2020 - Department of

Computer Science
Tennessee Tech University
- Department of
Computer Science
Tennessee Tech University
Table of Contents

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A Word from the Chair............................................[05]
About the Department.............................................[06]
Focus on the New Faculty.......................................[08]
Alumni Highlights..................................................[11]
Paper Awards........................................................[12]
Student Groups.....................................................[13]
Student Highlights................................................[14]
Future of Healthcare.............................................[16]
Growth in Computer Science.....................................[18]
Making History: First Female Ph.D. Graduate
in Computer Science: Ringa Singh................................ [20]
What Lies Ahead for Cybersecurity: CEROC.................. [22]
Improving National Security with AI.........................[26]
Teaching Computer Science to the Visually Impaired.........[28]
A 27-Year-Long Career Comes to a Close....................[31]
Tennessee Tech does not condone and will not tolerate discrimination against any individual on the basis of race, religion, color, creed, sex, age, national origin, genetic infor-
mation, disability, veteran status, and any other basis protected by federal and state civil rights law. Tennessee Tech complies with Title IX and prohibits discrimination on the
basis of sex in education programs and activities, admissions or employment. Inquiries regarding non-discrimination and affirmative action may be referred to the Director of Affir-
mative Action, Derryberry Hall 156, Box 5132, Cookeville, TN 38505-0001, 931-372-3069, equity@tntech.edu. Inquiries regarding Title IX may be referred to Tennessee Tech’s Title IX
Coordinator, Derryberry Hall 256, 931-372-3112, TitlelX@tntech.edu, or to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, 800-421-8339, OCR@ed.gov. CENG97-PRNT-20
A Word from the Chair
The year 2020 marks the 34th year since the Department of Computer Science was established at Tennessee Tech University and
the fourth since I joined as its chair. The year 2020 is also significant in that it was the earmark of a project from the National Acad-
emy of Sciences dubbed “The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century.” The attributes of the “Engineer of 2020”
(in which I would include computer scientists) were identified as the following:

• Strong analytical skills • Lifelong learners

• Practical ingenuity and creativity • Leadership, high ethical standards and a strong
• Good communication skills sense of professionalism
• Mastery of the principles of business and management • The dynamism, agility, resilience and flexibility to
work in the uncertainty of today’s world

As the literal class of 2020 finishes up their degrees, I can proudly say that we as a department have been seeing the fruits of striv-
ing to produce exactly the kind of graduates that live up to those standards. We are indeed, very proud of our students and their
accomplishments, some of which you will read about in this inaugural issue of the Computer Science: Year in Review.

This year also marks a significant milestone in the Department of Computer Science. Like most computer science programs na-
tionally and internationally, our program has been growing in enrollment to the tune of more than 50 percent combined growth
in our undergraduate and graduate programs. We have been blessed with this growth to also see an increase in investment by the
university, including the resources needed to add seven new faculty to our department as part of a cluster hire in cybersecurity. This
influx of new hiring also included faculty to continue to meet the educational mission of the department through adding full-time
lecturers. You will get an opportunity to meet those faculty in the pages that follow.

In this issue, you will also read about awards received by our faculty and students, feature stories on some of our graduates and
student groups, as well as highlights that profile some of our alumni. You will also find a special section from the Cybersecurity
Education, Research and Outreach Center, including a small insert with tips on how to protect your identity, privacy and computers.

Finally, be on the lookout in this issue for various QR codes and other digital breadcrumbs sprinkled throughout. These serve
as virtual rabbit holes for learning more about our past, present and future community of computer scientists. For my part, I am
continually thankful to have joined such a great department. The faculty community is welcoming, and the students are clearly
amongst the best on campus. The only thing that is missing is you, whether you are a prospective student, an alumnus, an employer
or otherwise, we hope that you’ll take an opportunity to peruse this issue and connect with us through our virtual guestbook.

Best Regards,
Jerry Gannod
 ABOUT THE
DEPARTMENT
Department of Computer Science was first The department’s goal is to be widely recognized to enable
THE  established in January 1986, by the Tennessee
Board of Regents. At that time the unit department was
students to have a global impact through innovation, quality
programs and research with collaborative partnerships to
composed of seven faculty members. In 2010, the department improve the success of a diverse community both on campus
moved to the College of Engineering. and off. Our graduates are prepared to compete in the job
market and contribute to the economic, scientific and social
The department has experienced record growth in enrollment development of the nation.
and degrees conferred, with approximately 580 students
spread across bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. programs. New research grant activations in the department have grown
Currently, the computer science department has 19 faculty in the past five years from less than $500,000 in 2014 to
members with research interests, ranging from cybersecurity, more than $3.3 million in 2019. In December 2018, Rina Singh
machine learning, high-performance computing to (currently a postdoc at NYU) became the department’s first
software engineering. In Fall 2019, the expansion of faculty female to earn a Ph.D. in computer science. The first cohort
members occurred by adding seven new faculty positions. graduates of NSF SFS Cybercorps students were awarded their
The department was instrumental in establishing the degrees in December 2018 and May 2019.
Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center in
2016 and currently has several faculty members affiliated with
the center, with Ambareen Siraj, Ph.D., as its director.

Tennessee Tech University

Department of Computer Science
(931) 372-3691 csc@tntech.edu
P.O. Box 5101
Cookeville, TN 38505-0001

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Awards received
in 2019 include:
• ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper
Award to Assistant Professor Akond
Rahman for the following paper:
Rahman, A., Parnin, C., and Williams, L.
(2019). The Seven Sins: Security Smells
in Infrastructure as Code Scripts. In
proceedings of the 2019 IEEE/ACM 41st
International Conference on Software
Engineering (ICSE).

