Seminars & Workshops

Contact

Dr. Rose Shumba
301-860-4446
rshumba@bowiestate.edu

Fall 2024

The AI Functionality in Cybersecurity

December 6th, 2024 : 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Dr. Kato Mivule is researcher and educator with experience in computer science, cybersecurity, data privacy research, and applied machine learning for knowledge and insight discovery. Dr. Mivule begun his studies in information systems at the Metropolitan Community Colleges, Kansas City, Missouri where he graduated with an Associate’s Degree. He then continued with studies at the University of Missouri, Kansas City where he graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer science. Dr. Mivule then proceeded with graduate studies at Bowie State University, Maryland where he successfully defended his dissertation and graduated with a Doctor of Science Degree. He completed both his Post-Graduate Research at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and his Post-Doctoral Research at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in Dayton Ohio. Dr. Mivule has published various academic articles and journals on the subject of data privacy and presented to a number of scientific conferences. As an assistant Professor, Dr. Mivule taught both undergraduate and graduate computer science classes at Norfolk State University, Virginia. Currently Dr. Mivule works as a Data Science Lead at the US. Department of Defense, and teaches as an adjunct Professor at Bowie State University. Dr. Mivule enjoys spending time with family, reading philosophy, history, running, and mountaineering. On August 11, 2023, Dr. Mivule successfully summited Mountain Kilimanjaro (19,341 feet).

In the changing and complex cybersecurity landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a crucial tool for detecting and defending against threats and vulnerabilities. This presentation discusses the integration of AI functionality within the context of cybersecurity threat modeling, detection, and analysis frameworks such as, the MITRE ATT&CK and ATLAS frameworks, to map adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) against AI systems. By employing AI in the context of threat modeling frameworks, advancements in the detection, identification, and mitigation of cyberthreats TTPs can be achieved. Furthermore, this would enhance the utilization of cyber threat intelligence for the detection and responses to complex cyber attack patterns. This presentation reviews AI functionality such as, NLP, machine learning, and neural networks for automating threat intelligence analysis, anomaly detection, incident response; and explores taxonomies, ontologies, and frameworks such as, the MITRE ATLAS approach to cyber threat modeling. The presentation also addresses challenges and limitations associated with employing AI techniques as tools for detection and mitigation of cybersecurity threats and attacks.

Meeting ID: 864 4792 8458 Passcode: 390860

Artificial-Intelligence for Intelligent Augmentation (AiiA) Workshop: Engineering the AI Juxtopia® X Instructor for autonomous e-training.

November 22nd, 2024 : 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Dr. Jayfus T. Doswell is president/CEO of Juxtopia, a biomedical & IT company. Doswell holds a B.A. degree in cognitive neuropsychology & computer science from Oberlin College; M.S. degree from Howard University; and a Ph.D. degree in Information Technology from George Mason University with a 399 page dissertation, defended in 2005, that focused on advancing artificial intelligence (AI) for e-training/e-evaluating humans in mixed-reality (MR). He has 20+ years of experience in commercial level hardware/software MR product development; federal grant execution; and IRB research. Dr. Doswell conducts commercial R&D in AI, wearable, biomedical, telehealth, and MR since 2002. Prior to Juxtopia, Doswell was employed as the youngest senior software engineer at Lockheed Martin. Dr. Doswell led Juxtopia to engineer the NSF, NASA, DOD, and NIH funded Context-Aware Mobile Mixed Reality Assistive Device (CAMMRAD) platform for building MR devices focused on clinical care and first responder e-training.

Abstract: The United States (U.S.) has a history demonstrating that human educators are cognitively ill-equipped to consistently deliver culturally competent, empathetic, and ethical (CCEE) pedagogy/andragogy to a class of human learners across various ethnicities, nationalities, and social-economic conditions. Moreover, there is a significant shortage of teachers, well trained with skills required to effectively teach workforce ready proficiency across a range of industries. In today's fast-paced world, the significance of empirically researched instruction methods (i.e., pedagogy/andragogy) competence is paramount. Human teachers are challenged with pedagogical competence ranging from curriculum and material mastery and creative materials development to designing lesson plans. In modern, rapidly changing socio-economic conditions, when multimodal information is integrated and operational workforce knowledge is rapidly supplanted by new information, the problem of training K-12 to college/university professors to masterfully conduct multi-functional activities associated with higher education and work in a perpetual mode of innovative development is acute. Now, there is a demand for a special kind of teacher who is capable of training and evaluating student workforce preparation skills, creativity, intrinsic learning motivation, and demonstrating pedagogy/andragogy competence as a future specialist with the goal to quantifiably train the intellectual and creative elite of society.

