James Bonacci, an NSF SFS student scholar in RMU’s accelerated BS/MS Cybersecurity program, was invited and funded by the national Information Security Research Education (INSuRE) program to present at the 2024 National Cybersecurity Education Colloquium (NCEC) in St. Louis, Missouri during October 7-10, 2024. The presentation was based on a guided team research project on AI/neural network models for security completed in the spring semester by 4 RMU NSF SFS student scholars (James Bonacci, Peyton Lutchkus, Reese Martin, and Rob Pava). Dr. Bradford Kline from the National Security Agency (NSA) served as the government mentor, and Dr. Ping Wang was the RMU faculty supervisor for the team. Thanks to RMU Provost Dr. Joseph Zimmer for his attendance at NCEC in support of RMU cybersecurity programs and students!

(Pictured above James Bonacci and Dr. Ping Wang)

Two NSF Scholarship for Service (NSF-SFS) students, Reese Martin and Robby Pava, presented their research project at the NEDSI conference this month. The Northeast Decision Sciences Institute (NEDSI) is one of five regions in the Americas Division of the professional society, the Decision Sciences Institute. This region encompasses the Northeastern United States. NEDSI holds an annual regional meeting each spring.

Their paper was presented in poster format and was titled, “Comparing Machine Learning Algorithms in the Context of Antiviruses: A Content Analysis of Decision Tree, Support Vector Machines and Neural Networks Research.” Authors were Reese Martin, Robby Pava, and Dr. Sushma Mishra (advisor).

Their paper presents a comparative study of three major machine learning algorithms and the impact they can have on antivirus detection and response. The three algorithms reviewed in this study were decision trees, support vector machines, and neural networks. They analyzed how these ML approaches effectively impact antivirus’s ability to locate and adequately block incoming malware. Implications are drawn, and future research directions are discussed.

Update: This poster won Second Place in the Undergraduate Poster Award competition at the Northeast Decision Sciences Institute (NEDSI) Conference.

Congratulations on this accomplishment!