Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP)

George Mason’s new visualization and virtual reality lab is changing how research is conducted

Colleen Rich — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 18:35:42 +0000

George Mason’s new visualization and virtual reality lab is changing how research is conducted Colleen Rich Wed, 02/05/2025 - 13:35

The oft-heard phrase “you had to be there” could disappear as the growth of virtual reality (VR) allows individuals to experience the world without ever leaving home. While the pandemic ushered in the era of Zoom classes and meetings—providing the opportunity to participate in classes or meetings with others in different locations—it is VR that creates tangible experiences where people in the same room or thousands of miles away can successfully collaborate.

George Mason graduate student works with the virtual construction site in the Visualization and Virtual Reality Lab in Research Hall. Photo provided

With the opening of the new Visualization and Virtual Reality Lab in Research Hall—hosted by the Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX) and made possible with funds from the Tech Talent Investment Program—��AV has the opportunity to be part of this global movement and to be a leader in transdisciplinary research.

A ‘Cradle’ for Collaboration

The highly anticipated lab, which has been years in the making and serves as the hub of data analysis, visualization, and technology-enabled pedagogy for the university, provides countless opportunities for faculty to combine and advance their interests in new ways. It is also the ideal space to hold demonstrations for sponsoring agencies and partners.

Craig Yu, associate professor of Department of Computer Science, sees the lab as a “cradle for setting up interdisciplinary collaborations” that he believes will enhance the research synergy at George Mason. His current work on a simulated construction site set in the future has brought together researchers from the College of Education and Human Development and the College of Engineering and Computing.

In the lab, users have access to five virtual reality pods within two rooms. The smaller of the rooms has two display screens that connect with high-quality headsets, while the larger room has a 24-foot-long, 9-foot-tall screen that is touch activated—allowing users to manipulate and move data.

Once users are inside this VR or augmented reality (AR), they can experience their surroundings and even “feel objects and be part of accidents or disasters without experiencing pain,” Yu said.

Visualizing and Communicating Complex Ideas

Visitors to the Visualization and VR Lab use the VR pods. Photo provided

The lab is also ideal for capturing complex ideas that are difficult to understand if one doesn’t visualize them, Yu said.

In Yu’s simulated construction site, performances are tracked and replayed, allowing researchers to see exactly how people work together and respond to situations. Researchers then analyze user performance using scientific metrics, which can help individuals improve over time through repeated exercises.

“Training through VR/AR is helpful to conduct experiments because we can track performance through state-of-the-art technology and give feedback,” said Yu. “These experiments not only enhance user performance, they can also validate if investments [in training] are effective.”

A major component of George Mason researcher Dave Lattanzi’s research involves the generation and analysis of complex, large-scale 3D virtual model data, which he said is difficult to visualize and communicate.

It requires specialized computing and graphics technologies that are challenging to operate on typical computer hardware, making visualization “fundamental to navigating and assessing 3D data,” said Lattanzi, an associate professor in the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering.

The lab will support communications across project teams like Lattanzi’s by providing a shared space for visualization, as well as providing a place for teams to demonstrate their capabilities or findings to sponsoring agencies and university partners, which can lead to additional collaborations and funding opportunities.

VR and Training

Computer science PhD student Liuchuan Yu, a self-described VR/AR addict who is part of the team working on the simulated construction site project, sees creating simulations as a cost-effective and safe way to train individuals in a variety of jobs.

“I am very glad to have this opportunity because it is giving me the necessary experience to create training applications using VR,” he said. “Real-world training is expensive while VR is technically low-cost. Simulations also allow total control of the environment, which is much safer. But they do create awareness and [generate] real responses from the users.”

While use of the lab is restricted to faculty during the 2024-25 academic year, administrators are already thinking about how to incorporate student instruction and student access to modern geospatial technology applications that are difficult, if not impossible, to demonstrate in a traditional classroom environment. Eventually students with ideas for new technologies, applications, or products will be able to use the lab to work on their own projects.

The lab, located in Research Hall, Room 369, is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and can be reserved through 25 Live. All faculty are welcome to reserve and use the lab for research purposes, but must receive training prior to lab use. Contact MIX manager Max Kazemzadeh at mkazemza@gmu.edu, MIX operations coordinator Minjin Batzorig at mbatzor@gmu.edu, or visit the MIX website for more information.

