Greetings From The Chair

W elcome to the Department of Comput-er Science. I am very proud of our de-

partment and its contributions to the overall mission of the University. Led by experienced educators, our undergraduate and graduate programs continue to grow and prepare our students for dynamic careers or higher edu-

cation in the fields of Computer Science and Information Tech-nology.

In fall 2018, we submitted proposals for three new programs: a

combined 5-year B.S./M.S. program in Computer Science; an online in M.S. Cybersecurity; and a new Artificial Intelligence graduate concentration. Over the years, we have received many inquiries from our students, as well as prospective students, about the combined program. We are hopeful we will be able to offer the program in the near future. Our new online Cybersecu-rity Certificate Program was launched this fall as well, and the current students will be completing the five-course program in spring 2019.

In addition to their teaching duties, our CS faculty engage in per-

forming research, as well as preparing proposals for various gov-ernmental and educational grants. Several faculty from Physics, Education, Chemistry, and Computer Science were recently awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), en-titled “Mentoring, Research, Leadership, and Community to In-crease Undergraduate Retention and Graduation in STEM.” This award is one of 85 new S-STEM awards that were made by the Di-vision of Undergraduate Education this year and we are grateful to Dr. George Grevera from Computer Science for his contribu-tion in securing this grant. Finally, Dr. Wei Chang, the faculty in charge of the graduate Cybersecurity concentration, is currently preparing an NSF grant in the areas of Cybersecurity Education and Privacy.

Allison Smith, a senior majoring in Computer Science and a mem-

ber of the Computer Science Club, is planning to form a series of workshops to promote computational thinking and computer science among local young women. (Continued on Page 2)

The Offline Observer Department Of Computer Science Fall 2018 Newsletter

Dr. Babak Forouraghi

CONTENTS

Fall / Winter 2018

__________________________

Greetings From The Chair

Department News Bytes

Student Screenshots

Graduate Research

Presentation Spotlight

Eye On It

3D Cameras

Fall 2018 Events

Guest Speaker Series

Special Agent Landers

Joseph Grayauskie

Balancing Academics

Grant News

Internship Report

Alumni Network

“When snow falls, nature

listens.”

~ Antoinette van Kleef

2

During the week of July 9th, Dr. Babak

Forouraghi, Dr. Wei Chang, and Mr.

Ameen Hai hosted a workshop for 15 under-

graduate students from China. Over the course

of one week, the students were introduced to

programming, artificial intelligence, web devel-

opment, and cybersecurity. This workshop was

created to foster future cooperation between

St. Joseph’s University and Shanghai Universi-

ty, in the hope of recruiting Computer Science

graduate students.

The new Graduate Online Cybersecurity

Certificate Program began in Fall with a suc-

cessful launch! The diverse group of students

hail from California, Louisiana, New Jersey,

and Pennsylvania. In September, the application

process began for a new cohort of students for

the spring-fall cycle.

IT major Jessica Atoo has returned to her

position as Office Assistant and we welcome

our newest Assistant, Cornelia Brower, a CS

major.

In June, Ameen Hai (MSCS/2018) attended

the IEEE Big Data Conference in Seattle, Washing-

ton, where he presented a paper co-published

with Dr. Babak Forouraghi.

SAP America visited the department twice

during the fall semester. In October, they pre-

sented the STAR Program (see page 6 for de-

tails) and in November, SAP interviewed sen-

iors who were interested in full-time employ-

ment upon graduation. SAP is also currently

recruiting the CS & IT students for summer

internship positions.

Junior Computer Science major Lubov

Grynyshin will spend the spring semester

studying in Copenhagen, Denmark. Hav en

sikker rejse!

Department News Bytes & Student Screenshots

Greetings From The Chair (Continued)

The workshops will teach coding, using Scratch and Alice. Allison hopes to expand this program to include other under-represented members of schools in the area. We are also planning to hold short summer workshops to promote cybersecurity education for local high school and middle school students.

