Fall 2015 iConnect

New Chapterbeg ins a t ISTAndrew SearsIST’s newest dean

Fall 2015 | College of Information Sciences and Technology

iConnect, the magazine of the College of Information Sciences and Technology, is published twice a year by the Office of Communications and Outreach.

EDITORKelly Bryan

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Julie CoughlinJennifer CifelliStephanie KoonsJaime LynchMae Sevick

CREATIVE DIRECTION/DESIGNKelly Bryan

ALUMNI RELATIONSErin [email protected]

ALL INQUIRIES AND COMMENTS SHOULD BE SENT TO: [email protected]

The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. It is the policy of the University to maintain an academic and work environment free of discrimination, including harassment. The Pennsylvania State University prohibits discrimination and harassment against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or veteran status. Discrimination or harassment against faculty, staff, or students will not be tolerated at The Pennsylvania State University. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative Action Director, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901; Tel 814-865-4700/V, 814-863-1150/TTY. U.Ed. IST 16-09

Fall 2015

Features

Departments

3 Dean’s Message

4 Research News

8 Student News

20 Alumni News

Exploring the dark side of BitcoinResearchers investigate how conflicting interests threaten to negatively impact the Bitcoin ecosystem (see story on page 5)

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IST Startup WeekIST Startup Week has been a source of inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs in the Penn State community. The event invites entrepreneurs and innovators from around the country to the University Park campus to share their success stories and network with students.

New chapterAndrew Sears, the new dean of the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), embarked on a career in academia out of a quest for understanding the interplay between people and technology. He is seeking to implement a vision for the college that includes expanding existing research and academic programs, further developing entrepreneurial opportunities for students, and leveraging the potential of IST’s alumni base.

Machine vision system could help the visually impaired shop for foodResearchers at Penn State are leading an effort to help visually impaired people shop independently. They’re creating machines that can interpret a complex visual scene much as the human brain does—essentially making machines that can truly see.

As the new dean of the College of Information Sciences and Technology, I want to extend a personal welcome to the students, faculty, and staff of IST. I am excited to join you and I see an incredibly bright future for the college. The topics that are addressed by our curriculum are timely, important, and affect virtually every sector of the economy. There is no doubt that our graduates will continue to be well-positioned for jobs within a wide variety of organizations. Similarly, the research that our students and faculty are engaged in is of increasing importance as information technologies continue to permeate every aspect of our lives. I cannot imagine a more exciting area for research than the intersection of people, information, and technology. I’ll be looking forward to working with the faculty to identify opportunities to build on our existing expertise and gain knowledge in emerging areas of importance.

As I begin my first academic year as dean, I look forward to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. I look forward to sharing in the successes of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni. I’ve already had a chance to meet with a number of graduates from the college, and these meetings have driven home what I suspected – IST has a great deal to offer our students, but we must be vigilant as the field continues to evolve to ensure that both our curriculum and our research continue to be at the forefront. This may involve a combination of small and not-so-small changes to our academic programs, and it will certainly involve ensuring that our online offerings continue to be both timely and highly relevant. I’m excited to hear the enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and innovation that exists across Penn State, and I was thrilled to know that the college has assumed a leadership role through events like IST Startup Week.

As dean, I am honored to lead this college. I encourage you to join me and embrace all that our college has to offer. These are indeed exciting times at IST.

Andrew Sears, deanCollege of Information Sciences and Technology

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IST researchers explore technology use in Syrian refugee campResearch shows 86 percent of youth own a mobile handset and more than 50 percent use the internet at least once a dayThe Syrian Civil War has caused millions of citizens to flee their homeland, but many refugees have persevered and are seeking to rebuild their lives. Researchers at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) recently traveled to a thriving Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, where they are conducting a study on how refugees are incorporating technology into their daily lives.

Carleen Maitland, an associate professor at the College of IST and her graduate student advisee, Ying Xu, visited the Zaatari camp, Jordan’s largest facility for Syrian refugees, in early January. The trip was part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) aimed at enhancing the use of information technology by refugees and their service providers, in collaboration with Jordanian computer scientist, Nijad al Najdawi.

Researchers studied internet and mobile phone use in the camp, which was founded in 2012 and provides a temporary home to about 100,000 refugees. Results of the survey show a high degree of mobile phone and internet use, with 86 percent of youth in their sample owning a mobile handset, and more than half using the internet either once or multiple times per day.

The research that Maitland, Xu, and their colleagues are conducting is part of an initiative by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to collect data on wireless infrastructure and internet use by refugees. Through research, they hope to expand access to wireless networks for both service providers and refugees, and to solve pressing problems such as the lack of higher education opportunities. —Stephanie Koons

RESEARCH NEWS

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Exploring the dark side of BitcoinResearchers investigate how conflicting interests threaten to negatively impact the Bitcoin ecosystem

Jens Grossklags, an assistant professor at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), along with researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, and Vanderbilt University, are investigating how conflicting interests threaten to negatively impact the Bitcoin ecosystem. They aim to provide guidelines for ensuring that the currency remains long-term viable and trustworthy.

Bitcoin, a peer-to peer online payment system conceived in 2008, has exploded as a popular electronic alternative to mainstream commerce. However, according to researchers, the decentralized and quasi-anonymous nature of Bitcoin exposes it to self-interested parties that seek to exploit the system.

Published in 2008 and released as open-source software in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency system that is controlled through an online communication protocol. Transactions are verified and recorded in a public distributed ledger called the block chain. The ledger uses its own unit of account, also called bitcoin.

The system works without a central repository or single administrator, which has led the U.S. Department of the Treasury to categorize it as a decentralized virtual currency.