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Cybersecurity students prepare for inaugural DistrictCon Hacker Conference

Shayla Brown — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 17:21:53 +0000

Cybersecurity students prepare for inaugural DistrictCon Hacker Conference Shayla Brown Mon, 01/27/2025 - 12:21

Students from ��AV’s Competitive Cybersecurity (MCC) club have dominated in multiple national competitions. The team got 1st place in the 2024 VMI CyberFusion and 2nd place in the 2024 Spring National Cyber League.

Next, the students will be competing in the inaugural DistrictCon Hacker Conference on February 21-22.

Club president Dylan Knoff working on routers. Photo provided.

“We'll be presenting live demos with our exploits in front of a judge and audience. So, we'll basically go from not having access to a certain device to showing that we can get access in the eight different attack vectors that we discovered,” said club president Dylan Knoff, a junior computer science major.

This demonstration is known as the junkyard competition, and the device they’re hacking is a router. In preparation for the demo, the team is conducting multiple analyses and rehearsing talking points for verification of their research.

“We basically ripped the firmware off of it, which is the code that runs on embedded devices like this one,” said Knoff, who participated in the International Cybersecurity Championship in Chile with the U.S. Cyber Team.

“We utilized hardware debugging interfaces on the device to both find potential bugs by analyzing our own local copy of the firmware and confirm their existence and exploitability by trying to trigger them on the live device and utilizing the debug interface exposed,” he said.

In addition to Knoff, his teammates Danyaal Shaozab and Ryan Murphy will also participate in the junkyard competition and other cybersecurity challenges including “capture the flag,” also called CTF, where the teams receive challenges, such as web app exploitation, binary exploitation, cryptography, reverse engineering, forensics, and a description that they must solve and then get a flag that is redeemed for points.

In September 2023, MCC hosted its own international CTF event, attracting more than 3,000 participants and 1,600 teams as well as hosted PatriotCTF 2024 attracting over 5400 participants and 2200 teams. The club practices are offensive cybersecurity, which is a type of ethical hacking used to evaluate and determine a system’s security, Murphy explained.

Club member Ryan Murphy working on routers. Photo provided.

Murphy, who transferred to George Mason from Virginia Peninsula Community College as a part of the Mason Virginia Promise, has been passionate about cybersecurity since middle school and participated in CyberPatriot, a national youth cyber education program.

“I'm still pretty new at George Mason, but it's been a really good experience so far,” said Murphy, a junior cyber security engineering major. “I got involved with the club from the get- go because they're a bunch of like-minded people and I’m really grateful for the opportunities the club and the university have offered me.”

The team will have two time slots and two presentations. They plan to do a dry run the day before the conference, as well as more analysis to solidify the information, said Murphy.

Shaozab is currently working as an associate vulnerability researcher at TFP0 Labs, a Reston-based security research firm. Shaozab’s role entails finding and exploiting vulnerabilities of various security systems and he compares his professional responsibilities to that of his club and school assignments.

“Working with Dylan and Ryan is great. We all have similar career goals, and it makes projects and assignments a lot easier,” said Shaozab, who is a senior cyber security engineering major.

Shaozab credits his courses, including CYSE 465 Transportation Systems Design, for helping him prepare for the upcoming competition.

“Dr. [Tanvir] Arafi is a very smart professor and a very talented individual in this field. His course really helped me hone my cyber techniques,” he said.

Shaozab explained that the team is focused on exploiting the [Control Area Network] bus, which is like the nervous system of a vehicle, allowing different components like the engine, brakes, and doors to communicate with each other. “Exploiting it involves sending malicious messages in the CAN bus to manipulate the car's function, such as unlocking doors or starting the engine,” he said.

“What made this particularly interesting to me is that I'm a huge car enthusiast, so being able to merge my passion for cars and cybersecurity was a unique experience. Getting hands-on with that in a classroom setting made it even more engaging. It’s rare to get that kind of knowledge taught in schools,” he said.

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Advancing sensor tech for foggy situations

Nathan Kahl — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 13:15:50 +0000

Advancing sensor tech for foggy situations Nathan Kahl Mon, 01/13/2025 - 08:15

Devices that rely on sensors to accurately navigate and perceive the world around them are more and more commonplace, from drones to autonomous vehicles to ground robots on rescue missions. Parth Pathak, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at ��AV, is working to ensure the sensors have 20/20 vision.

