Atlanta (January 19, 2005) — With spam now comprising two-thirds of all e-mail traffic around the world and the increasing threat of spyware and phishing, information security becomes more important to the global economy and to individual users every day. To examine these issues more closely, the Georgia Tech Information Security Center held its first GTISC Security Summit on Tuesday, January 18 at the Global Learning & Conference Center on the Georgia Tech campus.
Experts from the Federal Trade Commission and leading security and Internet organizations including CipherTrust, EarthLink (Nasdaq: ELNK), Internet Security Systems (Nasdaq: ISSX), RSA Security (Nasdaq: RSAS) and the Georgia Tech College of Computing gathered to discuss current security issues. The Summit also showcased Atlanta’s increasingly important role as a center of the security industry.
Orson Swindle, Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, gave the keynote address entitled, “The Road to Regulation: Do You Really Want to Go There?” Swindle was sworn in as a Commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission in 1997, and he was appointed in 2001 as head of the U.S. Delegation to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Experts Group to review the 1992 OECD Guidelines for the Security of Information Systems.
Following Swindle’s keynote address, a panel discussion by leading security experts outlined the latest security issues facing the industry from their different perspectives as Internet service providers, information security firms, researchers and educators.
Panelists included:
• Garry Betty, president and chief executive officer, EarthLink (http://www.earthlink.net)
• Richard DeMillo, the John P. Imlay dean and distinguished professor of computing, Georgia Tech (http://www.coc.gatech.edu)
• Paul Judge, chief technology officer, CipherTrust (http://www.ciphertrust.com)
• Arthur W. Coviello, Jr., president and chief executive officer, RSA Security
(http://www.rsasecurity.com)
• Christopher Rouland, chief technology officer, Internet Security Systems (http://www.iss.net)
The panel was moderated by Doug Isenberg, editor and publisher, GigaLaw.com and attorney practicing technology and Internet legal issues with Needle & Rosenberg, P.C.
More details about the Security Summit and participants are available at http://gtisc.gatech.edu.
About GTISC
The Georgia Tech Information Security Center, a National Security Agency (NSA) Center of Excellence in Information Assurance Education, conducts interdisciplinary research and development on all aspects of information security, including systems-vulnerability assessment, usable security, and public and organizational security policies. GTISC’s three-pronged mission includes: conducting research that will lay the foundations for a discipline of information security and that contributes to the development and testing of systems, devices, strategies, policies, practical concepts, and techniques; educating and training information security professionals through degree and continuing-education programs, and to insure that information security awareness is instilled in all Georgia Tech students; and assisting industry, non-profit organizations, government, and individuals to solve information security problems through outreach programs and support of groups devoted to information security.
The interdisciplinary center is housed in the College of Computing and involves faculty from Computing, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, and the School of Public Policy.
Related Link: Georgia Tech Information Security Center
For more information, contact:
Joy Weaks, 404-932-1254
College of Computing
joyweaks@cc.gatech.edu
Mr. Alton P. ("Pete") Jensen, Professor Emeritus of Georgia Tech's College of Computing, died peacefully at home on Sunday, February 6, 2005, at age 79.
Professor Jensen was an Army veteran of World War II and served with companies I and L of the 94th Infantry Division. His military service and his long career at Georgia Tech were the proudest and most satisfying times of his life.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Peter Roosevelt Jensen and Emma Brown Jensen; his brother, James Russell Jensen; and his first wife, Jackie Epperson Jensen. He is survived by his wife of 28 years, Judith Bourgeois Jensen; his son, Allen P. Jensen and wife Sara; his daughter, Jean Jensen Terrell; and grandson, Lance Clinton Terrell; and his brothers, Edward Norman Jensen of Whitesburg, Georgia, and Joseph John Jensen of Plainfield, Illinois, as well as numerous beloved nieces and nephews.