Undergraduate students continue to participate in ACM’s International Collegiate Programming Con-test. In November, three of our students, John Coleman, Joseph Dougherty, and Evan Pomponio, coached by Dr. Wei Chang, participated in ACM’s 2018 contest at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre. We are very grateful to them for representing the University and department in this prestigious event.

Our partnership with SAP is growing stronger eve-ry year. In fall, representatives from SAP inter-viewed several sophomores for summer co-op posi-tions. In addition, they visited the campus to inter-view our juniors and seniors for summer intern-ships, as well as graduating seniors for full-time employment. The department has also established a relationship with Accolade, Inc., who will active-ly recruit CS and IT majors for internships and full-time employment. Many thanks to Justin Lynch (‘11) from SAP and Joseph Grayauskie (‘07) from Accolade, who have been instrumental in making these opportunities possible for our students.

If you are a former student reading this newsletter, we would love to hear from you. Thanks for visit-ing and Happy Holidays!

Welcome Adjuncts! Alan Nochenson has returned to

teach CSC-621 (Database Systems) and Ameen Abdul

Hai, recent MS/CS Graduate, has joined the depart-

ment to teach CSC-115 (Intro to Computer Science), CSC-

240/500 (Discrete Structures), and CSC-501/502 (CS I &

II).

3

Allison Smith, a senior majoring in Com-

puter Science, is planning to form a series of

workshops to promote computational think-

ing and Computer Science among local young

women. The workshops will teach coding,

using Scratch and Alice. Allison hopes to ex-

pand this program to include other under-

represented members of schools in the area.

The department has established a relationship

with Accolade, Inc., who will actively re-

cruit CS and IT majors for internships and

full-time employment. Accolade will visit

the department throughout the academic

year.

Congratulations to freshman and Computer

Science major Briana Bair, a McNulty

Scholar! The John P. McNulty Scholars Pro-

gram awards students four-year full and par-

tial tuition scholarships to pursue a degree in

one of the natural sciences, mathematics, or

computer science. Scholars also receive in-

tensive faculty and peer mentoring and par-

ticipate in ongoing leadership training and

professional development.

The Computer Science Department

wishes you a Merry Christmas and a

Happy & Healthy New Year!

Department News Bytes & Student Screenshots

Online courses are currently being developed

for the new Master’s in Cybersecurity.

There are on-going discussions regarding a mi-

nor in Computer Science and Digital Mu-

sic.

Dr. Jonathan Hodgson, Professor Emeritus,

attended the fall semester Guest Speaker Series.

His generous donations enable the department

to host these presentations throughout the aca-

demic year!

A proposal for the new Artificial Intelligence

concentration in the Computer Science Master’s

Program has been submitted.

The department is working on an initiative for

the Five-Year Computer Science BS/MS

Program.

Dr. Forouraghi is currently conducting research

in the area of Data Science with graduate stu-

dents Yifan Chen and Wenaho Ruan. This

research will subsequently lead to publications.

On November 10th, under the leadership of

Dr. Wei Chang, the following students partic-

ipated in the ACM Regional Programming Contest at

Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, PA: John

Coleman, Joseph Dougherty, and Evan

Pomponio. This is a prestigious, national pro-

gramming competition. The department is

grateful to the students and Dr. Chang for de-

voting their time to prepare and representing

the department and university.

On October 11th, Joseph McCleery, Lind-

sey DelCarlion, and Arianna Esposito,

from the Kinney Center, presented insightful

information regarding their current research and

possible internship opportunities . The depart-

ment looks forward to working with them in the

future!

4

HUIE DING

Design and Implementation of

Sniffer Based on WinPcap

Network sniffer plays a very important

role in both cybersecurity and hacking. It

uses the WinPcap development kit to cap-

ture the data flowing through the network

card, analyzing and filtering it, to quickly

find the network sniffer using the “C” lan-

guage. It can detect the network cards in

the computer, realize the selection of the

network cards, and open the promiscuous

mode. It can monitor data packets in the

network, analyze which protocol the data

packets are using, and the various fields of

each protocol header.