While Bitcoin has achieved undeniable success in the past several years, it remains to be seen if the currency can achieve the legitimacy of credit cards or paper money.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty about the stability of the currency,” said Grossklags. “Hopefully, our work will contribute to making this currency system more viable in the future.” —Stephanie Koons

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INTERDISCIPLINARY CENTER SEEKS TO

LEVERAGE POWER OF BIG DATA ANALYTICS

Explosive growth in big data has enabled researchers and scientists in many fields to harness information with the power to dramatically change how governments, organizations, and academic institutions conduct business and make discoveries.

Big data analytics is a term increasingly used to describe the process of applying serious computing power—the latest in machine learning and artificial intelligence—to massive and highly complex sets of information. Sophisticated algorithms, techniques, and software tools are needed to make such vast data useful. A new interdisciplinary center at Penn State seeks to leverage the talents of researchers across the University as part of a joint effort to maximize the potential of big data.

“Data is everywhere,” said Vasant Honavar, professor and Edward Frymoyer Chair at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST). “There remains a huge gap between our ability to acquire data and our ability to make effective use of data to advance discovery,” Honavar said.

Honavar is the director of the Center for Big Data Analytics and Discovery Informatics, which is co-sponsored by the College of IST, the Institute for CyberScience, the Huck Institute for the Life Sciences, and the Social Science Research Institute. The goals of the center are to pursue interdisciplinary research and conduct training in big data analytics and discovery informatics. Topics covered by the center span from artificial intelligence to social network analytics. The center will serve as a focal point that links faculty across the campus with interests in research and education in the data sciences. —Stephanie Koons


Everyone may be a critic, but now Penn State researchers are paving a way for machines to get in on the act.

The researchers have developed an algorithm that analyzes the arrangement of visual elements—the composition —of digital photographs. It also offers feedback about the perceived composition of the photograph and provides examples of similarly composed pictures of high aesthetic value, said James Wang, professor of information sciences and technology. Wang and colleagues recently received a patent for the system.

“If you think about aesthetics, everything is about composition,” said Wang. “You can look into colors,

or textures, or shapes, but if you boil it down, you eventually have to consider all of these elements as part of composition.”

Training a machine to become an art critic is not easy, according to the researchers. A machine must be trained with examples of highly regarded photographs in order to recognize good compositional elements, said Jia Li, professor of statistics, who worked with Wang. Li added that the software the team developed relies on psychological theories of human vision as well as on the opinions of people to help classify images.

A group of graduate students helped develop the algorithm by manually

labeling hundreds of images from a collection of pictures on the website photo.net. The composition of each picture is categorized into horizontal, vertical, centered, diagonal, and textured types. These labels then serve as the training dataset that teaches the algorithm how to classify photographs.

The software performs a pixel-by-pixel analysis to extract features from a photograph and then uses statistical analysis to classify and compare it to highly aesthetic pictures.

Wang said he doubts the application will replace photographers any time soon. He hopes instead that it creates better photographers.

“Our goal from the beginning was to help photographers,” said Wang. “If you are an amateur photographer then, potentially, a computer can analyze your photograph’s composition and help you improve it.”

The software can be installed on a server that can be accessed by a mobile phone. The researchers expect that, as smart phones become more powerful, the application will be able to reside on the phone. Eventually, as smart phones gain more memory and power, the software would not need to be stored on a server, but could be added to the phone itself.

Wang and Li worked with Lei Yao, a former doctoral student in information sciences and technology. —Stephanie Koons

Software can automatically critique composition of digital photographsSoftware provides digital photographers with constructive feedback

RESEARCH NEWS

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Researchers seek ideal parenting style for teen online safetyThe ideal parental mediation strategy may be a combination of taking some preventative measures and taking reactive measures

Global collaboration reunites IST alumni Now hailing from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Denver respectively, IST doctoral program alumni Annemijn Van Gorp, Nicolai Pogrebnyakov, and Edgar Maldonado recently reunited at the 23rd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2015) in Münster, Germany to present their collaborative research paper investigating the use of social media by

emergency response organizations. The trio plan to continue quantitative analysis in this area with the aim of submitting their article for journal publication.

Many parents struggle with the age-old question: whenshould my child take the lead, and when do I take the reins to guide them to sound decision-making? In recent years, the widespread use of social networking sites has introduced a new set of privacy and safety threats into the equation.

According to researchers at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), the ideal answer to that age-old question may be a combination of both approaches.

Pamela Wisniewski and Haiyan Jia, post-doctoral scholars at Penn State, along with faculty members Heng Xu, Mary Beth Rosson, and Jack Carroll, conducted a secondary analysis of the 2012 Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project’s, “Teens and Privacy Management Survey.” The Penn State researchers developed insights into how parental privacy concerns and parental mediation strategies influence teens’ privacy behaviors on Facebook.

The researchers identified and examined two types of parental mediation strategies: direct parental intervention,

through the use of parental controls and/or reading and setting up a teen’s social media privacy settings; and active parental mediation, which includes reviewing and talking with the teen about their posts, and/or commenting on their child’s Facebook page.

The researchers found that direct parental intervention was associated with conservative behaviors in teens’ online interactions.

“In contrast, we found parental active mediation to be positively associated with teens’ disclosure of sensitive information and remedy/corrective behaviors,” the researchers wrote. Although the second strategy led to more risky behaviors, it also encouraged teens to learn from their mistakes and take corrective actions to protect their online privacy.

Future research in this area, Wisniewski said, will focus on designing solutions to online risks that foster teen resilience and strength building.

This research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. —Stephanie Koons

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STUDENT NEWS

As governments and organizations face increasingly serious threats from nefarious cyber attackers, cybersecurity experts must employ creative thinking and be able to respond to new information quickly. A team of students at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) recently had the opportunity to put the lessons they learned in the classroom into practice at the first annual Deloitte Foundation Cyber Threat Competition, where they placed fourth.

“It was a very real-world scenario that we were asked to respond to,” said team member Brady Ripka, who graduated on May 9 with a bachelor’s degree in IST.

