Category Archives: awards and recognition

Ph.D. Student Ivan D’Souza and Professor Mishra Win Distinguished Paper Award at EDSIGCON 2023

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Congratulations to Ph.D. ISC student, Ivan D’Souza (Cohort 23), and Dr. Sushma Mishra! Ivan and Dr. Mishra won the Information Systems Applied Research Distinguished Paper Award from the 2023 ISCAP Conference on Computing Education + Information Systems Applied Research. This year’s EDSIGCON was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico on November 1-3, 2023.

Their winning paper was titled “Insights for the next viral outbreak: An information systems applied research based on lessons from COVID-19.” All conference paper winners can be found here:
https://iscap.us/proceedings/2023/best.html

Congratulations to 2022 TRISS Scholarship Winners

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It is with great pride that the CIS Department recognizes the RMU students who were recipients of 2022 TRISS Scholarships. This year 9 Top Secret Colonial (TSC) – Cybersecurity students were awarded money from the Three Rivers Information Security Symposium (TRISS). TRISS takes place in the Pittsburgh region each year and is the largest information security conference in this region. Students were required to be registered full-time in cybersecurity or a similar IT degree and were required to submit a transcript (3.0 GPA or higher), letters of recommendation, and a personal statement to be considered. 

The scholarship recipients were as follows:

1 – Jihad Mayo 
2 – Brandon Schuh
3 – Katelyn Shannon 
4 – Katelyn Cole 
5 – Austin Martin 
6 – Marvin Posadas 
7 – Allison Zeanchock
8 – Evan Brooks
9 – Anthony Guerrero 

Congratulations!

RMU Professors Win Best Paper Award at CONISAR 2022

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Congratulations to Dr. Kevin Slonka (RMU D.Sc. Graduate, Class of 2014) from Saint Francis University and Dr. Sushma Mishra, Dr. Peter Draus, and Dr. Natalya Bromall from the Computer Information Systems department at RMU for winning the Best Paper Award at the Conference on Information Systems Applied Research (CONISAR) 2022! CONISAR 2022 was held in Clearwater, FL on November 2-5, 2022.

Their winning research paper was focused on organizational security governance and was titled “Measurement, reporting, and monitoring organizational security governance: A qualitative analysis of security professionals’ experiences.”

Dr. Bromall Achieves Prestigious Re-certification as AWS Solutions Architect

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Dr. Natalya Bromall has been recertified as an AWS Solutions Architect – Associate (AWS-SAA). Dr. Bromall was previously certified in this area, but this prestigious exam has undergone intensive change since its last iteration and become even more difficult to achieve. Dr. Bromall is also certified as an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Academy Educator and an AWS Cloud Practitioner. Congratulations, Dr. Bromall, on this excellent achievement!

For any students interested in learning more about Amazon Web Services (AWS) and cloud computing, consider taking INFS/ENGR 4460 and INFS/ENGR 6460 Cloud Computing and Amazon Web Services. This course covers content that is included in the AWS-SAA exam, and can get you onto the right path for your own certification. The AWS-SAA exam was recently listed as the second highest paying IT certification in 2021. Dr. Bromall is teaching this course on Tuesday evenings in Spring 2023.

Dr. Ping Wang Receives Grant from the U.S. Department of Defense

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Congratulations to Dr. Ping Wang!

The Computer Information Systems (CIS) Department has received a new grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Cyber Scholarship Program (CySP). This grant is to recruit and develop cyber talent for the DoD cyber workforce and to enhance the national pipeline for qualified cyber professionals. The grant will support one selected CySP student scholar and faculty research on cybersecurity education and mentoring. The selected CySP student scholar will receive support to cover full tuition and fees, a living stipend, a laptop computer, and textbook allowance. Students graduating from the CySP program will be placed and serve in professional positions of cybersecurity within DoD agencies.

This is the second time RMU has received the DoD CySP grant. This award was possible as RMU is designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education (CAE-CDE) by NSA/DHS. This designation must be in good standing to apply for this competitive grant.

Dr. Ping Wang is the Principal Investigator (PI) of this grant project.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Wang!

Fortune Magazine Ranked RMU in Best Online Master’s Programs in Cybersecurity

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Fortune magazine ranks RMU 8th out of 20 universities in its inaugural Best Online Master’s Programs in Cybersecurity. The ranking is based on the average undergraduate GPA of its enrolled students; acceptance, retention, and graduation rates; and the size of the most recent graduating class.

SIHSS Student Recognition Awards Ceremony

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On April 20, 2022, SIHSS held the annual Student Recognition Awards Ceremony in the Wheatley Center Atrium. A number of students from the CIS Department were honored at this ceremony.

Dean Ali presented the Dean’s Scholar Awards. Dean’s Scholar Award recipients included:

  • Riley Carroll, Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics major
  • Hannah Clark, Criminal Justice major and Cyber Forensics minor

Dr. Peter Wu presented the CIS Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Recipients included:

  • Andrew Salley, Data Analytics MS program
  • Taylor Scalise, Data Analytics MS program

Dr. Donna Cellante, Dr. Fred Kohun, and Dr. Paul Kovacs presented the CIS Outstanding Undergraduate Student Awards. Recipients included:

  • Sylvia Dawson, Data Analytics major, Computer Information Systems minor, and Business minor
  • Benjamin Gaudlip, Information Sciences major
  • Gavin Hartman, Cybersecurity major
  • Brandon Schuh, Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics major
  • Glenn Wallace, Cyber Forensics and Information Security major

Congratulations to all of the recipients! Your hard work and dedication shows.

Top Secret Colonials Win 2nd Place in 2022 SGA Shark Tank Competition

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The Top Secret Colonials (TSC) student organization won 2nd Place in the 2022 Student Government Association (SGA) Shark Tank Competition! TSC won $1,500 that will be used to raise funds and promote a community event for the Batch Foundation in the fall semester.

The Batch Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1999 by former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch. The foundation works to provide choices, motivation, and education to create communities where all kids and families are equipped with the tools they need to build their own best futures.

Congratulations, TSC!

Dr. Sushma Mishra Presents at ISACA Conference

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Dr. Sushma Mishra, Professor of Computer and Information Systems, gave a presentation titled “Organizational Security Governance Practices: A Convergence of Frameworks” at the ISACA Pittsburgh Information Security Awareness Day Conference.

This is the premier educational event for information systems audit and information security professionals in the Pittsburgh region. With a chapter membership of more than 600 professionals, the ISACA Pittsburgh Chapter is represented by employees of more than 150 companies, academic institutions, and government entities throughout the region.

Dr. Peter Wu Named ISCAP-EDSIG Fellow

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Congratulations to Dr. Peter Wu, Professor and the Chair of the Computer and Information Systems Department, who was inducted as a ISCAP-EDSIG Fellow of the Information Systems Computing Academic Professional’s (ISCAP) organization at the EDSIG Conference on Computing Education held November 3-6, 2021 in Washington D.C. Each year Fellows are inducted in honor of their sustained, long-term, meaningful and effective support of EDSIG in its ongoing mission to improve Information Systems, mentor IS students, and foster the careers of IS faculty.

Dr. Wu served on the ISCAP-EDSIG board as an at-large director from 2013 to 2018 and as treasurer from 2015 to 2018. Dr. Wu also served in the roles of Assistant Papers Chair, Papers Co-chair and eventually Paper Chair for the Conference in Information Systems Applied Research (CONISAR). Dr. Wu continues to serve on the editorial board for both the Information Systems Education Journal (ISEDJ) and the Journal of Information Systems Applied Research (JISAR).

More information can be found here:
http://iscap-edsig.org/fellows.html