• Institute on Aging 2019 Innovation

Research on Aging Awards (Silver)
awarded to department Chair Gerald
C. Gannod and colleagues for the
following paper:
Gerald C. Gannod, Katherine M.
Abbott, Kimberly Van Haitsma, Nathan
Martindale, Alexandra Heppner (2019),
A Machine Learning Recommender
System to Tailor Preference Assessments
to Enhance Person-Centered Care
Among Nursing Home Residents, The
Gerontologist, 59(1), Pages 167–176,
https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gny056

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 FOCUS ON THE NEW FACULTY
Computer Science Adds Seven New Faculty
Akond Rahman Assistant Professor
Akond Rahman was drawn to Tennessee Tech by the opportunity to grow and the
collegiality of the faculty. He is researching development and operations
(devops) and software security and cataloging various activities that
ethical hackers pursue to exploit vulnerabilities. His favorite thing about
the university is the students, and he enjoys serving as a mentor to both
undergraduate and graduate students. The biggest challenge he has faced in his
career was transitioning from a non-computer science background to a computer
science-based curriculum during the early years of his undergraduate studies.

Rahman holds a doctorate in computer science from North Carolina State

University, a master´s from the University of Connecticut and a bachelor´s
from Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology. He is the recipient of
the 2019 ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award, 2018 ACM SIGSOFT Best Doctoral
Symposium Paper Award and the 2016 Microsoft Open Source Challenge Award.

“This is a great area that allows a student to fulfill his or her full
potential for a STEM-based career,” Rahman said as advice for students
considering a career in computer science. Software developer, data scientist,
software tester, cybersecurity analyst, network engineer, site reliability
engineer or devops engineer are among the many careers he suggests for
students majoring in computer science. including software developer, data
scientist, software tester, cybersecurity analyst, network engineer, site
reliability engineer or devops engineer.

Muhammad Ismail Assistant Professor

Prior to coming to Tennessee Tech, Muhammad Ismail worked for six years as
a research scientist at the Texas A&M University branch campus at Qatar. His
current research field is planning, operation and cyber-physical security in
smart grids and wireless networks. He is interested in the application of deep
machine learning in resource management and cyber-security of smart grids and
wireless networks.

“I had a successful history of joint research projects with Tennessee Tech over
the past five years with total funding of $1.3 million,” Ismail said. “Over these
five years, I got to know how ambitious and professional Tennessee Tech is. When
I knew there was an opening at Tennessee Tech, I did not hesitate to apply and
join such an ambitious place.”

Ismail is also passionate about teaching difficult concepts in simpler ways.

However, he is challenged by finding good students for his doctoral program.

“Never lose passion to learn more. This is a very dynamic field, and you should
always be up to date,” Ismail said as advice to students in computer science.

Ismail holds a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from the

University of Waterloo in Canada. He is also the recipient of the 2019 Paper
Award from the IEEE Technical Committee in Green Communications and Networking
in the IEEE International Conference on Communications, the Research Fellow
Excellence Award from Texas A&M University at Qatar in 2019, the Best Paper
Award in GREEN 2016 and the Best Paper Award in SGRE 2015.

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 Susmit Shannigrahi Assistant Professor
One of the more recent additions to the computer science department,
Susmit Shannigrahi chose to come to Tennessee Tech because of
its recent growth and upward trajectory. His research area is
computer networking, and he is exploring how to create new network
protocols to help scientists move and manage large amounts of data.
His favorite things about Tech are the students, faculty and the
friendly community.

To students considering computer science, Shannigrahi offered this

advice: “Your imagination is your only limitation. You can major in
computer science, and you will find that you can apply your skills to
a huge number of fields. You can learn to code well. Pay attention
to fundamentals - data structures, algorithms and systems.”

Shannigrahi holds a doctorate in computer science from Colorado

State University.

Travis Brummett Lecturer

A native of Kentucky, Travis Brummett joined the faculty at Tennessee Tech
in Fall 2019. His primary research area is cloud computing, and recently
he has been exploring serverless architectures and using a meta-modeling
system to deploy an entity component system simulation across a distributed
system. Brummett is enthusiastic about the opportunities to teach both in and
out of the classroom. He looks forward to the various clubs and activities
the computer science department offers. New to teaching, he has faced some
challenges, but he loves working with students and helping them learn.

“For me the biggest challenge has been figuring out what works best for the
students and what doesn´t,” Brummett said. “I´m still trying to find the best
combination of class activities to ensure they learn the most they can. I am
also a nervous and shy person by nature, so teaching larger sections of a
course is something that I have to adapt to and work on.”

Brummett received his master´s in computer science from Vanderbilt University

as well as a master´s and a bachelor´s in computer science from Western
Kentucky University. He has also served as a graduate assistant in the computer
science departments at Vanderbilt and Western Kentucky. He received the 2012-
2013 ACM Outstanding Student Award from the computer science department at
Western Kentucky.

Rachel Ania Kaczka Jennings Lecturer

As a graduate student pursing a doctorate in computer science at Tennessee Tech,
Rachel Jennings discovered she enjoyed engaging with the students as a teacher
assistant. It is rewarding for her to see students understand difficult course
material and topics. Jennings´ favorite part about Tech is the community in
Cookeville. She loves how it rallies around the university, its students and each
other. Her biggest challenge is time management and handling the responsibilities
that come with a large course load, such as grading, preparing course material and
administrative tasks.

“Don´t be afraid to fail,” Jennings said as advice to students considering computer

science. “Part of computer science and programming is failing and learning from
failure. Taking time to understand a concept or failing the first, or several times,
does not mean you can´t be a computer scientist or programmer.”

