BHAVANI THURAISINGHAM

“I really want to be challenged.”

whenever Thuraisingham, always on the look-out for new challenges, wanted to add to herunderstanding and expertise, she found a wayat MITRE to do just that.

“It’s really been a wonderful experience,”Thuraisingham said. “What I really like is thevariety that we are given at MITRE. There areso many opportunities, and you can alwaysmove on to other things. So I’ve been contin-uously moving and doing various things with-in MITRE.”

Doing things within MITRE has, in turn,led to recognition outside it. When Thurais-ingham recently was honored by the Instituteof Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)with a 2003 Fellow Award, it was for “contri-butions to secure systems, including databasesystems, distributed systems, and the Web.”It was this work that dominated Thuraising-ham’s early work at MITRE for several spon-sors and led to three patents for MITRE, aswell as the IEEE’s Technical AchievementAward in 1997. It also spawned over 400 tech-nical papers, including over 50 journal papers,five books—with a sixth slated for publicationlater this year—and appearances at the WhiteHouse and the United Nations as an expert onthe emerging technique of data mining as a

potential tool for countering terrorism.But Thuraisingham's books and pa-

pers don’t gather dust on bookshelves,and therein lies one of the key ingredi-ents of her success.

Ideas—and actionThe doctorate in Theoretical Computer Science Thuraisinghamholds, as well as her subsequent ca-reer, is testament to her formidableintellect. But along with the acade-mician’s curiosity comes an execu-tive’s eye for results, and a knack forknowing and bringing together the

people who can helpturn theory into reality.“When she’s in a meeting,

she will absolutely not go unnoticed,” said Zemakova. “You will immediately know thatyou’re in the presence of somebody who is adoer, who is extremely sharp technically andalso is a born leader. She’s very assertive, andshe has a very good political instinct—who totalk to, and how to get things done.”

After joining MITRE, Thuraisingham im-mediately immersed herself in the issue of en-hancing the security of data collected andstored at different sites—which, as she pointsout, was “really a novelty at the time.” Work-ing with Harvey Rubinovitz, senior INFOSECengineer, Thuraisingham researched and de-signed systems that connected data systemsin Bedford, McLean, and Fort Monmouth. Thesystem they built had multiple layers for userswho, depending on their security status, couldget different kinds of information and com-municate with each other.

One key product of their research was theinference controller, which gathers pieces ofunclassified information and, equipped withuser profiles, determines whether a user ask-ing for the information should access it. Thuraisingham and Rubinovitz also workedon prototypes for securing object systems, inwhich databases are arranged as a collectionof objects rather than tables.

When Thuraisingham wanted to branchout into real-time database systems and datamining, she found the opportunity at MITRE.Working with John Maurer, section leader,CAFC2S, and others, Thuraisingham experi-mented with real-time systems technology forthe AWACS program. The team was among thefirst to propose a Real-Time Object RequestBroker that is now available commercially, andstarted the real-time special interest group atthe Object Management Group, a consortiumof about 700 companies, which develops thestandards for Object Request Brokers.

At about the same time, Thuraisinghamjoined the information technology division led by Henry Bayard. While working for sixyears under the Massive Digital Data Systems

ACHIEVEMENT

If you want to have a MITRE career like Bhavani Thuraisingham has had, there is oneoverriding principle to keep in mind: Sleep is overrated.

HE NEVER SLEEPS,” said Maria Zemako-va, Thuraisingham’s former MITRE col-league and currently manager of the

Information and Data Management Programat the National Science Foundation. “Sheworks all the time. I’ve never seen anyonewho works as hard as Bhavani.”

The part about not sleeping is, of course,an exaggeration. But simply reading aboutThuraisingham’s life and career can be ex-hausting. Thuraisingham, who recently cele-brated her 14th anniversary with MITRE,juggles her work in Washington with the NSF(to whom she is currently on loan) and fam-ily time with her husband in Boston and herson in London. Her intellectual journey hasbeen just as rigorous, encompassing researchand work in database security, real-time data-base systems, and data mining, as well as thepossibility of combining seemingly disparateelements of database management. And

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Program, she worked with data mining,among other technologies. Beginning in 1995,Thuraisingham took the leadership of a newdepartment in data management and helpedstart a research program on data mining,drawing on past contacts to put researchers,like Chris Clifton, in touch with the appropri-ate sponsors.

“She put me together with sponsors so that this work would happen,’ said Clifton,now at Purdue University. “Without her in-volvement—even when she wasn’t workingdirectly on this problem—it would never havehappened.”

