Student Research
Current Research Projects
A Vulnerability Analysis of LLM Code Generation
Students: Mitchell Milander, James Richards-Perhatch
Mentors: James Halvorsen, Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
Adversarial Attacks on Robot Dog Motion
Students: Noah Manuel, Josiah Norton
Mentors: Yufeng Yang, Dr. Mengyu Liu
Adversarial Learning for Robust ML-Based Phishing Email Detection
Students: Charles Liu, Shane Ganz
Mentors: Tashi Stirewalt, Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
An Analysis of the NIST Citizens Broadband Radio Service Dataset
Students: Aaron Sanchez, Elliot Small
Mentors: Alan Sun, Zach Werle
Analysis and Detection of Modern Cyber Payloads
Students: Lyric Hathcock, Elang Sisson
Mentors*: Justin Van Der Sluys, Emily West
Assessing Middleware Security in Robotic Infrastructure
Group members*: Caitlyn Boyd, Sean Hodgson, Cole Wilson
Context Collapse Predicts Moral Injury from Cybersecurity Violations
Students: Noah Julius, Nathan Teh
Mentors: Ashlynn Main, Dr. Sherri Lynn Conklin
Defending Against AI-Enhanced Information Operations
Students: Nels Blair, Felix Disanto
Mentors: Fredy Fernandez, Dr. Jennifer R. Henrichsen
Low-Cost Cyber Exercises with High-Fidelity Realism
Students: Blake Platt, Ryan Von Bereghy
Mentors*: Adam Caudle, Sean Hodgson
Region-Based Adversarial Image Generation for Vision Language Models
Students: Ethan Kanyid, Advaitha Motkuri
Mentors: Ahmed Abdelnaby, Dr. Mohamed Elmahallawy
Sanitizing Inputs to Protect LLMs Against Prompt Injection Attacks
Students: Noah Ferguson, Brady Zapf
Mentors: Tashi Stirewalt, Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
Securing Imaginative Autonomy in an Era of Biased AI
Students: Brandon Leiva, Seth Trimberger
Mentors: Ashlynn Main, Dr. Sherri Lynn Conklin
*: These projects were proposed and led by senior CySER students and WSU student club (Cyber Security Group) leadership.
Previous Research Projects
Presented at the Summer Workshop 2025
Securing Image Metadata: Cyber Security Risk Mitigation in Digital Photography
Student: Abby Jones
Mentors: Yvette Hastings, Dr. Clemente Izurieta
Evaluating Cyber Threats and Mitigation Techniques for Smart Farming Technologies
Student: Jessica Stevens
Mentors: Yvette Hastings, Dr. Clemente Izurieta
Dashboard of Cyberattacks and their Historic Timeline
Students: Gideon Survoy, Keeler Sparks
Mentors: Yvette Hastings, Dr. Clemente Izurieta
Leveling Up Cyber Skills: Mapping Bandit Labs to the NICE Framework
Students: Allison Youngblood, Sam White
Mentors: Zachary Werle, Dr. James Crabb
From Attack to Defense: Backdoor Threats and MAE-Based Defenses in Vertical Federated Learning for IoT Applications
Students: Ryan Brombaugh, Mathias Kelley
Mentors: Ahmed Abdelnaby, Dr. Mohamed Elmahallawy
Defending LLMs against PII leakage through Proactive Privacy Amnesia
Students: Isaiah Foster, Isaac Teo
Mentors: Mohamed Shaaban, Dr. Mohamed Elmahallawy
The Effect of AI Tools on Static Analysis of Source Code for Authorship Attribution
Students: Collin Bale, Genevieve Kochel, Natalie Simkins
Mentors: Tashi Stirewalt, Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
Assessing the Transnational Effects of Surveillance on Media Freedom
Students: Aaron Aytes, Yessica Bello Luna, Lauren Caruso
Mentors: Kathie Brickner, Dr. Jennifer Henrichsen
Assimilate – A Takedown Resistant Botnet Simulation
Students: Zachary Adelson, Christopher Mendoza, Elang Sisson
Mentors: Fredy Fernandez, Sean Hodgson, Justin Van Der Sluys, Nathan Waltz
Evaluating Open Large Language Model Benchmark Platforms
Students: Shane Ganz, Darasimi Ogunbinu-Peters
Mentors: Mohammad Babar, Dr. Monowar Hasan
From Cloud to Crop: A Predictive Platform for Weather and Apple Fruit Surface Temperature
Students: Sophia McMahon, Taylor Tran
Mentors: Tamim Ahmed, Dr. Monowar Hasan
Using Large Language Models for Cybersecurity Capture-The-Flag Challenges and Certification Questions
Students: Kevin Kagawa, Dylan Phipps
Mentors: Alan Sun, James Halvorsen
Presented at the Summer Workshop 2024
A Model System for Study of Cyberattacks on Biomanufacturing
Students: Cameron Botelho, Justin Van Der Sluys, Cayden Calo, Bryan Frederickson
