PACT Summer Program

The UA PACT REU program partnered with Navajo Technical University, Howard University, and the Argonne National Laboratory to address current and future cybersecurity research challenges. Undergraduate students learned how to read technical papers and understand current research, but also conducted their own experiments, finding and solving problems related to machine learning and cybersecurity.

"I thought I was going to learn about traditional cybersecurity, but it was way beyond what I expected," said Kelly Morgan, a Navajo Technical University student. "We learned how to perform an adversarial attack on a neural network model, and it was amazing."

The students also learned skills that can be broadly applied, such as how to use Python, GitHub, and Microsoft Azure.

"I recommend this program for all students who have a love for learning, especially in programming, machine learning, and cybersecurity," said UA ECE student Joe Liang.

Even the graduate student mentors, who were there to guide the students as they got their feet wet in the world of research, found the experience to be enlightening.

"I have always been on a receiving end of education, and being on the other side was definitely refreshing and interesting," said Srishti Gupta, an ECE graduate student who acted as a mentor in the REU. "We collaborated on the research and, from the generated results, we're planning on submitting a journal paper."

Professors Tamal Bose and Salim Hariri and associate professor Gregory Ditzler led the PACT REU program. Their graduate student mentors included Alex Berian, Srishti Gupta, and Shalaka Satam.

More can be found here.