CSEE Research Day 2024 Awardees

The UMBC Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE) proudly hosted its annual Research Day event this May, celebrating a year of groundbreaking research and innovation. This highly anticipated event brought together faculty, staff, and students to showcase the department's latest advancements across three key research areas: computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering.The event featured a series of insightful talks by faculty and staff, highlighting significant research achievements and ongoing projects. Attendees were treated to a diverse array of topics, reflecting the department's commitment to pushing the boundaries of technology and engineering. A highlight of the day was the student research competition, where three exceptional PhD students were recognized for their outstanding contributions during the 2023-2024 academic year. The winners presented their award-winning research, impressing the audience with their innovative approaches and findings:

• Sai Vallurupalli: "Examining Participant-specific Goals for a Deeper Understanding of Complex Events"
• Akash Vartak: "DeBUGCN – Detecting Backdoors in CNNs Using Graph Convolutional Networks"
• Aamir Hamid: "GenAIPABench: A Benchmark for Generative AI-based Privacy Assistants"

In addition to the talks, the event included a vibrant poster session where students showcased their research across various domains, from robotics and AI to cybersecurity. With over 25 posters on display, attendees had the opportunity to engage with the presenters and delve into the details of their projects. A panel of faculty members evaluated the posters, ultimately awarding three teams for their exceptional presentations:

• Christian P Badolato: "Your Smart Home Exchanged 2M Messages: A Network Traffic Analysis of Smart Home Devices in Passive Mode"
• Dingyi Pei: "Decoding and Generating Synergy-based Hand Movements using Electroencephalography during Motor Execution and Motor Imagery"
• Bharg Barot, Satvik Racharla, Sumedh Kane, Sai Malkireddy, Nathan Samson, Jason Chan, Fadullah Omitogun, Jalen Brown: "Lidar Occupancy Analysis and Detection System - LOADS"

The CSEE Department congratulates all the winners and participants for their exceptional work and contributions to the field. We look forward to seeing everyone at the CSEE Research Day event in 2025!