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Advising

• Ph.D. Opportunity: Ph.D. positions in the areas of network security, data privacy, applied cryptography, wireless networking, and mobile computing are open starting from Spring 2023 or Fall 2023. Prospective Ph.D. students who have interests in the above research areas are encouraged to send the CV and supporting documents (e.g., sample publications, transcripts, and GRE and TOEFL scores) to Dr. Cong Pu.
• Thesis / Creative Component Opportunity for M.S. Students: Dr. Cong Pu is looking for M.S. students to work towards the Thesis Option or the Creative Component Option.
• Undergraduate Research Assistant Opportunity: Research assistant positions are available for ambitious undergraduate students. Undergraduate students who (1) have relevant research experiences or have strong performance on programming/algorithm/math courses; and (2) could devote enough time on research are encouraged to apply.

Graduate Students

• M.S. Yucheng Li (August 2020)
  • IEEE CSE'20 "Lightweight Digital Signature Solution to Defend Micro Aerial Vehicles Against Man-In-The-Middle Attack", Yucheng Li and Cong Pu, Proceedings of the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, pp. 92--97, 2020.
  • IEEE LANMAN'20 "Lightweight Authentication Protocol for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Physical Unclonable Function and Chaotic System", Cong Pu and Yucheng Li, Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Local and Metropolitan Area Networks (LANMAN), pp., 2020.
  • Master Thesis "DroneSig: Lightweight Digital Signature Protocol for Micro Aerial Vehicles", Yucheng Li, Master Thesis, 2020.
• M.S. Xitong Zhou (December 2018)
  • IEEE CCWC'19 "RescueMe: Smartphone-Based Self Rescue System for Disaster Rescue", Cong Pu and Xitong Zhou, Proceedings of the IEEE Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC), pp. 0832--0837, 2019.
  • MDPI Sensors "Suppression Attack Against Multicast Protocol in Low Power and Lossy Networks: Analysis and Defenses", Cong Pu and Xitong Zhou, Sensors Journal (Impact Factor: 3.031), Vol. 18, No. 10, pp. 3236, 2018.
  • IEEE LCN'18 "Mitigating Suppression Attack in Multicast Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks", Cong Pu, Xitong Zhou, and Sunho Lim, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN), pp. 251--254, 2018.
  • Master Thesis "Smartphone-Based Self Rescue System for Disaster Relief", Xitong Zhou, Master Thesis, 2018.
• M.S. Yigitcan Celik (May 2018)
  • WASA'18 "A Novel Energy Harvesting Aware IEEE 802.11 Power Saving Mechanism", Yigitcan Celik and Cong Pu, Proceedings of the International Conference on Wireless Algorithms, Systems, and Applications (WASA), pp. 14--26, 2018.
  • Master Thesis "A Novel Energy Harvesting Aware IEEE 802.11 Power Saving Mechanism", Yigitcan Celik, Master Thesis, 2018.
• M.S. Vikram Aditya Tugali Katarukonda (May 2020)
  • Research Project "West Virginia Department of Education Web Application Penetration Testing", Spring 2020.