Jennings received her bachelor´s and master´s in computer science from Miami
University in Ohio.

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 Maanak Gupta Assistant Professor
One of the newest computer science faculty members at Tennessee Tech,
Maanak Gupta has many research projects underway in the areas of
foundational aspects of authorization, machine learning, and artificial
intelligence driven security solutions.

“Engagement with students, listening to them, their novel ideas and

ingenuity has been my favorite part,” Gupta said. “I enjoy both teaching
and research; research that has real impact. This profession allows me to
serve society and have societal contribution, for example by organizing
trainings and boot camps in cyber training. This is really important and
inspiring to me.”

To students considering a career in computer science, Gupta offers some

advice, “Computer science is the future, and the demand will always be
increasing. Either you talk about cybersecurity, data science, machine
learning or artificial intelligence. Tech has a great computer science
program which is Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology
accredited and provides a breadth and depth of a broad set of courses. It
has a very good reputation with the employers also which will help you get
a good job and start a great career.”

Gupta holds a doctorate and master´s in computer science from the

University of Texas at San Antonio, a master´s in information systems from
Northeastern University and a bachelor´s in computer engineering from
Kurukshetra University in India. He has received several awards including
the 2019 UTSA Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Research Award in Computer
Science and the 2018 UTSA Three-Minute Thesis Competition Finalist.

Denis Ulybyshev Assistant Professor

From an early age, Denis Ulybyshev was interested in mathematics,
informatics and computers. Later, he became interested in exploring
novel technologies and methodologies in computer science and software
engineering. He was drawn to Tennessee Tech because of similar research
interests, as well as the professional and friendly environment in the
department.

“I enjoy the opportunity to do research that helps the community and is

demanded by industry,” Ulybyshev said. “I also enjoy the opportunity to
help students with their future careers. Once I started working as an
assistant professor at Tennessee Tech, I found that teaching courses takes
more time than expected. Speaking about the research, it is not easy to
bring valuable novelty to the field.”

Ulybyshev researches cybersecurity, data science and blockchain-based

technologies. His current project aims to help small healthcare businesses
with a HIPAA-compliant and novel software solution for secure storage and
transfer of electronic health records.

Ulybyshev holds a doctorate and master´s in computer science from Purdue

University, as well as a master´s in automatic control systems from Bauman
Moscow State Technical University. He is the recipient of the Harris
Teaching Award for Supporting Women in Computer Science, the CERIAS 2019
Diamond Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement, the ACM Mid-Southeast
Best Paper Award, the Purdue Computer Science Corporate Partners Award,
the Best Poster Award at 16th CERIAS Information Security Symposium and the
Second-Best Poster Award at 20th CERIAS Information Security Symposium.

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ALUMNI
HIGHLIGHTS

Mary Patterson
Ms. graduated from
Tennessee Tech University in
1968 with a bachelor’s degree in
mathematics. When she attended
Tennessee Tech, no degree
program in computer science
existed. During her senior year,
she took IBM's programming
aptitude test, and her extremely
high scores ultimately led to
a successful long-term career
with IBM. She believes that her
education at Tennessee Tech
has contributed to her success;
thus, she decided to endow a
scholarship as a way to give back
to the University. The primary
purpose of this scholarship is to
encourage female and minority
students to pursue studies in
computer science. The award is
$2,000, which will be disbursed
in two $1,000 installments to pay
for tuition expenses during the
fall and spring semesters.

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 PAPER
AWARDS

Anshu Bhattarai and Professor

Ambareen Siraj recently received
the best paper certificate in
regular research paper type for
the artificial intelligence and
machine learning track for their
collaborative piece, “Increasing
Accuracy of Hand-Motion Based
Continuous Authentication Systems”
at the 9th IEEE Annual Ubiquitous
Computing, Electronics & Mobile
Communication Conference.

Professor Ambareen Siraj Anshu Bhattarai

• Md Bulbul Sharif and Professor Sheikh Ghafoor recently presented a system for “Performance Porting of Iterative
Structured Grid Applications in HPC Environments” at the 21st International Conference of Computer and Information
Technology in 2018.

• Plos.org published an article co-authored by Professor Mohammad Alam. The article is titled “A priority-based energy
harvesting scheme for charging embedded sensor nodes in wireless body area networks.” To read the full article, visit
journals.plos.org/plosone

• Professor Denis Ulybyshev’s research group won a best paper award at ACM Mid-Southeast 2019 with the project
“Secure Container for Data Protection in Transit and at Rest.” Ulybyshev noted, “I am happy to achieve this result with a
very diverse team that includes domestic and international students, graduates and undergraduates, a female student
and a student with special needs.”

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 STUDENT
GROUPS

CyberEagles
The purpose of the CyberEagles Security Club is to increase awareness about the importance of security and security careers
while offering learning opportunities for students in cyber offense and defense techniques and tools. The club also promotes
research in security, as well as helps members network with peers and security professionals. Membership into CyberEagles is
open to any Tech students, faculty, staff or alumni.

Data Science League

In the today’s world, the respective fields of data science and machine learning are growing more important. It's increasingly
critical for people from all walks of life, particularly anyone involved with computer science, to be aware of and have a basic
understanding within these fields. Data science is a concentration within the computer science degree program. The aim of the
Data Science League is to fill that hole – to promote the discussion of artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science.

ACM
The Tech student chapter of the Association for Computer Machinery exists to promote the exploration of computer technology.
The chapter accomplishes this by conducting workshops, bringing guest speakers to campus, as well as providing social events
for its members.

