Pitt Cyber Accelerator Grants (PCAG) provide initial funding for novel and innovative projects 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.
PCAG funding is to be used especially to advance projects that establish and extend key intellectual infrastructures, such as research and teaching in methods with broad application and utility across disciplines, and projects that bring together researchers, teachers, and/or students across fields of interest.
PCAG funding may be particularly useful in launching transdisciplinary projects that may later attract funding and sponsorship within the university, and/or from government, philanthropic, and industry partners.
Applications are due February 5.
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2020 Recipients
A Computational Approach to Measuring and Explaining Sophistication and Argumentation in Political Discourse
Malihe Alikhani, Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information; Max Goplerud, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science; Tessa Provins, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
People-Centered Data Analysis
Michael Goodhart, Professor, Department of Political Science; Jackie Smith, Professor, Department of Sociology; Laura Wiens, Executive Director, Pittsburghers for Public Transit
Developing Digitally Mediated Transparency for Police-Community Relations
Sera Linardi, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs; Yu-Ru Lin, Associate Professor, School of Computing and Information
The Cyber Ethics Education Accelerator
Jennifer Petrie, Postdoctoral Fellow, Katz School of Business; Anthony Rodi, Clinical Associate Professor, Katz School of Business; Cassie Quigley, Associate Professor, School of Education
Measuring Worldviews: A Map of Stubborn Social Skills
Rongqian Ma, PhD student, School of Computing and Information; Lingfei Wu, Assistant Professor, Departments of Information and Networked Systems, Information Culture and Data Stewardship, School of Computing and Information; Lara Putnam, Professor and Chair, Department of History, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences
Investigation of Analogs between Social, Organizational, and Technical Domains for Information Security
Prashant Krishnamurthy, Professor and Chair, Department of Informatics and Networked Systems, School of Computing and Information and Mai Abdelhakim, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering
Virtual Reality Gaming for Military Mission Planning
Lt. Col. Diana Bishop, Chair, Department of Aerospace Studies, Detachment 730 Commander, US Air Force ROTC
Evaluation of Educational Interventions in Reducing Compromises from Phishing Attacks
Muhammad “Zia” Hydari, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Katz School of Business; Narayan Ramasubbu, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Katz School of Business; Changran Fan, PhD Student, Katz School of Business
Sensing Infrastructure
Adam J. Lee, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, School of Computing and Information; Amy Babay, Assistant Professor, Departments of Informatics and Networked Systems, Computer Science, School of Computing and Information; Jacob Biehl, Associate Professor, Departments of Information Culture and Data Stewardship, Computer Science, School of Computing and Information; Adriana Kovashka, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, School of Computing and Information; Olga Kuchinskaya, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences; Stephen Lee, Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information; Eleanor “Nora” Mattern, Teaching Assistant Professor, Department of Information Culture and Data Stewardship, School of Computing and Information
2019 Recipients
Social Weather Service: A Cyber-enabled Forecasting of Social Unrest and Conflicts
Vladimir Zadoronzny, Professor, School of Computing and Information; Panos Chrysanthis, Professor of Computer Science, School of Computing and Information; Michael Colaresi, William S. Dietrich II Chair of Political Science, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences; and Patrick Manning, Andrew Mellon Professor of World History, Emeritus, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Annotating Cases for Learning to Summarize
Kevin Ashley, Professor, School of Law and Jaromir Savelka, PhD candidate, Intelligent Systems Program
Towards Resilient Smart Critical Infrastructure
David Tipper, Professor, School of Computing and Information and Alexis Kwasinski, Associate Professor, Swanson School of Engineering
Fighting Cyberbullying: A Transformative and Educational Game for Promoting Empathic Understanding
Rosta Farzan, Associate Professor; Dmitriy Babichenko, Professor of Practice; and Zak Risha, School of Computing and Information
Annotating Machine Learning Data for Interpreting Cyber-Crime Statutes
Kevin Ashley, Professor of Law and Intelligent Systems, School of Law and Jaromir Savelka, PhD candidate, School of Computing and Information
Cyber Leadership Series in Washington, DC
Elena Baylis, Professor of Law, and Julia Santucci, Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies and Director, Hesselbein Forum Leadership Program in International Affairs, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
Mathematical Concepts Visualization through Virtual Reality
Lt. Col. Diana Bishop, Chair, Department of Aerospace Studies, Detachment 730 Commander, US Air Force ROTC
A Program to Innovate Solutions to Digital Disinformation across Democracies
Michael Colaresi, William S. Dietrich II Chair, Department of Political Science, and Jon Woon, Professor, Departments of Political Science and Economics
Developing a Digital Platform to Enhance Civic Learning across the Disciplines
Ronald Idoko, Adjunct Faculty, Public Service Program, College of General Studies
Expansion of the Journal Ledger: The World’s First Scholarly Blockchain Journal
Christopher Wilmer, Assistant Professor, Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering
2018 Recipients
Technical Support for Course on Applied Legal Data Analytics and AI
Kevin Ashley, Professor of Law and Intelligent Systems and Matthias Grabmair, Systems Scientist, Language Technologies Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
The US Intelligence Community and Cybersecurity
Julia Santucci, Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
A Workshop for Securing the Industrial Internet
Daniel Cole, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Swanson School of Engineering, and Alex K. Jones, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Associate Director of the NSF SHREC Center, Swanson School of Engineering
A Study on False Data Injection Cyber-Attacks in Smart Grid Systems
Bo Zeng, Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering, and Zhi-Hong Mao, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Department of Bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering
Securing Cybermanufacturing Systems Applied to Cloud-Based Additive Manufacturing
Mostafa Bedewy, Assistant Professor, Industrial Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering, and Mai Abdelhakim, Visiting Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information
Distinguished Cybersecurity Seminar Series
James Joshi, Professor, School of Computing and Information and Balaji Palanisamy, Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Information