Visitation will be at A. S. Turner & Sons Tuesday, February 8th 4-6 pm, followed by a reception at the Jensen family home 6-8 pm. Graveside services will be conducted at the Georgia Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Milledgeville, Georgia, on Wednesday, February 9th at 11 am. A memorial service will be announced at some future date.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the College of Computing at Georgia Tech.
For more information, contact:
Mary Alice Isele
Director of Development
isele@cc.gatech.edu
404-894-8383
Nancy Nersessian, professor and director of the Cognitive Science Program at the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, has been awarded a year-long fellowship by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for academic year 2005-06.
Nersessian’s research focuses on human creativity in science and engineering. A major theme of this research is the model-based reasoning practices through which scientists created novel understandings of nature. She has investigated these practices in historical cases of conceptual change in physics and in ethnographic studies of problem solving in interdisciplinary bio-engineering laboratories (PI, Wendy Newsletter, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Co - PI: "Laboratory Learning: Model-Based Reasoning in Research and Instructional Laboratories," 2004 - 2007 REC0411825, and "Biomedical Engineering Thinking and Learning: The Challenge of Integrating Systems and Analogical Thinking," 2001 - 2004 REC0106773). The award will assist her theoretical work on an integrative account of the complex cognitive and cultural systems which give rise to the physical and computational models researchers construct to simulate biological phenomena in problem solving and in learning.
In addition, Nersessian is currently at work on a book, Creating Concepts: Model-based reasoning in conceptual change, to be published by MIT Press.
Upon receiving the honor, Nersessian said "I am pleased and honored to have the Endowment recognize my contributions as important to the humanities. Although as a interdisciplinary cognitive scientist my research focuses on science and engineering, I strongly believe, based on years of research, that creativity in the humanities, arts, and sciences forms but one spectrum, and this is most visible in the kinds of modeling practices with which I am concerned. The award will enable me to have a sustained period of reflection and writing about the interplay of cognition and culture in these."
This year’s NEH fellowship program is very competitive. Nersessian was among 193 recipients from a pool of 1,470 fellowship applications this year, a success rate of 13 percent. Created in 1965, the National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent grant-making agency of the US government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities. Proposals are evaluated by a panel of experts outside of NEH and are then submitted to the National Council on the Humanities. The council then makes recommendations to the NEH chairman, who has the final authority over which proposals receive the grant.
Nersessian has an A.B. in Physics and Philosophy from Boston University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Case Western Reserve University in Philosophy. She is author of numerous publications, and has been appointed jointly at Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy and the College of Computing since 1993. She has been a Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, a Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, a Senior Fellow of the Pittsburgh Center for the Philosophy of Science, a Senior Fellow of the Dibner Institute at MIT and has taught at several institutions, including the Technical University of Twente, the Netherlands and Princeton University. In 2003-4 she was Chair of the Cognitive Science Society.
]]>"Computation has become the 'third mode' of science and engineering, taking its place alongside theory and experimentation," says Rich DeMillo, College of Computing dean. "Our vision in the College is to explore and create the future of computing, so forming this division is just the first step in enabling Georgia Tech to be a leader on an international scale."
Modeled after the college's renowned Interface Computing (ICD) and Core Computing (CCD) divisions, CoC carved out a separate academic division around Computational Science and Engineering in order to create a specific identity and provide a certain level of autonomy essential for its success. While other competing universities or national laboratories have typically built high-performance computing research centers, CoC sought to establish an academic unit for education and research in order to provide a suitable "home" for graduate students and tenured faculty in this field.
Adhering to the visions of Georgia Tech Provost Jean-Lou Chameau and CoC Dean Rich DeMillo, the CSED was developed to enhance the university's strength in the computational and high-performance computing areas. Stepping into the CSED's leadership position is Richard Fujimoto, a Professor in the College of Computing. "As an internationally recognized expert in simulation technology, Richard Fujimoto is a natural leader for the Computational Science and Engineering Division" says CoC Professor Dick Lipton, who steered an internal task force and external executive search firm in identifying leaders in computational science to fill faculty positions in the new division. In addition to Fujimoto, several new and exceptional faculty members were brought on board.