This project helped me strengthen the re-

lationship between various protocol

frames and deepen the understanding of

corresponding data frames used in differ-

ent layers of a computer network. It can

be seen that the sniffer is actually a double

-edged sword. Network sniffer technolo-

gy can pose a certain threat to cybersecu-

rity if it is used by hackers; however, the

sniffer can effectively detect the data

packet information transmitted on the

network and the analysis and utilization of

such information transmitted on the net-

work and the analysis and utilization of

such information contributes to the cy-

bersecurity maintenance. This presenta-

tion will detail the pros and cons of sniffer

and its functions.

Graduate Research

Fall Research Presentations

CYBERSECURITY STRATEGY:

Protecting Privacy

ASMA ALOTAIBI

k-Anonymity, l-Diversity, and t-Closeness:

Methods for Protecting Privacy

In today’s world, many organizations share sensi-

tive person-specific data for research related

purposes. The issue is how the data holders

share the records without violating privacy and

revealing identifying information about individu-

als. Researchers around the world have been

working to find solutions to anonymize the at-

tributes while preserving the useful infor-

mation.

In this research, k-anonymity, l-diversity, and t-

closeness are the techniques used for protecting

an individual’s privacy when sharing infor-

mation. A software which utilizes these meth-

ods was created to manage any dataset and pre-

pare it to be published, while eliminating the

chance of re-identifying the individuals.

During the presentation, an in-depth analysis of

the advantages/disadvantages of each method

will be given, as well as a demonstration of

when and how to use these methods in the soft-

ware.

5

The last three attacks are related to

the “C” programming language, they

are Format String attack, Buffer

Overflow attack, and Return-to-libc

attack. During the presentation, I

will introduce the mechanism of each

attack and describe how I implement-

ed it in my lab environment. I will

also briefly talk about some counter-

measures which can prevent the at-

tack. At the end of the presentation, I

will discuss what I learned from this

project and summarize similarities

and the difference between these at-

tacks. Finally, I will present a live

demo of some attacks.

Graduate Research

Fall Research Presentations

CYBERSECURITY STRATEGY:

Protecting Privacy

MENCHANG FENG

Experimental Studies on Cyber Attacks

Did you know that there are thousands of cyber attacks that happen on the internet each day? Because the internet is becoming universal, the computer has made our living easy and conven-ient. Using the computer has become an essen-tial skill in our lives. Many daily activities are involved in using the computer via the internet, such as online shopping and online banking; however, many of these activities have potential vulnerable exploitation without proper protec-tion. If we are not aware of some simple attack techniques, our online activities could be easily exploited, which may result in stolen personal information or cause financial loss. In this presentation, I will discuss eight different attacks in three categories: Denial of Service attack, Web Application attack, and Software attack. Throughout my presentation, you will get the basic concepts of how these attacks are imple-mented. Awareness of cyber attacks will make your internet activities much safer.

When we learn about an attack from the paper, the problem may already be fixed. It is difficult to find the vulnerable software for launching at-tacks. Thus, in my project, I had to create a vul-nerable lab environment. First, I built a private network and installed a local server in the net-work. I then conducted these attacks in my pri-vate lab environment. I studied two types of De-nial of Service attacks: SYN Flood attack and UDP Flood attack, and three Web Application attacks, including The-Man-In-The-Middle at-tack, Cross-site attack, and SQL injection attack.

(continued…)

“As the world is increasingly

interconnected, everyone shares

responsibility of securing cyber-

space.”

~ Newton Lee

6

FALL 2018 EVENTS

Thursday, August 30

Activities Fair

Thursday, September 6

Mass of the Holy Spirit

Tuesday, September 11

Computer Science Club Meeting

Thursday, September 20

Fall Career Fair

Thursday, September 27

Graduate Student Research Presentations

Friday, September 28

CS Club Movie Night - Snowden

Thursday, October 11

PRESENTATION: SJU Kinney Center

October 15-16

Fall Break

Thursday, October 18

GUEST SPEAKER: Joseph Grayauskie, Accolade

Tuesday, October 23

PRESENTATION: Justin Lynch, SAP America

Thursday, November 1

GUEST SPEAKER: Special Agent Ryan Landers, DHS

Tuesday, November 8

Senior Interviews / SAP America

November 21-26

Thanksgiving Break

Wednesday, December 12

Reading Day

December 12-18

Finals / Winter Break Begins

On October 23rd, Justin Lynch (’12)

and June Huynh, of SAP America, presented the

STAR Program to the undergraduate class.

