http://www.ittc.ku.edu Latest news from the Information Technology and Telecommunication Center at the University of Kansas en-us Copyright 2009 ITTC http://www.ittc.ku.edu/rss http://www.ittc.ku.edu/images/ittc-new-logo.jpg http://www.ittc.ku.edu Perry Alexander, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Kansas, has been named acting director of KU's Information and Telecommunication Technology Center. Alexander served as director of ITTC's Information Assurance and Computer Systems Design labs before his interim appointment.

Alexander succeeds Joseph Evans, the Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, who is taking a leave of absence from KU to continue his entrepreneurial work on the Tactical Ground Reporting System for the federal government, a multimedia reporting system for soldiers on the ground, allowing users to collect and share information. Alexander and Evans worked closely together in garnering federal distinction for the university's dedication to cyber security research and education. The designation was awarded in May.

"Perry's leadership in our effort to become National Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education showcased his unique abilities," said Evans. "He is an exceptional researcher and a dedicated mentor. His successful spin-off company, Cadstone, provides him with unique insights into commercialization. He is an excellent choice to advance the ITTC mission of research, education and technology transfer."

Priorities for Alexander include the continued development of new faculty and an improved response time to novel research opportunities. In the last five years, nine new faculty researchers have brought a wealth of youth, talent and diversity to ITTC. Good mentoring will be critical to their success, said Alexander. The addition of proficient researchers must be coupled with an enhanced laboratory structure. According to Alexander, a more adaptable infrastructure will give ITTC researchers greater flexibility when addressing new challenges and opportunities for the university, state and nation.

"I am honored to step in as acting director at this exciting time for ITTC," Alexander said. "We have tremendous new investigators with budding research programs. While working with them, we will continue supporting our established researchers and their efforts. Toward this end, we will adjust the internal ITTC laboratory infrastructure to help our researchers focus on potential new challenges such as green energy and information security."

Alexander is the principal architect of Rosetta, a system-level design language that allows different parts of electronic systems to communicate with each other. The technology was spun-out in 2001 as a Kansas startup company--Cadstone--that is now a Lawrence-based provider of language-based system-level design tools and services.

Alexander earned bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering and computer science and master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from KU. After seven years on the faculty at the University of Cincinnati, Alexander returned to his alma mater in 1999 as an associate professor and principal investigator with ITTC. He was promoted to full professor in 2005. Alexander has published more than 100 refereed papers, has won 15 teaching awards and presented numerous invited talks.

Evans served as ITTC director since August 2008 and acting director from 1999 to 2000. He came to KU in 1989, following a postdoctoral appointment with AT&T Bell Laboratories. From 2003 to 2005, Evans was a program director at the National Science Foundation in its Directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering. Upon returning to KU, he was director of research information technology for the university until he became director of ITTC.]]> http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=205 http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=205 mward@ittc.ku.edu (Michelle Ward) Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500 ITTC student Gino Rea has won the Graduate Student Paper award from the International Telemetering Conference (ITC). Rea will receive $1,000 and a plaque at the opening ceremony of ITC 2009 on Oct. 27 in Las Vegas. ITTC investigator Erik Perrins served as the faculty advisor on "A System-Level Description of a SOQPSK-TG Demodulator for FEC Applications."]]> http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=204 http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=204 mward@ittc.ku.edu (Michelle Ward) Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Luke Huanhas been awarded a $500,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant from the National Science Foundation. The prestigious CAREER award supports junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars. Huan is the second ITTC researcher to receive the honor; Xue-wen Chen, director of ITTC's Bioinformatics and Computational Life Sciences Lab, received a CAREER award in 2007.

With the NSF support, Huan is developing advanced data mining and machine learning theory and algorithms to identify stable patterns in data. Working with collaborators in academia, industry and governmental agencies, Huan is applying the computational techniques to improve the quality of the interpretation of data collected for chemical interactions with biological systems. This research is expected to accelerate drug discovery with a simplified and focused drug design process and improve chemical toxicity monitoring in environmental protection, two major application areas of Huan's research.