Graduate Student Club

The Computer Science Graduate Student Club is open to all computer science graduate students. The club’s main event is the
Computer Science Graduate Seminar Series. Every couple of weeks, a current graduate student in the department will present
their current research topic or on a topic that interests them. This series is open to anyone to listen and ask questions. The main
goal of the presentations is to allow other students to see and hear what their peers are working on and to promote research
collaboration, initiate discussion and generate new ideas. Beyond the seminars, the club also has a potluck picnic every semes-
ter to allow the students to show off their cooking skills, to enjoy food from other students' native countries and to interact with
each other in an informal setting.

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 STUDENT
HIGHLIGHTS

Mateo Gannod accepts one of the ChaTech Scholars Awards.

• Our first cohort of NSF Cybercorps Scholarship for Service students completed degrees in Fall 2018
and Spring 2019.

• Two teams from Tech competed at our local site of the Mid-Central Regional of the ACM International
Collegiate Programming Contest. Fourteen teams competed at our site, including teams from Vanderbilt
University, Lipscomb University, Maryville College, Belmont University, and University of North Alabama.
The students worked tirelessly for five intense hours to complete as many of the 11 programming
problems as they could. The top two teams at our local site were two teams from Vanderbilt. The first-
place team solved six of the 11 problems and placed 11th in the entire region, and the second-place team
solved five of the problems to place 25th in the region. Tech’s Team Rocket, consisting of students Kirill
Kozlov, John Simmons and Alec West, solved four of the 11 problems to place sixth locally and ahead of
approximately 70 teams in the region. TTU Team 2, consisting of students Jeff Neikirk, Brendan Roberts,
and Jordan Johnson, solved three of the 11 problems to finish eighth locally. For more information on the
competition, you can visit mcpc18.kattis.com/ and icpc-midcentral.us/.

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Anthrony Taylor and Kalen Berry place second in the Eagle Works
competition for their live marketplace invention.

• Mateo Gannod has been selected to receive one of ChaTech Scholars Awards. ChaTech is proud to have a robust
scholarship program to support their strategic goal to invest in the region’s technology talent. This scholarship
program is open to students enrolled in an information technology major and awards range from $1,000 to $2,500.

• Katie Brown won a Best Paper Runner-up Award at the 2019 ACM Southeast Conference. The title of her paper was
“Heuristically Reducing the Cost of Correlation-Based Feature Selection.” Its feature selection encompasses the
algorithms techniques that reduce the number of features a machine learning algorithm processes and is a critical
aspect of the data science pipeline. The paper presented the development and creation of two new algorithms that
decompose an exponential feature selection algorithm so that it runs faster with minimal losses in accuracy.

• In the Eagle Works competition held in April 2019, two Tech students placed second for entrepreneurship. Anthony
Taylor, computer science, and Kalen Berry, mechanical engineering, presented “Trade 'Em,” a live marketplace for
buying, selling and trading sneakers and streetwear.

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 Photo: Jeff Sabo – Miami University
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 THE FUTURE
OF HEALTHCARE
What Tech faculty and students are doing to help improve caregiving

merica’s population is aging at a rapid pace, and technology correctly predicted rules with respect to the rules predicted to
A can make caregiving more efficient. be true.

The multi-university development between Tennessee Tech, “Because the recommender uses data from other residents to
Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and Penn State University was predict preferences, the algorithm will become more accu-
named one of three recipients of the Innovative Research on rate as larger datasets become available,” the developer team
Aging Silver Award. concluded. “Ultimately, the use of machine learning could assist
nursing home providers in tailoring their preferences assess-
“It’s part of a larger effort to identify and meet preferences for ments to maximize staff time while minimizing the burden of
residents in nursing homes,” Jerry Gannod said, chair of Tech’s asking a resident dozens of questions.”
computer science department and the project’s lead investiga-
tor, along with Katy Abbott and Jane Straker of Miami Univer- Tennessee Tech computer science graduate student Nathan
sity and Kimberly Van Haitsma of Penn State University. “Just Martindale did much of the software development.
because people have aged and moved into a nursing home,
doesn’t mean their preferences have stayed the same.” “We met with other investigators weekly,” Gannod said. “There
have been a number of graduate students who worked on this
This project focuses on person-centered care in skilled nursing as well. It’s been a great team.”
communities. Specifically, it seeks to improve upon the Prefer-
ences for Everyday Living Inventory (PELI-NH), which is com- The project has been in development since a 2016 grant from
monly used in nursing homes. the Ohio Department of Medicare was awarded and was pub-
lished in the May 2018 edition of The Gerontologist.
“There are 72 questions in the PELI-NH survey,” Gannod said.
“This software would reduce that to 16 questions that direct The development team was awarded $1,000 from the Institute
care workers can ask of residents while the software helps on Aging. The study, along with seven other studies, is featured
identify preferences without having to ask the other questions.” in a brief report that can be seen here:
matherlifewaysinstituteonaging.com/researchers/
It’s similar to what Amazon or Netflix does with recommen- innovative-research-award/.
dations using machine learning technologies, such as “If you
enjoyed X, you might also enjoy Y.” Gannod is trying to identify partner nursing homes with this
software and is also working with a company located in Wash-
The development team found that the recommender system ington, D.C., to license the software.
was extremely accurate at predicting important preferences of
residents with an 80.2 percent recall performance — the ratio “The gerontology field has not seen anything like this,” Gannod
of correctly predicted preferences compared with all predicted said. “It’s efficient, personalized and can improve the quality of
preferences and non-preferences — and a 79.2 precision rate in care in nursing homes.”

