Master of Science in Information Technology
Discussing Trends in Information Technology
IT Distinguished Colloquium Series provide an opportunity for faculty members of the department to share their research
and ideas with each other. This can lead to collaboration and new partnerships, as
well as sparking new research directions. Colloquia provide a forum for discussing
current topics and trends in the field. This can help keep everyone up-to-date on
the latest developments, and ensure that the department remains at the forefront of
the field. Colloquia can help develop critical thinking and presentation skills. By
presenting their research to their peers, members of the department can receive valuable
feedback and learn to better articulate their ideas.
Graduate students are highly encouraged to attend the IT Distinguished Colloquium Series. GRAs who is currently working with the professors are highly recommended to attend the colloquium.
Committee Chair: Dr. Liang Zhao
Committee members: Dr. Lihn Le, Dr. Ying Xie, Dr. Nazmus Sakib, Dr. Yixin Xie
Please find the past and future colloquia below.
IT DISTINGUISHED COLLOQUIUM SERIES, March 20, 2025, 1-2 P.M.(Dr. Xiali "Sharon" Hei, University of Louisiana at Lafayette)
Title: Investigate and Mitigate the Attacks Caused by Out-of-Band Signals
When: Thursday, March 20, 2025, 1-2 p.m.
Where: J-101
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Abstract
Sensing and actuation systems are entrusted with increasing intelligence to perceive the environment and react to it. Their reliability often relies on the trustworthiness of sensors. As process automation and robotics keep evolving, sensing methods such as pressure/temperature/motion sensing are extensively used in conventional systems and rapidly emerging applications. This talk aims to investigate the threats incurred by the out-of-band signals and discuss the low-cost defense methods against physical injection attacks on sensors. Dr. Hei will present the results from her IEEE SP’24 (Distinguished Paper Award), USENIX Security, ACM CCS, AsiaCCS, SecTL, and SmartSP papers. At the end of the short talk, she will share her tips to convince the NSF panelists, PC members, and students. -
Bio
Xiali (Sharon) Hei is an Alfred and Helen M. Lamson Endowed associate professor in the School of Computing and Informatics at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette since August 2023. She is also a visiting associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2017, she was an assistant professor at Delaware State University from 2015-2017 and an assistant professor at Frostburg State University from 2014-2015. She was awarded Alfred and Helen M. Lamson Endowed Professorship, IEEE SP’24 Distinguished Paper Award, an Outstanding Achievement Award in Externally Funded Research, an NSF Track 4 Faculty Fellowship, an NSF SaTC Small award, an NSF MRI award, a Meta research award, an NSF ERSCoR RII Track 1 award, an NSF CRII award, an LA BoRSF CEMC Talent Initiative Fund, an LA BoRSF Seed fund, and a Delaware DEDO grant, EAI SmartSP 2023 Best paper award, ACM 2014 MobiHoc Best Poster Runner-up Award, Dissertation Completion Fellowship, The Bronze Award Best Graduate Project in Future of Computing Competition, IEEE INFOCOM, and IEEE GLOBECOM student travel grant, etc. Also, she earned an M.S. in Software Engineering from Tsinghua University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University. Her papers were published at IEEE Symp. on Security and Privacy, USENIX Security Symp., ACM CCS, IEEE INFOCOM, IEEE Euro S&P, RAID, ASIACCS, etc. She is a TPC member of the USENIX Security Symp. , IEEE EuroS&P, PEST, SafeThings, AutoSec, Seed, WOOT, etc.