As division chair, Fujimoto is charged with shaping and implementing the vision of CSED and leveraging Georgia Tech's investments to realize tangible impacts both on campus and in the broader community. Two of the key areas where Fujimoto anticipates focusing his efforts include modeling and simulation, and high performance computing. "For example, the Department of Defense has been promoting the establishment of modeling and simulation as its own discipline for many years," says Fujimoto. "This is one area where I think our efforts will be well received."
The division also represents a concrete step by the College of Computing to help bridge the gap between traditional Computer Science work that is typically generic (independent of the application domain), and work that is done in the context of a specific engineering or scientific discipline. By bridging this gap, the Computational Science and Engineering Division (CSED) will foster interdisciplinary activities on and off campus. "In keeping with our overall mission to foster innovative and interdisciplinary computing research and education, the College of Computing plans to build the CSED on multiple fronts, including the development of new educational programs, research thrusts and enhanced collaborations both within Georgia Tech as well as with key external strategic partners," stated Fujimoto.
The Georgia Tech College of Computing houses one of the largest computer science programs in the country with 68 academic faculty and 39 research faculty. The College strives to provide high quality instruction and to integrate computing knowledge into other academic disciplines as well as aspects of daily life. Over 1,500 students are enrolled in the college, including approximately 1,100 undergraduates and 481 graduate students, some 273 of which are Ph.D. students. The College is ranked 9th overall at the doctoral level and houses several interdisciplinary research centers including the Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC), the Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center (GVU), Center for Experimental Research in Computer Systems (CERCS), and the Modeling & Simulation Research and Education Center (MSREC).
For more information, contact:
Joy Weaks, 406-544-5517
College of Computing
joyweaks@cc.gatech.edu
www.cc.gatech.edu
The IBM PhD Fellowship Program is intended to honor exceptional PhD students in disciplines of mutual interest, as well as emerging technical fields such as autonomic computing, nanotechnology, Grid computing, e-business on demand, and the fertile intersections of biology, computation and economics. IBM Ph.D. Fellows are awarded
tuition, fees, an IBM thinkpad, and a stipend of $17,500 (US) for one nine-month academic year. Recipients also receive an internship designed to strengthen and broaden their technical experience and contacts. Fellows are selected based on "their overall potential for research excellence, the degree to which their technical interests align with those of IBM, and their academic progress to-date as evidenced by publications and endorsements from their faculty advisor and department head."
Singh was nominated by his advisor Ling Liu, associate professor of computing at Georgia Tech and then endorsed by Professor Kishore Ramachandran, Core Computing Division Chair at Tech’s College of Computing.
Aameek Singh’s dissertation research focuses on security and privacy aspects of large scale decentralized storage systems. Last summer, Singh had the opportunity to work with Dr Kaladhar Voruganti, Sandeep Gopisetty and Norm Pass of the Storage Systems Department at IBM’s Almaden Research Center. During this IBM internship, Singh architected a resource planner for enterprise storage area network file systems. He also helped design a framework for automated compliance-checking in large enterprises, utilizing the research experience gained from his PhD research at Georgia Tech. "Enterprises have to continuously ensure that their storage solutions do not violate any laws like those required by medical privacy acts. Our framework automated the whole process, and a patent application is being filed with the U.S. Patents Office regarding this work." This internship experience not only helped Singh to expand his research agenda in wide area storage systems but also expedited his research results in this area.
"The internships at IBM have been a great experience because it gives me the opportunity to work on large real-world projects," Singh said. "The IBM PhD fellowship award will provide an opportunity for me to be involved with IBM researchers and engineers, to better understand the real world problems, and to apply my research to solving practical problems."