Huan joined ITTC in 2006. The EECS assistant professor is an affiliated member of the Bioinformatics Center, Bioengineering Program and the Center for Biostatistics and Advanced Informatics--all KU research organizations. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2006. Before coming to KU, he worked at the Argonne National Laboratory and GlaxoSmithKline.]]> http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=202 http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=202 mward@ittc.ku.edu (Michelle Ward) Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Andy Gill has been a master of the universe, ordering dozens of satellites to move around the galaxy.

All right, it is all part of a game, and the moving of satellites is happening just in the virtual world. But what is real is that, for a weekend, Kansas University has been the center of the computer programming universe.

KU and its Information and Telecommunication Technology Center played host-Friday through Monday-to the international championships for functional computer programmers.

More than 850 teams from around the globe entered the contest. The participants include many of the top programmers in the world.

"There are programmers from companies like NASA and Google that have entered teams," said Nick Frisby, a KU doctoral student who is helping run the competition. "There are all these very talented people from top-tier institutions playing a game that was created at KU. That's very cool."

The "game" this year focused on moving mythical satellites around in space. A team of KU researchers spent the last several months creating a computer program that represents how the mythical satellites work and function.

The approximately 850 teams that entered the competition were then told to develop their own computer programs to move the satellites to specific points in the universe on a specific time schedule. For example, the final challenge in the competition was for the teams to develop a program for a single satellite to link up with 12 other satellites positioned around the galaxy.

But, of course, there's a catch. The entire competition takes place over 72 hours, and the teams have no idea what the scenario will be until the competition begins. The end result is a furious amount of work in a short period of time. Gill, who teaches in the electrical engineering and computer science department at KU, was previously on a team that won third in the competition.

"I think we had maybe three or four hours of sleep in the 72-hour period," said Gill, who is supervising the competition for KU.

Winners are determined based on the number of successful programs each team creates. Judges test the programs using a computer program that they have developed, and also score the programs based on overall functionality.

The teams are allowed to write the programs in whichever programming language they choose. That tends to create rivalries between different programming camps, Gill said.

"To say that they are competing for prestige is too nice a word, too finessed a word," Gill said. "They really are competing for bragging rights. In a sense, you are competing for the programing language that you use."

Competitors also are competing to test their own skills. Of the approximately 850 teams, only about 400 actually will complete a program.

KU programmers are not fielding a team in this year's event because of conflict of interest reasons. But the university is expected to be a big winner. By hosting the competition, KU joins an elite list of schools that have tackled the project. Past hosts have included Harvard, Cornell, Penn and Virginia universities.

"That's one of the reasons I wanted to do this," Gill said. "This group here at KU has been doing some very interesting language research, but it hasn't been noticed as such. This helps put KU on the map. It gives us some good visibility."

Contest winners will be announced in August at the International Conference on Functional Programming in Edinburgh, Scotland.]]> http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=201 http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=201 mward@ittc.ku.edu (Michelle Ward) Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500
The recipients with KU connections are

--Ali Nabavizadeh, graduating senior in ecology and evolultionary biology from Olathe, whose research of the mechanics of the jaws of plant-eating dinosaurs has uncovered new information about how the jaw bones enabled the prehistoric herbivores to thrive.

--Brian L. Quanz, doctoral student in computer science from Cary, N.C., who is developing software able to predict cargo security, genetic predisposition and other outcomes in a data-driven approach.

-- Laura A. Stiles, 2008 graduate in engineering physics and a former Goldwater scholar from Prairie Village, now pursuing a doctorate in aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

They were among 950 fellowship recipients announced recently by the NSF. About 10 percent of those who apply for the NSF fellowships are selected. Graduate research fellowships provide an annual stipend plus tuition and discretionary funds for up to three years. The fellowships support students in the early stages of their research-based master's or doctoral degrees.


Quanz works with Jun Huan, assistant professor of EECS and a researcher with ITTC. Quanz is helping objects determine their own safety level. His artificial intelligence tools process data collected within sensor networks charged with tracking assets along the supply chain. Quanz's data analysis serves as the foundation for a threat detection system, providing cargo shipments en route with greater visibility, security and accountability. The alert system is part of ITTC's Transportation Security SensorNet project, led by Joseph Evans, ITTC director and the Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Quanz's artificial intelligence algorithms also have applications in bioinformatics. Genes, in effect, have on/off switches. ITTC researchers, including Huan, are examining why these genes, such as those in cancer cells, are expressed in some people while remaining off in others. Quanz is attempting to expose the role diet, stress and other environmental factors have in flipping on those switches.