Undergraduate Students

• B.S. Evan Allen (May 2021)
  • IEEE Access "A Stochastic Packet Forwarding Algorithm in Flying Ad Hoc Networks: Design, Analysis, and Evaluation", Cong Pu, Imtiaz Ahmed, Evan Allen, and Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, IEEE Access Journal (Impact Factor: 3.367), Vol. 9, pp. 162614--162632, 2021.
  • Research Project "A Secure Data Collection and Storage Mechanism for Internet of Drones", Spring 2021.
  • Research Project "SPA: Stochastic Packet Forwarding Algorithm in Flying Ad Hoc Networks", Fall 2020.
• B.S. Haleigh Zerkle (May 2023, Expected)
  • IEEE IoTJ "A Lightweight and Anonymous Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks", Cong Pu, Haleigh Zerkle, Andrew Wall, Sunho Lim, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, and Imtiaz Ahmed, IEEE Internet of Things Journal (Impact Factor: 9.471), May 13, 2022, Accepted For Publication.
  • Award Summer 2021 Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Program Award ($4,000), West Virginia Research Challenge Fund (WV Higher Education Policy Commission, Division of Science and Research), March 21, 2021.
  • Research Project "Light-Weight Mutual Authentication Protocol for Medical Devices", Fall 2020 - Current.
• B.S. Andrew Wall (May 2022)
  • IEEE IoTJ "A Lightweight and Anonymous Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks", Cong Pu, Haleigh Zerkle, Andrew Wall, Sunho Lim, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, and Imtiaz Ahmed, IEEE Internet of Things Journal (Impact Factor: 9.471), May 13, 2022, Accepted For Publication.
  • IEEE IoTJ "A Lightweight and Privacy-Preserving Mutual Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for Internet of Drones Environment", Cong Pu, Andrew Wall, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Imtiaz Ahmed, and Sunho Lim, IEEE Internet of Things Journal (Impact Factor: 9.471), March 27, 2022, Accepted For Publication.
  • IEEE MDM'22 "SecureIoD: A Secure Data Collection and Storage Mechanism for Internet of Drones", Cong Pu, Andrew Wall, Imtiaz Ahmed, and Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Proceedings of the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Mobile Data Management (MDM 2022), Paphos, Cyprus, June 6 - 9, 2022, Accepted To Appear.
  • Award NASA West Virginia Space Grant Undergraduate Fellowship Program Award ($1,000), November 02, 2021.
  • Award Undergraduate Creative Discovery Summer Scholar and Undergraduate Research Summer Scholar Awards ($5,000), Summer 2021.
  • Award "Mutual Authentication Protocol for Internet of Drones," Andrew Wall, 18th annual West Virginia Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol (URDC), March 05, 2021. (Runner-up Award of the Engineering & Technology Category)
  • Award NASA West Virginia Space Grant Undergraduate Fellowship Program Award ($1,000), November 18, 2020.
  • Research Presentation "A Duffing Map Based Lightweight Authentication Protocol for Micro Aerial Vehicles", Oral Presentation, 2020 West Virginia University Virtual Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium, July 23 - 30, 2020.
  • Award Summer 2020 Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Program Award ($4,000), West Virginia Research Challenge Fund (WV Higher Education Policy Commission, Division of Science and Research), May 16, 2020.
• B.S. Cameron Prater (May 2022)
  • Research Presentation "Moris: Morisita Index-Based Countermeasure Against Sybil Attacks in Internet of Things," Cameron Prater, 18th annual West Virginia Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol (URDC), March 05, 2021.
  • Award NASA West Virginia Space Grant Undergraduate Fellowship Program Award ($5,000), Fall 2020 - Spring 2021.
• B.S. Alisha Joseph (May 2023, Expected)
  • Award First2 Network and NASA WV Space Grant Consortium Research Fellowship Award ($2,500), Jan 06, 2021.
  • Award NASA West Virginia Space Grant Undergraduate Affiliate Fellowship Program Award ($1,000), November 18, 2020.
  • Research Project "Forensic Analysis of App on Android Smartphones", Fall 2020 - Current.
• B.S. Ethan Endres (May 2023, Expected)
  • Award First2 Network and NASA WV Space Grant Consortium Research Fellowship Award ($2,500), Jan 06, 2021.
  • Award NASA West Virginia Space Grant Undergraduate Affiliate Fellowship Program Award ($1,000), November 18, 2020.
  • Research Project "Forensic Analysis of App on Android Smartphones", Fall 2020 - Current.
• B.S. David Baddoo (May 2023, Expected)
  • Research Project "West Virginia Department of Education Web Application Penetration Testing", Fall 2019 - Spring 2020.
• B.S. Jake Gressang (December 2020)