To address the aforementioned pedagogical/andragogical deficiency, Dr. Doswell led Juxtopia to build upon Juxtopia’s 15+ years of AI education research to test the hypothesis, an artificial intelligent (AI) instructor, distributed through Juxtopia® Mixed-Reality eyewear, can autonomously e-train human conceptual and psychomotor workforce skills with tailored CEEE pedagogy/andragogy measurably better than human instructors.

During the presentation, Dr. Doswell will discuss several case studies that test the hypothesis where an AI teacher autonomously taught human learners in a range of industries from law enforcement and military medical personnel to emergency medical personnel, entrepreneurs, and astronauts with institutional review board approved research funded by DOD, NASA, NIH, and NSF.

Meeting ID: 881 6956 9485 Passcode: 068513

FORGING PATHS: Aligning Research to Industry and Entrepreneurship in STEM

November 8th, 2024 : 10:00 AM

Join us for a dynamic 2.5-hour workshop designed for Bowie State University graduate students, focusing on the transition from academic research to industry and entrepreneurial success in STEM, particularly in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Speakers:

Dr. Howard Adams, Ph.D. (1 hour): A leading expert in mentorship, Dr. Adams will discuss strategies for finding and leveraging mentors to advance STEM careers
Dr. Marcus A. Huggans, Ph.D. (15 minutes): Executive Director at the National GEM Consortium, Dr. Huggans will present "PURSUING YOUR HIGHER DESTINY: Seven Steps to Fulfilling Your Purpose with P.A.S.S.I.O.N." The first 20 students will receive a complimentary copy of his book.
Dr. Loretta H. Cheeks, Ph.D. (1 hour 15 minutes): CEO of DS Innovation, Dr. Cheeks will share insights on building careers from industry to research and entrepreneurship, with a focus on AI solutions and improving educational outcomes for marginalized communities

Participants will engage in interactive discussions and exercises to identify strengths, develop strategies, and balance academic pursuits with business development. This workshop emphasizes mentorship as a key factor in personal and professional growth, helping students forge successful paths in academia, industry, and entrepreneurship.

Biosketches

Loretta H. Cheeks, Ph.D.
Dr. Loretta Cheeks is the founder and CEO of DS Innovation, with over 20 years of experience in technology across various industries. She specializes in AI and is dedicated to improving educational outcomes for marginalized communities through her initiative, Strong TIES.

Howard G. Adams, Ph.D.
Dr. Howard Adams, founder and president of H.G. Adams & Associates, is an expert in mentoring and career planning. With extensive experience in promoting diversity in STEM, he has authored numerous guides and has spoken at over 650 institutions.

Marcus A. Huggans, Ph.D.
Dr. Marcus Huggans serves as Executive Director of Client Relations at the National GEM Consortium. With over 20 years in the STEM field, he focuses on increasing the recruitment of underrepresented minorities and is dedicated to empowering individuals through education and investment strategies.

This meeting will be held on Zoom, the meeting details are below.

Meeting ID: 861 8718 1181 Passcode: 087898

Join Meeting

Privacy-preserving log anomaly detection

September 13th, 2024 : 10:00 AM

In this talk, Dr. Trivedi will introduce you to enterprise security, where we analyze logs collected from various endpoints in a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) server. First, I he talk about hi published work on supervised log anomaly detection on encrypted data and our probabilistic approach to polynomial approximation. Then, he will talk about his ongoing work on a hybrid framework for privacy-preserving collaborative machine learning (PCML) that infuses Federated Learning (FL) and Split Learning (SL). Finally, he will conclude with his future work on improving fairness in a PCML setting.

Devharsh Trivedi is a recent Ph.D. graduate in Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology, NJ. He holds a bachelor's and a master's in Computer Science. His research areas of interest are Applied Cryptography and Privacy-preserving Machine Learning. He was a senior software engineer at Oracle and Philips. He has volunteered for tech conferences and non-profits such as ISACA and Positive Planet. Please feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn and ResearchGate.