"“The fellowship, which I am honored to receive, gives me the freedom to pursue different research avenues," Quanz said.

Huan said, "The NSF fellowship is a great achievement for Brian. It also reflects the strong graduate program that we have at KU."

Quanz is a spring 2007 electrical engineering graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was admitted into KU's fast track doctoral program in which students usually graduate in five years, compared with six years needed in traditional doctoral programs. KU accepts highly qualified applicants who have completed their undergraduate degrees directly into the electrical engineering and computer science program.

He is the son of Leo and Susan Quanz and the grandson of Mary Novitsky, all of Cary, N.C.]]> http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=200 http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=200 mward@ittc.ku.edu (Michelle Ward) Wed, 13 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500
The National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security have designated KU a National Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education.

"Keeping a free flow of digital information is a national priority that also affects individual peace of mind," said Steve Warren, vice provost for research and graduate studies. "KU is working to enhance both. This announcement reflects that fact and is a tremendous recognition of the strong collaboration that came together to submit the successful proposal."

The KU designation comes at a time when experts at the National Academy of Science and policymakers have identified cybersecurity as a key component to protecting the wired lives of Americans, who use banks, utilities, communication and other products and services used on an hourly, daily or weekly basis. By educating the next generation of practitioners, performing fundamental research and reaching out to the community, KU serves as a regional center of expertise in support of the ongoing fight to protect the U.S. information infrastructure.

KU's Information and Telecommunication Technology Center and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science together form the core of KU's program. In working toward center of excellence designation, ITTC developed the Information Assurance Lab.

The lab serves as a university-wide focal point for information assurance education, research and implementation. The new interdisciplinary lab includes researchers from the electrical engineering and computer science department, mathematics department and business school as well as KU's IT Security Office, which is responsible for implementing information security on campus.

The proposal for the center of excellence designation was drafted by Joseph Evans, ITTC director and the Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Perry Alexander, director of the ITTC Information Assurance Lab and electrical engineering and computer science professor. They worked with faculty from ITTC and the School of Business and Information Services staff.

"This is a testament to our national prominence in information assurance and cybersecurity education," said Alexander. "The hard work and strategic vision of numerous KU faculty members and staff led to the University being accepted into this elite group."

In coordination with the Information Assurance Lab, the electrical engineering and computer science department offers a master's degree in information technology with a focus on information security. Additionally, the department's computer science and computer engineering graduate programs include strong security components. Complementing these programs, the School of Business offers information systems and accounting courses with emphasis on information security issues.

"This designation recognizes the initiative and vision of numerous KU faculty and staff, and particularly Professor Alexander," said Evans. "In establishing the IA lab, Professor Alexander brought together diverse IA research expertise and the rich academic resources of KU. The lab is the centerpiece of a holistic approach to securing the national information infrastructure."

To be named a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance, an institution must meet courseware standards defined by the Information Assurance Courseware Evaluation Program. In 2007, KU's electrical engineering and computer science department was certified for standards 4011 and 4013: the National Training Standard for Information Systems Security Professionals and the National Information Assurance Training Standard for System Administrators, respectively.]]> http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=199 http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=199 mward@ittc.ku.edu (Michelle Ward) Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500
K-INBRE, which was established in 2001, is designed to improve the ability of Kansas researchers to compete effectively for NIH funds by building a "critical mass" of junior and senior biomedical investigators. Within the area of cell and developmental biology, K-INBRE provides financial support for undergraduates ready for research experiences, their mentors and junior and senior investigators, and encourages the development of cutting-edge biomedical research technology. The program is a multi-campus effort with collaborations among researchers at at the Medical Center, lead campus, Lawrence campus, Kansas State University, Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Haskell Indian Nations University, Langston University (Oklahoma), Pittsburg State University, Washburn University and Wichita State University.

The K-INBRE program comprises four basic cores: administrative, headed by Joan Hunt, principal investigator and director, Medical Center; bioinformatics, led by Gerry Lushington Lawrence campus; partnerships for translational research, directed by Dianne Durham, Medical Center; and communication, led by Peter Smith, Medical Center. Major undergraduate and post-doctoral committees are headed by Keith Chapes, K-State and Bob Cohen, KU.

