RU’s information security team of information technology students Carroll Wongchote, Joel Dominic, Jon Russo, Jeff Ali, Andy Rush, Thomas St. Clair, James Hunt, Eileen Hindmon, Daniel Lust, Austin DeVinney, and Gerald Ottman III  and information technology faculty member David Daugherty are at the 2012 CyberWatch Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Regional Finals at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., from March 13 – 17, 2012. 

During the virtual qualifying round on Feb. 21, the team competed against 25 schools representing undergraduate and graduate students from two- and four-year schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, becoming one of the top eight to qualify for the finals. The teams competed for three hours securing five machines and performing specified tasks. Because they knew the competition would be tough, RU’s team logged many hours of practice in the lab at RU.

The team was created in September of 2011 and consists of students in computer security courses taught by information technology faculty member Prem Uppuluri. The team began meeting for a weekly Tuesday practice and added Saturday practice as the competition neared. Uppuluri helped guide them during practices, which normally lasted for about an hour. But as the competition approached, the team trained as long as four hours at a time to increase their “computing stamina.”
“Dr. Uppuluri created a mock competition by providing us with virtual computers with security issues as well as providing us with tasks to complete in the four hours,” explains teammate and senior computer science major Wongchote.

The RU team will be competing against students from Capitol College (Maryland), Howard Community College (Maryland), James Madison University, Millersville University (Pennsylvania), Towson University (Maryland), University of Maryland Baltimore and West Virginia University.

The CyberWatch Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition is one of 10 regional competitions, all part of the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition.  The competition focuses on the operational aspects of managing and protecting an existing network infrastructure.  The teams are physically co-located in the same building.  Each team is given identical computer configurations to start the competition.  Throughout the competition, the teams have to ensure the systems supply specified services while under attack from a volunteer Red Team.  In addition, the teams have to satisfy periodic “injects” that simulate business activities information technology staff must deal with in the real world.

Most of the RU team members are seniors, eight out of the 11 members will be graduating in May with a computer science degree. They will also be graduating with cyber security skills -- skills that are in high demand in the workforce.  - JF

Sophomore math major David Heras earned a top spot in the National Science Foundation sponsored summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) in Computational Algebraic Geometry, Combinatorics and Number Theory at Clemson University. 

Mathematics faculty member McGee heard about the eight-week summer research experience at Clemson during a Mathematical Association of America meeting.  He knew that the application process for the program is highly competitive but was confident his student was up to the challenge.  “Most students accepted to mathematical summer REU’s come from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Cornell, MIT, etc. and most attend between their junior and senior year.  The REU at Clemson will give David the opportunity to work with mathematical researchers at the cutting edge of modern developments in algebraic number theory.  In preparation he is studying material normally considered by strong senior math majors or first year graduate students,” says McGee.

This spring, Heras is working with McGee in an independent study involving derivation and proof of properties of elliptic curves over the complex numbers, based in part on the text “Elliptic Curves” by Lawrence Washington.  To support this research study, David and fellow math major James Grenier are taking a course in complex analysis. The students plan to present their work at the RU Undergraduate Research Forum this spring and hope to present at a national conference this summer.

As a part of the undergraduate research experience program, Heras will receive up to $500 in travel support, a dorm room to be shared with other participants in the REU, up to $800 for meals and a stipend of $3,400 in return for his participation in this program.

Biology faculty member Jeremy Wojdak receives a $7,500  National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to offer a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program in his laboratory to continue his research regarding parasitic diseases of local wildlife. An objective of the National Science Foundation is to promote the progression of science. Its supplemental funding gives a student from across the nation an opportunity to attend RU and work with Wojdak’s research group.

“Outstanding Radford University students interested in science should search for REU opportunities in the winter and spring for the following summer,” Wojdak explains. Summer REUs give students an opportunity  to travel and experience working in labs across the nation. “The interns often work at top-notch institutions getting paid a $3,000 to $5,000 stipend,” explains Wojdak. Students from across the country will be applying for a spot in Wojdak’s laboratory this summer to gain experience from him and his research student team.   - JF