The competition was designed and facilitated by Deloitte Cyber Risk Services, which helps complex organizations more confidently leverage advanced technologies to achieve their strategic growth, innovation, and performance objectives through proactive management of associated cyber risks. To reach the live, final round, which is a cyber wargame event, students successfully navigated online competitions with the highest scorers from each institution. The top advancing four competitors from each school were then teamed together to faceoff during the final two-day cyberattack simulation challenge. The final was held in mid-April at Deloitte University, the organization’s landmark campus for learning and leadership development near Dallas.

The Penn State team was coached by Matt Miller, a 2013 IST graduate who now works for Deloitte. Other participating institutions were Carnegie Mellon University, Georgetown University, Texas A&M, University of Houston, University of Illinois, and the University of Southern California, whose team won the Cyber Threat Competition. —Stephanie Koons

IST Team places fourth in Deloitte Cyber Threat Competition

Penn State SBDC helps student entrepreneurs launch second game app

Brothers Dan and Ryan Yosua recently launched their second game app as part of a business they built with assistance from the Penn State Small Business Development Center (SBDC).

Ryan Yosua is a senior in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) at Penn State and Dan Yosua graduated from Penn State in 2013. The pair founded YosuaTreeGames and launched their first game app, eVubble Lite, in 2013 with help from the SBDC.

The brothers designed their newest app, eVubble, to be a more advanced and comprehensive version of the original. They approached the SBDC again, this time for marketing advice, and launched it on June 27.

“The SBDC has been a huge help to us with our business development. The staff has provided us with free consulting, answered questions about taxes, legal concerns, and adding another member to our team,” Ryan Yosua said. “We are working with them to get the word out about eVubble to the local market as well as websites, blogs, and YouTube channels that focus on mobile games.”

Ryan Yosua was recently awarded the David Rusenko Entrepreneur-in-Residence Scholarship, a gift given to a junior or senior in the College of IST who has entrepreneurial experience. It includes $10,000, six credits, and the opportunity to work with a faculty advisor.

eVubble is available through the App Store for iOS or the Google Play store for Android. —Christie Black


Prestigious scholarship drives Oliver in pursuing entrepreneurial dreamsMadison Oliver, a senior at the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), would like to pursue a career in information security but also has an entrepreneurial spirit. With the aid of a prestigious scholarship she was awarded last spring, she now has a head-start on pursuing her goals.

Oliver, who is majoring in security and risk analysis (SRA) with a minor in entrepreneurship and innovation (ENTI), was selected as one of 16 awardees of the national Scholarship for Women Studying Information Security. Awarded by the Applied Computer Security Association (ACSA) and the Computing Research Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W), the $5,000 scholarship is funded by the Hewlett-Packard company. Oliver was the only winner this year from Penn State.

"I feel extremely honored to have won this scholarship,” she said. “I have already met those at HP that have made this scholarship possible, including one of the most powerful female CEOs, Megan Whitman, in a recent trip to their headquarters. I

have also met other women in my field through this scholarship that will be pioneers for the future of women in technology and I am grateful to have received this opportunity."

Oliver, who said she comes from a “family of entrepreneurs,” is enrolled in the Digital Entrepreneurship and Innovation cluster within the ENTI minor. The program prepares students to harness digital technologies and digital business models to develop their own concepts into commercial concerns or to contribute to the innovation activities of existing organizations.

“Ideally, I would like to open my own penetration testing company,” she said.

Oliver, who said the ASCA and CRA-W scholarship is “one of the few merit-based scholarships I’ve ever been able to find,” would like to get master’s and doctorate degrees in information technology. An additional benefit of her award is that she will have the opportunity to present her research at the ASCA Conference 2015 in December in Los Angeles. —Stephanie Koons

Penn State World Campus student and helicopter pilot trainer earns top honorsLarry Wilson’s job training Apache helicopter pilots for the U.S. Army doesn’t accommodate a regular college schedule.

“My hours are all over the place,” said Wilson, who works at Fort Rucker in Alabama. “I needed the flexibility of being able to do my coursework on my time.”

Wilson found that flexibility with Penn State World Campus, where he pursued a B.S. in security and risk analysis online. He not only earned a degree in just three years, but excelled—achieving straight A’s in his major. Wilson was chosen as the student marshal for the College of Information Sciences and Technology, and he made his first trip to the University Park campus to lead the college at its commencement ceremony on Aug. 15.

Wilson said his selection as marshal speaks volumes about Penn State’s commitment to its online students.

“There’s no preferential treatment, and that’s really cool,” he said.

Wilson, who is 43, joined the Marines just a month after graduating from high school. After 12 years in the Marines, he fulfilled his dream of flying by becoming an Apache helicopter pilot in the Army, where he flew combat missions over Iraq. Wilson retired from active duty in 2009 and became a civilian instructor at Fort Rucker. In the fall of 2012, he began his studies through Penn State World Campus.

In addition to his job, Wilson is married and has two sons, ages 12 and 14.

“Hopefully I’ve set a good example showing them, ‘Hey, you can do it,’” Wilson said. “They think it’s pretty cool.” —Hilary Appelman


ANDREW SEARS, the new dean of the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), embarked on a career in academia out of a quest for understanding the interplay between people and technology. As a researcher and administrator, he has overseen groundbreaking academic initiatives in the technology field, which he hopes to leverage in his current role.

Prior to taking the dean position at IST, Sears served as a dean and professor at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) geginning in 2011. During his tenure at RIT, he founded the first academic department in the United States dedicated exclusively to computing security, and attended the White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection where President Barack Obama signed an executive order to promote information sharing about cyber threats.

Sears, a native of Newton, Massachusetts, earned his bachelor of science degree in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1988 and his doctorate in computer science from the University of Maryland in 1993.

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He has served on the faculty of DePaul University; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and RIT.