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 Loading...
university’s fastest growing department and the undergraduate program in computer science, as well as
THE second largest in the College of Engineering is
keeping up with the national demand by a cluster hire of new
concentrations in cybersecurity, data science and high-
performance computing,” Gannod said.
faculty members: Denis Ulybyshev, Maanak Gupta, Muhammad
Ismail, Akond Rahman, Susmit Shannigrahi and Travis Brummet. The new faculty members are excited about Tech’s research
capabilities.
“The cluster hire features cybersecurity, networking and
software engineering experts,” department Chair Jerry Gannod “There are a lot of opportunities to do research,” new faculty
said. “All of this is to help us improve the curriculum, offer new member Denis Ulybyshev said. “There’s a good balance between
courses and handle the influx of new students coming in.” research and teaching.”
Generally, the field is partitioned into a number of different
subfields, including systems, software, theory and application. The growth of Tech’s program reflects a national trend.
“In the department of computer science, we teach a core “That’s due to the creation of jobs,” Gannod said. “There’s a

P:\18
shortage in cybersecurity employees, a shortage in software Tech’s program is unique in that graduates are ready to hit
developers; it is how our society has evolved. Everyone walks the ground running for employees after the completion of the
around with a powerful computer in their pockets. There’s a program.
need to have employees and developers who can meet those
needs and develop those new technologies.” “The computer science program here at Tennessee Tech has
long been recognized as being able to produce graduates
Gannod took over as chair of the department in July 2016. Since that are ready to work from nearly day one,” Gannod said. “The
then, he has seen a lot of growth. president often talks about our students being shovel ready
and career ready. I think that our department and graduates are
“At that time, there were a little more than 360 to 370 students,” a clear embodiment of that ideal. Our students are known by
he said. “This year, I expect us to be pushing close to 600 employers as ready to work. We have a local employer that said
students in the program.” it takes typically four to six months for graduates to be ready
to be fully contribute to the work projects. But our students are
New faculty members in the department are looking forward to ready in four to six weeks, which says a lot about our students
being part of this growth. and graduates. As the shepherds of the students coming in, it’s
about us shaping them, helping them to develop and get ready
“I’m looking forward to motivating highly intelligent students,” for the work force.”
Maanak Gupta said.

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Making History: First
Female Ph.D. Graduate
in Computer Science

Rina
Singh
hen Rina Singh walked the line with other graduates, she
W made history as Tennessee Tech’s first female — and the
university’s third student — to receive a doctorate in engineer-
ing with a concentration in computer science.

Singh has come a long way since her humble beginnings in the
small village of Bishwambharpur, Nepal.

“I grew up in a mud house without electricity or running wa-

ter,” she said. “I spent my days playing in the rivers and ponds
of the village, climbing trees in my family’s mango grove and
helping my mother with the household chores.”

It was her oldest brother who influenced her decision to pur-

sue higher education. He was attending college in Kathmandu,
Nepal’s capital city, and would visit family during his winter
vacations. Singh would ask him questions about what he
learned while at school and what life was like in the big city.

Listening to his experiences encouraged her to get her degree.

But she had some hurdles to overcome.

“Life in the village was hard,” she said. “Girls rarely left to
pursue a college education.”

With her brother’s help, they convinced her parents to break

with the village’s traditions and send her to Kathmandu to
begin the 8th grade. She was 13 at the time.
“I was originally denied admittance into the 8th grade in Kath- Part of her research involved working with a colleague of Tal-
mandu because my village school did not offer any computer bert’s from the University of Kansas Medical Center to acquire
courses,” she said. and use some data related to the care of sepsis patients by
looking at the sequences of orders that were written on such
Following completion of her secondary education, Singh was patients.
accepted into the Nepal College of Information Technology in
Kathmandu and was awarded a bachelor’s degree in soft- They also enlisted the help of the faculty in Tech’s Whitson–
ware engineering in 2006. After receiving her bachelor’s, she Hester School of Nursing.
worked as a software engineer and research assistant in the
city. “Nursing Professor Susan Piras, helped us understand the
general process of sepsis care and helped us understand our
“My uncle, Dhanpat Patel, inspired me to return to school and data well enough to use it to help Rina validate the algorithms
complete a doctoral program,” she she developed,” Talbert said. “To
said. “He inspired me to pursue a date, Rina’s research has primarily
higher degree, but I was never real- focused on advancing the state-of-
ly focused on getting a degree from the-art in computer science.”
the United States.” “I’m very excited to be the first
female Ph.D. computer science They had a long conversation with
In 2009, Rina was accepted into Talbert’s colleague at the University
Delft University of Technology’s graduate here at Tennessee of Kansas medical center to begin
computer science program in the Tech,” Singh said. “This the work of applying her algorithms
Netherlands. She received her to actually better understand and
master’s degree from that univer- program is very competitive hopefully improve patient care.
sity in 2012. While searching for and welcoming. There’s such
doctoral programs, she moved to Computer science is the study of the
China and began work as a research a friendly environment and a theories and applications of com-
assistant, and in January 2014, she great support system here.” puters. There are a number of dif-
was accepted into Tech’s graduate ferent subfields, including systems
program. software, theory and applications.

Her accomplishments also make her the first female in her The computer science program is starting to take off. The
family to go to college and earn a Ph.D. number of undergraduate students enrolled in 2012-2013
stood at 341. Fifteen students were in the graduate program.
Doug Talbert, associate professor of computer science, was
her doctoral advisor. During the 2017-2018 fiscal year, 433 undergraduates were
enrolled. Forty were enrolled in the graduate program. The
“I helped her plan her course of study and helped her shape 2018-2019 year shows that 485 students are enrolled in the
her research direction,” he said. “We typically met once or undergraduate program while 54 students are enrolled in the
twice a week to discuss how things were going and discussed graduate program.
next steps. I also provided feedback and suggestions to help
her develop an ability to do independent research.” Graduates go on to work in traditional mainstream comput-
ing companies and financial, healthcare, entertainment and
Singh’s area of expertise is data mining and machine learning. government sectors.