This meeting will be held on Microsoft Teams, the meeting details are below.

Meeting ID: 224 494 178 691 Passcode: 5tZ9SU

Spring 2024

Facinating Realm of Quantum Computing

April 12th, 2024 : 1:30 - 5:15 PM

Dr. Weiwen Jiang joined Mason in 2021. Prior to this, he was a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Notre Dame. He received his PhD from Chongqing University in 2019. From 2017 to 2019, he conducted research at the University of Pittsburgh and was co-advised by the professor there for his PhD thesis. He works on hardware and software co-design; in particular, the co-design of neural networks and different hardware accelerators, including mobile devices, FPGA, and ASIC. His recent work brings the co-design philosophy to quantum computing and demonstrates that quantum advantage can be achieved for the neural network for the first time.

Jiang’s research works have been published in prestigious journals and conferences, including Nature Electronics, Nature Communications, IEEE/ACM Transactions, DAC, ICCAD, and ESWEEK. He is the recipient of the Best Paper Award in ICCD’17 and Best Paper Nominations in DAC'19, CODES+ISSS'19, ASP-DAC'16, and ASP-DAC'20. In addition, he works closely not only with academic societies (such as Notre Dame, UPITT, Northeastern, Rice, and UConn) but also with industries (such as IBM, Xilinx, Facebook, and Edgecortix).

This workshop will be held in person. In the CS building conference room [room #210].

See Yourself in Federal Cyber: Unlocking the Federal Hiring Process to Get you Hired!

Febuaray 23rd, 2024 : 10am

Ms. Nikkia Henderson is a 14 year tenured federal government employee. I In her current role she is a Senior Advisor at the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). She serves a Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management (C-SCRM) Strategy and Governance Program lead, within CISA’s Cybersecurity Division. Previously, Ms. Henderson was a National Account Manager and Supply Chain Risk Manager Champion at the General Services Administration where she advised Federal, State, Local, Tribal and Territorial stakeholders increased the awareness of cybersecurity within procurement and acquisitions.

Nikkia is a charismatic, energetic, public speaker and DEIA advocate. She is always volunteering to help and excels in art of connecting humans to humans. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration/Finance from Strayer University, and a Master’s Degree in Cyber Policy from University of Maryland Global College. Nikkia Henderson is also the President of the Women in Cybersecurity Mid Atlantic Affiliate, where she serves as a "cybHERprenuer" who is passionate about helping cybersecurity professionals define their vision, mission, and federal career path.

She welcomes connections via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkiahenderson/

Zoom details: Meeting ID: 873 5660 1175 Passcode: 354065

Exploring Vulnerabilities and Consequences of Apple's Find My Protocol

Febuaray 23rd, 2024 : 2pm - 4pm

In 2020, Apple rolled out its Find My system, a decentralized protocol that allows devices without an internet connection to crowdsource their location and report it back to their owner. Initially piloted on iPhones, it now allows any Apple device (Airtags, iPads, Macbooks, Airpods, etc.) to be located quickly and efficiently using only Bluetooth messaging. Building on previous technology from competitors like Tile, the Find My protocol has a lost device broadcast a Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) advertisement message that can be picked up by nearby internet-connected Apple devices and relayed back to the owner via Apple's servers, all without any interaction from these devices' owners. Unlike Tile, Apple's Find My protocol includes novel end-to-end encryption of location data which guarantees that Apple themselves does not know where the lost devices are or who they belong to. By reverse engineering this protocol, we have identified several vulnerabilities in the Find My protocol. Primarily, we are able to create our own devices that can participate in the Find My network and be freely tracked using the hundreds of millions of internet-connected Apple devices around the world. Unlike Apple's Airtags, which only report their most recent location in the app, with our custom devices we can retrieve each individual location report giving us access to fine-grained location data over days or weeks. Our devices are also immune to Apple's "product safety alerts," a feature that was added to iOS to warn users when an Airtag is being used to surreptitiously track them. This leads to a low-cost, extremely effective stealth tracking device around the size of a quarter, that provides detailed location data in nearly any environment for up to a year on a single battery. In addition, we have been able to use our devices to explore the capabilities and weaknesses of the Find My network. We have identified several additional flaws in the implementation of the Find My software that can allow an attacker to clone a device, block a device from reporting its location, or even inject false location data to mislead the owner.