At Georgia Tech, Singh is currently working on solutions regarding the issue of data privacy in multi-user operating systems. "In this work, we will show that present access control mechanisms fall short of meeting user expectations of data privacy and can lead to information being leaked to other users."
Singh is currently a member of the Distributed Data Intensive Systems research group at the College of Computing, a program directed by his advisor Dr. Ling Liu. Singh and the DiSL research group work on various aspects of distributed data intensive systems, ranging from decentralized overlay networks, exemplified by peer to peer computing and grid computing, to mobile information management systems, sensor network systems, and enterprise computing technology. The research at DiSL is being supported in part by NSF, DoE, DARPA, IBM, and HP and the center for Experimental Computer Systems Research (CERCS) at Georgia Tech.
For more information, contact:
Joy Weaks, Media Relations
404-544-5517
joyweaks@cc.gatech.edu
In Shanghai, seventy-eight teams of three students each will be challenged to solve a series of complex, real-world programming problems" equal to a semester’s worth of computer programming curriculum "under a grueling five-hour deadline. The Contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. The team that solves the most problems correctly, in the least amount of time, emerges as the international champion, earning scholarships, IBM prizes, and bragging rights to the world’s smartest "trophy."
This year, IBM will introduce these programmers to POWER parallel computing technologies during a separate challenge prior to the World Finals competition. Teams will need to create a parallel application and run it on an IBM POWER-based eServer Blue Gene Supercomputer, IBM’s "rock star of Supercomputers. "Known for their enormous speed, memory, storage capacity and number crunching capabilities, IBM POWER-based parallel supercomputers have been used to solve some of the most difficult problems in physics, engineering, biology, geology and the environment. IBM’s sponsorship is part of a company-wide effort to advance the next generation of information technology talent.
The Contest’s regional competitions this year drew over 3,150 teams from 71 countries on six continents. Georgia Tech’s Computing team not only emerged as a finalist earning a coveted spot on the World Finals roster, but Charlie, Topraj, and Chris will also attempt to bring the world champion trophy home to the U.S. for the first time since 1997. So, as the spring semester gets underway, don’t forget about your campus’ computer programming superstars! They’ll be sharpening their programming skills and packing their good luck charms as they head for Shanghai to compete in the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world.
Stay tuned for World Finals results or get the latest updates from http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/Finals/.
About the Georgia Tech ACM Student Chapter
Founded in 1947, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) promotes and increases knowledge of science, design, development, construction, languages and applications of modern computing. The ACM is the society for computing professionals. The Georgia Tech Student Chapter (GTACM) is the primary student organization for computer science majors. Activities include organized corporate and faculty presentations and other events, which benefit both undergraduate and graduate students. GTACM also provides an avenue for students to develop corporate leadership skills.
About ACM
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a major force in advancing the skills of information technology professionals and students. ACM serves its global membership of 75,000 by delivering cutting edge technical information and transferring ideas from theory to practice. ACM hosts the computing industry's leading Portal to Computing Literature. With its journals and magazines, special interest groups, conferences, workshops, electronic forums and Career Resource Centre, ACM is a primary resource to the information technology field. For more information, see www.acm.org.
For more information, contact:
Joy Weaks, 404-385-2881
College of Computing
joyweaks@cc.gatech.edu
ATLANTA, November 15, 2005 – The Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC), a national leader in information security research and education, today hosted the Wireless Security Summit, which examined the security challenges associated with one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic areas in the technology industry today – wireless voice and data networks. Executives from major corporations with a stake in wireless technology, including AirDefense, BellSouth [NYSE: BLS], Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Cingular Wireless, InterContinental Hotels Group [LON: IHG, NYSE: IHG (ADRs)], Internet Security Systems [NASDAQ: ISSX] and RF Micro Devices [NASDAQ: RFMD], provided Summit attendees with a breakdown of security risks and solutions from the perspective of the end user, service provider, security leader and wireless component developer.