From left, Rezoan Ahmed Nazib, Parth Pathak, and Ahmad Kamari with a rescue robot that can "see" through smoke and fog. Photo provided

Pathak received $660K in funding from the Army Research Office (ARO) for this work, some of which is done in collaboration with colleagues at the University of California, Davis, where he did his post-doc.

“Conventional sensors rely on cameras or LiDAR (light detection and ranging) to pursue objects around them, but they don't work very well when there's smoke, fog, or generally a visually degraded environment,” said Pathak. “But the mmwave wireless radar sensors that we are working on don't get affected by that. If there is dirt on the sensor, well, that's okay. They can see through things and see around things."

Imagine a rescue robot going into a building filled with smoke, trying to navigate with little to no visibility, Pathak said. "These wireless sensors can enable them to perceive the environment and even self-localize without cameras, LiDARs, or other positioning systems.”

Another positive aspect of the devices is that while they can sense…they don’t sense too much, which is important for privacy concerns. The disadvantage, of course, is that when a sensor depicts an object such as a car, the resolution is not particularly good, and the images are “noisy.” Pathak is not just improving navigation and perception, but using multiple robots, for example, cooperatively. In a rescue mission, a swarm of robots can share their data, allowing them to collectively “see” a better picture.

Photo provided

“They can self-localize based on what they see, like how our brains work. But the robots only have wireless sensors to rely on, so part of the work is developing very good signatures of what they see from these very low resolution and noisy images,” said Pathak. “We can build 3D models of a room by scanning it through the wireless sensors and using machine learning to capture and recreate every minute detail. This is something that these sensors were never designed for. We are developing custom-tailored deep learning models of wireless sensing, essentially pushing the limits of what they can perceive using wireless signals.”

In addition to the research, ARO’s funding also supports testbed-to-prototype development and solution evaluation.

Pathak and colleagues published this research at the Association for Computing Machinery’s ACM Mobicom conference and have submitted it to other conferences for potential publication. Two PhD students from his team, Ahmed Kamari and Rezoan Ahmed Nazib, are working actively on the project, along with three high school students who participated in prototyping over the summer as part of George Mason's Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program.

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In This Story

Parth Pathak

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Computer science graduate turns internship experience into a full-time position

Colleen Rich — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 18:47:21 +0000

Computer science graduate turns internship experience into a full-time position Colleen Rich Wed, 12/11/2024 - 13:47

When Dhyeya “Dee” Padhya transferred to ��AV from Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) in fall 2022, he was struck by the vibrant campus life, which was far different than his first two years in college during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dhyeya “Dee” Padhya

“Coming to George Mason there were so many things happening like fairs and club events. That was definitely a very welcomed change for me,” Padhya said. “I felt like a new person and George Mason was a huge part of these last few formative years of my life.”

He is set to graduate in December 2024 with a BS in computer science and a minor in computational and data science.

During his time at George Mason, Padhya worked in the University Career Services office as the senior front desk student assistant, where he greeted students and gave them career assistance, as well as managing the career advisors’ appointments and calendars.

He also helped administer career assessments and did set-up work and guided students at George Mason’s well-attended career fairs.

For his commitment to career services at George Mason, Padhya was featured on the cover of this year’s Career Readiness Guide.

This summer, Padhya also got professional experience in his field as a data analyst intern at Capital One.

“With a computer science major, an internship is very important. I definitely felt prepared for it with the help of my [CS 450 Database Concepts] course with Professor Ping Deng and my [CS 484 Data Mining] course with Jessica Lin. Those courses were definitely the most helpful for my internship,” said Padhya.

What’s your best memory of George Mason?

Getting the call that I got the internship at Capital One was definitely one of the best experiences of my life. Part of my responsibilities were what we call “productionizing” a data set. There was a whole process of getting data from the right sources, cleaning it, and then automating that process to automatically update the data on a weekly basis.

How have you grown while at George Mason?

Throughout high school I was a straight-A student, but my very first class here was a challenge for me and I ended up getting a B minus. It took some getting used to, but just coming to terms with the fact that it’s not the end of the world if I’m not perfect was really impactful.

Best piece of advice for incoming students?

Don’t have the mindset that you’re underqualified for something. The job market is very difficult right now, but I think it’s important to understand that your GPA, while important, isn’t ALL that matters in the professional world. During job interviews for me it was more about what my personal and professional experiences were. Employers want to know who you are as a person and what experiences have you had that led you to become that person. I also think it’s important to engage with all the resources George Mason has to offer, like the Career Services office.