The $18.5 million grant, awarded by the National Center for Research Resources at the NIH, will promote continued success of this multi-campus effort in encouraging undergraduates to consider biomedical careers, faculty to strengthen their biomedical research programs and both trainees and faculty to utilize bioinformatics approaches for data acquisition and analysis. This renewal provides funds for new efforts to support post-graduate trainees, stimulate translational research and apply systems biology to research projects.

"The nice thing about this new core is that it supports ongoing translational research initiatives in the state, such as the Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation, the University of Kansas Cancer Center and the General Clinical Research Center," said Greg Kopf, executive director of the Research Institute at the Medical Center.

Through competitive grant processes, K-INBRE awards funds for undergraduate and graduate research and equipment for laboratories. Jim Orr, professor of molecular biosciences, said students greatly benefited from K-INBRE because they work one-on-one with faculty researchers.

"Any undergraduate who is able to conduct research alongside a faculty mentor will benefit, because they will have a stronger application to graduate or medical school," said Orr.

Because one major goal of the program is to provide for the educational development of students, Joan Hunt, University Distinguished Professor, vice chancellor for Biomedical Research Infrastructure and principal investigator of K-INBRE, said the grant will continue to contribute to the future of biological enterprises in the state. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that every $1 million in grants generates 40 jobs in Kansas, and Hunt remarked that biomedical research positions are highly desirable and well-paid, increasing the overall economic growth of Kansas.

"Higher education is vital to career development, and the K-INBRE grant permits us to foster the growth of new scientists who, we hope, will choose to pursue their research careers in Kansas," said Hunt.]]> http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=198 http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=198 mward@ittc.ku.edu (Michelle Ward) Mon, 11 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Xue-wen Chen serves as the conference chair for the IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics & Biomedicine to be held in November. The multidisciplinary conference brings together academic and industrial scientists from computer science, biology, chemistry, medicine, mathematics and statistics. It will provide a platform to discuss issues and present research.

Chen, the director of ITTC's Bioinformatics and Computational Life-Sciences Lab, is co-chair with Sun Kim, an associate professor at Indiana University and bioinformatics program director.

ITTC investigator Shannon Blunt served as the vice chair of the 2009 International Waveform Diversity & Design Conference. The February conference in Orlando, Florida, brought together researchers from diverse backgrounds to facilitate the exchange and cross-fertilization of ideas and research. Recent advances in hardware technology are enabling a much wider range of designs to be explored for sensor and communication systems. The conference examined the emerging and compelling changes in system requirements such as more efficient spectrum usage, higher sensitivities, greater information content, transmitter/receiver agility, and improved robustness to errors]]> http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=195 http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=195 mward@ittc.ku.edu (Michelle Ward) Sun, 03 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Angela Oguna, a sophomore in electrical engineering, has received a KU Undergraduate Research Award. Awards support original, independent research by students enrolled on the Lawrence campus. Oguna's project, "Data Collection in a Rail-Based Cargo Monitoring Sensor Network," is part of an effort to develop more secure, efficient transportation corridors. The real-time sensing network provides greater visibility and accountability as goods travel along the supply chain.

In the fall, the Kenya native was selected as a 2008-2009 University of Kansas Scholar. Gary Minden, director of ITTC Communications and Networking Systems Lab (CNSL), serves as Oguna's mentor.]]> http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=197 http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=197 mward@ittc.ku.edu (Michelle Ward) Sun, 03 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Aaron Smalter was among 16 University of Kansas students chosen to participate in the Kansas IDeA (Institutional Development Awards) Network of Biomedical Research Excellence symposium in January. Smalter's research poster, "Novel chemical informatics methods for the KU CMLD," focused on the development of computational analysis tools for structured data such as sets, sequences and graphs. He is working on methods for the discovery of chemical-protein and protein-protein interactions from large-scale databases. These interactions play a fundamental role in many biological processes and in cancer and other diseases. ITTC investigator Luke Huan guided Smalter's research.]]> http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=196 http://www.ittc.ku.edu/view_article.phtml?id=196 mward@ittc.ku.edu (Michelle Ward) Sun, 03 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500