CIRI's 2021 DHS Summer Research Team Research Workshop
As part of the DHS Summer Research Team (SRT) Program for Minority Serving Institutions, CIRI hosted four groups of faculty and students from three different universities that collaborated with CIRI partners, faculty and staff to conduct research projects throughout the summer. Each reach team presented their research project as part of the SRT Workshop held virtually on August 3, 2021.
Blockchain: Harnessing Linked Distributed Ledger
Research Team: PI Dr. Dan Tamir, Students Maria Tomasso and Kian O’Ryan, Texas State University
CIRI advisors: CDR Blair Sweigart and Dr. Joe DiRenzo, U.S. Coast Guard R&D Center
The team has been researching how blockchain can be used by the U.S. Coast Guard to improve their operations. Through a comparative study, the group hopes to deliver a proof-of-concept that will analyze the U.S. Coast Guard’s operations systems to see if these systems could be better managed by blockchain and what would be the cost benefits of moving operations to such a system.
Evaluating Ontologies for Cybersecurity Workforce Development Applications
Research Team: PI Dr. Dipak Pravin, Students Ana Robinson and Jarod Costello, University of North Texas
CIRI advisor: Jose Medina Cruz, CIRI, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
This team hopes to improve upon the CyberTalent Bridge (CTB) a recommender tool developed by CIRI to help cybersecurity managers in assign tasks to their workforce. Specific project goals include reviewing the NICE Framework in how it compares to the CTB platform, map the tasks required of CTB and test the Framework, research machine learning to define a framework for mapping ontologies between relevant standards with a view that such a framework will form the basis for recommendations engine for CTB in the future.
Enhancing Cybersecurity KSATs (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Tasks) for Cyber Education and Workforce Development
Research Team: PI Dr. Dan J. Kim, Students Max Douglas and Jordan Bernot, University of North Texas
CIRI advisor: Casey O’Brien, Information Trust Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
As cyber-attacks become increasingly common and complex, cybersecurity workers need to have the skills and knowledge to deal with an ever-changing landscape. The research team plans to compare cybersecurity workforce frameworks including the new NICE Workforce Framework and map the components, functions, tasks, and roles of cybersecurity workers in order to set the industry up for future success. They will identify relationships among cybersecurity job associative components using the NICE Framework to collect potentially new job components in priority technology areas and will use this knowledge to develop an assessment and training module for these jobs.
Integration of Vehicle-Based Sensing and Vehicle Dynamic Model for Evaluating Highway Infrastructure Resilience
Research Team: PI Dr. Chun-Hsing Ho, Students Manuel Lopez, Jr. and Jimmie Devany, Northern Arizona University
CIRI advisors: Dr. Imad Al-Qadi and Xiuyu Liu, Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
This research addresses one of current issues related to pavement conditions in highway infrastructure. The work is to develop an integrated methodology using a theoretical solution and a vehicle-based sensing system that can be utilized to predict roadway roughness and evaluate the resilience of highway infrastructure systems. GIS mapping and a full car model are used to select vibration data for analysis. Based on computing results, there is a strong correlation between the field vibration data and international roughness index (IRI) values. In addition, the dynamic modeling simulation and measurement are in a good agreement. The project concludes the integration of pavement sensing and dynamic modeling can be a promising method to determine roadway conditions.