Funded Projects

Grants Awarded/Funded Projects

Nadim Alkharouf

• Barry Margulies (PI), Michelle Snyder (co-PI) and Nadim Alkharouf (co-PI). Towards More Effective Vaccines. Jan 2021 – Dec 30, 2021. TU Foundation. $22,700.
• Nadim Alkharouf (PI). Emerging Diseases of Alfalfa (PS # 5040558). Sep 30, 2020 – Sep 29, 2022. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). $44,660.
• Nadim Alkharouf (PI). Characterization of Genes (PS # 5040554). Sep 8, 2018 – Sep 7, 2019. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). $9000.
• Nadim Alkharouf (PI). Stress Response in Alfalfa (PS # 5040555). Sep 24, 2018 – Sep 23, 2019. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). $18,920.
• Nadim Alkharouf (PI). Genomic and Bioinformatics Analysis of Sugar Beet Root Maggot. September 12, 2016 – September 11, 2017. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). $39,536.

J. Chakraborty

• Co-PI, “A Comparative Eye Tracking Study of Information Foraging Behaviors of Neurotypical vs End Users with ADHD,” Towson University School of Emerging Technology Seed Funding, $11,100 , 2017-2018

Josh Dehlinger

• CO-PI, Preserving the Security and Integrity of Elections through Effective Poll Worker Training. Funded by: The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation, $10,221, January 2022 – December 2022.
• CO-PI, Empowering Secure Elections. Funded by: Towson University Foundation (TUF), $24,585, January 2022– May 2023.
• CO-PI, Authentic Undergraduate Research Experiences in Software Engineering and Machine Learning. Funded by: FCSM General Endowment Funds, $19,440, July 2021 – August 2022.
• CO-PI, Modeling Crowd Flow Dynamics in Mass Participation Events: A Community Engagement-Based Student Research Experience. Funded by: FCSM General Endowment Funds, $17,172, July 2021 – August 2022.
• CO-PI, Developing a Cloud-Based Cyber Investigation Case Simulator for Enhancing Students Learning Experience at the University of Baltimore and Towson University. Supplement award. Funded by U.S. Department of Justice, $432,700, 2020-2023. (collaborative grant with the University of Baltimore)
• CO-PI, Authentic Undergraduate Research Experiences in Machine Learning. Funded by: FCSM General Endowment Funds, $18,533. 2019-2020.
• PI, CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service at Towson University. Funded by: National Science Foundation – Scholarship for Service, $3,972,413. 2017-2022.
• PI, Building a Technical and General Education Cybersecurity Modules Curriculum. Funded by: National Security Agency, $192,127, 2017-2018.

Lin Deng

• (PI) Development of An Interdisciplinary Course to Enhance Students’ Supercomputing Education with Multidisciplinary Research Experience, School of Emerging Technology, Towson University. Amount awarded $20,860. (2022 - 2024)
• (PI) Authentic Undergraduate Research Experiences in Software Engineering and Machine Learning. General Endowment Funds, Jess & Mildred Fisher College of Science & Mathematics, Towson University. Amount awarded $19,440. (2021 - 2023)
• (PI) Supplement Award: Developing a Cloud-based Cyber Investigation Case Simulator for Enhancing Students’ Learning Experience at the University of Baltimore and Towson University. U.S. Department of Justice. Amount awarded $432,767 (Collaborative grant with the University of Baltimore). (2021 - 2023)
• (PI) Developing a Cloud-based Cyber Investigation Case Simulator for Enhancing Students’ Learning Experience at the University of Baltimore and Towson University. U.S. Department of Justice. Amount awarded $450,000 (Collaborative grant with the University of Baltimore). (2020 - 2022)
• (PI) Authentic Undergraduate Research Experiences in Machine Learning. General Endowment Funds, Jess & Mildred Fisher College of Science & Mathematics, Towson University. Amount awarded $18,533. (2019 - 2021)
• (PI) GCP Research Grant. Google. Awarded $10,000 credits. (2018)
• (PI) NVIDIA Research Grant. NVIDIA. Awarded Titan XP GPU Card. (2018)
• (PI) Developing an Augmented Reality and Mobile Game-based Mathematical Learning Approach for 8th Grade Students. School of Emerging Technology, Towson University. Amount awarded $23,575.90. (2018 - 2020)
• (PI) Achieving Fully Automated Testing for Android Apps Using Artificial Intelligence Techniques. Faculty Development Research Committee Grant. Towson University. Amount awarded $6,000. (2018 - 2019)
• (PI) Information Security Research and Education (INSuRE). National Security Agency and National Science Foundation (Subcontract from Purdue University). Amount awarded $12,000. (2017 - 2019)
• (CO-PI) Building a Technical and General Education Cybersecurity Modules Curriculum. National Security Agency, Cybersecurity National Action Plan. Amount awarded $192,127. (2017 - 2018)

