Director: Harris Professor of Assured Information, Richard Ford, Dept. of Computer Sciences
Dr. Ford graduated from the University of Oxford in 1992
with a D.Phil. in Quantum Physics. Since that time, he has worked extensively in the area of computer security and malicious mobile
code prevention. Previous projects include work on the Computer Virus Immune System at IBM Research, and development of the world's
largest web hosting system whilst Director of Engineering for Verio. He is currently
the Harris Professor of Assured Information at Florida Institute of Technology,
and director of the University's Harris Institute for Assured Information.
Harris Lead: Ronda Henning, Harris Corporation
Ronda Henning, CISSP-ISSAP, CISSP-ISSMP, CSSLP, CISM, is the Senior Scientist for Security and
Privacy at Harris Corporation; a Melbourne, Florida based international communications company.
Ms. Henning is responsible for the advanced information assurance research and technology
direction for Harris' information assurance offerings. Previously, she was the Network
Security Manager for the FAA Telecommunication Infrastructure (FTI) Program,
responsible for securing the FAA's Wide Area Network, a national critical infrastructure.
Prior to her employment at Harris, Ms. Henning worked in information security research
and development at the National Security Agency. Ms. Henning holds an M.B.A. from the
Florida Institute of Technology, an M.S. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University,
and a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh. She is a doctoral candidate in information
assurance at Nova Southeastern University. A frequent speaker on enterprise information
security processes and assurance, Ms. Henning has over 50 refereed publications on various security topics.
Associate Professor William H. Allen, Dept. of Computer Sciences
Dr. William H. Allen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Sciences at the Florida
Institute of Technology and a Research Associate in the Harris Institute for Assured
Information. His research interests include computer and information security, the modeling
and simulation of network-based attacks, and computer forensics. Allen earned a PhD in
Computer Science from the University of Central Florida where his research included the
development of algorithms for the detection of network denial-of-service attacks. In addition
to his work in the Harris Institute, he supervises Master's and PhD students who are performing
research in security policy, secure software development and automated attack generation
for software testing and intrusion detection.
Associate Professor Marco Carvalho, Dept. of Computer Sciences
Marco M. Carvalho is an Associate Professor at the Florida Institute of
Technology, and a Research Scholar/Scientist at the Institute for Human
and Machine Cognition. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering at the
University of Brasilia (UnB), where he also completed his M.Sc. in
Mechanical Engineering with specialization in dynamic systems and
control. Dr. Carvalho also holds a M.Sc. in Computer Science from the
University of West Florida and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Tulane
University, with specialization in Machine Learning and Data Mining. Dr.
Carvalho currently leads a several research efforts in the areas of
cyber security, moving target defense, critical infrastructure
protection, and tactical communication systems, primarily sponsored by
the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, the U.S.
Air Force Research Laboratory, ONR, the National Science Foundation, DoE
and Industry. Dr. Carvalho's research interests include resilient
distributed systems, multi-agent systems and emergent approaches to
systems optimization and security. Dr. Carvalho is the organizer of
several workshops and conferences in his field, including BioCoMS
(Biologically Inspired and Cognitive Approaches to Mission
Survivability), BISR (Biologically Inspired Security and Resilience) and
the System and Optimization Aspects of Smart Grid Challenges Conference.
Professor Jerry Marin, Dept. of Computer Sciences
Dr. Gerald Marin is a Professor in the Department of Computer Sciences at Florida Tech.
He joined FIT in August 2003 after a long career in industry, principally with IBM Corporation.
Prior to joining FIT, Dr. Marin was Professor of Computer Science in the School of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science at UCF where he also served as Director, Information Technology Program.
Since joining IBM in the 1980's, Dr. Marin's fields of interest have included telecommunications
and networking with an emphasis on networking architecture, network performance, system design,
probabilistic and statistical analysis, and network security. Dr. Marin led the effort that
resulted in IBM becoming one of the early members of the ATM Forum; and he served as the
IBM Corporation's Principal Member at the ATM Forum for several years. His awards at IBM have
included an Outstanding Technical Achievement award for the NBBS architecture and the "Third Plateau"
for invention achievement. Dr. Marin was also awarded the Distinguished Public Service
Medal by the Secretary of the Navy for contributions in the field of airborne
antisubmarine warfare (while working at the Center for Naval Analyses).
Assistant Professor Liam Mayron, Dept. of Computer Sciences
Dr. Liam M. Mayron is an Assistant Professor in the Harris Institute for Assured Information
and the Department of Computer Sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology. Prior to
joining Florida Tech, he worked as a Principal Investigator and Software Engineer at Harris
Corp., an international communications company. At Harris, he undertook a variety of
research projects in the national intelligence, cyber security, and healthcare informatics
domains, with a focus on information and knowledge management. He received his Ph.D. and B.S.
degrees in computer engineering from Florida Atlantic University and his M.S. degree in the
same field from the University of Florida. Previously, he founded a company that offered
Web-based news content aggregation, query, and dissemination products. His research
interests include cyber security, content-based image retrieval, biologically-inspired
computing, image processing, human and computer vision, and data mining.
