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Khaled Khasawneh receives NSF Awards in collaboration with University of California

Rena Malai — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 19:23:16 +0000

Khaled Khasawneh receives NSF Awards in collaboration with University of California Rena Malai Mon, 08/15/2022 - 15:23

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Khaled N. Khasawneh, assistant professor in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the director of the Computer Architecture, Machine Learning, and Security (CAMLsec) Lab, has been awarded two NSF grants. These grants are in collaboration with University of California (UC) Davis and UC Riverside, and total $2.4M.

“These are timely awards to allow my group to continue pursuing cutting edge research in machine learning security, cloud security, and hardware security fields,” says Khasawneh. “Special thanks to NSF for their funding. I appreciate the efforts of my collaborators, the endless support from our department, and the efforts of the talented students in my group.”

Award 1: Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Medium: Targeted Microarchitectural Attacks and Defenses in Cloud Infrastructure

Cloud computing paradigms have emerged as a major facility to store and process massive amounts of data produced by various business units, public organizations, Internet-of-Things, and cyber-physical systems. The cloud scheduler is the component responsible for deciding which computer a cloud application should run. The current design of cloud schedulers only focuses on meeting the performance requirements of submitted applications without security considerations.

This project, in collaboration with professor Houman Homayoun’s lLab at UC Davis, examines how cloud schedulers can be exploited by attackers to facilitate targeted micro-architectural attacks in cloud environments. The project also explores novel approaches to defend against targeted micro-architectural attacks in the cloud.

Award 2: Collaborative Research: SHF: Medium: Approximate Computing for Machine Learning Security: Foundations and Accelerator Design

Advances in Deep Neural Networks (DNN) have enabled a wide range of promising applications. However, DNNs are vulnerable to Adversarial Machine Learning attacks, with potentially dangerous outcomes, such as mistaking a stop sign for a speed limit sign.

This project, in collaboration with professors Nael Abu-Ghazaleh and Samet Oymak at UC Riverside, will explore the use of approximate computing to improve the robustness of DNNs against adversarial attacks. Approximate computing is a design paradigm that trades results precision for simpler hardware.

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A conversation with Andre Marshall

Colleen Rich — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 17:09:43 +0000

A conversation with Andre Marshall Colleen Rich Fri, 06/25/2021 - 13:09

Andre Marshall, vice president for research, innovation and economic development and president of the ��AV Research Foundation. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

Andre Marshall joins Mason as its new vice president for research, innovation and economic development and president of the ��AV Research Foundation on July 1. He also joins the faculty of the Volgenau School of Engineering. Before coming to Mason, Marshall was program director for the National Science Foundation’s $38 million Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Program, which helps researchers reduce the time it takes to translate promising ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace. He was also founder and director of the Fire Testing and Evaluation Center at the University of Maryland, College Park.

How did you get interested in engineering?

I've always wanted to be an engineer. In middle school, I was in a talented and gifted program, and I built my first radio. This was around 1982, and back then a radio was a physical thing, not something to click your phone. This was before the [electronic] breadboards that students use today. There was no kit. We had a piece of wood and connected the wires across the nails. We used a soldering iron. It was a whole physical process, and it was fascinating to me and very satisfying in the end to build something that actually worked.

Is that what attracted you to mechanical engineering?

That's a longer story. I attended Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland, Oregon. When people think about Portland, and they think of the television show “Portlandia,” they think of Intel and Nike. That's not where I grew up [laughs]. Portland had a history of shipbuilding post-World War II. After that kind of dried up, it was still [focused on] the wood industry. Portland hadn't yet transitioned to a high-tech hub, benefiting from the overflow of all of the California tech success, but we were kind of moving in that direction. My high school had been a trade school, where you learned a skill, whether it was sheet metal work or machining. Then the 1980s, when I was there, they started moving toward college prep, and I got this really cool balance early on. I was building things in sheet metal shop and in machine shop. I got to work with my hands, and I loved it. I majored in robotics, but after my high school experience, I realized that I didn't want to go into that field, so I decided on mechanical engineering. It was a lot of fun and great experience to take into the laboratory. Oftentimes, we think of research as being very academic, and it is—and I love that part of it. But in engineering, research can be very hands-on in the labs.

What attracted you to this position at Mason?

I absolutely love Mason's culture of accessibility and inclusion. I am excited about the idea of inclusive excellence. Also Mason is an R1 university, which, as someone who absolutely loves the research enterprise, is exciting. I have a high regard for what Mason has been able to achieve in its research enterprise. Combine that with this culture of access and inclusion, it is really going to be a lot of fun. This whole idea of executing excellent research while creating opportunities for more people through access—it's really a dream for me.

Do you have a sense of what you will tackle first?