STAR (Student Training And Rotation) is a multi-

year undergraduate rotation program, designed

provide a co-op to students with the ultimate

goal being full-time employment and integra-

tion with SAP.

STAR provides students hands-on expe-

rience and they receive a full-range of training,

including business, technical, and soft skills pri-

or to entering their assigned area. Graduates of

this program will likely find their ideal job in

the areas of software development, service &

support, product management, or consulting.

The Computer Science Department looks for-

ward to a continued, successful partnership

with SAP!

Presentation Spotlight & Fall 2018 Events PRESENTATION

SPOTLIGHT

EYE ON IT > 3D Camera

Red Digital Cinema Camera Company

has a smartphone with the capabilities of a holo-

graphic display screen. The phone provides 3D

viewing to project images, such as interactive

maps. The phone was available through pre-order

and began shipping in late October!

7

criminal proceeds; and other traditional cyber

crimes, including Cyber stalking, business email

compromises, and the digital theft of export con-

trolled data and intellectual property. SSA

Landers has been a criminal investigator with sev-

eral U.S. law enforcement agencies, including the

U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service

(NCIS), the U.S. Department of Justice, Office

of the Inspector General (DOJ/OIG), the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security, and Home-

land Security Investigations (DHS/HSI) for the

last 17 years. During SSA Lander’s career, he has

conducted a broad scope of criminal investiga-

tions, including but not limited to rape, death,

larceny, narcotics, explosives, firearms, public

corruption, money laundering, illegal exports,

Darknet smuggling, and weapons of mass de-

struction.

In April, 2013, during his tenure at HS I in New-

ark, New Jersey, SSA Landers initiated of of

HSI’s very first undercover cyber investigations

into the Darknet marketplaces, where users buy

and sell various illegal goods, such as firearms,

stolen credit cards, counterfeit currency, fraudu-

lent documents, explosives, and toxins. This

complex transnational investigation resulted in

several arrests in multiple countries for a range of

violations, including weapons smuggling, manu-

facturing of weapons of mass destruction, at-

tempted murder, and others. SSA Landers’ un-

dercover cyber experience has been sought after

by various components with HSI, as well as other

federal, state, and international law enforcement

agencies.

RYAN LANDERS

Supervisory Special Agent

Homeland Security Investigations

HSI 101 AND AN OVERVIEW OF THE MISUSE OF

VIRTUAL CURRENCIES BY CYBER CRIMINALS

Abstract

SSA Landers will provide a brief overview of the broad mission

and investigative responsibilities of Homeland Security Investiga-

tions (HSI). One of HSI’s primary investigative responsibilities is

to investigate those cyber criminals and other transnational crimi-

nal enterprises that exploit the internet for illicit purposes, in-

cluding the use of virtual currencies. SSA Landers will also pro-

vide an overview of the misuse of virtual currencies with a par-

ticular focus on the misues of Bitcoin by transnational criminal

organizations in various cyber crimes and cyber-enabled crimes.