What’s next for you?

I will be returning to Capital One for a full-time data analyst position after graduation.

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George Mason’s Fuse at Mason Square opens with its commercial launch

Colleen Rich — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 20:25:07 +0000

George Mason’s Fuse at Mason Square opens with its commercial launch Colleen Rich Mon, 12/09/2024 - 15:25

��AV gave the public its first look at Fuse at Mason Square and what’s in store for the metropolitan Washington, D.C., region with the building’s Dec. 6 commercial launch.

From left, President Gregory Washington with speakers from the event Ryan Touhill, U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, Brian Naumick, and Liza Wilson Durant. Photo by Ayman Rashid/Office of University Branding

A state-of-the-art tech research hub intended to be a beacon for students, researchers, and entrepreneurs to come together and collaborate, Fuse will serve as the center for technological advances in the region, fostering innovation in various sectors while adding to the tech talent pipeline necessary to help fuel the economies of the region and the commonwealth of Virginia.

“The most surefire way to strengthen an innovation ecosystem is for a top-tier research university, local industry, and the community to join together in partnership,” said George Mason President Gregory Washington.

The 345,000-square-foot-building, which will welcome students in Fall 2025, features specialized labs for robotics and virtual reality and data visualization, as well as office spaces, retail, and co-working areas and classrooms.

Rep. Don Beyer, who is working toward a master’s degree in computer science at George Mason, was among the speakers to laud the project at the brief ceremony in Arlington. Photo by Ayman Rashid/Office of University Branding

Fuse cost roughly $254 million to construct, with $90 million each contributed by George Mason and the commonwealth’s Tech Talent Investment Program, as well as $78 million from Edgemoor Infrastructure and Real Estate.

George Mason announced in October that the building’s first tenant, Cybastion, a cybersecurity and digital IT company focused on emerging markets, would move into Fuse in spring 2025. The restaurant Wood & Iron will be located on the ground floor. About 75% of the building’s commercial space has been committed.

U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), who is enrolled at George Mason and working toward a master’s degree in computer science with a concentration in machine learning, was among the speakers to laud the project at the brief ceremony in Arlington, joining Washington; Liza Wilson Durant, George Mason’s associate provost for strategic initiatives and community engagement who is also the associate dean of George Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing and director of the Northern Virginia node of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative; Ryan Touhill, director of Arlington Economic Development; and Brian Naumick, vice president and managing director of Edgemoor.

George Mason's Liza Wilson Durant took questions from the media about the new building. Photo by Ayman Rashid/Office of University Branding

Fuse at Mason Square supports the Tech Talent Investment Program, a 20-year initiative aimed at producing 25,000 additional tech graduates in Virginia. The building will house George Mason’s Institute for Digital Innovation and the new School of Computing, part of the College of Engineering and Computing, and will offer courses in artificial intelligence, data analytics, and cybersecurity.

Washington expects the new building to be a catalyst for economic growth. “When we started the Fuse project in April of 2022, I said then that we’re not just breaking ground on a building—we’re breaking ground on Virginia’s future,” he said. “That future begins in earnest today with the Fuse leasing grand opening.”

In This Story

Gregory Washington

Liza Wilson Durant

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Cyber savant hacks his way onto international team

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 16:48:51 +0000

Cyber savant hacks his way onto international team Nathan Kahl Tue, 12/03/2024 - 11:48

Dylan Victor Knoff is president of the Mason Competitive Cyber (MCC) club, a computer science major, and the kind of self-motivated hacker you might see rummaging through Goodwill bins, in his free time looking for a $4 router that he can use to bolster his resume.

“I’ll pull it apart and take the firmware off the chip. It's good fun, responsibly and ethically doing stuff to it, of course, and then reporting vulnerabilities,” he said.

The ��AV junior likes to examine routers because they are more likely than other devices to have detectable problems. Once he finds a vulnerability, per industry practice, he reports it to the vendor and then MITRE, the nonprofit that that catalogs firmware and software problems. Getting a mention on their common vulnerabilities and exposures listing looks good professionally for young cyber sleuths.