I have met with President Washington, and the major priorities of the university are in focus. Expanding the research enterprise is a priority, especially in digital innovation. And the Arlington Campus is going to be important to that expansion. The president is also prioritizing these grand challenges so that's certainly top of mind for me in when visualizing what the research expansion might look like.

What are your thoughts on best practices for supporting and promoting multidisciplinary research?

The institute structure that is in place at Mason is considered a best practice for promoting multidisciplinary research. Those areas of application—biohealth, sustainability, digital innovation—do in fact serve as a focal point where you can bring in experts that may have different areas of expertise surrounding a specific challenge. In my experience at a national level with [the National Science Foundation], looking at different universities and how they've organized themselves, Mason is already there. We have a great framework, and by the way, that framework is what attracted me to Mason. I was like, Oh my gosh, they've already figured it out. It's what I would've done if it wasn't in place, so I have a high regard for my predecessors in building out that framework.

Speaking of your NSF experience and coming from that national view of research, were there any challenges at Mason that you were able to spot from the outside?

When you're coming into a position, you do want to have a vision, you want to have something to offer. While it is a good thing to have your own ideas and your own values, it has to be tempered with learning what the institution's real challenges are, and that takes time. I had some ideas from the outside about things that I could help Mason with, but in really learning and hearing more from the university, I began to understand better what some of Mason's challenges were, and they weren't necessarily what I thought they would be. So my approach is going to be to continue to learn the culture of Mason— that's what I did at NSF—and to begin to understand where the opportunities are and where the challenges are from inside of the organization. And then harmonize those with my own ideas to make sure that we are doing things that are going to matter for Mason.

One of the things that we teach at [NSF’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps)] in our experiential and entrepreneurial education programs is customer discovery. We teach researchers looking to translate their technology into a useful product or service to interview prospective customers and just learn from them. They cannot bias the interview by mentioning what their technology may or may not be able to do. They just listen for signals about problems or opportunities that their technology may be able to address. In doing so, they begin to understand how their innovations may or may not be useful. So I want to learn more about Mason and not be quick to push something that does not address an urgent need or create a meaningful opportunity.

How can Mason best address the challenge of securing funding for large-scale applied research?

One of the things I spoke about in my public talk was how exciting it is to be an R1 university. It's prestigious, and it's also an awesome responsibility because we are in the top 131 universities performing research at the highest levels, and the nation will be looking to us to lead.

I want to look at it from that perspective: Large-scale is a responsibility, and it's an opportunity for us to have impact. In order to meet that challenge and have that national impact, we will need these large-scale research activities. The timing is good for us to be to be able to put some of the pieces in place with the support that we're getting from entities such as Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP) and our growing talent pool.

I think we should play to our strengths and also honor our core values as we think about where the opportunities may lie. The humanities and social sciences and the recent expansion in our science and engineering activities are all strengths for Mason. If we want to honor those strengths and stay true to our core values, I think we'll be the most competitive, and there will be opportunities for us to truly differentiate our contributions.

What do you do for fun?

I love to garden—flower gardening, not vegetable gardening. I love to be out in the yard. I did a lot of yardwork as a kid, and it's really satisfying for me to get plants started and watch them grow.

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Solomon is first junior faculty member in Chemistry to secure NSF Career Award

John Hollis — Thu, 27 May 2021 19:58:04 +0000

Solomon is first junior faculty member in Chemistry to secure NSF Career Award John Hollis Thu, 05/27/2021 - 15:58

Lee A. Solomon is first junior faculty member in Chemistry to secure NSF Career Award. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

��AV’s Lee A. Solomon said he owes his National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award to a lengthy fascination with the interface between biology and technology, and the role that natural protein function may play in that process.

That passion has inspired him to develop a research program using artificial Peptide Amphipiphiles (PAs) to study biological electron transport, and to use what he discovers to develop next-generation electronics materials. The main goal of the project is to design a series of biomaterial-based wires that can be developed into next-generation circuitry that will pave the way for new medicines and energy technologies. The PA-wires will take an active part in information processing and computation, leading to further miniaturized circuit parts, electronic materials and sensors that respond to external stimuli, such as light and magnetic fields.

“The wire itself is going to be a new processor,” said Solomon, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry within the College of Science. “We’re hoping to scale down circuitry even more.”

The NSF grant, which totaled more than $450,000, was a remarkable achievement for Solomon in his first attempt at such an honor. The five-year project, formally named “Developing Peptide Amphiphiles into Next-Generation Electronic Materials and Model Systems to Study Protein Functions,” includes a number of Mason graduate and undergraduate students, and could have far-reaching implications in advancing the study of neurological diseases.

Solomon is the first junior faculty member in the history of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department to receive the NSF Career Award, prompting department chair Gerald L. R. Weatherspoon to call his recognition “a clear indicator of the depth, breadth and quality of research projects that he brings to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the College of Science, and STEM research at Mason.”