“She has worked in sequential pattern mining, finding mean- “I’m very excited to be the first female Ph.D. computer science
ingful and useful patterns in data represented as sequences, graduate here at Tennessee Tech,” Singh said. “This program
and deep learning, the use of large artificial neural networks is very competitive and welcoming. There’s such a friendly
to discover and make use of very complex patterns in data,” environment and a great support system here.”
Talbert explained.

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What Lies Ahead
for Cybersecurity

CEROC
hen Ambareen Siraj came to Tennessee Tech in 2006, Cyber Defense. Graduates receiving their degree in this
W she was asked to teach a security course in computer
science. That elective course had six students enrolled in it.
concentration will have a seal of certification from the NSA
and DHS agencies on their diplomas.

Twelve years later, that security course has blossomed Siraj then took the program a step further by creating the
into one of the top cybersecurity programs in the nation Tennessee Tech Cybersecurity Education, Research and
with Siraj one of the foremost experts in cybersecurity Outreach Center (CEROC). The center was established in an
curriculum and instruction. effort to integrate university-wide existing activities and
initiatives in cybersecurity education, research and outreach.
“Dr. Ambareen Siraj has long been a leader in the Tech’s CEROC is also unique because it is the only center
department and in the cybersecurity education community,” in Tennessee which emphasized integration of education,
Jerry Gannod, chair of Tech’s department of computer research and outreach.
science, said. “Her continued success has led to a growing
interest in Tennessee Tech and the department of computer “Cybersecurity has existed to a certain degree, but not in
science as a destination for cybersecurity education. We are the form that it is now,” CEROC assistant director Eric Brown
extremely proud of her accomplishments and the value she said. “The biggest change that brought it into the limelight
brings to our students in the classroom, research laboratory is when society changed. Everybody started carrying a smart
and in her support for extra-curricular activities.” phone — a mini computer in their hand. We provide quality
cybersecurity education, which is one of the essential skill
Besides that security course, Siraj added other security-type sets for the 21st century.”
courses to the computer science curriculum over the years.
With cybersecurity becoming a global concern requiring Tech’s Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach
the utmost attention from all sectors of government Center received a big boost in 2016 when it received a
and industry, there became a growing need for skilled grant from the National Science Foundation for nearly $4
professionals regionally, nationally and globally. million to establish the Tennessee CyberCorps: Scholarship
for Service program. The grant, which runs through July 31,
“Our nation is in dire need of cybersecurity professionals at 2021, provides students with full coverage of tuition, health
all levels and roles,” Siraj said. “It is our honor and privilege insurance reimbursement, professional and development
at Tennessee Tech to prepare students to serve the nation travel, money for books and an additional stipend for both
with this unique skill.” undergraduate and graduate students.

Tech capitalized on those needs in 2015 by offering a “This makes Tech one of the highly visible cyber defense
cybersecurity concentration to undergraduate students. The education programs in the country,” Siraj said. “Many strides
program was so good that the National Security Agency are being taken to improve our cybersecurity program at
and the United States Department of Homeland Security Tennessee Tech to produce prepared students ready for the
designated Tech as a Center of Academic Excellence in cybersecurity workforce.”
 Over the years, Brown has seen the program mature and expand students. Students from schools all around the country come
exponentially. “We have been in a state of explosive growth to Tech for two days to be trained in a variety of research
really since the beginning of the center, every year we have and related soft skills to help them be successful in their
expanded in a different area,” Brown said, “and that’s kind of the cybersecurity education journey. Skills training includes
nature of cyber right now.” communication and technical writing skills, ethics, etiquette,
time management, personal finance, service learning, federal
There are many positions within the field of cybersecurity that resume writing, and even dining etiquette. Participants of
are waiting to be filled. Within CEROC the focus is on not only the camp also have an opportunity to hear and interact with
the current student’s success but also a variety of outreach speakers from a variety of local and federal agencies, gaining
programs involving potential students. There is a community of insight into thecybersecurity needs at the federal level.
current computer science students and mentors always looking
for more members to join their efforts in bringing cybersecurity “It’s an awesome opportunity for these students to get
awareness to others. viewpoints from professionals in the field ranging from
government agencies, industry and academia to fully
“We have some incredible students that are just making things understand this great new world they are going into in their
happen,” Brown said. cybersecurity career,” Brown said.

The first CyberCorps class consisted of four students who have Tech’s cybersecurity outreach touches middle school and
gone on to secure positions with government federal, state, high school students, teachers and guidance counselors, too.
local, tribal or national labs in cybersecurity. Tech hosts a GenCyber Combination Camp every summer that
incorporates basic cybersecurity concepts through hands-
Besides just training Tech’s students, Siraj started a CyberCorps on exercises and games involving technology, as well as
Scholarship for Service BootCamp to help other CyberCorps opportunities for collaboration and group work. The goal of

P:\24
the camp is to increase cybersecurity awareness and interest
while helping all students understand correct and safe online
behavior.
“We have some incredible
“It’s an opportunity to introduce cyber to these students
and show them all the things cyber can be,” Brown said. “It’s
students that are just
education and law enforcement and communications. There are
a lot of moving pieces, and we want to show these students the
making things happen,”
many facets there are to cybersecurity.”