This ambition to make the cyber world a better, safer place is a theme in Knoff’s life. First, he started a Capture the Flag (CTF) team during high school, and then he attended a university cyber club while still a teen. When the Orlando native and first-gen college student could have chosen the local University of Central Florida, instead he left home for George Mason, recognizing the university’s prowess in the field and the benefit of being close to potential employers in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region. Knowing that breaking into cybersecurity is no Mickey Mouse endeavor, shortly after arriving in Fairfax he networked with the Battelle intern coordinator and subsequently landed a paid, full-time co-op with the STEM giant.

When he's not hacking routers, Knoff enjoys Shenandoah National Park

Knoff is on the U.S. Cyber Team and in October competed at the International Cybersecurity Challenge in Santiago, Chile. He said, “We competed against other countries’ teams in a two-day CTF, where one day was attack-and-defend, and the second day was on vulnerability assessment and exploit development.”

Knoff’s research focus is reverse engineering and vulnerability research. “I'll find something wrong with a specific device or framework and I'll find a ‘zero day,’ which is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor, and then I'll disclose it to them,” he said, indicating the standard industry practice.

For next year’s DistrictCon, a hacker conference in Washington, D.C., in February, Knoff and two members of MCC participated in the Junkyard Contest, where participants find vulnerabilities in devices; they discovered a stunning eight zero days on one router.

Knoff is giving a separate talk at the conference, on return-oriented programming, a way that hackers can get into a system by reusing code that already exists in a program. “I made this tool that utilizes computer emulation to analyze and visualize the memory side effects of elements that make up a return-oriented attack. Using data aggregation, these elements are then sorted based on their exploitation effects and made easily searchable to an operator.” He made the tool open source, available to anyone on GitHub, and is releasing an updated version the day of the talk.

On rare days when he’s not at a keyboard, Knoff enjoys getting outside, especially for a hike. “I love going to Shenandoah with my friends, doing Old Rag and White Oak,” he said, referencing two of the more popular—and challenging—Shenandoah National Park trails.

Currently he’s entertaining offers for two new co-ops, with the hopes of potentially spinning one of those into full-time employment. And whether scaling digital peaks or the rugged trails of Shenandoah, Knoff will find himself climbing…toward discovery and solutions in a safer cyber world.

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George Mason expands partnership with GDIT to build a skilled and diverse technology workforce

Colleen Rich — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 17:02:19 +0000

George Mason expands partnership with GDIT to build a skilled and diverse technology workforce Colleen Rich Wed, 10/30/2024 - 13:02

��AV announced this week an expanded partnership with General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), a business unit of General Dynamics, to enhance career development opportunities for university students and GDIT’s workforce. The focus areas include cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and government contracting.

The partnership strengthens George Mason’s role as a key economic driver in Northern Virginia and a critical source of tech talent, while broadening GDIT’s efforts to cultivate a skilled and diversified talent pipeline.

“George Mason has been recognized over the years in numerous college rankings as Virginia’s top public university for diversity, innovation, cybersecurity, homeland security, service to military veterans, and service to students outside the traditional college ages," said George Mason President Gregory Washington. “We are committed to partnering in the region to meet the pace of change in the today’s workforce, providing opportunities for students of all ages and backgrounds to pursue a rigorous education and lead successful careers, and attracting and keeping talent in Virginia.”

This collaboration also aligns with GDIT’s technology investment strategy, which emphasizes employee growth and upskilling. It also enhances government contracting capabilities by leveraging George Mason’s Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting, located within the Costello College of Business. The center is the nation’s first dedicated to addressing business, policy, and regulatory issues in government contracting.

“Expanding our partnership with George Mason demonstrates our commitment to investing in the future workforce,” said Amy Gilliland, GDIT’s president. “As the largest and most diverse educational institution in Northern Virginia, George Mason has played a pivotal role in shaping our talent pipeline for more than a decade. We look forward to further strengthening our relationship so GDIT will continue to be a top employer of choice for George Mason students.”

U.S. News & World Report, the Wall Street Journal, and Washington Monthly all rank George Mason as a top public university for the upward mobility of its graduates.

As part of the expanded partnership, GDIT will collaborate with George Mason on several programs, including:

Partnering with the College of Engineering and Computing, as well as Costello College of Business, to expand recruitment opportunities, career mentorship programs, networking sessions, technology open houses, and capstone projects.
Offering students, faculty, and staff opportunities to participate in various GDIT events and initiatives, such as cyber hackathons, career development seminars, and technology showcases at the GDIT Emerge Innovation Center.
Providing industry expertise for George Mason’s Clearance Readiness Program to prepare students interested in a career in the cleared space.
Hosting leadership insight sessions focused on mental health, career pathways, work-based communication skills, and resiliency.