Biography

Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) Ryan Landers supervises the

Cyber Crime Investigations Task Force (C2iTF) at the U.S. De-

partment of Homeland Security (DHS), Homeland Security In-

vestigations (HS I) in the Philadelphia office. SSA Landers previ-

ously served as the Cyber Crime Advisor to the Assistant Secre-

tary for Cyber Policy at DHS Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The C2iTF is currently comprised of several federal, state, and

local law enforcement agencies in a unified effort to combat the

exploitation of the internet for criminal purposes. The C2iTF’s

primary responsibilities include the interdiction of Darknet sup-

plied contraband, including fentanyl and other dangerous drugs

from China and other international sources of supply; the disrup-

tion and dismantlement of transnational drug trafficking organi-

zations, including cyber enabled clandestine laboratories respon-

sible for the manufacturing and distribution of drugs via the

Darknet and Clearnet; the investigation of the misuse of Bitcoin

and other cryptocurrencies to launder illicit drugs and other

Guest Speaker Series

“The cybercrime fighters are regarded as

superheroes. They’re highly intelligent and

have this alien-like, advanced-type

knowledge within themselves. It’s some-

thing that impressed me every day.”

~Chris Hemsworth

8

As a goa ltender for SJU Club Women’s

Ice Hockey, El izabeth DiFi l ippo

(senior, majoring in Computer Science)

acknowledged, “ the most di f f icult part o f

balancing sports and academics i s the fear that

I won’t have enough time to complete my as-

s ignments or fully s tudy for exams.” She a lso

sta ted that part ic ipat ing in th is club sport

has improved her t ime management sk i l l s

and forced her to be organized. “ I have to

develop l i s t s and schedules to al locate enough

time to complete my ass ignments, prepare

presentations, and study notes.” A highl ight

of be ing a goa ltender for St. Joe’s was

playing in the DVCHC All -Star game last

Apri l .

Br i t tany Hear twel l -M il ler , a Junior

majoring in Computer Science, i s Capta in

of the Women’s Soccer Team and plays

outs ide back. When asked how she ba lanc-

es a thlet ics and academics, she admitted,

“ I t i s especially di f f icult to balance such an

academica l ly r igorous major when I am in

-season in the fal l with a heavy travel schedule

and miss ing classes. ” To date, the h ighl ight

of play ing soccer for St. Joe’s was win-

ning the Atlant ic 10 regular season in her

freshman year (2016).

Computer Science Junior, Tim J ohns on ,

i s an outf ie lder for SJU’s basebal l team.

“ I ’d say the most di f f icult part o f balancing

sports and academics i s miss ing classes. I t puts

a lot more pressure on me to learn material on

my own, but I make i t work.” The highl ight

of play ing basebal l for St. Joe’s was beat-

ing Notre Dame last year on a walk -of f

home run: “The way our team came together

and celebrated at the end was an awesome feel-

ing.”

JOSEPH GRAYAUSKIE (‘07)

Software Developer

Accolade, Inc.

SERVICE ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE

(SOA)

Abstract

The internet and the app stores have changed software de-

velopment, distribution, and maintenance. Enterprises are

in a constant state of developing and deploying new software

while maintaining existing applications at the scale of the

internet. A software crisis would be inevitable, ecept for

techniques that have been created out of necessity. SOA is

one of them.

Biography

Joe graduated from St. Joseph’s University in 2007 with a

degree n Computer Science. Please see the Alumni Network

page for a detailed update!

Guest Speaker Series & Balancing Academics

“A technology architecture expresses fundamental

and foundational aspects of physical design for

some piece of technology.”

~Thomas Erl

BALANCING ACADEMICS

“THE MOST DIFFI CULT

PART … IS MISSING CL ASSES.”

We interviewed three student athletes

and asked how they juggle coursework

while playing a sport .

9

Highlights

The CSVI Summer Experience provided the

ideal environment to apply practical knowledge

of concepts related to cybersecurity. Working

with Homeland Security has proven to be a val-

uable opportunity to gain hands-on experience

and to further my career path toward becoming

a cybersecurity specialist.

GREGORY JONES (‘19)

Web Content Developer

Under Armour Global Headquarters

Baltimore, MD

I had the opportunity to return to Under Armour

Global Headquarters this summer working with

the IT service management team as web content

developer. I was tasked to design and develop

web application prototypes for an in-house em-

ployee self-service catalog utilizing Sketch,

Adobe XD, HTML, and CSS.

This project was my first experience in actually

going through an entire development cycle

which included conducting extensive UX re-

search for existing pain points, developing new

designs, and reviewing the back-end portal da-

tabase.

