Prof. Al-Shaer is the Director of the Network Assurability and Cyber Defense Research Center (NACDeC). Dr. Al-Shaer's primary research areas are network security, security management, fault diagnosis, and network assurability. Prof. Al-Shaer received his MSc and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Northeastern University (Boston, MA) and Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA) in 1998 and 1994 respectively.* *Prof. Al-Shaer edited/co-edited more than 10 books and book chapters, and published about 90 refereed journals and conferences papers in his area. He has been a Co-Editor of number of books, Guest Editor for number of journals, invited speaker, tutorial presenter and panelist in many conferences and industrial seminars. Prof. Al-Shaer is the General Chair of the 16^th ACM Computer and Communication 2009-2010 and NSF Workshop in Assurable and Usable Security Configuration, August 2008. Prof. Al-Shaer also served as a Workshop Chair and Program Co-chair for number of well-established conferences/workshops in his area including POLICY’08, IM’07, ANM-INFOCOM’08, CCS-SafeConfig 09, MMNS’01, and E2EMON 04-05. He also served as a member in the technical program and organization committees for many IEEE and ACM conferences including INFOCOM, ICNP, IM/NOMS, ICDCS, GLOBECOM, ICC, MMNS DSOM, and E2EMON. He was awarded the Best Paper Awards at the IEEE IM 2003 and POLICY 2008, and received a NASA fellowship in 1997. Prof. Al-Shaer also received funding awards from NSF, Cisco, Intel, Sun Microsystems. **

The goal of the Honors Program in Computing and Informatics is to identify creative, imaginative, and exceptional undergraduate CCI students and develop their potential through encouragement, opportunity, and recognition. Benefits of the program include smaller classes and a more challenging curriculum.

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The competition is designed to demonstrate students' ability to take on a changing real-world problem by building a working prototype in 8 hours. Students must also present to a panel of judges, comprised of faculty and industry affiliates, to convince them that their project should be funded. Students can either use Microsoft .NET or Java to construct the prototype. Criteria include: functionality, security, and usability.

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There is growing evidence that incorporating hands-on exercises, such as cyber games and interactive simulations, increases student interest in Information Assurance (IA) studies and enhances their learning experience. Cyber games are highly interactive hands-on exercises in which students are asked to build IT network infrastructures and services while managing and defending against realistic cyber attacks at the same time. Cyber games often are conducted as competitions involving teams of student participants. Interactive simulations help students understand abstract IA concepts through interactive explorations and visualizations.

The work shop is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, and will be held in Charlotte, NC jointly hosted by UNC Charlotte and NC A&T State University June 22-29 2008. Through a grant from NSF, we will be able to cover travel, lodging, along with a stipend for all invited participants. We invite interested colleagues to apply for a limited number of slots prior to Feb. 16, 2008

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NetRads is a network of adaptive radars controlled by a collection of Meteorological Command and Control (MCC) agents that instruct where to scan based on emerging weather conditions. As embedded systems consisting of collaborating agents capable of interaction become ubiquitous, they must be able to adapt to the dynamic, uncertain characteristics of an open environment. This adaptation needs to be based on the priority of tasks, availability of resources, and availability of alternative ways of satisfying these and future tasks. This project addresses when this adaptation process should be done and how much effort should be invested in this adaptation as opposed to just continuing with the current action plan.

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Digital Identity Management and Protection

Digital identity management (DIM) has emerged as a critical foundation for supporting successful interaction in today's globally interconnected society. In this talk we will first discuss basic digital identity concepts and requirements towards DIM solutions and we will overview relevant initiatives currently undergoing in academia and industry. We will then focus on the problem of identity theft and discuss an initial solution to the problem of establishing and protecting digital identity.

Elisa Bertino is professor of Computer Science at Purdue University and serves as Research Director of the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS).

Dr. Bertino is a Fellow member of IEEE and a Fellow member of ACM and has been been named a Golden Core Member for her service to the IEEE Computer Society. She received the 2002 IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award for "For outstanding contributions to database systems and database security and advanced data management systems" and the 2005 IEEE Computer Society Tsutomu Kanai Award “For pioneering and innovative research contributions to secure distributed systems”.

The Charlotte Metro Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) Chapter has doubled the number of scholarships offered to SIS students pursing information security studies. Each scholarship will be worth $3,000. Final decisions will be made in Spring 2008.