This partnership is part of GDIT’s workforce initiative, which collaborates with high schools, colleges, and universities across the country. GDIT has formed similar partnerships with institutions in Louisiana, Colorado, Texas, and Missouri to foster the next generation of technology innovators and make a positive impact in these communities.

George Mason, one of the largest universities to receive state funding through the Tech Talent Investment Program, has committed to increasing its computing graduates, in both undergraduate and graduate computing programs, to almost 16,000 students over the next two decades. With flourishing partnerships with leading companies like General Dynamics and initiatives supporting small businesses and entrepreneurship across the state, George Mason is building on the more than 15,000 paid or stipend-supported internships available to students annually.

��AV has committed to increasing graduates in both undergraduate and graduate computing programs to almost 16,000 students as part of the state's Tech Talent Investment Program.

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College of Public Health receives NIH grant to pilot AI chatbot for African Americans with depression

Mary Cunningham — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 17:03:05 +0000

College of Public Health receives NIH grant to pilot AI chatbot for African Americans with depression Mary Cunningham Mon, 06/10/2024 - 13:03

In This Story

Farrokh Alemi, PhD

Janusz Wojtusiak, PhD

Kevin Lybarger

As a leader in innovative health solutions, ��AV’s College of Public Health received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) AIM-AHEAD program grant to pilot an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for Black and African Americans with depression. Professor Farrokh Alemi will enhance his first-of-its-kind, evidence-based artificial intelligence tool to address the medication needs of African Americans with depression.

Professor of Health Informatics Farrokh Alemi

The existing AI tool recommends antidepressants for 16,775 general-population patient subgroups, each representing a unique combination of medical history. For each of these subgroups, the current project will analyze the effectiveness and appropriateness of the recommendations for African Americans, using the NIH All of Us database and existing published literature.

To the researchers' knowledge, this is the first research focused on developing and evaluating an antidepressant recommendation system for Black and African American people.

“Antidepressant medications are a first-line treatment for depression; however, a majority of depressed patients do not experience improvement with their first antidepressant. Additionally, minority populations, including Black and African Americans, are not well represented in antidepressant studies, contributing to reduced antidepressant effectiveness in these populations,” said Alemi. “There is a significant need to synthesize available evidence regarding antidepressant effectiveness and provide personalized treatment recommendations, and this project addresses a major gap in the management of Black and African Americans with depression.”

Researchers will develop a Knowledge-enhanced Antidepressant Recommendation Dialogue System (KARDS), which will engage users in a back-and-forth conversation to acquire the patient information needed to identify the appropriate antidepressant medication. The AI will provide the patient with a list of recommended medications, list of the relevant studies, and an explanation for the medication decisions. The system will automatically send the patient’s clinician a brief point-of-care recommendation and explanation, with an option to examine a complete record of the conversation and the supporting evidence.

“Chatbots—or patient-facing dialogue systems like the one we will create—hold transformative potential for the health care sector and are increasingly prominent in psychiatric applications, predominantly through therapy-bot implementations,” said Alemi. “Our chatbot will help improve the detailed, time-consuming, medical history intake process, and provide point-of-care summary and prescription recommendations to the patients’ clinicians. The chatbot will make patients more comfortable because the natural language modality provides an intuitive, empathetic, stigma-free interface.”

Once the AI chatbot is developed, the team will test the dialogue system with Black and African American patients to evaluate system functionality and user preferences. Additionally, the project will train a Black or African American doctoral or master’s student in AI, expanding the available workforce and building the community’s capacity to address AI.

Alemi will lead the research team, which includes Janusz Wojtusiak, a George Mason professor of Health Informatics and the director of the Machine Learning and Inference Laboratory, and Kevin Lybarger, a George Mason assistant professor in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology in the College of Engineering and Computing. All three members have collaborated previously to diagnose COVID at home from presenting symptoms.

The $70,906 grant is part of the NIH’s AIM-AHEAD (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity) program, which aims “to establish mutually beneficial and coordinated partnerships to increase the participation and representation of researchers and communities currently underrepresented in the development of AI/machine learning models and enhance the capabilities of this emerging technology, beginning with electronic health record data.”