Sidd Kaza

• PI, “The NCAE Cybersecurity Curriculum Commission: A Strategic Approach to Building High-Quality, High-Impact Cybersecurity Curriculum for the Nation,” Funded by: National Security Agency (NSA), $3.23 million, 2021-2024
• PI, “Value Returning Methods: Increasing the Number of Women in Computing at Towson,” Funded by: Center for Inclusive Computing, Northeastern University, $51,640, 2021-23
• Co-PI, “National Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) Northeast Regional Hub,” with Capitol Tech and Mohawk Community College, Funded by: National Security Agency (NSA), $74,632, 2020-22.
• PI, “CLARK – Cybersecurity Labs and Resource Knowledge-base,” Funded by: National Security Agency, $540,301, 2018-20.
• PI, “The Cybersecurity Labs and Resource Knowledge-base (CLARK) – A Prototype,” Funded by: National Security Agency, $307,656, 2017-18
• Co-PI, “Building a Technical and General Education Cybersecurity Modules Curriculum,” Funded by: National Security Agency, 2017, $175,000, 2017-18
• PI, “SPLASH and Security Ambassadors – Secure Coding Course for High School Students and Building a Community of Cyber Teachers,” Funded by: National Security Agency, $85,540, 2017-18
• Co-PI, “CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service at Towson University,” Funded by: National Science Foundation, $3,972,413, 2017-2022.
• PI, “Secure Programming Logic Aimed at Students in High-school,” Funded by: National Security Agency, $74,300, 2017-18
• Co-PI, “Building a Technical and General Education Cybersecurity Modules Curriculum,” Funded by: National Security Agency, Cybersecurity National Action Plan, $192,127, 2017-2018.

Mike McGuire

• $25,000 “Evaluation and Demonstration of Open Data Portal Technology for Smart Cities and Data Science for Social Good”, South Big Data Hub/NSF, PIs: M. P. McGuire, S. Iyer. 2021 – 2022.
• $173,790 "HDR DSC: Collaborative Research: Creating and Integrating Data Science Corps to Improve the Quality of Life in Urban Areas, NSF, PI: M. P. McGuire. 2019 – 2022.
• $1,150 (Hardware Grant): Deep Learning Models for the Characterization of Tornado Outbreaks, NVIDIA GPU Grant. 2018 – 2019.  
• $16,000 Development of Interdisciplinary Post Baccalaureate and Master’s Program in Computational and Mathematical Data Science, Towson University School of Emerging Technologies, PIs: M. P. McGuire; T. Sorokina. 2018 – 2019.  
• $12,268 A comparative Eye Tracking Study of Information Foraging Behaviors of Neurotypical vs End Users with ADHD, Towson University School of Emerging Technologies. PIs: J. Chakraborty; M. P. McGuire; H. Feng. 2018 – 2019. 

Yeong-tae Song

• Electronic Health Record System for Ghana’17 ~ 19 ($25K) 
  Grant support by nonprofit organizations in US and Ghana 
  Collaborative work with Adventist Hospital System and Valley View University in Ghana  
• Mobile app for emergency medical personnel and first responders ’20 ~ ‘21 
  State of Maryland Emergency Medical Dept. ($65K)  
• Enterprise system development for a local church
  Angular, Postgres, Java, Node.js, TS, and Xamarin hosted in AWS

Mona Tavakolan

• GenCyber Grants: GC-22-MD-TOWU-T2 2023-2024, National Security Agency (NSA), June 2023-June 2024 $149,856.35 (Funded)

Blair Taylor

• PI, “The NCAE Cybersecurity Curriculum Commission: A Strategic Approach to Building High-Quality, High-Impact Cybersecurity Curriculum for the Nation,” Funded by: National Security Agency (NSA), $3.23 million, 2021-2024
• PI, “Value Returning Methods: Increasing the Number of Women in Computing at Towson,” Funded by: Center for Inclusive Computing, Northeastern University, $51,640, 2021-23
• Co-Pi, “National Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) Northeast Regional Hub,” with Capitol Tech and Mohawk Community College, Funded by National security Agency (NSA), $74,632, 2020-2022.
• Co-PI, “CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service at Towson University,” Funded by: National Science Foundation, $3,972,413, 2017-2022.

Qianlong Wang

• Robust Distributed AI Systems and Smart Applications (PI: Qianlong Wang, Co-PIs: Weixian Liao and Jinjuan Feng). Source: General Endowment Funds, Towson University. Duration: 10/2022 - 08/2023.
• Blockchain-Empowered Secure and Efficient Decentralized AI Systems (PI: Qianlong Wang). Source: Faculty Development & Research Committee (FDRC), Towson University. Duration: 7/2022 - 5/2023.

Marius Zimand

• New directions in Kolmogorov complexity and network information theory (PI), Grant from NSF (NSF award number CCF-18111729), 2018 -2022) $ 236,222.

Previously . . .