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This symposium will focus on the issues and solutions as seen by the most prominent researchers and practitioners in the field of information security.

Intended Audience:

Business continuity professionals, IT managers, software developers, systems administrators, information security professionals, information security consultants, and policy makers should take advantage of this exceptional opportunity.

Keynote speakers include:

Dan Geer Vice President and Chief Scientist for Verdasys and the principal of Geer Risk Services. He authored the white paper, “The Shrinking Perimeter – Making the Case for Data Level Risk Management” and has also co-written several books and reports, including, “Cyber Insecurity.”

Alan Paller Founder, and Director of Research for all research projects for the SANS Institute. Paller was also selected as one of the 100 “Most Influential People in Information Technology” by eWeek, CIO Decisions, and Baseline magazines. Paller established the Annual SANS-FBI Top 20 Internet Security Threats (1999) and was named to the National Infrastructure Assurance Council by the President of the United States (2001).

Tom Gallagher Microsoft, coauthor of Hunting Security Bugs; Tom is currently the lead of the Office Security Test team. This team is primarily focused on penetration testing, writing security testing tools, and educating program managers, developers, and testers about security issues.

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UNC Charlotte Faculty and Staff Free Registration

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2009 CCI 8-hour start up competition will be held Friday Nov. 13.

The department is now accepting applications for the NSF CyberCorps scholarship beginning in the Spring 2010 semester. More information is available here. The deadline to apply is Nov. 1st, 2009.

The department offers an Honors Program. More information is available here.

College of Computing and Informatics 2009-2010 Research Seminars

The Department of Software and Information System has been re-designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence for Information Assurance Education by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security in June 2007. The department first received this designation in 2001 and has retained this designation without interruption.

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Celine Latulipe, David Wilson, and Sybil Huskey received an NSF grant “Dance.Draw: Embodiment as Input for Collaborative, Creative Expression.” The project will explore ways to allow dancers to create information with their movements in real-time and study how to involve the audience in the interaction loop.

Brent Hoon Kang received NSF grants to study behavior of malicious botnets.

Xintao Wu received an NSF grant to look at new ways of generating testing data for databases.

The ISSA scholarship was established by the Charlotte Metro Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association to honor an excellent student enrolled in the Department of Software and Information Systems. In addition to excellent academic achievements, the student must be interested in pursing a career in Information Security and dedicated to apply his knowledge in service of the community.

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The John H. Biggs Faculty Fellows Program is established, in honor of the former Chairman of TIAA-CREF, to support non-tenured UNC Charlotte faculty for their teaching and research activities. Two faculty members are selected every year for this honor. Dr. Kang plans to work on Premise-Aware Access Framework for Regulation Compliance in Financial Organizations.

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The Provost Award for Teaching Excellence honors one academic unit at UNC Charlotte each year for documented excellence in teaching. The Department of Software and Information received this distinction this year for its efforts in innovative curriculum development, exceptional student accomplishments, and diverse study body. The department joins other thirteen departments in the university for this honor.

The Alain Fournier Ph.D. thesis award is a prestigious award given by the University of Montreal in conjunction with the Graphics Interface Conference. The following is an excerpt from the announcement of the award committee:

“Her thesis, entitled "A Model for Symmetric Interaction", demonstrates the benefits of a two-handed mouse-based symmetric user interface to increase expressiveness and productivity in practical settings. The successful pursuit of this thesis topic required her to develop a surprisingly wide range of skills, everything from the low-level programming of hardware devices to the careful design and execution of user studies. “

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The HCI Lab at UNC Charlotte is pleased to announce our first open house to coincide with World Usability Day! We would like to introduce our research and programs in Human Computer Interaction and promote HCI and Usability on campus and in Charlotte. Faculty, students, professionals and anyone interested in learning more about HCI and usability are welcome to this event.

HCI Lab Open House: A World Usability Day Event Hosted by Dr. Celine Latulipe and Dr. Heather Richter Software and Information Systems Department College of Computing and Informatics University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Schedule Tuesday, November 14, 2006.