Thuraisingham’s work in data mining tookon a new dimension when she started a two-year stretch at NSF in October 2001. Zemako-va asked Thuraisingham to come to the NSFbecause “I knew Bhavani would be veryproactive in managing the program,” and Thu-raisingham wanted to add further to her ex-perience and her network.

“I felt that coming to Washington for a cou-ple of years and learning the sponsor envi-ronment would help me a lot,” Thuraisinghamsaid. “I thought NSF would be something Iwould enjoy and would be a good environ-ment for me to learn the research, contracts,and grants process. But I never expected whatwould really happen at NSF.”

What would really happen was the height-ened post-9/11 emphasis on counterterrorismresearch, including the potential use of datamining. Thuraisingham started a new programin Data and Applications Security, winning ap-proval for the program in six months (“Thatreally is totally unheard of—it would normal-ly take over a year to do what Bhavani ac-complished in six months,” said Zemakova).She also became involved in a working groupon counterterrorism and cyber-security andhas represented the NSF at meetings at theWhite House and the UN on data mining forcounterterrorism as well as on bioterrorism.

It has all built up to Thuraisingham’s latest book, which will set forth some of herideas in an evolving field.

Balancing security and privacyThe book, scheduled for publication in April,proposes a concept called a federated data-base, or a group of organizations that cancome together, share data, and mine it. Suchan association, Thuraisingham says, couldmake it easier for organizations to detect cir-

cumstances—by themselves notsuspicious—that may, when thepieces are put together, indicatea terrorist threat.

“Example: Somebody in Min-neapolis wants to learn to fly anairplane, and he does not careabout takeoff or landing,” Thu-raisingham said. “The same forpeople in Florida: They don’t careabout takeoff or landing. So far,they have not been able to makethose connections, because thesystems were not there to connectthe dots, and also we have to flagthat as an unusual situation. So that meanswe really need to have all of the data, and weneed organizations to share data, and that isnot easy.”

Data mining for counterterrorism is notwithout its critics. Many are concerned thatthe privacy of individuals may be violated inthe process, and Congress is considering a billthat would place a moratorium on data min-ing pending a review of the practice. But Thuraisingham is pursuing research on pri-vacy-sensitive data mining, a new area dedi-cated to protecting privacy while sharing data,and she says progress in this area can be madeonly if the research is allowed to go forward.

“If we don’t push the data mining tech-nology for national security, it’s not even goingto help the privacy people because at least wecan continue to do some research on privacy,”Thuraisingham said. “But by stopping all this,we would just go several steps backward. …I would be very interested in seeing the reac-tion to my book. So we’ll see.”

Clifton believes the research on privacy-sensitive data mining is, in part, a tribute toThuraisingham’s ability to look ahead.

“I would say that Bhavani, in a sense, sawsome of the handwriting on the wall well be-fore Congress even knew it was there andworked to encourage the research so that thework would be started when the need arose,”he said. “There have been a lot of areas whereshe’s been ahead of the game.”

The next challengesWhen Thuraisingham looks back on her ac-complishments, she is quick to credit MITRE’senvironment for helping make them possible.

“While I worked hard to develop myself atevery juncture, MITRE never stifled my en-

thusiasm or innovation and was always thereencouraging me and allowing me to pursuemy interests,” Thuraisingham said. “I am cer-tain that this would not have been possible ina for-profit corporation, as the bottom linewith for-profit corporations is how muchmoney you can generate and how much prof-it you can make.”

When MITRE President and CEO MartyFaga looks at Thuraisingham’s career, he seesthe possibilities of MITRE in microcosm—oftalent nurtured, of challenges issued and met,all in a way that benefits herself, the compa-ny, and the country.

“Our whole culture at MITRE is geared to-ward making people like Bhavani feel they cannot only come here, but can find the kind ofchallenges and opportunities for growth andservice that will make them want to stayhere,” Faga said. “Bhavani wants to do morethan come up with ideas. She wants to putthem into practice, and the fact that she sawMITRE as the ideal place to do that reallyspeaks volumes. We’re proud of her contri-butions, and proud of the role we have playedin enabling her to display her talents and buildupon them for the nation’s benefit.”

Thuraisingham says she takes her careerone day at a time and isn’t sure what she will try to do when her NSF tenure ends in September. She is considering several ideas,including work in sensor information man-agement, secure semantic web, and—yes—another book, this one summarizing her experience in database security. “I’ll go backto MITRE—and find new challenges and opportunities.”

If history is any guide, she won’t have tolook hard.

—Russell Woolard

MITRE MATTERS—FEBRUARY/MARCH 2003

Bhavani Thuraisingham recently presented copies of her books to MITRE President and Chief Executive Officer Marty Faga.