Innovate for Good is an ongoing series that examines how George Mason faculty in the College of Public Health are harnessing technology to improve health outcomes.

If you have stories to share as part of the Innovate for Good series, email Mary Cunningham at mcunni7@gmu.edu.

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Artifical Intelligence

Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP)

George Mason, Howard receive $1 million from Google to launch Cybersecurity Clinic

Colleen Rich — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 19:11:38 +0000

George Mason, Howard receive $1 million from Google to launch Cybersecurity Clinic Colleen Rich Wed, 06/05/2024 - 15:11

The National Security Institute’s Cyber and Tech Center (CTC) at ��AV’s Antonin Scalia Law School and Howard University School of Business (HUSB) have been selected to receive $1 million in support from Google’s Cybersecurity Clinics Fund to establish the NSI CTC – HUSB Cybersecurity Clinic. The funding from Google.org, the company’s philanthropic arm, is part of a $25 million collaboration with the Consortium of Cybersecurity Clinics.

Hazel Hall at Mason Square. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Cybersecurity clinics at higher education institutions provide free digital security services to under-resourced organizations, similar to how law or medical schools offer free community clinics. The new NSI CTC – HUSB Cybersecurity Clinic will give students from George Mason and HUSB the opportunity to learn cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI) skills in an effective, hands-on manner while simultaneously helping to protect vulnerable organizations and critical infrastructure, such as local small businesses, hospitals, schools, and nonprofit organizations, from cyber attacks.

The added opportunities for George Mason students come at a critical time and could prove beneficial in fueling the growing tech talent workforce needed for the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area. Forty-one percent of the undergraduates of the Class of 2024—and 44 percent of the graduate students—earned degrees in STEM fields and the health sciences. Computer science was among the top five majors for bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degree recipients.

According to the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risks Report, cyber insecurity remains one of the top 10 global risks over the next 10 years. Currently, there are nearly 450,000 open cybersecurity jobs available in the United States, including more than 90,000 cybersecurity jobs across the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, and demand for cyber professionals is projected to grow 32% by 2033. To ensure that communities, critical infrastructure, and businesses big and small across the United States are secure, a skilled, diverse, and AI savvy cybersecurity workforce is needed.

The NSI CTC – HUSB Cybersecurity Clinic is a jointly developed and run multidisciplinary clinic that educates and trains students from both universities on cybersecurity in a classroom and clinical setting. Thanks to the generous support of Google, the clinic will be able to provide students critical hands-on practical experience from faculty, lecturers, and mentors, enabling them to provide direct cybersecurity assistance to public critical infrastructure organizations, including state and local governments, K-12 schools, utilities, public hospitals, and small businesses within the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area—all of which are facing a barrage of cybersecurity threats without the resources to address these threats.

The region is not only a thriving tech hub, but it also houses numerous universities and other educational institutions that are training the next generation of cybersecurity practitioners. The new clinic seeks to ensure that tomorrow’s workforce is diverse, capable, and motivated to strengthen the overall cybersecurity resilience of the broader communities.

“Scalia Law is thrilled to be partnering with the Howard University School of Business and Google.org on this important effort to educate young leaders and drive positive cybersecurity outcomes in the local community,” said Ken Randall, Allison and Dorothy Rouse Dean and ��AV Foundation Professor of Law at the Scalia Law School.

“This funding from Google for a new cybersecurity clinic allows both institutions to extend our efforts to support workforce development in the region and increase exposure to this technology. The work of the clinic promises to be very impactful in addressing an important educational need in a critical technology area,” said Anthony D. Wilbon, PhD, dean of the Howard University School of Business.

“Both universities have deep ties to cybersecurity and innovation—from expert faculty to students eager to tackling tomorrow’s technology challenges—and the clinic will be a great step forward to broadening and diversifying the technology education pipeline in the region,” said Jessica Jones, deputy executive director of the National Security Institute.

“The world is in a moment where emerging technologies, like AI, are creating both new opportunities and threats in the world of cybersecurity,” said Heather Adkins, vice president of Security Engineering at Google. “It’s essential that we invest in growing a strong, diverse and widespread cybersecurity workforce to help protect everyone—from critical infrastructure to small businesses and schools.”

