Research Interests

• Cyber security
• Artificial intelligence
• Soft computing
• Distributed computing
• Software engineering

I currently focus my research on the following key areas:

• Mobile code management and security
• Intelligent software (mobile) agents for cyber security

Although specific research topics of interest to me sometimes change, here are the topics I am currently very interested in:

• Evolution of intelligent agents for cyber security
• Design principles for embedded tamper-resistant intelligent agents
• FPGA-based network design for support of intelligent agents and increased cyber security
• Real-time visualization of network attacks
• Proactive and effective cyber security education
• Modeling multi-agent systems

An interesting project I am currently working on involves recreating a variety of network devices such as network interface cards (NICs), routers, switches, and even splices of Ethernet cable on FPGA-based development boards. The goal is to ultimately layer an evolving mobile agent framework on the network through these FPGA-based devices for the purpose of securing cyber systems.

Another interesting project I participated in involved mobile intelligent agents in a heterogeneous data gathering setting in combination with web service technologies and the use of reconfigurable fuzzy logic techniques to provide a comprehensive analysis specific to a problem domain. The research involves the Department of Defense, NAVOCEANO, Stennis Space Center, and members of industry including Radiance Technologies, Diamond Data Systems, and NVision Solutions.

I have been known to be interested in the following rather interesting areas:

• Data structures (I have struggled with attempting to properly define smart data)
• Web services (including their potential use as mobile agent hosts)
• Intelligent machines (i.e., robotic machines; see Parallax's Boe-Bot and Lego's Mindstorm NXT for introductory examples)

I have had the pleasure of working in several laboratories as a researcher. My current research falls under the Center for Secure Cyberspace, a joint collaboration of Louisiana Tech University and Louisiana State University. I have worked for the Computational Science Research Facility for Defense Data Integration (CSR-DDI) which focuses on using mobile intelligent agents and fuzzy logic to analyze disparate information in order to aid battlefield commanders. I have also worked with the Database Research Lab for Intelligent Agents (DRLIA), in conjunction with the NGA (also, see GEOINT), developing intelligent geospatial agents for distributed information retrieval and conflation.