New York Celebration of Women in Computing

Promoting the Academic, Social, and Professional Growth of Technical Women and Their Allies in New York State

April 12-13, 2024

Lake George, NY

Posters

Saturday, April 13th

10:20-11:20 am

Fort Edward Room & Lounge


High-Power Computing Clusters for Artificial Intelligence Research

Liam Haggerty* (4th year undergraduate student, Marist College)

Christopher DelVecchio* (4th year undergraduate student, Marist College)

Christopher Algozzine (Advising Professor, Marist College)

This investigation explores the construction and optimization of High-Performance Computing (HPC) clusters for advancing AI research, highlighting the essential hardware and infrastructure required to meet AI's growing computational needs. We delve into the assembly and management of two HPC clusters equipped with GPUs, orchestrated by Slurm and Lenovo's LiCO software for efficient parallel processing and resource allocation. This research emphasizes the critical importance of meticulously designed HPC clusters in pushing the boundaries of AI research, pointing to opportunities for further refinement and broader application across various AI domains.


Predicting Exoplanetary Habitability with AI and Machine Learning

Vasuda Trehan* (2nd year PhD student in Information Sciences, U. at Albany)

Recent advancements in space technology, propelled by strides in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), have transformed our capacity to explore the cosmos. SpaceX and Blue Origin's efforts to commercialize space exploration signify a pivotal shift, promising more comprehensive access to space and reshaping our cosmic connection. James Webb Space Telescope offers extensive data on distant space and exoplanets, aided by AI in processing and analysis. Bayesian data analysis predicts spectral characteristics of extrasolar planets, utilizing multiple parameters to model spectral bin heights with spline curves. This approach enhances our understanding of exoplanet habitability across different temporal contexts.


American Sign Language (ASL) Dictionary App

Elta Bajrami*, 2nd year undergraduate, Vassar College

Rebecca Bogstad*, 2nd year undergraduate, Vassar College

ASL Dictionary App is an Android application with the goal of improving communication dynamics in settings where access to sign-language translation services may be limited. Our app translates words from English text to sign language displayed in the form of a GIF. It supports three ways to look up signs: searching, browsing categories, and creating a customizable list of favorites.


Using AI to aid chronically homeless individuals

Khandker Sadia Rahman*, Graduate research assistant, Department of Computer Science, University at Albany.
Charalampos Chelmis, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University at Albany.

Over the years, several homeless services providers have appeared offering services to assist homeless individuals and chronically homeless individuals tend to access these services and reenter the system repeatedly. Such a pattern of homelessness not only impacts the individual physically, mentally, and emotionally, but also affects the society in many ways. Our research focuses on developing methods that can learn the existing system to replicate decisions and optimize them to improve outcomes. This poster presents our proposed method that can predict the next service assignment while significantly reducing the chances of reentry.


Multi-Activity Student Knowledge and Behavior Modeling via Transfer Learning

Siqian Zhao*, PhD Student, Computer Science Department, University at Albany- SUNY

Shaghayegh Sahebi, Associate Professor, Computer Science Department, University at Albany-SUNY

The goals of this work include studying student knowledge and behavior, as well as their association with each other, and developing and improving student knowledge and behavior modeling when students interact with multiple types of learning materials. We treat student learning activities of multi-type learning materials as multi-view sequences and suggest adopting transfer learning to solve these multi-view sequence modeling problems. We intend to investigate the student knowledge and behavior modeling from multiple learning material types in terms of the following tasks: (1) Student knowledge acquisition from multiple learning material types. (2) Knowledge transfer modeling between different learning material types.


Assessing the Impact of LLM on PLTL Workshops Through Self-Perceptions at an R1 Research University

Saini Rajneet* (2nd year undergraduate at U. Rochester)

With the growing advancements of artificial intelligence and technology, one may begin to question the ethics of its use in education. The release of ChatGPT has led to the formation of a negative stigmatic cloud, fuelled by its portrayal in mainstream media and student misuse for cheating – further hindering its potential to be seen as a positive incorporation in education. This research project finds itself as a stepping-stone in shifting this perception, incentivizing students to utilize ChatGPT as a valuable learning assistant rather than a tool for academic shortcuts, beginning with its use in Computer Science PLTL Workshops.


OfficeGuard: The Anti-Phishing Training Game

*Olivia BenAoumeur, 4th year undergraduate, University at Albany

Dr. Kimberly Cornell, Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, University at Albany, Thesis Supervisor

While anti-phishing training is widely available for employees in the business world, there is a lack of emphasis on students’ email etiquette and training during their formative years. The gamification of training tools is helpful for increasing the retention of information through the creation of an engaging product. This poster displays research on anti-phishing training and game development, combined to create a game for students to learn the importance of email cybersecurity.


Word Definitions from Large Language Models

*Yunting Yin, 5th year PhD student, Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University.

