Meet the 2023 Team
Jean-Francois Biasse is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics. His research interests are the mathematical aspects of cryptography. At USF, he has taught MAD4471 (Introduction to Cryptography & Coding Theory) as well as MAT5932 (Applied Cryptography). He is the recipient of the CAREER award of the National Science Foundation. His research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Standards and Technology, The Florida Center for Cybersecurity and Simon Foundation
Mehran Mozaffari Kermani is an Assistant Professor with the Computer Science and Engineering Department (College of Engineering) at University of South Florida, where he is the PI for the Cryptographic Engineering and Hardware Security Lab. Currently, he is serving as an Associate Editor for the IEEE TVLSI (2016-present), the IEEE TCAS I (2016-present), and the ACM TECS (2015-present). He has been Guest Editing (Cryptographic Engineering and Hardware Security) special issues for the IEEE TCBB.
Attila Yavuz is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science. His research interests are the practical applications of cryptography. At USF, he has taught COP4931 (Information Privacy and Trustworthy Systems) and CIS4930 (Privacy-Preserving and Trustworthy Cyber-Infrastructures). He is the recipient of the CAREER award of the National Science Foundation. His research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and Bosch.
Dr. Sears is an associate professor at the University of South Florida. She has also 4 years of experience teaching at the high school level (the age group of the CodeBreakHERS campers). Currently, she coordinates developmental mathematics courses (Introduction to College Mathematics and Intermediate Algebra) and is the coordinator of the Bachelor’s (Grades 6-12) and Masters program in mathematics education. She serves as a lead sectional judge for the Florida VEX Robotics competition.
Megan Cannon is a recent graduate of USF with a PhD in Mathematics Education and a Masters in Mathematics. She has extensive experience teaching at the high school, community college, and university level. Additionally, Megan has mentored and supervised preservice middle school mathematics teachers during their internships in Hillsborough county classrooms.
Dr. Tempestt Neal is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at the University of South Florida and the founder/director of the Cyber Identity and Behavior Research (CIBeR) Lab. Dr. Neal’s research focuses on biometrics and smart sensing for person identification and multidisciplinary applications of human behavior analysis. She also conducts research leading to increased cybersecurity awareness among populations historically excluded in science and engineering.
Dr. Robert Karam joined the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, FL, as an assistant professor in Fall 2017. His research focuses on hardware security for reconfigurable platforms, energy-efficient and domain-specific reconfigurable computing architectures, and algorithm/hardware codesign for ultra-constrained bioimplantable systems.
William is a PhD student in the Mathematics and Statistics department of USF. William is in charge of the development of hands on activities and CTF challenges in applied cryptography.
Kevin is a PhD student in Computer Science and the Vice President the Whitehatters Computer Security Club (WCSC) at USF. He provides us with instructional assistance.
Keller Blackwell is a senior at the University of South Florida studying mathematics. They have authored several papers spanning the fields of partial differential equations, random matrix theory, and code-based cryptography. Their research has attracted invitations to speak at the Mathematical Association of America and the American Mathematical society, and in 2019 won national recognition in the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship.
Sayde is a PhD student at the University of South Florida (USF), studying Computer Science and Engineering under the advisement of Dr. Tempestt Neal. Sayde graduated with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and minor in International Studies from USF in 2019. As a member of the Cyber Identity and Behavior Research (CIBeR) Lab, Sayde conducts research in wireless sensing, behavioral biometrics, and affective computing. As an undergraduate, Sayde participated in BullsEYE, an Engineering Summer Boot
Bianca is a Master student in the department of Computer Science and Engineering under the supervision of Jay Ligatti. She works on applied cryptography.
Mateus us currently pursuing a Master's degree in Computer Engineering at the University of South Florida (USF), Tampa, FL, USA. He received a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from USF in 2021. He is currently a research and teaching assistant at the Interface Research Lab (IRL) and the chair of IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) Student Branch Chapter, both at USF.
Meet Past Members
Brooks Olney graduated with PhD degree in Computer Science and Engineering at University of South Florida in 2023. His research interests and publications span multiple disciplines - including hardware security, reconfigurable computing, and adversarial machine learning.
Annamaria Iezzi graduated with a PhD in mathematics from the University of Marseille in 2016. She has extensive experience in outreach projects, including the production of a maths-inspired musical played in the three largest French cities: Paris, Lyon and Marseille. From 2017 to 2020, she was postdoctoral fellow in the Mathematics & Statistics department of USF. She is now a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of French Polynesia.
Benjamin Pring completed his PhD in Computer Science at the University of Bath in 2019. His area of research concerns the security of cryptographic schemes under the attacks of quantum computers. From 2019 to 2021, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Mathematics & Statistics department of USF. He is currently a Heilbronn fellow at the University of Bristol.
Teresa graduated in 2020 from the University of South Florida with a B.A. in Applied Mathematics, a minor in Computer Science, and a certificate in Visualization & Design. She was employed at USF’s Academic Success Center for two years, where she worked as a calculus tutor and study skills mentor. Teresa was an officer of the student organization Society of Competitive Programmers, through which she competed in multiple hackathons.
Chloe graduated from USF in 2020 with a BA in Studio Art with a focus in graphic design. She worked on the social media design for the CodeBreakHERS Summer Camp.
Peter is an undergraduate at USF, he is studying Information Technology and Cyber Security. Peter has a background in networking and computer building. Peters is Whitehatters Computer Security Club (WCSC) at USF. He provides us with instructional assistance.
Nadia Thomas graduated from USF in 2020 with Computer Science major and Mathematics minor at the. Her interest in cybersecurity and love for helping others propelled my heart to participate in developing the curriculum for the CodeBreakHERS.
Danilo Gligoroski is a professor of Computer Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. He is an expert in applied cryptography, and in the development of cryptosystems resisting attacks from quantum computers. He is a member of Norwegian Cyber Security Challenge (NCSC) committee and was the coach for the Norwegian team on European Cyber Security Challenge in 2017. Cyber Security Challenge competitions include CTF tasks, cyber attacks, cyber defense and ha
Caitlin is an undergraduate student in the Cybersecurity program at USF. She is a volunteer member of the Whitehatters Computer Security Club (WCSC) at USF. She provides us with instructional assistance.
Julie is an undergraduate student in the Cybersecurity program of the USF. She is the Public Relations Officer of the Whitehatters Computer Security Club (WCSC) at USF. She is in charge of our online presence and of the coordination between the camp and the Whitehatter club.