Sears’ research focuses on human-centered computing and accessibility with projects involving issues associated with mobile computing, health information technologies, speech recognition, and assessing an individual’s cognitive status via normal daily interactions with information technologies.

“Somewhere along the line, I realized that I could have a bigger impact by following the administrative path,” he said. “I view my job as facilitating the success of the faculty, staff, and students; so in many ways, I live vicariously through the success of others. For example, I really enjoy hearing when a student gets the job they were seeking, when faculty have a great semester in the classroom or get a new grant, or when staff are recognized for a job well-done.”

While Sears may have shifted his focus from research to administration, he remains keenly interested in the intersection of people and technology.

“My interest in this field started with programming, but things really got interesting when I started to focus on how people interact with computers,” he said.

The College of IST’s emphasis on leveraging the interplay of information, technology, and humans is what prompted him to take on the challenge of leading the college into its next phase.

While the College of IST is at the forefront of many research areas, Sears said, there is potential for growth, particularly in the areas of data analytics, understanding and leveraging mobile technologies, and social informatics—the study of information and communication tools in cultural or institutional contexts. While IST researchers have made impressive strides, he said, “there is tremendous potential to grow our research activities, especially in collaboration with other colleges across campus. Imagine the possibilities when you look at how people, technology, and information come together in the context of medicine, education, communications, nursing, or virtually any other field. Similarly, we have a great foundation with our existing academic programs, and I’ll be looking forward to working with the faculty and potential employers to identify opportunities to enhance or supplement our existing offerings.”

In addition to further developing the college’s existing research and academic programs, Sears said he would also like to see the college build

upon the entrepreneurial opportunities that have been offered to students in the past few years—particularly IST Startup Week, an annual event hosted by the College of IST in which entrepreneurs and innovators from around the country come to the University Park campus to share their success stories and network with students. While current initiatives have been successful in encouraging

entrepreneurship-minded students to start their own companies, Sears said he thinks the college can and should expand on those activities.

A key component in ensuring a productive future for the College of IST is its alumni base, Sears said, and as the new dean, he intends to further develop those connections.

“Alumni can help the college keep track of this rapidly changing field to ensure our research and academic programs remain relevant,” he said. “They can help students prepare for interviews and see how the topics they study can be applied after graduation, and they can help companies connect to Penn State so they can leverage the expertise of our faculty and hire our students.”

In his spare time, Sears enjoys spending time with family and traveling. He is looking forward to taking advantage of the plentiful natural resources in Happy Valley and is currently exploring bike paths.

“The future is bright for IST and our students,” Sears said. “The research of our faculty and the expertise of our graduates are relevant in so many industries. IST’s activities will continue to change the way people work, learn, and play. In short, we’re going to change the way people live.” —Stephanie Koons

“When the position at Penn State came along, there was no doubt that it was a great opportunity to have an impact. It was clear the college already has a solid foundation, but I was excited by the potential that exists and the enthusiasm I sensed from within the college and across the university,” — Andrew Sears

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SAVE THE DATEIST Startup WeekApril 11-15, 2016

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In the past couple of years, a number of IST students have leveraged the advantages they have gained through IST Startup Week and related events to launch innovative projects and become trailblazers in established companies.

“IST Startup Week has grown into a signature event for the College of IST that promotes entrepreneurship, innovation, and collaboration among students, faculty, and alumni from many colleges at Penn State,” said Pam Long, constituent programming and events officer for Development and Alumni Relations and coordinator of IST Startup Week.

A hallmark of IST Startup Week is the speaker series, and this year’s lineup once again featured rising stars in Silicon Valley. Headlining the series was Drew Houston, CEO and co-founder of Dropbox—a file hosting service headquartered in San Francisco that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. Other speakers in the lineup included David Rusenko (IST ’07, CEO of Weebly), Adora Cheung (co-founder and CEO, Homejoy), Steve Huffman (co-founder, Reddit and Hipmunk), and Justin Kan (partner, Y Combinator; co-founder, Justin.tv, Twitch, Exec Inc.)

In addition to the speaker series, IST Startup Week provides opportunities for students interested in starting their own companies to f lex their entrepreneurial muscles. New to this year’s IST Startup Week was Startup Tank, which brought investors who are willing to fund enterprising startups to the State College community. Students once again competed in the IST IdeaMaker Challenge, featuring six cross-college teams

previously selected as finalists, that had each identified a problem and a potential technology-based solution that they pitched to a panel of industry judges.

“They’re all leveraging information technology as a way of providing a solution,” said Lee Erickson, faculty adviser for the challenge and lecturer in the College of IST.

The first-place winning team in the challenge was MichelAngelo RobotScope, consisting of Brennan Cornell, Josh Kessler, Brandon Leshchinskiy, Lingqiu Jin, and Matt Malencia—all engineering and math majors. For their project, they pitched the idea for a robotic endoscope that provides a much wider range of motion than traditional endoscopes, allowing for greater precision and accuracy when used by a doctor.

“We want to provide doctors with essentially a new and improved endoscope that is able to articulate across the entire length (of the gastrointestinal tract) rather than the last two inches,” Kessler said.

The second-place winning team in the IdeaMaker Challenge was BioStrap, consisting of Laila Saghian, Yi-Ting Wu, Hui Zheng, Alice Chen, and Vernon Martin. The team created a wearable device for people who have had strokes, allowing them to receive better feedback on their physical therapy.

A major goal of this year’s competition, Erickson said, was to help the students pursue their entrepreneurial interests to a greater degree. Both the first- and second-place teams were awarded opportunities to network with startups and learn from other entrepreneurs. MichelAngelo RobotScope traveled to Silicon Valley and San Francisco to visit Jim Janicik, COO of Arx Pax, Matt Brezina

Since its inception in 2012, IST Startup Week has been a source of inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs in the Penn State community. Hosted by the College of Information Sciences and Technology, the event invites entrepreneurs and innovators from around the country to the University Park campus to share their success stories and network with students.