“Wireless technology is exploding, with enterprises and consumers quickly adopting new services in order to realize the significant social and economic benefits that come with wireless voice and data networks,” said Mustaque Ahamad , director of GTISC. “At the Wireless Security Summit, GTISC has further educated the technology and business communities about the security issues associated with this technology and proposed solutions to these potential challenges . ”
More than 200 corporate executives, industry leaders and technologists from across the country attended the Wireless Security Summit, which was keynoted by Mitch Gelman, vice president and executive producer of CNN.com. Mr. Gelman's keynote address focused on current growth and future possibilities of the wireless market, as well as the need for increased security measures to protect the information that flows over wireless voice and data networks.
“As the usage of wireless and mobile technologies becomes more and more ingrained into everyday life, security still remains as a large obstacle for further adoption,” said Mr. Gelman. “In order for wireless services to thrive, there cannot be a security cost associated with improved connectivity. I commend GTISC and the College of Computing at Georgia Tech for creating a forum for discussing and developing usable solutions to security risks that challenge the integrity of wireless and mobile technologies.”
Following Mr. Gelman's address, representatives from AirDefense, Cingular Wireless, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, InterContinental Hotels Group, Internet Security Systems, RFMD and Georgia Tech participated in a panel about wireless security. Moderated by Steve Zimba, the Director of Voice Strategy at BellSouth, the panelists debated how security will impact the constant availability associated with wireless voice and data networks and whether security threats such as identity theft will proliferate due to less secure wireless networks and “hotspots.”
“As stakeholders in the wireless industry, BellSouth and the other organizations represented at the Wireless Security Summit have a responsibility to monitor security risks as new and more technically-complex wireless devices and networks develop,” said Mr. Zimba. “Providing our customers with convenient, affordable and safe means of communications is BellSouth's top priority, and we are looking forward to working with GTISC and other industry participants to heighten security awareness among consumer and business end users and proactively promote viable solutions.”
For more information about the Wireless Security Summit and GTISC, please visit http://www.gtisc.gatech.edu/ .
About Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC)
The Georgia Tech Information Security Center , a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education, is an interdisciplinary center involving faculty from the College of Computing , School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, and the School of Public Policy.
For more information, contact:
Brendan Streich
GCI Group
404-870-6796
bstreich@gcigroup.com
CoC Professor Mary Jean Harrold presented the initiatives of ADVANCE, an NSF funded program led by Dr. Harrold with the goal of increasing the participation of women in the scientific and engineering workforce through the increased representation and advancement of women in academic scientific and engineering careers. Dr. Harrold also led a breakout session where other faculty came to discuss how they might adopt the kind of mentoring program that the College of Computing has started.
Professor Mark Guzdial presented CoC's Computational Media degree in a panel on curricular changes that draw women into computing. The Deputy Director of the NSF, Dr. Kathie Olsen, praised Computational Media during her reception talk.
Program Brochure
http://www.ncwit.org/pdf/Practices_Program.pdf
Event Blog
http://www.ncwit.org/connect.blog.php?source=calendar&action=display&editorial_id=68
The main objectives of this research will be to understand the dynamics and stability of such systems, to design and evaluate robust and stable path switching algorithms, and to examine the effects of dynamic edge routing on application-layer performance.
The grant is from January 2006 to December 2006.
]]>February 15, 2005 - Atlanta, GA - The Toyota USA Foundation today announced that the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC) at Georgia Tech has been named the recipient of a $130,000 grant to support the Institute for Computing Education (ICE@Tech) Program. The grant is one of seven awards totaling over $1 million, announced in December by the Toyota USA Foundation.