Team meeting details: Meeting ID: 242 992 346 26 Passcode: : kr5hEy

Security Overview & Background Investigations

Febuaray 23rd, 2024 : 3pm

NSA’s Security Office will go over the NSA security process/timeline and the Top Secrete Security Clearance process.

Team meeting details: Meeting ID: 242 992 346 26 Passcode: : kr5hEy

Academic Accountability: Holding Yourself and Academia Accountable

Febuaray 16th, 2024 : 12pm - 2pm

Donnetta “Dee-Dee” Padmore is a current Doctoral Student at Bowie State University. She also obtained her Bachelor of Science degree with a concentration in Bioinformatics at BSU. Before her current career, she was a Hospital Corpsman 2^nd Class in the United States Navy, with nine years of service. She now has over 7 years in the access control industry, working with JSON, SQL, and RESTful APIs. She works for the private organization Datawatch Systems, Inc. as a Senior Business Development Analysis, where she helps launch internal organizational mobile apps, partners with 3^rd party app vendors to help launch their access control/tenant experience apps, as well as review, test, and document APIs. Currently she is working on an Apple Wallet integration in conjunction with Mindgrub, HID, and Apple, which will allow for a mobile credential to be pushed to the Wallet, and used on HID readers for access control.

Zoom details: Meeting ID: 819 6085 0151 Passcode: 692845

Building Your Business with the Business Model Canvas

Febuaray 9th, 2024 : 10am - 12pm

Tyrome ‘Ty’ Smith, has over 25 years of consulting and leading executives and their teams by helping them understand human and organizational dynamics. Currently, he is the Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Common Mission Project, whose mission is to create an international network of entrepreneurs driven to solve the critical challenges of our time. Before that, he was a senior consultant to the Department of Defense (DoD). As a trusted advisor and coach to senior leaders and teams, he has conducted many senior-level engagements with the expressed intention of eliciting a strategic focus on revolutionizing how value is both conceptualized and executed. As part of his work, He developed an innovative education program for the DoD; including coaching and mentoring product development teams engaged in an internal incubator. In addition, has been providing support to several organizations either as faculty or entrepreneur-in-residence. They include the University of Maryland Innovation Extension Program., StreetCode Academy, and Digital Undivided - the last two are dedicated to supporting founders of Color. He is a much sought-after workshop presenter for topics ranging from unconscious bias to business model innovation.

Zoom details: Meeting ID: 860 6945 8581 Passcode: 901305

Fall 2023

Transformative Innovations in IBM HPC Design

Friday, December 15th, 2023 : 10am - 12pm

Dr. Appolo Tankeh will talk about IBM HPC(High Performance Computing), and reflect on some of the innovations in the design and development. The IBM HPC team came out with a radically new approach to problems of optimizing the performance of HPC systems. These new features were implemented in the Software[Linux] and hardware layers that improve the system performance of IBM HPC drastically.

These methods were used in many generation of Super Computers, including ASCI Purple and Blue_Gene. He will give an overview of the Architecture, and the impact it has on: MPI performance, IBM Competitiveness in the server business, Open source movement, Cloud computing, AI, etc.

Information on Dr. Appolo Tankeh:

Dr. Appolo Tankeh is a Professor in the Computer Science department at the Bowie State University. He has previous experience as a university lecturer and adjunct professor at universities in London, State of New York and Martyland. He held a number of US patents in HPC (High Performance Computing). His current research areas are blockchain, Web3 programming, Docker/Container based systems, Cloud computing, High Performance Computing, message passing, File systems, operating systems and networks. This also include topics in concurrency, databases, computer/processor architecture, distributed systems, programming languages, compilers, Browsers, algorithms, AI, Dynamical systems, Markov Chains, Quantum Computing, Statistics and Probability theory.

This workshop will be held via zoom.

Zoom Details:

Meeting ID: 845 7374 7237

Passcode: 321112

Machine Learning in business: building a recommendation engine

Friday, November 10th, 2023 : 10am - 12pm

Dr. Kashif is a physicist by training. He did his undergraduate studies in Yale University, his PhD in Harvard University, and was subsequently a postdoctoral fellow at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN). As a member of the ATLAS collaboration in CERN, he contributed to the search and discovery of the Higgs boson, which resulted in the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2013. Dr. Kashif currently heads the Machine Learning (ML) function in Cvent, innovating applications of ML and AI in the events space.