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(Eng ‘03), CEO and co-founder of Sincerely and David Rusenko (IST ‘07), CEO and co-founder of Weebly. BioStrap visited Conscious Venture Labs as well as the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National Health System.

“It was a really awesome experience,” Kessler said about the San Francisco trip. “It was really cool to learn about the companies’ stages of development and the trials that the startups faced.”

As an additional perk, Penn State President Barron has asked the team members of the first, second, and third-place teams from IdeaMaker Challenge to attend the September 26 tailgate at Schreyer House and display their projects/companies.

While many of this year’s IST Startup Week speakers have been out of college for several years and have companies that are established, one of the speakers, John Dori, was still an IST student at the time of his presentation during Startup Week. Dori, who graduated from the College of IST in May, is the co-founder and lead front-end developer of Analytical Flavor Systems, a company that builds tools for quality control in the artisan beverage industry. By utilizing sensory science, data science, and analytical chemistry, Analytical Flavor Systems can protect its clients’ products from batch variations, flaws, and contaminations.

Dori, who has stayed in State College, Pa. to launch his company, was the inaugural recipient of the David Rusenko Entrepreneur-in-Residence Scholarship in 2014. In 2012, Rusenko donated $400,000—the largest gift to the College of IST from a graduate in its 13-year history—to establish scholarships for entrepreneurial-minded students. Through the scholarship, Dori received the support of a faculty mentor, the opportunity to earn six credits while working his startup, and $10,000 per year.

According to Dori, the impetus for his startup, Analytical Flavor Systems, was the fact that artisan producers “lack any method for the quantification and comparison of flavor and a means for product development and improvement based on analysis of their products’ sensory attributes.”

To address this problem, Dori and his co-founder, Jason Cohen, developed Gastrograph, a software program that helps producers increase the perceived quality of their offerings, catch bad batches before they ship, and target the distinct tasting populations that best fit their products’ flavor profiles. Initially, Dori

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said, he and Cohen only received funding from their friends and family. Starting the summer between Dori’s sophomore and junior years, they received several breaks, including the Rusenko scholarship. They began developing relationships with venture capital firms in New York City and hiring data scientists that “elevated our capabilities out of the stratosphere.” Currently, Dori and Cohen are focusing on bringing the product to new cities and partnering with new breweries and distilleries.

Dori said he thinks that it’s “beneficial to be a student and entrepreneur at the same time” since college students generally don’t have the same family and work responsibilities as older adults. His advice for students is to find a mentor early on, preferably a professor with experience in the industry they are seeking to enter. Finding the right co-founder is also crucial, he said, as well as applying for scholarships.

“It’s really exciting to see the whole (IST) community come together to support students who want to start their own business,” Dori said.

While entrepreneurship is a major focus of IST Startup Week, the event also seeks to promote innovation within established companies. Ross Abramowitz, a senior at the College of IST, exemplifies that spirit. Abramowitz, who is majoring in security and risk analysis (SRA) with an emphasis on intelligence analysis and modeling, was a student ambassador for the 2015 IST Startup Week. Part of his role was being a liaison for Atif Ghauri, senior vice president at the Herjavec Group, an information security firm. Ghauri, who graduated from Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College in 2000, offered Abramowitz the opportunity to do research with him over the summer. While that research project was eventually canceled, Abramowitz said, he stayed in touch with Ghauri, who acted as a mentor to him.

“He told me to always put forth your best effort and never settle for less,” Abramowitz said.

Abramowitz, who plans to go into the information security consulting field after he graduates from IST, said that he received numerous benefits from IST Startup Week, including being was able to network with professionals in his field and get their perspectives on changing technologies. He recently completed a summer internship at The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in its Information Security Group, where he created a security safeguard after

noticing that numerous servers, websites, and firewall exceptions were vulnerable.

Abramowitz said that an entrepreneurial mindset is an asset in many professions.

“You always have to think ahead and think of the next best idea at your company,” Abramowitz said. “Basically, always keep trying for the next big thing.” —Stephanie Koons

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Machine vision system could help the visually impaired shop for food

Device can follow a list and guide the shopper’s hand to pick up a wanted item


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Device can follow a list and guide the shopper’s hand to pick up a wanted item

You’re in the mood for pasta, so on the way home from work you stop at the grocery store and pick up rotini, shaved Parmesan cheese, and the organic tomato sauce you favor. Into the store and back out, 15 minutes, tops. Simple, right?

For those of us who can see, it is. For those of us who are blind or have limited vision, a simple trip to the grocery store can be a major chore.

“You always have to find someone at the store to help you,” says Michelle McManus, an IT consultant at Penn State and president of the Happy Valley chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. “Then you have to explain exactly what you want—and hope the person helping you is diligent about getting it right.”

Now researchers at Penn State are leading an effort to help visually impaired people shop independently. They’re creating machines that can interpret a complex visual scene much as the human brain does. They’re making machines that can truly see.

Ambitious visionThis work is part of “Visual Cortex on Silicon,” a massive

endeavor that spans fields of inquiry ranging from materials design to brain circuitry and includes nearly 50 researchers, from grad students to senior scientists, at Penn State and seven other institutions.

In 2013 the project won a five-year, $10 million “Expeditions in Computing” award from the National Science Foundation, and is led by Penn State computer scientist Vijay Narayanan.

The project’s formal name refers to the goal of creating a digital, silicon-based electronic system that performs like the human visual cortex, the part of our brain that processes and interprets visual information. If successful, the project —informally called “Third Eye”—will provide its human operators with additional, often enhanced, visual information that will make their lives easier and safer.