Tech’s cybersecurity program continues to expand. Siraj founded

the Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) national conference which What was once an elective security class of six students, has
has grown every year. grown into a thriving program that is becoming well-known
throughout the nation. While Siraj has been a huge part of
CEROC also joined the Department of Homeland Security’s Tech’s success, she is quick to give credit to the students who
STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Campaign. This national public comprise the program.
awareness campaign aims to increase the understanding of
cyber threats and empower the American public to be safer and “What makes us so unique and special is our student body,”
more secure online. Siraj said. “I’ve seen students from other schools. I really love
our students. They are so humble and hard-working. They know
There are now more than 150 undergraduates majoring in the sacrifices their parents make to put them through school.
cybersecurity and several more students working on a master’s They are very dedicated. Whatever we are doing in CEROC and
or doctorate in cybersecurity. computer science is because our students are so great.”

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Improving Our
National Security
with AI
Lynne
Parker

rtificial intelligence is the wave of the future, and one Regarding AI development, President Trump stressed the
A Tennessee Tech alumna is leading the effort. importance of investing in the cutting-edge industries of
the future.
Lynne E. Parker, a 1983 computer science graduate, was
appointed to the position of assistant director for artificial “AI technologies are transforming nearly every area of our
intelligence of the Office of Science and Technology Policy lives, from transportation to healthcare to education to
in August 2018 by President Donald Trump’s administration. security,” Trump said. “Even now at the earliest stages of
In November 2019, she was also appointed to the position of commercializing these technologies, we have seen the power
Deputy Chief Technology Officer. and potential of AI to support workers, diagnose diseases and
improve our national security.”
“Computer science has always been a rapidly changing field,
and its pace of change continues to accelerate,” Parker said. When Parker first began her studies in computer science, there
“That’s one of the things I love about the field because there were very few open source tools or helpful user interfaces
is no chance to get bored. You have to continuously read and that allowed someone to create new solutions quickly.
study to keep up-to-date with the latest advances in the field.”

P:\26
“Instead, we had to build everything ourselves, sometimes
even writing assembly code (very low-level programming
language) for the most basic of functions,” she said. “Now,
it’s terrific that we have so many sharable tools and libraries “Even now at the earliest
that can help us create solutions to new problems much
more quickly.” stages of commercializing
Her education at Tech gave her a good start in her
these technologies, we
future studies. have seen the power
“My bachelor’s studies at Tennessee Tech provided me an
excellent foundation in computer science that served me
and potential of AI to
well as I went on to future studies at UT Knoxville (for my
master’s degree) and MIT (for my Ph.D.),” she said. “Perhaps
support workers, diagnose
more importantly, the strong sense of community across the diseases and improve our
Tech campus influenced my belief in the importance of being
a leader and giving back to the broader community, whether national security.”
it be through campus activities, professional service roles or
national leadership positions. I find great satisfaction in being
able to use my expertise to serve the greater good.” with humans,” she said. “In recent years, my students and I
have been developing methods for robots to use their sensors
Prior to being appointed to the OSTP, she worked in Oak to better understand the activities and actions of human
Ridge National Laboratory, founded the Center for Intelligent teammates and then contribute naturally to the human’s task
Systems and Machine Learning at the University of Tennessee without requiring extra work or attention from the human.”
in Knoxville and was the interim dean of the Tickle College of
Engineering at UT Knoxville. The OSTP’s activities are aimed at removing barriers to
innovations in those applications so all Americans can benefit.
“I’ve had the good fortune of building up a strong career in “At the same time, we also work to ensure that these AI
AI and robotics both at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and technologies are used in a way that respects everyone’s
the University of Tennessee, Knoxville,” she said. “Besides the privacy and civil liberties and are consistent with our
research and educational activities that are at the core of a American values.”
research and academic career, I have also always held a deep
belief in the importance of using my expertise to serve the The president’s initiative defines a holistic approach to the
broader AI and robotics community.” activities that are needed across the federal government to
accelerate the nation’s leadership in AI.
In 2015-2016, she accepted the offer to serve as division
director of information and intelligent systems at the National “Both current and future workforce challenges are addressed
Science Foundation. by the initiative, which directs the creation of opportunities
for everyone to receive AI-relevant training for both current
“In that role, I engaged in a variety of interagency jobs and jobs of the future,” she said. “And to ensure our
coordination and leadership activities across the federal nation continues innovations for the future of AI, the initiative
agencies, including serving as the co-chair of the interagency places a strong emphasis on AI R&D and the infrastructure to
task force that created the National AI R&D Strategic Plan,” support it.”
she said.
She also said the initiative recognizes that the federal
Those successful efforts are what got her the position at the government cannot — and should not — conduct these AI
White House OSTP. activities on its own, but calls for strong partnerships between
the private sector, academia, non-profits and likeminded
“My own research expertise is in using AI to build intelligent international allies to make sure the AI is developed and used
mobile robot teams, as well as robot teams that work naturally for the benefit of the American people.

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P:/13
COMPUTER A pril Crockett’s lesson plans in her computer science
classes at Tennessee Tech have always included
plenty of visual and dynamic examples. When two
visually-impaired computer science majors began taking
⠠⠉⠕⠍⠏⠥⠞⠑⠗ her classes, though, Crockett looked to enhance her
lesson plans. Now, she is creating visuals for the visually-

SCIENCE
impaired.

“I have never had visually-impaired students before,”

said Crockett, a Tennessee Tech alumna who earned a

⠎⠉⠊⠑⠝⠉⠑ bachelor’s in computer science in 2001 and a master’s

in computer science in 2004. “Last semester, I had two

INSTRUCTOR
visually-impaired students in Data Structures, and I had to
figure out how to demonstrate visual, dynamic content to a
student who is blind.”