Mentors: Brenden Fraser-Hevlin, Alec Schuler, Bernard Van Wie, Arda Gozen
Bridging the Cybersecurity Awareness Gap in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: Challenges, Solutions, and Future Directions
Students: Meredith Lamb, Jessica Martin
Mentors: Blessing Akinrotimi, Dr. Olusola Adesope
Cookie Monster: The Security and Risks of Online Cookies
Student: Dustin Edgerton
Mentors: Yvette Hastings, Dr. Clemente Izurieta
Cyber Security Group RSO
Presenter: Zach Werle (Software Engineering)
Data Synthesis on Unbalanced Datasets Using Machine Learning
Students: Puumaaya Tahiru, Isabella Sunderman
Mentors: Dr. James Crabb, Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
Economic and Social Impacts of Compromised Power System Devices
Students: Blake Davidson, William Fralia, Yessica Bello-Luna
Mentors: Ben McCornack, Dr. Noel Schulz
Evaluating Cybersecurity Instructional Strategies for Students
Students: Alejandra Prado, Lilith Ryan Sutton
Mentors: Blessing Akinrotimi, Dr. Olusola Adesope
Obfuscation-Resilient Static Analysis for Binary Malware Detection
Students: Sean Hodgson, Emily West
Mentors: Tashi Stirewalt, Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
Point of Sale (POS) Device Security Measures
Student: Grant Eckerson
Mentors: Yvette Hastings, Dr. Clemente Izurieta
PyNaCl “Salt” Encryption and Authentication for Networking to 3D Printer
Student: Justin Hartberg
Mentors: Yvette Hastings, Dr. Clemente Izurieta
Security Assessment of Distributed Energy Resource Inverter
Student: Sophia McMahon
Mentors: Ben McCornack, Dr. Noel Schulz
Side Channel Attacks on Compilers and Defensive Countermeasures
Student: James Van Spyk
Mentors: Yvette Hastings, Dr. Clemente Izurieta
Text Mining and Classification in Defining Cybersecurity Education Requirements
Students: Caitlyn Boyd, Noah Manuel
Mentors: Dr. James Crabb, Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
The New Frontline of Journalism: Defending Against AI-Enhanced Information Operations and the Creation of Deepfakes
Students: Samuel Lalor, Dan Ngo
Mentors: Julia Stachofsky, Dr. Jennifer Henrichsen
Vulnerability Detection in Source Code via Subgraph Isomorphism Analysis
Students: Douglas Takada, Freeman Trader
Mentors: Tashi Stirewalt, Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
Watchful Eyes and Silenced Voices: Assessing the Transnational Effects of Surveillance on Media Freedom
Students: Sarahy Guerrero Marquez , Ian Mickelson, Dominic Murillo
Mentors: Julia Stachofsky, Dr. Jennifer Henrichsen
Presented at the Summer Workshop 2023
Investing in Legacy: Cleaning and Categorizing a United States Government Information Technology Budget Dataset to Understand Public Sector Legacy Systems Investment
Student: Natalie Simkins
Mentors: Julia Stachofsky, Dr. Rob Crossler
Laser-Cutter System Password
Students: Zebedee Kumley, Caleb Lowe
Mentors: Andrew Fallin, Dr. Clemente Izurieta
Examining Current Safefty Measures and Awareness of Cyber Threats to Mobile Devices: A Literary Review
Student: Samantha Brewer
Mentors: Blessing Akinrotimi, Dr. Haipeng Cai
Trusted Platform Module in Satellite Applications
Student: James Minteer
Mentors: Dr. James Crabb, Dr. Subhanshu Gupta
Developing Tools for Cybersecurity Education and Assessment
Student: Moises Carranza
Mentors: Dr. James Crabb, Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
Leveraging Learning Theory to Improve the Effectiveness of Cybersecurity Education
Student: Alan Sun
Mentors: Dr. James Crabb, Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
Evaluating the Observability of Network Security Monitoring Strategies With TOMATO
Students: Zachery Werle, William Heinecke
Mentors: James Halvorsen, Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
Supervised Graphical Binary Threat Detection (WIP)
Students: Andrew Fritz, Cai Haught, Jose Sainz
Mentors: Nathan Waltz, Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
U.S. Military Offensive Cyber Capabilities
Students: Macy Schowalter, Tyler Moravec
Mentors: Andrew Fallin, Dr. Clemente Izurieta
A Model System for Study of Cyberattacks on Biomanufacturing
Students: Adam Caudle, Mikayden Weise, Jacob Mitsourov
Mentors: Brenden Fraser-Hevlin, Dr. Bernard Van Wie