Grant News & Internship Report

GRANT NEWS Professors Angiolillo (Physics), Nixon

(Education), Graham (Chemistry), Olitsky

(Education), and Grevera (Computer Science)

were awarded a grant from the National Sci-

ence Foundation (NSF) titled: “Mentoring, Re-

search, Leadership, and Community to Increase

Undergraduate Retention and Graduation in

STEM.” The amount of the award is $982,041

and is part of the NSF Scholarships in Science,

Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-

STEM) program in fiscal year 2019. From the

NSF: “This award is one of about 85 new S-

STEM awards that will be made by the Division

of Undergraduate Education this year. These

awards are a result of the evaluation of 277 pro-

posals submitted in August 2018. Thus, your

project is in a select group nationwide.”

EVAN POMPONIO

Intern, Cyber Crimes Task Force

Homeland Security Investigations (HIS)

Philadelphia, PA

Over the summer, Evan gained practical experience, interning

for Homeland Security in Philadelphia. In September, he trav-

eled to Washington, D.C. for an award ceremony.

Assignment

Aiding Special Agents to combat criminal activity con-

ducted on or facilitated by the internet, with a focus on

darknet drug trafficking, cryptocurrency, and money

laundering.

Mission

I witnessed the dedication, resourcefulness, and determi-

nation that HSI Special Agents use to tackle an increasing-

ly complex cyber landscape that poses immense technical

challenges to America’s homeland security.

“The companies that do well are the companies that do math.” ~Kevin Plank

10

Mohammed Alanazi (M.S./2017) reports he

has invented a new digital device called Wearable Pill

Box Reminder, for which he received a Patent. He

also started a company called PillGo. Mohammed is

diligently working on this endeavor, hoping PillGo

will be successful.

Joe Grayauskie (B.S./2007)

was a member of the Men’s Soc-

cer Team while attending SJU.

He is a Software Engineer at Ac-

colade, Inc., responsible for de-

veloping and designing the soft-

ware that will help reinvent the

healthcare industry. His wife, Caitlyn McCrosson,

also graduated from SJU in 2011 and she received

her Master’s in 2012 in Special Education. She cur-

rently teaches at AIM Academy. Their son,

Cooper, is 18 months old.

Dr. Suzan Köknar-Tezel (B.S./1985-

M.S./1993) reports that she and her husband, Dr.

Ahmet Tezel, are enjoying retirement in Florida.

Suzan has a part-time position at a cruise terminal

and has mastered the Ukulele to the point where

she is now teaching others to play! Suzan and Ah-

met are also in the preliminary stages of planning a

cruise. We wish them all the best!

Ameen Abdul Hai (M.S./2018) is an Ad-

junct Instructor for the Computer Science De-

partment. In Fall, 2019, he will attend Temple

University, where he will pursue a PhD in Com-

puter Science, specializing in Machine Learning.

Luigi Nuñez (B.S./2107) recently visited the

department! After graduation, Luigi spent a

year as a Global Health Corps fellow in Uganda.

While undergoing trainings and retreats on lead-

ership in the public health sector, he worked at

Population Services International as an E-

Learning Officer. After the end of the fellow-

ship, he servied as a consultant for three months

in Uganda. Luigi is now working as the Associ-

ate Monitoring Advisor for malaria and WASH

in Weashingon, D.C.

_______________________________________________

We enjoy hearing from you! Please feel fee to

share your personal and career news at anytime.

Email updates to csci@sju.edu or fill out the

online alumni form. We will celebrate your

achievements in the Offline Observer.

Department of Computer Science 5600 City Avenue Barbelin/Lonergan Hall—Room 211 Philadelphia, PA 19131 610.660.1567 cs.sju.edu csci@sju.edu

The Offline Observer Editor

Terese Fasy (tfasy@sju.edu)

Contributors Dr. Babak Forouraghi

Jessica Atoo (‘21) Cornelia Brower (‘21)

ALUMNI NETWORK