Seeing, shopping, learningVisual Cortex on Silicon addresses three “domains” or end

uses, each of which will augment human vision in particular ways. Third Eye-AR (Augmented Reality) and Third Eye-DA (Driver Assistance) will aid in the recognition of objects and people in a variety of settings, including busy streets and urban battlegrounds. Most of the team’s effort in its first year has gone into the third domain, Third Eye-VI, where the aim is to develop a system coupled to a wearable device that will help visually impaired people do their grocery shopping.

Narayanan, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, says his team’s goal is to develop a system that will recognize that an object it sees is new to it, and store that object in memory. If it encounters the same or similar items enough times, that category will take on more importance. At some point, the system may prompt its human operator to give the item a name and tell the system where it fits in its collection of all known items.

Knowing what it seesTheir system will have to be able to identify, in very

specific terms, those objects it recognizes as being important. When the task at hand is grocery shopping, an obvious way to do that is to use barcodes. The technology for reading them is already well-established, and shopper-assistance devices using it are already being tried.

But that approach is far from perfect. McManus has little good to say about barcode-based recognition. The scanners work, she says, “but you have to find the barcode!” A visually impaired shopper carrying a scanner would have to take an item from the shelf and keep turning it around until the scanner finds and reads the barcode.

“If the box you show it is not the right thing, you have to try another, and keep trying until you get the right one,” says


When the Third Eye’s vision system recognizes an item the shopper wants, it makes different areas of the glove vibrate to direct the shopper’s hand toward that item. Image: Patrick Mansell

McManus. Multiply the frustration of that process by however many items you’re shopping for, and a simple trip to the store becomes a maddening ordeal.

In her view, a better solution is what the Third Eye team is working on—a device that can actually read the labels using recognition skills such as reading and interpreting text and identifying logos and images.

Narayanan says that eventually the Third Eye system will be so good at recognizing products that shoppers will be able to fine-tune the degree of match between an object it sees on the shelf and an object in the system’s memory. With a low degree of match, Third Eye might consider Corn Flakes and Sugar Frosted Flakes similar enough to be the same; with

greater stringency, the system would not judge them to match, or could offer them as a potential match the shopper might want to consider.

Precision is necessary if the system is to be useful, says Narayanan; most shoppers have strong preferences as to brand and variety.

“If it just says ‘cereal’ or ‘dairy,’ it’s not going to help anyone,” he says. “If you want tomato sauce, we need to know if it’s Prego tomato sauce. Is it organic Prego tomato sauce?

That’s the fine level of detail we need, and that’s part of the challenge we face.”

First, do no harmDevising a system that can recognize a useful number of

objects within a cluttered visual field is only half the problem. The other half is making sure the system actually helps the people it is meant to help.

For Jack Carroll, Distinguished Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, that means asking prospective users about their experience of shopping, and taking their answers

seriously.“We’re studying shopping with visually impaired

people: how they organize the task and how they think about it,” he says. “What’s difficult about it, what’s rewarding about it, what’s meaningful about it? Because what you don’t want to do in supporting an activity technologically is make it less rewarding, less meaningful, or more challenging.”

He and graduate students Jake Weidman and Sooyeon Lee have been working with the Sight Loss Support Group of Central Pennsylvania, the local chapter of the National Federation of the Blind, and visually impaired high school students who came to campus last year for a three-week crash course in independent living. They were pleased to find out that grocery shopping was an excellent choice for the Third Eye’s first application.

“It really is a key activity for visually impaired people,” says Carroll. “It’s a kind of validation that they are like us, and that they can go into the stores, which are built for us, not for them, and they can cope.” More than that, he says, they enjoy it. “Even the visually impaired kids we talked to said shopping was right at the top of their list of things they like to do and value being able to do.”

Browse, or zero in?One thing the visually impaired students helped them with

was answering the basic question: What’s the best way for the Third Eye system to guide a visually impaired shopper toward items she might want?

To answer that question, Weidman and Carroll had students wear a prototype chest-mounted iPad that would see grocery items on the shelves and transmit the images to Weidman in a nearby control room. Based on what he saw through the iPad’s camera, Weidman would give verbal instructions to

Graduate students Jake Weidman (foreground) and Josh Snyder demostrate the “Wizard of Oz” experiment they used to test what kind of verbal feedback was most helpful to visually impaired shoppers. A camera on the haptic glove Snyder is wearing relays images of gro-cery products to Weidman in a nearby control booth. Image: Patrick Mansell

the student as the Third Eye device might do. By following scripts that offered different kinds of information and different wording, the researchers were able to evaluate what kinds of guidance the students preferred.

“We looked at whether it’s more desirable to give shoppers more directive feedback with respect to what and where the items were, or whether it would be good to give them more open-ended feedback,” says Carroll. “There was a clear preference for the browsing dialog.”

He says the Third Eye system could eventually do both, giving the shopper general information about what it sees while browsing and then, at the shopper’s request, providing guidance to pick up a wanted item.

Guided by touchVerbal feedback is a good way to go in browsing

mode, but for selecting specific products it seems clunky—“Move your hand two inches to the right and six inches forward.” So the Third Eye team developed a more subtle, elegant, and private form of direction: a haptic glove that guides the user’s hand toward the chosen item by vibrating at different strengths and in different positions on the hand.

So far, people who have tried the glove have learned quickly —“within five minutes,” said one—to respond smoothly and accurately to the vibrations.

The glove also gave the team a better place to put the system’s camera. Instead of being strapped to the shopper’s chest, the small webcam is attached to the glove at the base of the palm. When the hand reaches out, the “eye” sees what the hand is pointing towards and the system gets a continuous view of what’s on the shelves near the shopper.

Looking aheadIn related research, graduate student Sooyeon Lee is

working with other volunteers to learn more about how visually-impaired people handle groceries at home: where they store and how they organize goods, how they know when supplies are running low, and how they maintain a list of items to buy on their next trip to the store.

McManus says that from the point of view of the visually impaired community, the research team is going about the project in exactly the right way.