⠊⠝⠎⠞⠗⠥⠉⠞⠕⠗ Vadim Kholodilo, a freshman exchange student from

Russia, and Carlos Medrano, a sophomore from Nashville,
have become regulars in Crockett’s classes. With the help

PROVIDES of Tech’s Accessible Education Center, Crockett uses tactile

diagrams with braille to make her drawings and animations
visible for Kholodilo and Medrano.

⠏⠗⠕⠧⠊⠙⠑⠎ “She gives us problems to solve that really improve our

computer science skills,” said Kholodilo. “It is definetly

VISUALS super helpful.”

“This is my third class I’ve had with her,” said Medrano

about Crockett. “Her classes are really organized.
⠧⠊⠎⠥⠁⠇⠎ Everything, in a sense, is understandable. She is really
helpful, and I don’t have any issues as far as

FOR accessibility goes.”

Crockett says that working with Tech’s Accessible

Education Center has really helped her create work that
⠋⠕⠗ has been beneficial for Kholodilo and Medrano. She sends
the diagrams to the AEC and they prepare them for her

VISUALLY-
class in a timely manner.

“I appreciate them so much. They work so hard,” said

IMPAIRED
Crockett about the AEC. “The most difficult thing for me
is to complete things in enough time to give them enough
time to print out the diagrams to give to Vadim and Carlos
in time for class.”

⠧⠊⠎⠥⠁⠇⠇⠽⠤ Once Kholodilo and Medrano have the diagrams, they are
able to see what everyone else in the class can see.

⠊⠍⠏⠁⠊⠗⠑⠙ “There was a diagram that I created for Carlos. It was a

flow chart diagram,” Crockett recalled. “He came up to me
 and he was feeling the diagram with his fingers. He said ‘I’ve and they will help you,” said Kholodilo. “Ms. Crockett and a
always known what a flowchart was, but I’ve never been able lot of the professors here at Tech really know what they are
to picture it in my mind.’ For him to be able to understand and doing. They give us materials that are not out of date. They
see it in his mind, was a cool moment. I realized then what I definitely have fresh material for the students. When you
was doing was really helping someone.” study something, they know how to apply it.”

Crockett admits that creating the tactile diagrams for “I have heard so many horror stories from students at
Kholodilo and Medrano has been a work in progress. But, it different universities where students don’t have that much
has also helped her relationship with her students. accessibility,” Medrano explained. “That hasn’t been the
case here. The professors have been really helpful and
“Because we have met quite a bit so that I can improve accommodating, and I really appreciate that.”
the diagrams, I have gotten to know them quite well,” said
Crockett. “I have really enjoyed that part of it. I’ve enjoyed Being able to accommodate the visually-impaired students in
getting to know my students. We have a closer relationship her classes has also helped Crockett as an instructor.
because of this.”
“They have made me a better teacher. It’s always difficult
Kholodilo and Medrano enjoy their relationship with Crockett to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and figure out how
and other faculty on campus. They both realize the challenges they learn. Even someone without disabilities,” said Crockett.
of being visually-impaired but have found Tennessee Tech to “Everyone learns differently. I have learned to approach topics
be very accommodating to their needs. from a different perspective. I’ve learned how to teach from
those perspectives.”
“If you need something, you can always let instructors know

P:\30
 TENNESSEE TECH & SAIC
Wo r k i n g To g e t h e r to B u i l d t h e Fu t u re
riven by a desire to make a difference in national and global they’re going to have opportunities only really presented to
D security, SAIC incorporates the skills and abilities from their
integrators, collaborators and problem-solvers to help build the
people who work for bigger corporations. We are a community
partner. It’s a great opportunity because most of the businesses
best future for security. As a leader in premier technology, SAIC are small, so they don’t get a lot of opportunity to network and
helps solve the nation’s most complex challenges across the grow,” said Patrick.
defense, space, federal civilian and intelligence markets.
Having a location close to Tech, where the computer science
“In Cookeville, the number one thing we do that sets us apart is department has grown exponentially over the past year,
we have software as a service. We have other delivery centers supports both students looking at going into the field of
around the country, but this is the first technology gateway computer science and SAIC.
center for SAIC. This is the only one where we have software,
most of our others are just user services. We offer software, “We have interns and the ability to bring them on early leads
cyber, networking, security and end-user services at this site,” to job integration and accelerated workforce development. We
said Jill Patrick, software engineer senior manager at SAIC. sponsor a lot of events for Tech like a summer camp, that allows
us to be engaged with the students early. They learn about
The Cookeville location of SAIC currently employs 171 people SAIC, which is good, because our business model is so unique.
with 56 being Tennessee Tech undergraduate alumni and three We’re giving people the opportunity to grow and learn, its
Tech alumni with master’s degrees. The full-time employees continuous education,” Patrick said.
have degrees ranging from computer science to business.
“We’re also helping shape the curriculum at the school. In
“The fact that I got offered a job in Cookeville [at SAIC] was spring 2019, Tech put together a DevOps course. SAIC helped
a blessing. They were super friendly and super helpful. They collaborate with the computer science department on the
are doing what I want to do — agile development,” said Tech curriculum. This ensures that SAIC gets students trained in
alumnus Michael Faircloth. the latest methodologies and that the students are learning
emerging technologies. We sponsored three capstone projects
With many locations across the world, having SAIC in Cookeville this year. We partner the capstone teams with someone at SAIC,
brings a multitude of benefits for more than just its employees. then they do the entire lifecycle for software development. It’s a
really good partnership.”
“There’s a high quality of life here, which is a huge plus. At SAIC,

P:\31
 WHERE
OPPORTUNITY
M E E T S T A L E N T.
We are looking for STEM Engineers who are visionary problem solvers
and inventive thinkers to join our team in Cookeville.
Learn more at saic.com/cookeville
21-0180

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