Steven Skiena, Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University

Dictionary definitions are historically the arbitrator of what words mean, but this primacy has come under threat by recent progress in NLP, including word embeddings and generative models like ChatGPT. We present an exploratory study of the degree of alignment between word definitions from classical dictionaries and these newer computational artifacts. Specifically, we compare definitions from three published dictionaries to those generated from variants of ChatGPT. We show that (i) definitions from different traditional dictionaries exhibit more surface form similarity than do model-generated definitions, (ii) that the ChatGPT definitions are highly accurate, comparable to traditional dictionaries, and (iii) ChatGPT-based embedding definitions retain their accuracy even on low frequency words, much better than GloVE and FastText word embeddings.


Virtual Reality Game: Day at the Park

Ariana Morace*, 4th year undergraduate student, Farmingdale State College

Shania Brown*, 4th year undergraduate student, Farmingdale State College

Marissa Lubow*, 3rd year undergraduate student, Farmingdale State College

Day at the Park is an immersive virtual reality game where players act as park rangers. Developed with Unity and Blender, the game offers rewards for completing tasks and unlocking features. The game aims to provide a visually appealing and interactive experience to those who appreciate nature, VR experiences, and helping others.


Citizen’s Social Media Use and Their Foreign Policy Awareness: Are They Correlated?

Dimaz Cahya Ardhi*, 1st year Ph.D. in Information Science student, U. at Albany

Dwi Puspita Sari*, 2nd year Ph.D. in Information Science student, U. at Albany

Derick Chungcheh Ma*, 1st year Ph.D. in Information Science student, U. at Albany

The proposed study will employ secondary data analysis with supervised machine learning models to examine whether social media use increases civic awareness of a country’s foreign relations. A pilot has been conducted using the Pew Research Center’s survey data on participants’ social media use and awareness of the Sino-U.S. relationship. The preliminary results showed an 80% performance of the models' prediction, which implied a satisfying performance and supported the inference that participants' social media use could be positively correlated with awareness of the Sino-U.S. relationship.


The Programming Alchemist

Jasmatie Lutawan* and Hemmattie Gobind*, Second year Undergraduate students at SUNY Schenectady County Community College

Amy Osborne, Keion Clinton, Lorena Harris, and M’ykhael Wilson, SUNY Schenectady County Community College

This project combines chemistry and coding together to create a program that will help communities of students at large. It will help chemistry students along with general users who would like to get an idea of chemical elements in understanding and visualizing how a variety of compounds interact and their composition (helping users understand what and why the elements interact and connect). Users will have an interactive experience within the program by creating compounds that can be made with elements, including characteristics of these compounds along with animations. The program does not only help chemistry students but also coding students, if we look deeper into the program and analyze the code, students will be able to understand how this coding language is used and can easily edit the code so they can become acquainted with adding on to a program, becoming collaborators and co-developers with the programming alchemist.


Active Learning Strategies for Bayesian Optimization in NLP

*Disha Ghoshal, 1st year PhD Student, Stony Brook University

Mónica Bugallo, Professor, Stony Brook University

This research delves into enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks by synergizing active learning strategies with Bayesian techniques. First we explore Bayesian Optimization for a similar subset problem and later utilize the approach onto NLP. By integrating uncertainty sampling, query-by-committee, and expected model change into the Bayesian optimization framework, the study aims to address computational inefficiencies in large-scale NLP problems. In future, empirical evaluations on diverse NLP benchmarks will demonstrate how these active learning strategies expedite convergence and improve overall optimization efficiency, and help in optimizing resource utilization and enhancing the scalability and accessibility of NLP tasks while preserving or enhancing their performance.


Gaussian Processes for Topology Inference of Directed Graphs

Chen Cui*, 4th Year Graduate, Stony Brook University

Petar Djuric, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Stony Brook University

We are interested in interpreting complex systems and predicting their behaviors. These systems can be mathematically modeled as directed graphs, and inferring their underlying structures from observed signals is crucial for a full understanding. The process of graph topology inference becomes more challenging when the graphs are dynamic. In our research, we represent the observed graph signals as nodes and their interactions as edges. We have developed four methods to tackle this inference task: two for static graphs and two for dynamic graphs. The numerical results suggest a comparable or superior performance compared with state-of-the-art works.


Deep Learning Models for Nanomaterial Design

Elham Sadeghi* (graduate student- Department of Computer Science- University at Albany - SUNY)

Anna Gonzàlez-Rosell (graduate student- University of California, Irvine),

Peter Mastracco(graduate student- University of California, Irvine),

Stacy M. Copp(Assistant Professor - Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Department of Physics and Astronomy- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | University of California, Irvine)

Petko Bogdanov (Associate Professor- Department of Computer Science- University at Albany - SUNY)

DNA-stabilized silver nanoclusters (AgN-DNAs) combine 10-30 silver atoms with short synthetic DNA, offering bright fluorescence ideal for biosensing and use as fluorophores. Their fluorescence color and nanocluster size are tunable by DNA sequence, yet understanding their "genome" is challenging due to complex DNA-silver interactions and difficulty in predicting fluorescence. We propose a variational autoencoder (VAE) with LSTM architecture to correlate model predictions with AgN-DNA traits like color and brightness, incorporating Shapley value analysis for deeper insights into important DNA sub-sequences. This method marks progress in nanomaterial design for bioimaging, biosensing, and beyond, showcasing VAEs' potential in AgN-DNA applications.


