Research News

Prof. David Hwang of our Electrical and Computer Engineering department received a Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty award to support his research on Anti-Tamper Techniques for Secure Embedded Circuits. This is a very competitive award given by the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU).

Mason has been re-designated by the National Security Agency (NSA) as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education for academic years 2008-2013. The NSA has also started this year the new designation of National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research. Mason is among the first recipients of this new designation. These two significant achievements are a reflection of the quality of the work of the Center for Secure Information Systems (CSIS), directed by Professor Sushil Jajodia, and of the faculty in the Volgenau School of IT&E who participate in research and educational programs in Information Security and Assurance.

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Professor Dimitris E. Ioannou of our Electrical and Computer Engineering department is the recipient of the 2008 Volgenau School Outstanding Faculty Research Award to be presented to him during the Spring Awards Gala on April 25, 2008.

Professor Ioannou is an expert in microelectronics.

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A Science Daily article discusses CAULDRON, software developed by our Center for Secure Information Systems directed by Prof. Sushil Jajodia. The software reduces the impact of cyber attacks by identifying the possible vulnerability paths through an organization’s networks and is already in use at the Federal Aviation Administration.

Professor Duminda Wijesekera of our Computer Science Department was issued the following patent by the US PTO:

Title: "Implementing Security Policies in Software Development Tools"
Patent number: US 7,340,469
Issue Date: March 4, 2008.
Inventors: Khaled S. Alghathbar and Duminda Wijesekera

Professor Roman Polyak, who holds a joint appointment with the Systems Engineering and Operations Research department and with the Math department, has developed over the course of many years an advanced optimization technique, called Non-Linear Rescaling (NR). This technique has been used quite successfully in cancer treatment.

Professor Polyak's accomplishments have been highlighted in a livesciences piece developed by Joshua Chamot, Office of Legislative & Public Affairs, National Science
Foundation, in collaboration with Dr. Roman Polyak, and edited by Colleen
Kearney Rich, Mason University Relations.

The Mason Gazette features the accomplishments of Mason's graduate teaching fellows under NSF's GK-12 program (see full article).

This $3-million 5-year project's PI is Dr. Rajesh Ganesan, from our Systems Engineering and Operations Research (SEOR) department. The other co-PIs are Drs. Kathy Laskey (SEOR), Donna Sterling (Education), and Robert Sachs (Math).

Our Department of Statistics received a $40K Merck Graduate Fellowship for three years for graduate student support. This award is typically given to a very small number of departments considered to be the best in the nation.

A cooperation agreement has just been signed between the Volgenau School and the University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Italy. The goals of the agreement include: exchange of visits by experts; exchange of information, documentation, and scientific publications; study meetings, seminars and courses not involving the creation of new courses or joint degree programs; exchange of faculty for short periods; exchange of graduate students for research purposes.

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Professor Jyh-Ming Lien of our Computer Science department received $20,000 from the office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development as a Seed Grant. These awards are designed to provide seed funding that has a high probability of leading to a competitive extramural award of significant magnitude.