Associate Professor Gisela Susanne Bahr, College of Psychology
Dr. Gisela Susanne Bahr enjoyed a successful career in television news and multi media production,
before she earned her PhD in experimental psychology specializing in human cognition from Texas Christian University in
2002. She closely worked with Donald F. Dansereau, Ph.D., who is globally known for his seminal contributions to the
fields of applied cognition and educational psychology. From 2003 - 2006, Dr. Bahr served in the U.S. Navy as a
uniformed scientist with the designation of Aerospace Experimental Psychologist. During her service she led the Human
Systems Integration of the PMA 205 Common Distributed Mission Training Station (CDMTS), acted as principal investigator
of a federally funded project, and supported DARPA program directors based on her expertise in multivariate statistics
and experimental methodology. Currently, Dr. Bahr holds a faculty appointment at the Florida Institute of Technology in
Melbourne, Florida, where she continues her work Human Computer Interaction and Interface research and design. Dr Bahr's
applied experimental research specializes in cognitive tools development and perception afforded cognition in human computer interaction.
She is investigating this framework empirically using eyetracking technology and security-decision-making mitigations.
Professor Mark Bush, College of Science
Mark Bush is Professor of Biological Sciences and Chair of the Conservation Biology and Ecology
Group at Florida Institute of Technology. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Hull,
UK (1979) and has extensive academic experience as a research scientist at The Ohio-State
University and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and was a faculty member at Duke University
before coming to the Florida Institute of Technology in 1996. His specialization is in the
investigation of long-term climate change in South and Central America through the analysis
sediments of ancient lakes. His research has been continuously funded by NSF, NOAA, NASA and
private institutions since 1997. He has been an educational consultant to the World Bank and is
an advisor to Conservation International and World Wildlife on conservation under climate change.
He has published four books and more than 100 peer-reviewed papers.
Active collaboration with Richard Ford resulted in papers on bio-inspired computer security and several patents.
Professor Fredric Ham, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Dr. Ham joined Florida Tech in 1988. He received his B.S, M.S., and Ph.D degrees in Electrical
Engineering from Iowa State University in 1976, 1979 and 1980, respectively. He is the Harris
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Assistant Dean for Research in the College of Engineering.
He is currently the Past President of the International Neural Network Society (INNS) (2009),
an elected member of the INNS Board of Governors (2009-2011), President of INNS (2007-2008),
President Elect of INNS (2006), and Secretary of INNS (2004-2005).
He is a Fellow of IEEE, a Senior Member of INNS, and was an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on
Neural Networks from 2001 to 2007. He has published over 100 technical papers and reports,
mostly in the areas of neural networks, digital signal processing and biomedical engineering
(specifically, biosensors). He holds 3 U.S. patents and is author of the textbook:
Principles of Neurocomputing for Science and Engineering, McGraw-Hill, 2001.
Dr. Ham's current research interests include: neural networks, adaptive signal processing,
wireless network security, pattern recognition, biosensors, acoustic modeling, and classification of infrasound signals.
Professor Scott Tilley, College of Computer Sciences
Scott Tilley is Professor & Director of Software Engineering in the Department of Computer Sciences at the Florida
Institute of Technology, where he also holds a cross-appointment as a Professor of Management
Information Systems in the College of Business. He is a Visiting Scientist at Carnegie
Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute. He has a Ph.D. from the University
of Victoria. His main field of research is software engineering in general, and system
evolution in particular. His topic areas include program redocumentation, software testing,
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), reverse engineering for program understanding, computer
security, technology assessment, and Web systems evolution. He is Chair of the Steering
Committee for the IEEE Web Systems Evolution (WSE) series of events, a member of the Steering
Committee for the IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM), and the
Immediate Past Chair of the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Design of
Communication (ACM SIGDOC). He was General Chair for the 24th IEEE International Conference on Software
Maintenance (ICSM 2008), which took place in Beijing, China.
Professor Mike Workman, College of Business
Dr. Michael Workman graduated with his Ph.D. from Georgia State University in 2000. Prior to coming to
Florida Tech, he was an assistant and associate professor at the Florida State University,
College of Information Science (Tallahassee). Before joining academia, Dr. Workman held
positions of Unix software engineer, unit and section manager, director, vice president,
senior vice president, and chief technology officer (CTO) with companies such as Digital
Equipment Corporation (now HP), Unisys, Openware, Alltel, France Telecom, Bank of America,
and NETCommerce. His primary research area involves information security behaviors and
he has over 50 published reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, conference proceedings,
and textbooks, and has over $1million in funded research.
Dee Bonilla, Administrative Assistant
Dee has been with Florida Institute of Technology since August, 2000. She is a member of the Staff
Advisory Committee and the College of Engineering Safety Committee. Her administrative responsibilities
cover a wide variety of tasks ensuring the smooth operation of the Harris Institute.