Cybersecurity Demo Day 2019: Awards

Abstract

A School of Computer Science team won the Institute for Information Security and Privacy’s (IISP) Demo Day Finale for their work on making machine learning (ML) models more secure.

The winning project, MLsploit, is a framework for developers to test their ML model against a variety of attacks to strengthen its security. It can be used to evaluate video, image, and audio data, and also includes cybersecurity protections against malware and network intrusions. This research is vital as ML’s prominence makes it more at risk to attacks, which could include forcing self-driving cars to run stop signs.

The Demo Day Finale was the culmination of a yearlong annual competition that gives students the opportunity to commercialize their research for up to $125,000 in prizes. Students first presented at IISP’s fall Cybersecurity Summit, where the most promising projects were offered funding and mentorship from industry leaders. The three student-led commercialization projects showcased the future of cybersecurity research, including biometric authentication, preventing power grid attacks, and ML security.