Location: 111 Cone Center

• 12:30-12:45: Welcome
• 12:45-1:15: Talk by Susan Fore, Usability and Research Director at Bank of America
• 1:15-1:45: Panel on Usability in Industry with local usability practitioners Panelists: Susan Fore, Bank of America; Cliff Anderson, Wachovia; Bryan Skelton, Empowered Benefits Refreshments will be served

Location: 330A Woodward Hall

1:45-3:00: Demos and posters in the HCI Lab

Refreshments will be served

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The Department of Software and Information Systems at UNC Charlotte invites applicants for multiple tenure-track faculty positions at both the assistant and associate levels beginning in Fall 2009. More information is available here.

In addition, the Department seeks to hire a tenure-track faculty member at the associate level to serve as Director of the recently established Center for Digital Identity and Cyber Defense Research (DICyDER). DICyDER’s mission is to add value to the university, community, and society through innovative educational programs, research and development in the areas of information integration, security, and privacy. More information is available here.

The Department is dedicated to research and education in Computing with emphasis in Information Security & Assurance and Information Integration & Environments. Faculty candidates with strong research expertise in: Software Engineering, Trusted Software Development, Trusted Information Infrastructures, and Information Security and Privacy are encouraged to apply. Highly qualified candidates in other areas will also be considered. Salary will be highly competitive. Applicants must have a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or a related field, as well as a strong commitment to research and education.

Women, minorities and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. UNC Charlotte is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer.

The TIAA-CREF fellowship provides one year of support to newly admitted doctoral students who have demonstrated the potential to make a significant contribution to their profession and to society.

George earned his B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science, summa cum laude. He is originally from Belmont, North Carolina. He is currently working under the direction of Anita Raja. George and Anita received the college's student/faculty research award in the 2005-2006 academic year.

The department is accepting applications for the NSF CyberCorps scholarship beginning in the Fall 2007 semester. More information is available here. The deadline to apply is July 15, 2007.

The new BA in IT track has been approved! More information is available here.

Weekly College of Computing and Informatics Research Seminar will be held in Woodward 106 every Friday 3-4.

College of Computing and Informatics Podcasts

Welcome to our new faculty members who will be joining the Department this fall.

Celine Latulipe comes to us from University of Waterloo where she has just completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Computer Science. Her research is focused on Human Computer Interaction.

Tony Kombol is joining us as a lecturer with many years of experience at IBM in areas of software engineering and system administration.

Carolina Cyber Defender, a team of eight UNC Charlotte College of IT students, won first place in the first National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) in San Antonio TX April 21-23, hosted by the University of Texas at San Antonio. The UNC Charlotte team overcame three other regional champions and a team jointly fielded by five U.S. Military Academies. The competition is an important part of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) effort to promote better protection of the nation’s information infrastructure.

The UNC Charlotte Honeynet project is part of the research effort of the network security group in the Laboratory of Information and Infrastructure Security. We hope to use the honeynet to gather important data as input to network and security research. This data can then be used as an educational tool to increase the knowledge of all network security students and professionals.

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George Alexandar and Anita Raja: Student Faculty Research Award.

Seok-Won Lee: Graduate Teaching Award

Bruce Long: Undergraduate Teaching Award

Kathy Edwards: Staff of the Year Award

Presented by Jeff Alexander, Drew Linderman, Tom Cassen, Kalpathi Subramanian, Asis Nasipuri

Robust Centerline Extraction from Medical Volumes Using a Probability Model

Presented by Jianfei Liu, Kalpathi Subramanian

3:00 on Friday, April 21 106 Woodward Hall

Napoleon Paxton, a PhD student under the direction of Dr. Gail-Joon Ahn, was selected as a NASA Harriet G. Jenkins Fellow. The Harriett G. Jenkins Fellowship Program (JPFP) provides full-time graduate students who are in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) with financial support for their education in NASA-related disciplines. 20 students were selected out of more than 1,000 applicants.

Napoleon and Dr. Ahn are working on research issues in network and systems assurance.

A team of College of IT students won the Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (SECCDC) held in Atlanta March 10-12. SECCDC is different from the annual iCTF competition, which UNC Charlotte also placed first in the South last December, in that it focuses on cyber defense. Teams are assessed based on their ability to deploy secure IT infrastructure and services. iCTF, on the other hand, involves both defensive and offensive aspacts.

Presented by Dr. Rayford Vaughn Mississippi State University

3:00 on Friday, April 7 106 Woodward Hall

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The Carolinas Cyber Defender Scholarships provide graduate and undergraduate (U.S.citizens) full scholarships to attend UNC Charlotte for two years pursuing studies in Information Security and Privacy. Application deadline for Spring 2007 semester is November 1, 2006.