“Part of the reason we like the Third Eye project is because they get in touch with blind and visually impaired people before it’s developed,” she says. “Instead of coming to us after it’s developed, and then going, ‘Oh, wait a minute, this may not work correctly.’ “

Narayanan agrees that listening to the potential users of their device has been a crucial aspect of the program, both to set goals and to keep the project in perspective. “There are certain things that they are extremely good at managing themselves. We do not need to assist them in certain environments. We are just trying to make sure we are sensitive to their needs.” —Cherie Winner

Vijay Narayanan is Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. Jack Carroll is Distinguished Professor of Information Sciences and Technology. The Visual Cortex on Silicon project is funded by the National Science Foundation. Other Penn State faculty involved in the project are Chita Das, Suman Datta, Lee Giles, Dan Kifer, and Mary Beth Rosson. To learn more about the Summer Academy for Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired, go to http://bit.ly/1COWoDC.


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In April, the Penn State Alumni Association welcomed over 13,000 new members as part of commencement exercises observed across the University’s 24 campus locations and the Penn State World Campus. One of the most humbling responsibilities I hold as president of your IST Alumni Society is to personally welcome the 168 graduates of the College of IST from Penn State’s University Park campus and formally induct them into the association and our society. It’s an obligation I don’t take lightly: these new alumni form the foundation for all that we are able to accomplish as an organization. Over the course of the next year, when you come across any of our new alumni in your workplaces and in your communities, extend a welcoming hand and a hearty, “We Are!” We’re looking forward to seeing them (and you!) at our upcoming events and joining our nearly 7,000 other IST graduates worldwide in continuing to strengthen the most powerful alumni network in the world.

I’m excited to introduce and congratulate the next president-elect of our society, Kelsey Bailey, who will be serving as president effective next July. Kelsey is a tremendous asset to our organization, and I’m confident that her innovation and motivation to take IST to even greater heights will become evident as she takes the reins next year and advances the mission of our society over her tenure. I’m also excited to congratulate our re-elected and new members of our board of directors: Garrett Miller, Adam Krempasky, Jeff Reyes, and Brady Ripka. I’m thrilled that we continue to expand opportunities for our alumni to take on leadership roles and assume ownership of various aspects of our society’s mission, and I’m looking forward to our continued partnership in the coming year.

That mission has been especially evident over the past several months, as the society has partnered with the college to welcome

Dr. Andrew Sears, the fourth dean of the College of IST, at a series of events held and scheduled throughout the country. We’ve had tremendous turnout at our alumni receptions in New York City, Northern Virginia, and Pittsburgh, and are looking forward to introducing Dr. Sears to our alumni in Philadelphia, Boston, and San Francisco later this year, with more “Meet the Dean” opportunities to follow in 2016. At each event, Dr. Sears has offered his vision for the future of the college, one that includes an even greater focus on interdisciplinary thinking, corporate partnerships, and expanding IST’s visibility and branding as a true destination for technologists, innovators, and problem solvers. If IST will be in your area in the months to come, I hope you’ll join us and learn more!

With so much on the horizon, please stay tuned to our social media channels, your inbox, and the IST Alumni Society’s website for upcoming events and ways to give back to the college. Whether it’s socializing at a football game watch party sponsored by your local Penn State Alumni Society chapter, attending a fundraiser to benefit IST students participating in Penn State Dance Marathon, or returning to campus to help mentor and prepare students for the job search as part of the society’s partnership with the Office of Career Solutions, I’m confident you’ll find a reason and an opportunity to get involved and maximize the value of your society membership! If you have any suggestions, comments, or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us—we’re looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you soon!

For the Glory,

Mark

Alumni and friends,

Mark Poblete ‘07PresidentIST Alumni Society

ALUMNI PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE


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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Rich Samartino, a 2010 IST graduate, has taken an unconventional route to success by using his information technology background to help promote social justice in Detroit.

“There are not a lot of tech-savvy people in these social activism groups in Detroit,” he said. “Having a college degree in IST, that’s definitely something I could help with.”

Samartino serves as a volunteer webmaster for two Detroit-based organizations—Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management (D-REM) (d-rem.org) and We the People of Detroit (WPD) (wethepeopleofdetroit.com). D-REM functions as a space where users can submit articles that they spot related to social justice in Detroit, which Samartino posts. WPD is a grassroots organization founded in 2008 that is “dedicated to community coalition building and providing vehicles that inform, train, and mobilize the citizens of Detroit to improve their quality of life.” Samartino also recently launched detroitcitycentral.com “with the idea of creating a centralized web home for all things related to Detroit and justice.”

“I think the websites are a tool in getting an alternative message out there,” Samartino said. “It’s a way to uplift what’s happening and hopefully create a more caring and compassionate city and society beyond that.”

Samartino, who currently works at the front desk of the Cabrini Health Clinic, the oldest free clinic in the United

States, said that his interest in social justice and spirituality led him to the nonprofit sector. While at IST, he took what was then known as the information and context option, which focused on how people relate to technology..

Detroit has been faced with myriad social and economic problems for decades, including crime, government corruption, and a mass exodus of jobs. On July 18, 2013, Detroit filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history by debt, estimated at $18 to $20 billion. Additionally, the city’s threat to shut off water to its poorest citizens has proved incendiary. On May 18, the city of Detroit was scheduled to hand out notices to as many as 25,000 residents with accounts past due.

According to Samartino, the media has presented a skewed version of the water crisis. Samartino alleges that news organizations have portrayed

those facing water shutoff as being delinquent, while in reality, they simply can’t afford to pay their bills with so few job opportunities in the city. The social justice websites, he said, act as information resources to “counter the dominant narrative within big newspapers.”

“People are blaming the victims, but that’s not reality,” Samartino said. “(Journalists) really don’t speak for the people who are suffering and don’t have their viewpoints represented in the newspaper.”