• Joyram Chakraborty was issued a patent for his work entitled “Systems and Methods for Automatically Determining Culture-Based Behavior in Customer Service Interactions.” US Patent number 20,120,310,629, 2012 was issued to Dr. Chakraborty and collaborators OT Stewart and DM Lubensky from IBM T.J. Watson Research Labs.
• Alfreda Dudley and Blair Taylor received $95,180 to fund tuition for 6 in-state and 6 out-of-state high school girls for a summer 2014 session of Secure Programming Logic Aimed at Seniors in High School (SPLASH). Towson University was one of 5 institutions selected to pilot CyberSTARS (funded by NSF and NSA).
• Michael McGuire and Wei Yu of Computer and Information Sciences and Mike O’Leary of Math recently received funding from the US Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship Program to develop a virtual penetration testing laboratory.  The laboratory will be used as a test bed for DoD funded research in intrusion detection and prevention systems and will contribute to an existing collaboration between Towson University and DoD related research laboratories, including the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). This project will involve graduate and undergraduate students and fund two 10 hour graduate research assistantships for one year.
• Robert Hammell received an additional $99,956 of incremental funding for the cooperative agreement (CA) between Towson University and the US Army Research Laboratory; this work is aimed at addressing the Value of Information (VOI) problem and other battlefield situation awareness challenges. 
• Wei  Yu  and  graduate  students  Sixiao  Wei,  Guanhui  Ma  received  a  Best  Paper  Award  at  the  2013  IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) – Communication and Information Systems Security (CISS) Symposium (IEEE ICC is one of the two flag-ship conferences of the IEEE Communications Society, together with the IEEE GLOBE Communication (GLOBECOM) conference). This work has been supported by Prof. Yu’s NSF grant from 9/2011 to 8/2014.
• S. Acharya (PI), “Design and Evaluation of HealthCare Information Security System”, Funded by: Information Services, Altoona Regional Health System (ARHS), 2011, $312, 000, March 2011 – February 2015. [Additional Funds for Meaningful Use Stages Assessment and Implementation]   Grant period extension: 03/01/2011 – 02/28/2015, Additional Funds: $78K
• Dr. Alfreda Dudley and Dr. Blair Taylor were awarded $35,381 by the Department of Defense to design, develop, and pilot test an online/hybrid version of COSC175, General Computer Science, at Towson University, that will introduce programming logic and secure coding to high school girls at several predominately female high schools, including Notre Dame Preparatory and Western High School. June, 2012.
• Nadim Alkharouf. “Production of nematode resistant soybean.” Mtech Maryland Industrial Partnership Program. Feb 1, 2012 – Jan 31, 2013. $100,000.
• Nadim Alkharouf. “The Use of Bioinformatics for GABA-Enriched Plants.” Plant Sensory Systems LLC. Dec 14, 2011 – Jan 8, 2013. $25,000.
• Yeong-Tae Song. “N-Screen Based Smart Learning Management System.” Sookmyung University in Korea. June 1, 2011 – May 31, 2013. $105,000.
• Subrata Acharya, “Evaluation of Information Security System,” Altoona Regional Health System, $234,000, March 1, 2011 through February 28, 2014.
• Darush Davani, “Toward a More Comprehensive Cognitive Robot through Separation of Functionality,” Army Research Laboratory $20,000, July 16, 2010 through July 15, 2011.
• Chao Lu, “Development of Web Access Software,” Health Data Essentials, $6,919, November 3, 2010 through November 2, 2011.
• Chao Lu, “Health Science Information Quality Assurance Tools and Methods,” Medical Decision Logic, Inc.,$19,000, September 1, 2010 through May 31, 2011.
• Chao Lu, “Health Science Information Quality Assurance Tools and Methods – Graduate Student Research, Spring 2011” Medical Decision Logic, Inc., “ (additional funding for above project), $9,500, September 1, 2010 through May 31, 2011.
• Chao Lu and Wei Sun, “Establishing an Institute of Chinese Language Teaching at Towson University,”$129,756, Confucius Institute Headquarters, March 1, 2011 through February 28, 2012 (third year’s funding for three-year project).
• Mike O’Leary, Mathematics, and Scott Hilberg and Suranjan Chakrobtry, “Expanding the Reach of the IT Programs at Towson University,” Maryland Higher Education Commission, $73,844, January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011.
• Wei Yu, “Smart Grid Priority Action Plans Support: Network Assessments for Smart Grid Applications,” Prometheus Computing, LLC (under its contract from the National Institute of Standards and Technology),$181,480, December 20, 2010 through June 19, 2012.
• Harry Zhou, “Graduate Student Project, Fall 2010,” Medical Decision Logic, Inc., $6,900, September 27, 2010 through December 15, 2010.
• Harry Zhou, “Graduate Student Project, Spring 2011,” $9,500, Medical Decision Logic, Inc. (continuation funding for above award), December 16, 2010 through May 24, 2011.
• Marius Zimand, “AF:Small:Studies in Randomness Extraction,” National Science Foundation, $54,135, August 1, 2010 through July 31, 2011.