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THIS POSITION HAS BEEN FILLED

The department has an opening for a full-time, fixed-term (non-tenure track, core position) lecturer to teach courses in information technology, web-based application development, software engineering, and system administration; advise undergraduate students; and assist in the department’s administrative processes. Appointments will be made for a two-year term, beginning with the Fall semester of 2006, and are renewable based on performance.

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Friday, Feb. 10th at 3:00 Woodward 106

Cyber Games and Information Assurance Education

Team Miner's Threat

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“Miner’s Threat”, a team of UNC Charlotte cyber defenders ranked #1 in the South in the 2005 International (cyber) Capture The Flag (iCTF) competition overcoming NC State, Georgia Tech, and University of South Florida.

iCTF, hosted by UCSB, is the most prestigious international intercollegiate Cyber Game. A total of 22 teams from universities in six countries took part in the competition. UNC Charlotte placed 4th among 15 U.S. teams.

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The Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship Program provides graduate and undergraduate full scholarships for U.S. citizens to attend UNC Charlotte for two years and pursue studies in Information Security and Privacy. The application deadline for the academic year beginning in the Fall semester of 2007 is February 9, 2007.

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The Critical Infrastructure Protection Research is sponsored by DoD with the aim of understanding the interdependencies of critical infrastructures (e.g. electric power, natural gas, and telecommunications). Faculty researchers include Drs. Bill Tolone, Wei-Ning Xiang, David Wilson, Seok-Won Lee, and Gail-Joon Ahn.

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We offer a wide range of academic and research programs in Information Technology and Software Engineering. Academic curriculum is intellectually challenging with strong hands-on laboratory components using state of the art technology. The department maintains close relationships with a large number of companies that make us a top recruitment choice.

Financial assistance is available for both undergraduate and graduate students

Charlotte Metro ISSA Scholarship

Human Computer Interaction

Distributed AI

Critical Infrastructure Protection

Information Security

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Applying Interpersonal Theory and Psycholinguistics in Understanding Technology-Mediated Exchange

Additional Seminar on Nov. 14 3-4 STECH 106

Natural Interfaces to Virtual Characters and Environments Presented by Benjamin Lok University of Florida

The title of the research presentaiton will be "Navigating Recorded Meetings". This will be part of the College of IT's research seminar series.

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The proclamation was made in recognition of the wide use of the Internet in Charlotte to carry on both personal and professional business. Graduate students will conduct free public workshops at Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Public Library branches the week of Oct. 3-9.

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Dr. Yongge Wang will speak on "Identity Based Cryptographic Techniques and Secure VoIP" Sept. 23 and 30 2005 in STECH 135 3-4pm.

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Certification and Accreditation is a key part of the information assurance process for the U.S. government. This research project aims at providing a systematic approach to conduct certification and accreditation with automated tool support.

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Almost 300 registered at UNC Charlotte's sixth annual Information Security and Privacy Symposium held on UNC Charlotte Campus on Oct. 12, 2005. Key note speakers included Stuart McClure, founder and CTO of Foundstone and author of the best selling security book "Hacking Exposed", Robert O'Harrow, Washington Post Investigative reporter and author of "No Place to Hide", and Hun Kim, a senior official in the Department of Homeland Security in charge of protecting the nation's cyber infrastructure.

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Heather Richter joined the department as Assistant Professor in fall 2005. She received her Ph.D. from the College of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. While at Georgia Tech, she worked in the Ubicomp Research Group in meeting capture and access. Her research interests include Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Ubiquitous Computing, and Software Engineering.

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The Carolinas Cyber Defender Scholarships provide graduate and undergraduate (U.S.citizens) full scholarships to attend UNC Charlotte for two years pursuing studies in Information Security and Privacy. Application deadline for Spring 2006 semester is November 1.

Open research and teaching assistant positions are also available. Please see individual faculty web pages. DIAR RA opening.

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The Department of Software and Information Systems at University of North Carolina at Charlotte has been designated by the National Security Agency as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education.

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Dr. Gail-Joon Ahn was named as the Educator of the Year at the annual conference of the Federal Information Systems Security Educators' Association on March 22, 2005.

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