CAE Community of Practice Cyber Research

CAE-R Research Symposium

The goals of the symposium are to (1) further establish the CAE-R as a community of practice, (2) build a community that involves PhD students, and (3) showcase the excellent research done at CAE-R designated institutions.

The 2023 CAE-R Symposium was held in conjunction with the 2023 National Cybersecurity Education Colloquium at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, Illinois.

The 2024 CAE-R Symposium was held in conjunction with the 2024 National Cybersecurity Education Colloquium at the Marriott St. Louis Grand in St. Louis, Missouri.

2024 CAE-R Research Symposium

The 2024 CAE-R CoP Research Symposium was held at Marriott St. Louis Grand, on Thursday, October 10, 2024, as part of the National Cybersecurity Education Colloquium. The goals of the symposium are to (1) further establish the CAE-R as a community of practice, (2) build a community that involves PhD students, and (3) showcase the excellent research done at CAE-R designated institutions. The symposium will be attended by representatives from CAE-R schools as well as invited government employees.

Program Co-Chairs

Roberto Perdisci, University of Georgia
Gabriela Ciocarlie, University of Texas at San Antonio

Program Committee Members

Elisa Bertino, Purdue University
Guofei Gu, Texas A&M University
Alina Oprea, Northeastern University
Manuel Egele, Boston University

Mark Boutwell, National Security Agency

This Year's CAE-R Symposium Elements

PhD Candidates Presentations. Initiated in 2023, the CAE-R Symposium continued to provide a unique opportunity to both (a) showcase outstanding PhD students from CAE-R institutions and (b) identify and connect them with potential future faculty hires. A small set of senior PhD students was selected to give a short oral presentation of their research spanning the last few years. Think of this as an opportunity for them to give a preview of their dissertations to a large audience of faculty from CAE-R institutions and representatives from various government agencies. Students were selected based on diversity of research areas and representation of a variety of CAE-R institutions.

Research Highlights Posters. With the goal of fostering awareness and collaboration between CAE-R institutions and showcase the research to government representatives, the program included a Research Highlights Poster Session to feature papers that have been recently published. Most posters were presented by PhD students, but faculty poster presentations were also present. We encourage CAE-R PoCs to nominate up to three research papers in cybersecurity from their institution that have appeared (or will appear) in a 2023 or 2024 cybersecurity research conference.

Research Funding Agency Panel. The program included a panel of program managers from various funding agencies discussing funding opportunities.

Panel with Former Program Managers. The program included a panel where former Program Managers who are now part of academia shared insights on how to prepare a successful funding proposal.

Keynote Presentations. The program included 2 keynote presentations, one from academia and one from the government.

INSuRE+C Research Talks. The program included 4 talks from INSuRE+C funded projects.

8.00 – 8.30am CT

Networking Breakfast

8.30 – 8.40am CT

Welcome Remarks

Tony Coulson – CAE Community/Cal State San Bernardino

8.40 – 8.50am CT

Introductory Remarks on the CAE-R Program

Dee Dee Patterson – CAE PMO

8.50 – 9.00am CT

Program Committee Co-Chairs' Remarks

Roberto Perdisci – University of Georgia

Gabriela Ciocarlie – University of Texas at San Antonio

9.00 – 9.45am CT

Government Research Keynote

Brad Martin – National Security Agency

9.45 – 10.30am CT

Research Funding Opportunities with Federal Funding Agencies Panel

Diba Hadi – Principal Director, DOD CIO Cyber Academic Engagement Office

Michael Pozmantier – NSF

Karen Karavanic – NSF

10.30 –10.45am CT

Break

10.45 – 11.45am CT

PhD Candidates' Dissertation Overview Presentations

Robert Lois – PhD Candidate, University of Pittsburgh

Debopriya Dipta – PhD Candidate, Iowa State University

Sharmin Aktar – PhD Candidate, University of New Orleans

Lorenzo Neil – PhD Candidate, North Carolina State University

Clement Fung – PhD Candidate, Carnegie Mellon University

Raymond Muller – PhD Candidate, Purdue University

11.45 – 12.00pm CT

INSuRE+C Talk - Using AI to Improve the Development of Security Protocols

Martin Duclos – Mississippi State University

Ivan Fernandez – Mississippi State University

Kaneesha Moore – Mississippi State University

12.00 – 12.15pm CT

INSuRE+C Talk - Post-Quantum Cryptography on Constrained Networks

William Joslin – Rochester Institute of Technology

Geoff Twardokus – Rochester Institute of Technology

12.15 – 1.45pm CT

Lunch and Research Posters Presentations

1.45 – 2.30pm CT

Academia Research Keynote

Cristina Nita-Rotaru – Northeastern University

2.30 – 3.15pm CT

Insights for Successful Funding Proposals from ex-PMs with Faculty Experience Panel

Angelos Keromytis – Georgia Tech

Sukarno Mertoguno – Georgia Tech

Indrajit Ray – Colorado State University

3.15 – 3.30pm CT

Break

3.30 – 3.45pm CT

INSuRE+C Talk - CARdea: Enhancing C-V2X Anomaly Detection within the VEINS Framework

Teja Guruvelli – Clemson University

3.45 – 4.00pm CT

INSuRE+C Talk - A Digital Cybersecurity Advisor for the Power Industry Built on Open Source Large Language Foundation Models

Rodney Frazier – Rochester Institute of Technology

Zachary Lightcap – Rochester Institute of Technology

Grace Long Torales – Rochester Institute of Technology

4.00 – 4.15pm CT

Report on Special Topic Workshop Outcomes

Kun Sun – George Mason University

Rebecca McWhite – National Institute of Standards and Technology

William Enck – North Carolina State University

4.15 – 4.30pm CT

CAE-R Discussion and Reflections

Presenters are bolded.

*The poster covers work carried out in the context of the INSuRE program.
**The PhD student has also presented this work during the PhD panels.

**Dynamic Frequency-Based Fingerprinting Attacks against Modern Sandbox Environments

Debopriya Roy Dipta (Iowa State University), Thore Tiemann (University of Luebeck), Berk Gulmezoglu (Iowa State University), Eduard Marin (Telefonica Research), Thomas Eisenbarth (University of Luebeck).