ICE@ Tech, a year-round secondary education teacher training initiative, is designed to strengthen the technology skills of current and future computer science teachers, resulting in Advanced Placement (AP) computer science courses being offered in Georgia high schools. The program is delivered by the College of Computing (CoC) at Georgia Tech. “We are delighted to team up with Georgia Tech in this important secondary education initiative,” said Hideaki “Harry” Otaka, Chairman of the Toyota USA Foundation, in announcing the award. “Information technology is one of the driving forces in the U.S. economy, and it is vital that students have the opportunity to pursue studies in the field of computer science while in high school.”
“Recently there has been a downward trend in students electing to pursue careers in this field. We are pleased to join the Georgia Department of Education and Georgia Tech in a partnership to reverse this situation,” Otaka added. The ICE@Tech Program, launched in June 2004 by CEISMC, together with the CoC at Georgia Tech, utilizes an innovative media competition curriculum developed by CoC faculty that has already proven successful with women and minorities. It is anticipated that the ICE@Tech Program will increase the number of public high schools in Georgia that offer AP Computer Science from fewer than 50 percent to all 376 public high schools in the state within the coming decade.
Toyota USA Foundation, Georgia Tech
Upon receiving notification of the award, CEISMC’s Director, Paul Ohme, said, “Georgia Tech is very pleased to receive support from the Toyota USA Foundation. This will allow us to enhance our efforts with the Georgia State Department of Education to increase the effectiveness of secondary teachers who provide instruction in the field of computer science.” In addition to Georgia Tech, other recipients of the Toyota USA Foundation awards are the Zoological Society of San Diego, San Diego, CA; Rocking the Boat, Inc., Bronx, NY; the University of Montana Foundation, Missoula, MT; the Saint Louis Science Center, St. Louis, MO; Trees for Tomorrow Natural Resources Specialty School, Eagle River, WI and National 4-H Council, Chevy Chase, MD.
The Toyota USA Foundation is a $40 million charitable endowment created to support education programs serving kindergarten through 12th grade students and their teachers in the United States. The Foundation’s emphasis is on supporting mathematics and science. For additional information about the Toyota USA Foundation, visit www.toyota.com/foundation.
Contact:
Mira Sleilati
Toyota Motor North America, Inc.
(212) 715-7435
mira_sleilati@tma.toyota.com
“Technology is an important enabler for institutions like the College of Computing to innovate and advance research in cutting-edge areas such as multi-scale modeling,” said Krish Ramakrishnan, VP and GM for Server Networking and Virtualization at Cisco Systems, “Our high-performance InfiniBand-based switching solutions combined with our VFrame(tm) software suite for I/O and server virtualization provide a very fast, flexible, and economic research environment for our customers. Cisco is excited to help the College of Computing at Georgia Tech further establish itself as a leader in high performance research grids with this best-of-breed system.”
Implementing Cisco’s Server Fabric Switch (SFS) InfiniBand solutions, the College of Computing’s newly installed computing cluster will greatly expand its enterprise research capacity in areas such as multi-scale modeling. Cisco’s InfiniBand and unified input/output (I/O) technologies will enable the College of Computing to provide a dedicated, flexible and high-performance resource for its academic and research faculty and students, whose work has helped Georgia Tech to rank among the nation’s top research campuses in the United States.
“As a national leader in computing research and education,the College of Computing’s groundbreaking achievements
in multi-scale modeling has led to safety and efficiency improvements for homes, buildings and even traveling,” said
Rich DeMillo, dean of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. “With ongoing support from best-of-breed solutions
providers such as Cisco Systems, the College of Computing will continue to provide the dynamic computing environment
necessary to foster innovative research and drive social and scientific progress.”
About the College of Computing at Georgia Tech
The College of Computing at Georgia Tech is a national leader in the creation of real-world computing breakthroughs that drive social and scientific progress. With its graduate program ranked 12th nationally by U.S. News and World
Report, the College’s unconventional approach to education is pioneering the new era of computing by expanding the horizons of traditional computer science students through interdisciplinary collaboration and a focus on human centered solutions. For more information about the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, its academic divisions and research centers, please visit www.cc.gatech.edu.