The NSI CTC – HUSB Cybersecurity Clinic is one of 15 new clinics set to launch in 2024 at higher education institutions across the country, thanks to a collaboration from Google and the Consortium of Cybersecurity Clinics. In addition to the Google.org support, the tech company is offering NSI CTC and HUSB volunteer mentorship from Google employees, Google Titan Security Keys, and scholarships for the Google Career Certificate in Cybersecurity. Learn more on Google’s blog and the consortium’s website.

The announcement builds on Google’s 2023 support for 10 clinics, part of a combined commitment to launch 25 Google-supported cyber clinics nationwide by 2025. With the latest round of funding, Google.org has now committed more than $25 million toward creating the diverse and AI- and digital-security savvy workforce needed to protect critical U.S. infrastructure from cyber-attacks.

Learn more about cybersecurity at George Mason

George Mason faculty are tackling cybersecurity’s talent pipeline problem

Jennifer Anzaldi — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:01:06 +0000

George Mason faculty are tackling cybersecurity’s talent pipeline problem Jennifer Anzaldi Fri, 05/10/2024 - 13:01

If you’re a cybercriminal, the latest news on cybersecurity talent shortfalls should put a smile on your face. For example, the majority of cybersecurity leaders report that their teams are understaffed, and they have problems retaining qualified professionals.

But for Nirup Menon, a ��AV professor of information systems and operations management (ISOM), and Brian Ngac, an instructor in the ISOM area, this workforce challenge is a golden career opportunity for the young people of Northern Virginia and the Washington, D.C., area.

Nirup Menon and Brian Ngac

The pair recently won a two-year award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, to create unique experiential learning opportunities and workshops designed to enhance cybersecurity education and workforce development.

Working closely with industry partners Mobius Consulting and Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), Menon and Ngac will recruit and help select students to work on actual cybersecurity projects. “They need to have taken some fundamental cyber class ahead of time,” Menon clarifies. “We want students with a commitment to the field. It allows you to get experience but it’s also competitive.”

Throughout the 12-week projects, students will receive mentoring both from the industry participant and from business faculty. “We run it in an agile scrum-like manner,” Ngac says. “Every week, we ask ‘What did you do?’ ‘What are you going to do?’ ‘What are the challenges that are impacting your work?’” If students run into trouble, faculty mentors can work with industry managers to help them get back on track.

“We’re trying to build not just the cyber workforce but the skills as well,” Ngac says.

Menon and Ngac have developed a specialty in this type of hands-on learning, which they have dubbed the Professional Readiness Experiential Program (PREP). More than 100 Virginia-based undergraduates and 20 industry participants have participated in PREP, which includes projects funded by two Commonwealth Cybersecurity Initiative Experiential Learning grants in collaboration with Mobius and IDA.

“PREP not only focuses on cybersecurity projects, but also works on many business process improvement projects,” says Ngac. "Honors and high-performing ISOM students work on real-world projects with industry participants on identifying technical solutions to business challenges through rigorous research, modelling, analysis, quantification, risk management, implementation planning, and, at times, execution.”

The NIST award also incorporates workshops for students who are new to cybersecurity but interested in exploring it as a career option. Workshops will be launched in collaboration with Trinity Washington University (TWU), an HBCU whose College of Arts and Sciences is women-only. For a field such as cybersecurity, which continues to face diversity challenges, the participation of organizations such as TWU is essential.

“We want to bring in students who have not thought of cybersecurity as a field, because they think it’s all engineering, hacking and coding,” Menon says. The workshops will emphasize the variety of functions that are integral to the space, such as management and auditing, in addition to engineering.

Students and industry participants in the current CCI Experiential Learning Projects

“It’s not just tech, there may be creativity involved in anticipating scams and threats,” Ngac explains. “These are different things we’ll be bringing up in the workshop in terms of roleplaying what cybercriminals might do, or how someone might try to socially engineer an attack.”

Unlike a standard grant, the NIST award is structured as a cooperative agreement in which the funding agency will collaborate in shaping and delivering programs as they evolve.

“The advantage of working with NIST is that top people work there. They are the standards body, so they have seen and surveyed a lot of industry,” Menon says. He also lauds NIST’s high-level view of cybersecurity and its implications. “They’re not just looking at technology but also public policy, human factors, etc. It’s a holistic approach.”

Organizations interested in being an industry participant (whether they have cybersecurity-focused or business process improvement-focused projects) with PREP are encouraged to contact Brian Ngac.