Michael Kirk


Author Archive

Credit Card Data Theft: Stopping the Hackers

In response to a massive security breach that threatened the personal and financial data of nearly one third of U.S. adults last year, retail giant Target is investing more than $100 million to prevent similar thefts by implementing advanced chip-based credit card technology at its point-of-sale terminals.

A candle burning.

Emeritus Journalism Professor John Breen Dies

For more than three decades, Breen was a mentor to generations of UConn journalism students.

Dr. Peters Receives IBM Faculty Award

Dr. Thomas J. Peters, professor of Computer Science & Engineering, was presented an IBM Faculty Award for 2013-14, which entails a monetary component as well as continued preferred access to IBM researchers and research facilities, including the company's supercomputers.

‘Twas the Night Before Finals: VIDEO

The UConn Engineering community -- from students to faculty and staff -- wish you and your loved ones a joyous and healthy holiday season. In celebration of the challenges of exam week, we are happy to share with you this light-hearted video message.

Faculty & Graduate Student News

Read about recent honors and activities of our engineering faculty and graduate students, who are respected leaders in research, instruction, mentoring and professional societies.

New GAANN for UConn Engineering Team

Three Computer Science & Engineering faculty have received a highly competitive Department of Education Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) three-year award of more than $805,000, which will support fellowships for graduate students pursuing research in "exascale computing." Dr. Chun-Hsi (Vincent) Huang is the lead investigator on the grant.

Jon Kaplan Receives SMART Scholarship

Biomedical Engineering senior Jonathan T. Kaplan was awarded a prestigious national Science, Mathematics & Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship in August. He was one of just 150 recipients chosen from nearly 10,000 applicants, and Jon is UConn's second student to receive a SMART scholarship. Materials Science & Engineering doctoral student Claire Weiss was a 2009 SMART recipient.

Nudging Users to Protect Their Computing Systems

We've all seen those little messages pop up on our computer screens: "A software update is available from XYZ. Click 'Update' to install." Probably more often than not, we ignore them just as we ignored mother's good advice to "Be sure to wear a coat to school;'it's cold outside." And, just as we shivered in sub-freezing temperatures wearing a t-shirt and jeans at the bus stop, when we ignore the software update messages, we're likely to experience negative consequences.

“Accelerating Materials Property Predictions Using Machine Learning” Published in Scientific Reports

Professor Ramamurthy Ramprasad, postdoctoral fellow Dr. Ghanshyam Pilania, and doctoral candidate Chenchen Wang of Materials Science and Engineering, in conjunction with Professor Sanguthevar Rajasekaran (Computer Science and Engineering) and Dr. Xun Jiang (Ph.D. Statistics 2013), jointly collaborated on a research paper published online on September 30, 2013 in Scientific Reports, the open access journal of Nature.

First Annual Competition for CHASE

The Center for Hardware Assurance, Security and Engineering (CHASE) recently awarded funds to six teams to carry out cutting-edge security research. The funding pool was established by industry members of the CHASE Consortium, which seeks to contribute toward solving security challenges that are widespread across many industries.