Lee A. Solomon

Solomon’s research proposal was first approved for funding by the Division of Materials Research, which posted a funding rate of 22% for the previous 2020 cycle, Weatherspoon said.

PAs consist of three different sections in the peptide, the lipid tail and the cofactor, and Solomon aims to focus on each of the three during his research. When the project is completed, he and his team hope to integrate all of the chemical and biophysical principles to produce a multifunctioning PA fiber that can reproduce any natural electron transport function. They plan to develop this model system into a multifunctioning wire within an advanced circuit.

“Many fields will have to come together to develop these materials,” Solomon said. “This work will provide a nexus for engineers, biochemists and materials scientists to come together and learn from one another. This will develop a common language that different scientists can use to communicate, fitting within the NSF’s big idea of ‘Growing Convergent Research.’ ”

A former policy fellow in the Department of Energy, Solomon hopes to additionally use the project to help train the next generation of scientists by developing a science policy curriculum for graduate students. He hopes to educate them in becoming as adept in policy as they are in the lab so their skills and expertise can better help shape the country’s future.

Solomon is excited about the honor—and eager to get started.

“It’s been great,” he said. “It feels really good. I’m proud of the work.”

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First-year of National Science Foundation-funded training project draws to a close with presentations on May 21

Martha Bushong — Tue, 11 May 2021 12:56:00 +0000

First-year of National Science Foundation-funded training project draws to a close with presentations on May 21 Martha Bushong Tue, 05/11/2021 - 08:56

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PhD students from a variety of disciplines have spent the year engaged in multi-disciplinary research projects as part of Mason’s first-ever National Science Foundation Research Traineeship grant. The students explored opioid use disorders, mental health in school-age children, and Parkinson’s disease. On May 21 from 2 to 4 p.m. they will present their project findings to the Mason community and other stakeholders.

The program is training the next generation of leaders to take on some of the most challenging problems faced by society today. These complex problems cannot be addressed by one individual or even one discipline. To address these challenges leaders will need to work together across traditional academic disciplinary boundaries to integrate engineering, data science, and social science knowledge, while meaningfully engaging with stakeholder communities in a mutually beneficial manner. The cohort included 11 students from seven different graduate programs.

“Working in multidisciplinary teams helped us gain a much deeper understanding of the real problem at hand, and freed us from the shackles of having to think within the silos of our science disciplines,” says Shriniwas Patwardhan, a PhD candidate in bioengineering. “We are able to think of a problem and how to solve it, without passing it through the filter of our individual disciplines. If not for multidisciplinary thinking, every problem looks like a nail because we have a hammer.”

Patwardhan and his fellow trainees became immersed in community settings to confront the traditional hierarchies between researchers and participants. They teamed up with community stakeholders as full participants in the research process and worked with them to identify challenges and needs, formulate research questions, and engage in participatory design to develop and test solutions.

“I have really enjoyed my experience with the trainees. Integrating patient input into every aspect of research and development is so necessary for success,” says Soania Mathur a physician, as well as a Parkinson’s patient and advocate.

“We are all really excited to share the progress we made on our projects over the past year despite the pandemic and look forward to the comments, questions, and feedback from the audience,” says Keri Anne Gladhill a third-year PhD who is studying cognitive-behavioral neuroscience concentration in the Psychology department.

For the NRT project, Gladhill and her team of Shriniwas Patwardhan and Lindsay Shaffer focused on understanding how people with Parkinson’s track and communicate both their motor and non-motor symptoms with their care team. The students sought to empower the patients (with Parkinson's) in their healthcare decisions by improving communication channels between the patients, their caregivers, and their physicians.

People with Parkinson's typically meet their physician one or two times a year, for 15-20 minutes. “In that short span of time, it is hard for the physician to get a good understanding of their varying symptoms throughout the year,” says Patwardhan, “That is why it would benefit the patients and their physicians greatly if the physician could see data related to their daily states in real-time.”

A wide variety of ways to track symptoms from pen and paper to wearable devices already exist; however, none of the existing methods allow for reliable, accurate, continuous, and accessible measurements. One approach to solve this problem is to establish a data-rich communication channel between the patients, their caregivers, and their physicians, by collecting data about motor and non-motor symptoms. The team members believe that If executed well, they could expand the same process to other chronic conditions and improve health outcomes while enabling mobile health solutions and more.

“The findings from our project could be interesting to people who are not interested in Parkinson's disease at all,” says Patwardhan. “We are trying to show that one way to overcome problems with multiple actors in a data-gathering loop is to establish data-rich and real-time communication channels. That may apply to anything from healthcare to solar power grids.”

Find out more about the projects and their teams.