Advancing Cybersecurity: The Role of AI and User Behavior Analytics in Counteracting Insider Threats and Proactive Risk Management

*Sakshi Singh, 1st Year PhD student, University at Albany

*Lakshika Vaishnav, 1st Year PhD student, University at Albany

Explores the cutting-edge fusion of User Behavior Analytics (UBA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in fortifying cybersecurity against insider threats and enabling proactive risk management. This paper illuminates how integrating UBA and AI not only identifies subtle internal risks but also strengthens the organization's security framework. By analyzing user activities and employing AI for nuanced threat detection, this approach offers a proactive shield against evolving cyber threats.


Improving Machine Learning Models in the Presence of Mislabeled Data Instances Using Counterfactual Learning

Data quality is of paramount importance to the training of any machine learning model. Recently proposed approaches for noisy learning focus on detecting noisy labeled data instances by using a fixed loss value threshold and excluding detected noisy data instances in subsequent training steps. However, a predefined, fixed loss value threshold may not be optimal for detecting noisy labeled data, whereas excluding the detected noisy data instances can reduce the size of the training set to such an extend that accuracy can be negatively affected. In this work, we propose Noisy label Detection and Counterfactual Correction (NDCC), a new approach that automatically selects a loss value threshold to identify noisy labeled data instances, and uses counterfactual learning to correct the noisy labels. To the best of our knowledge, NDCC is the first work to explore the use of counterfactual learning in the noisy learning domain. We demonstrate the performance of NDCC on several datasets under a variety of label noise environments. Experimental results show the superiority of the proposed approach compared to the state–of–the–art, especially in the presence of severe label noise.

Wenting Qi, a graduate of the PhD program in Computer Science at the University at Albany, State University of New York

Charalampos Chelmis, Associate Professor in Computer Science at the University at Albany, State University of New York

Mahsa Azarshab*, 1st year graduate student in Computer Science at the University at Albany, State University of New York


The Negative Long-Term Impact of Technology on Children and Adolesce

Graci Medina*, 3rd year undergraduate at Farmingdale State College

Marlen Zavala-Maldonado, 3rd year undergraduate at Farmingdale State College

This research examines the adverse impacts that technology has over time on kids and teenagers. Younger generations' increased use of smartphones, tablets, and the internet has sparked concerns about exposure to harmful content, attention deficits, and cognitive delays. While technology has the potential to further human development, when used improperly or excessively, it can cause problems with interpersonal relationships, academic performance, and communication. The research conveys the job that parents, guardians, and schools play in regulating children's use of technology and offers suggestions to lessen these problems. It advocates for a balanced approach while acknowledging the indispensability of technology and highlighting the importance of setting limits to promote healthy development.


Unveiling Twitter's Linguistic Landscape: Exploring Emotion Detection, Sarcasm, and Censorship Triggers in Diverse Dialects

Tajh Martin's research is dedicated to examining potential biases against African American English (AAE) within natural language processing models. Their methodology involves comparing identical sentences expressed in both Standard American English (SAE) and AAE, noting instances where AAE is unfairly flagged as toxic. By pinpointing these biases, Martin's work delves deeper to identify the specific phonological features of AAE that are wrongly classified as toxic.

Tajh Martin*, 3rd year undergraduate student at Columbia University


Gaming and Security: Exploring Gamers' Perspectives on Cheating and Anti-Cheat Systems

Nerys Jimenez Pichardo*, 2nd year Ph.D student at University at Albany

Dr. Kimberly Cornell, Assistant Professor at University at Albany

Our research explores the security implications of anti-cheat systems in online gaming, providing perspective from gamers' viewpoints. We aim to highlight the issues with cheating and the implementation of anti-cheat systems in the world of online gaming. Our research demonstrates that while the frequency of cheating incidents continues to increase, the integration of anti-cheat systems in online games raises security and privacy concerns. Our study is designed to gather insights from gamers with the goal of uncovering patterns and challenges experienced by the online gaming community.


Grouping the Selective Way – Context Sensitive Selective Undo Model

Ashlesha Bhagat*, 2nd year undergraduate student at Union College
Chris Fernandes, Professor at Union College
Aaron Cass, Assistant Professor at Union College

Most computer applications use linear undo, where the user's most recently executed action is the first to be undone. However, linear undo is not very flexible. Another type of undo, called selective undo, allows users to undo a specific past action without retracting all subsequent actions. We are proposing a specific selective undo called the Context Sensitive Selective Undo Model, where the user highlights a specific portion of the document they want to work with, and then a much shorter history list, showing only actions specific to the highlighted characters, appears.


The Interplay of Cyber Insurance and Security Effort

Li Huang*, 2nd year Ph.D. Student at University at Albany

This study focuses on the incentive impact of cyber insurance on decision makers in an interdependent environment. As premium discrimination incentivizes a firm to improve its level of security effort, the firm is not only paid a coverage for the cost of data loss but also the commitment from other firms for higher effort, resulting in further reduction in the network risk.