  • Research Presentation "Morisita Index-Based Countermeasure against Sybil Attack in the Internet of Things", Jake Gressang, 17th annual West Virginia Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol (URDC), February 07, 2020.
  • Award "Morisita Index-Based Countermeasure against Sybil Attack in the Internet of Things", Jake Gressang, 1st Place Award, 2019 IEEE West Virginia Student Awards in the STEM Field, Dec 6, Charleston, WV.
  • Award NASA West Virginia Space Grant Undergraduate Fellowship Program Award ($5,000), Fall 2019 - Spring 2020.
• B.S. Logan Carpenter (May 2020)
  • IEEE Systems Journal "Psched: A Priority-Based Service Scheduling Scheme for the Internet of Drones", Cong Pu and Logan Carpenter, IEEE Systems Journal (Impact Factor: 4.463), May, 2020.
  • IEEE HPSR'20 "A Theil Index-Based Countermeasure Against Advanced Vampire Attack in Internet of Things", Cong Pu, Jacqueline Brown and Logan Carpenter, Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE 21st International Conference on High Performance Switching and Routing (HPSR), pp. 1--6, 2020.
  • Award NASA West Virginia Space Grant Undergraduate Affiliate Fellowship Program Award ($1,000), Spring 2020.
  • IEEE NCA'19 "To Route or To Ferry: A Hybrid Packet Forwarding Algorithm in Flying Ad Hoc Networks", Cong Pu and Logan Carpenter, Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (NCA), September 2019.
  • IEEE NCA'19 "Digital Signature Based Countermeasure Against Puppet Attack in the Internet of Things", Cong Pu and Logan Carpenter, Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (NCA), September 2019.
  • Award Undergraduate Creative Discovery Scholar and Undergraduate Research Scholar Awards ($4,000), Summer 2019.
• B.S. Jacqueline Brown (May 2022)
  • Award Finalist for the 2021 NCWIT Collegiate Award, Jan 06, 2021.
  • IEEE HPSR'20 "A Theil Index-Based Countermeasure Against Advanced Vampire Attack in Internet of Things", Cong Pu, Jacqueline Brown, and Logan Carpenter, Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE 21st International Conference on High Performance Switching and Routing (HPSR), pp. 1--6, 2020.
  • Award The Science, Mathematics, And Research For Transformation (SMART) Defense Scholarship from Department of Defense (DoD), April 30, 2020.
  • Award Summer 2020 Research Experiences for Undergraduates Sites Award ($7,200) from Old Dominion University, March 12, 2020.
  • Research Presentation "Combating Advanced Vampire Attack: A Theil Index-Based Countermeasure in Internet of Things", Jacqueline Brown, 17th annual West Virginia Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol (URDC), February 07, 2020.
  • Award NASA West Virginia Space Grant Undergraduate Affiliate Fellowship Program Award ($1,000), Spring 2020.
  • IEEE CPSCom'19 "Self-Adjusting Share-Based Countermeasure to Interest Flooding Attack in Named Data Networking", Cong Pu, Nathaniel Payne, and Jacqueline Brown, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Cyber Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom), pp. 142--147, 2019.
  • Award Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Program Award ($4,000), Summer 2019.
• B.S. Nathaniel Payne (May 2020)
  • IEEE CPSCom'19 "Self-Adjusting Share-Based Countermeasure to Interest Flooding Attack in Named Data Networking", Cong Pu, Nathaniel Payne, and Jacqueline Brown, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Cyber Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom), pp. 142--147, 2019.
• B.S. Bryan Groves (May 2019)
  • IEEE MILCOM'19 "A Gini Index-Based Countermeasure Against Sybil Attack in the Internet of Things", Bryan Groves and Cong Pu, Proceedings of the IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), November 2019.
  • IEEE ICDIS'19 "Energy Depletion Attack in Low Power and Lossy Networks: Analysis and Defenses", Cong Pu and Bryan Groves, Proceedings of the International Conference on Data Intelligence and Security (ICDIS), pp. 14--21, 2019.
  • IEEE ICDIS'19 "Mitigate Spam DIS Attack in RPL-based Low Power and Lossy Networks", Bryan Groves and Cong Pu, Proceedings of the International Conference on Data Intelligence and Security (ICDIS), June 2019.
  • Award Undergraduate Creative Discovery Scholar and Undergraduate Research Scholar Awards ($1,750), Spring 2019.
  • Award NASA West Virginia Space Grant Undergraduate Fellowship Program Award ($1,000), Fall 2018.

Competition

• NSIN Hackathon Beat The Blaze Hackathon, Wenjie Xu (Marshall Univ), Samuel Joseph Hedrick (Marshall Univ), Derek Wade Chandler (Marshall Univ), and Samuel Temesgen (WVSU), March 29 - April 16, 2021.

Capstone Projects

• System "Automated Penetration Testing Web Application", Xi Zhang, Han-Ying Chen, Keyur Ishwarbhai Donda, and Sean Joseph Freitus, Spring 2020.