perez, an entrepreneur at heart, notes that his ambition to create Novus Security Inc., is unlike past endeavors—he left a full-time job at Microsoft to work on his startup full-time.

Since the contest, Novus has been making quick progress. The company is incorporated and the co-founders are planning to grow their team in the upcoming year. Ultimately, Calder and Perez plan to develop an app to detect potential phishing scams in Web3 and to foster a Web3 cybersecurity community.

“We also wanted to be a community for passionate Web3 users, [such as] people who are into crypto and into buying NFTs and things like that,” explains Calder. “We want a community to be built where we can detect scams [and] let people know ... ‘Hey, this is the new way that scammers are making an approach.’ So we want an educational aspect around [Novus] as well.”

Web3 is a decentralized version of the internet based on public blockchain. While the burgeoning space and its premise of decentralization entice users, the risks in engaging with an inherently unregulated space are all too apparent. Perez explains that the same risks to internet surfing in Web2, the version of the internet most people use, are elevated in Web3. For example, when assets are traded in Web3, Perez says, the user, rather than a third party such as a bank, must assume significant risk; the user is in charge of protecting these assets.

Moreover, scammers are adapting quickly in Web3. Perez recalls a joke about Web3 developing at ten times the speed of other industries and notes that the rapidity of developing threats poses a challenge to traditional cybersecurity systems. Calder says there are many free, public sites, such as VirusTotal, working to combat phishing in Web2. She explains, “You can go there and put in a site ... and they'll give you a certain confidence level like, ‘This site is likely suspicious based off of these factors.’ We want that for the Web3 space, because there's nothing that exists like that at the moment.”

A Balanced Partnership

Both alumni of Norfolk State University, Calder and Perez met when Calder returned to the school in 2017 as a recent grad to speak to computer science students.

“I gave a short spiel about my journey and how difficult things were for me,” Calder recalls. “He [Perez] was so moved, he came up to me and asked me to mentor him, because he was considering dropping out of school. I was very blown away that that he even came up to me and asked me, you know, to mentor him, let alone...that he was in a position that I was once in myself.”

“We formed a great friendship,” she adds, “He graduated just last year [2021] … and he got a job at Microsoft coming straight out of college. That's any student's dream, right?”

The co-founders have complementary skillsets. While Calder studied computer science with a concentration in information assurance for both her bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, Perez chose to study business management information systems. Calder notes that combining their different perspectives has been “useful,” adding that their contrasting skills help sharpen each other.

“I have a heavy tech background myself,” Calder explains. While a graduate student at George Mason she has also been working for TikTok, where she was a founding member of their digital forensics team. She adds, “Having somebody like Emanuel, who's had a heavy entrepreneurial background, has been great … We're having to figure out a lot of things on our own … but we have a great rapport. We trust each other. We have a brother/sister type of relationship more than just business partners.”

Hometown Pride

As both Calder and Perez are natives of Virginia Beach, Virginia, it was all the more meaningful to receive the prize money as the culmination of a massive, positive event in their hometown. Founded by Pharrell Williams and led by Felecia Hatcher, the Black Ambition Prize contest awarded over two million dollars to finalists representing innovative businesses across various industries. The contest took place as part of the Mighty Dream Forum, a three-day conference on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Williams is also from Virginia Beach.

“It was really cool to see that level of creativity [and] that level of business being brought to our area,” Calder says. “It did something for the community. It reignited something that we were missing”

Calder notes that the area has lost business recently due to violence in the area.

“We're losing a lot of areas for people to hang out and do stuff and have fun and be safe,” she says. “So to see a hometown hero...make it rain $2.5 million to a bunch of people that really, really needed it was great.”

Of the win, Calder says, “We didn't even really envision this for ourselves at one point, but there was a time in life where we were able to see this for ourselves, and so to see all of that manifest that day on stage [when] we were standing there with the check—it's like, ‘Wow, things can really happen with some good work and good effort.’” Being part of this great event in their hometown “put the icing on the cake” to their winning $50,000, says Calder.

As finalists, the Novus co-founders now have access to a network of expert advisors as well as fellow budding entrepreneurs. Calder has relished meeting so many interesting people. “I love every moment,” she says.

Next for Novus

For now, the cofounders are focused on getting their app in the Chrome web store.

"The development is still underway, but the next thing is to definitely get the app out there to be used,” says Calder. “Every day people are getting hit by scams.”

Perez says he and Calder plan to keep their team small. Nevertheless, they hope to bring on new people in the upcoming year, specifically a full-stack software engineer and a security engineer, respectively.

Topics

career-ready graduates

Cybersecurity

Students

College of Engineering and Computing

diversity