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Announcing Fall 2024 Pitt Cyber Accelerator Grant Recipients

Pitt Cyber is pleased to announce its awardees for the Fall 2024 Pitt Cyber Accelerator Grants Program (PCAG). PCAG provides support for projects that aim to establish or reinforce Pitt and Pitt Cyber as places of distinction and excellence in cyber studies and practice.  

The grants provide initial funding for novel and innovative multidisciplinary efforts that advance Pitt Cyber’s mission:  to bring the breadth of one of the world’s leading public research universities to bear on the critical questions of networks, data, and algorithms, with a focus on the ever-changing gaps among law, policy, and technology.   

Identifying and Analyzing Influencer Marketing of Pharmaceutical Products on Social Media 

This project aims to detect and analyze pharmaceutical influencer marketing on social media, a high-stakes practice that is severely under-regulated compared to traditional advertising. By developing algorithms to identify influencer promotions and examining their impact on user engagement and online discussions on social network platforms, this project seeks to address transparency and ethical concerns, ultimately informing better policies for pharmaceutical advertising. 

Ryan Shi, Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information    

Michael Yoder, Teaching Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information   

Olga Kravchenko, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine 

Piloting Informal Learning Experiences through Game Prototyping on the Consequences of Quantum Technologies 

Quantum technologies offer immense potential for discovery and innovation while also posing threats to cybersecurity and privacy, which could precipitate global instability and chaos. For example, quantum technologies will make it exponentially easier to profile people by collecting publicly available information from social media (or private data—harvest now, decrypt later) and to break the encryption mechanisms currently used by businesses, healthcare, governments, critical infrastructure, and cyber-physical systems. This project aims to pilot informal learning experiences through game-making for high school students in Pittsburgh public schools to foster their early interest in quantum technologies while engaging them with the societal implications of exponentially increased computing power. 

Raquel Coelho, Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information  

Junyu Liu, Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information  

Chris Schunn, Professor, Department of Psychology 

Ahmed Ibrahim, Teaching Associate Professor, School of Computing and Information  

Dmitriy Babichenko, Clinical Associate Professor, School of Computing and Information  

Examining Privacy Practices and Adaptations in Health Research Following the 2023 NIH Data Sharing Policy 

Our project explores how health researchers are adapting to the 2023 NIH Data Sharing and Management policy, which encourages open data sharing while maintaining participant privacy. Through document analysis and interviews, we aim to identify challenges, strategies, and gaps in tools or knowledge, and build on them to provide actionable recommendations to balance data sharing and privacy protection. Findings from the proposed project will help inform the design of digital tools and practices for data sharing. 

Aakash Gautam, Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information  

Amin Rahimian, Assistant Professor, Swanson School of Engineering 

Exploring the Societal Impacts of Wireless Technology Evolution & Obsolescence 

Over the past four decades, commercial wireless technologies have seen a generational change every decade, resulting in the evolution, obsolescence, and replacement of wireless networks, devices, and platforms. The decommissioning of these technologies has far-reaching, yet unstudied, cultural, political and economic effects. This project initiates research examining the ramifications of sunsetting wireless technologies (and refarming radio spectrum) on society. 

Frances Correy, Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information  

Dr. Prashant Krishnamurthy, Professor, School of Computing and Information  

Hemispheric Headspace Extension 

Hemispheric Headspace Extension is a foundational set of collaborations between faculty at The Centre for Humanities Research at the University of Western Cape and faculty fellows at Pitt Cyber. We intend to work together on an archive digitization project, two undergraduate courses, Writing as Witness: Public Lab and Writing as Witness: South Africa, and to open further discussions pertaining to ethical concerns associated with archival building, valuation, digitization and the implications for data mining of archival materials using machine learning and AI tools in Pittsburgh and in Cape Town. 

Jennifer Keating, Teaching Professor & Writing in the Disciplines Specialist, William S. Dietrich II Institute for Writing Excellence 

Eleanor Mattern, Director, Sara Fine Institute; Teaching Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information

Valmont Layne, New Visions Archivist, University of Western Cape, The Centre for Humanities Research 

Cross-sector cybersecurity risk, technological innovation, and the role of policy 

The purpose of this project is to explore how emerging technologies like certified software can reduce cybersecurity risks, improve risk modeling, and inform policy development through interdisciplinary collaboration between industry, government, and academia. Doing so, it will address the growing challenges of cyber risk by exploring how emerging technologies, such as certified software, can reduce vulnerabilities, improve risk assessment, and transform cyber-policy. By convening experts from industry, government, and academia through a seminar series and workshop, we will explore solutions that transform how we model and mitigate cyber threats with a focus on both technical innovation and policy frameworks. 

Erica Owen, Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs  

Daniel Cole, Associate Professor, Swanson School of Engineering 

Summary
Pitt Cyber is pleased to announce its awardees for the Fall 2024 Pitt Cyber Accelerator Grants Program (PCAG). PCAG provides support for projects that aim to establish or reinforce Pitt and Pitt Cyber as places of distinction and excellence in cyber studi
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