Despite the turmoil that the citizens of Detroit are facing, Samartino said, there is hope that the city will bounce back.

“We’re going to have to live more locally, and establish relationships with neighbors and community to make it happen,” he said.

Samartino, who said he has always been inspired by the late Steve Jobs’ philanthropic spirit, will continue to lend his technological expertise to grassroots efforts to revitalize Detroit. He will soon join a Detroit nonprofit organization that received a grant to hire a website manager.

“Just to be able to make some kind of contribution is really amazing,” Samartino said. “And the contribution I’m making is all because of my IT skills.” —Stephanie Koons

Using tech skills to help revitalize Detroit

Rich Samaratino (IST ’10)


Darah Kirstein (IST ’07)

A passion for technology“ I ’ ve a l w a y s h a d a p a s s i o n f o r t e c h n o l o g y. I love tinkering with new gadgets,” said Darah Kirstein, a 2007 graduate of Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST).

Kirstein, vice president of technology services group at BNY Mellon, currently works as the digital workplace employee engagement lead. She joined BNY Mellon in 2007 as an associate of the Information Technology Leadership Development Program, and in just a few short years has risen through the ranks. She now leads a group of over 300 Digital Workplace advocates, and is responsible for engaging with 50,000+ BNY Mellon employees about their technology experiences.

Kirstein is not only dedicated to personal success, but also to strengthening the position of women in technology. Her passion has motivated her to lead a “Lean In Circle” for all interns and new hires within technology at BNY Mellon. The group is part of a movement inspired by principals laid out by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in her book, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.” Kirstein said, “It’s a bonus to work for the 2015 Top Company for Women in Technology. As a Lean In Circle lead, I enjoy building relationships with other women in the field and serving as a guide for their transition into the workforce.”

Kirstein’s smarts and vision led to her selection as a “reverse mentor” to the chairman and chief executive officer of BNY Mellon, Gerald Hassell. Reverse mentoring, in which junior employees pair with company leadership to expand leaders’ knowledge of new trends, practices, and cutting edge technologies, has taken off in recent years. Companies from GE to Cisco, Hewlett Packard to BNY Mellon have joined the reverse mentoring trend, understanding that in a world in constant flux, each new generation of hires has important knowledge and insight to share.

“Gerald is very aware that technology is a total game changer in our industry,” said Kirsetin. “BNY Mellon is the investment company for the world with $28.5 trillion in assets under custody and/or management. Successful

businesses have to react intelligently—and quickly—to the market forces at play and understand and interpret the role technology plays for the business and our clients.”

Kirstein is quick to point out the mutual growth and learning that occurs in any mentoring relationship—reverse or traditional. “I have learned that one can never stop learning, even with years of experience, and a prestigious title to accompany that. Gerald asks great questions. He is willing to go outside of his comfort zone, and he is very eager to keep learning. I want to remember that throughout my career.”

Kirstein’s degree from IST has given her both a solid background in technology and a deep understanding of people that has been vital to her success. “I still remember that the easiest way to describe IST is a cross between people, technology, and business. I like that balance,” she said. “People energize me. Technology energizes me. It’s a win, win!”

When asked what advice she would give to current students, Kirstein quoted author Don Miguel Ruiz, “Be impeccable with your word. Never make assumptions. Don’t take anything personally. And always do your best.” —Mae Sevick

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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT


IST alum part of effort to provide affordable health-care to people in need

David Caruso (IST ’04)

David Caruso, a 2004 graduate of the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) has parlayed the knowledge he gained from his degree into on-the-job success and a sense of fulfillment that satisfies his mutual love of technology and business.

Caruso, who came to Penn State when the College of IST was only in its second year, said that many of the courses he took as an IST student are still valuable and applicable to work he’s doing today as the global finance director for Mylan, one of the largest generics and specialty pharmaceutical companies in the world. Mylan’s goal, he said, is to provide affordable medicine and healthcare to people around the globe, a mission that Caruso shares.

“Working on projects that are going to provide care for people around the world is enjoyable and fulfilling,” he said. “I really like that kind of culture and vision.”

Caruso, a native of Pittsburgh who now works with Mylan’s CIO on project management and change management delivery, said that staying on top of the successful company is extremely challenging “in a good way” and has allowed him to pursue his goal of operating in both a technology and leadership role. Making sure projects are being delivered with a high level of quality and with proper governance, overseeing and executing $60 million in tech projects, and overseeing dozens of products and meetings, keeps Caruso busy and on top of his game in the world of business technology.

Recently married, Caruso and his wife are Pittsburgh and Penn State sports fans and enjoy cooking and traveling together. He settled into his current position at Mylan last year after traveling the world and spending ten years employed at Deloitte—currently the world’s largest audit, financial advisory, risk management, and tax consulting

firm —which he said was “a tremendous way to start his career and see a lot of things in a short period of time.”

What’s next for Caruso includes staying challenged in his current position and continuing to operate in a leadership role for Mylan’s technology branch. In the future, he would like to branch into more speaking opportunities and teaching.

“I have an interest, later in my career, of returning to an academic environment and helping students,” he said.

What advice would Caruso give to his future students? “Always continue to learn, develop your skills, evaluate

where you’re going and then bridge that gap with new skills and education,” he said, adding “If you have ten seconds to answer, listen and think for nine, and speak for one.” —Stephanie Koons

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Stay Connected with the IST Alumni Society!

The IST Alumni Society is the official group within the Penn State Alumni Association for graduates of

the College of Information Sciences and Technology.

Visit ist.psu.edu/alumni to become a member.

istalum

“Penn State IST Alumni Society”


ISTatPennState

Produced by the College of Information Sciences and TechnologyOffice of Communications and Outreach The Pennsylvania State UniversityInformation Sciences and Technology BuildingUniversity Park, PA 16803-6822http://ist.psu.edu

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Fall 2015 iConnect

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Transcript of Fall 2015 iConnect