Security and computer forensics in web engineering education

The integration of security and forensics into Web Engineering curricula is imperative! Poor security in web-based applications is continuing to cost organizations millions and the losses are still increasing annually. Security is frequently taught as a stand-alone course, assuming that security can be 'bolted on' to a web application at some point. Security issues must be integrated into Web Engineering processes right from the beginning to create secure solutions and therefore security should be an integral part of a Web Engineering curriculum. One aspect of Computer forensics investigates failures in security. Hence, students should be aware of the issues in forensics and how to respond when security failures occur; collecting evidence is particularly difficult for Web-based applications

Rethinking the Professoriate

[Excerpt] The American higher education system faces tremendous pressure to enhance access and graduation rates. In a period of increasing financial difficulties, how will our nation’s higher education institutions achieve these goals and how will they recruit faculty and staff their classes in the future? The answers to these questions, which are the focus of my paper, will likely vary across different types of higher education institutions and will reflect the nature of the classes that they offer and the types of students that they educate

The Changing Nature of the Faculty and Faculty Employment Practices

[Excerpt] The nature of faculty employment practices at American colleges and universities is changing rapidly. So too is the gender, racial and ethnic composition of American faculty members. These changes, along with the growing importance and costs of scientific research, the increased commercialization of faculty research, the elimination of mandatory retirement for tenured faculty members and the growing costs of retiree health insurance, the growing salary differentials across universities and academic fields within an university, and the growth of collective bargaining for tenured and tenure-track faculty and graduate assistants at public universities and now adjuncts at private universities, have put enormous stresses on our nation’s academic institutions and their leaders. The discussion that follows explains why

Shaking Up Traditional Training With Lynda.com

Supporting the diverse technology training needs on campus while resources continue to dwindle is a challenge many of us continue to tackle. Institutions from small liberal arts campuses to large research universities are providing individualized training and application support 24/7 by subscribing to the lynda.com Online Training Library(r) and marketing the service to various combinations of faculty, staff and students. As a supplemental service on most of our campuses, lynda.com has allowed us to extend support to those unable to attend live lab-based training, those who want advanced level training, those who want training on specialized applications, and those who want to learn applications that are not in high demand. The service also provides cost effective professional development opportunities for everyone on campus, from our own trainers and technology staff who are developing new workshops, learning new software versions or picking up new areas of expertise from project management to programming, to administrative and support staff who are trying to improve their skills in an ever-tighter economic environment. On this panel discussion, you will hear about different licensing approaches, ways of raising awareness about lynda.com on our campuses, lessons learned through implementation, reporting capabilities, and advice we would give for other campuses looking to offer this service

University 4.4 – A Development Strategy for Education and Research Centers

Due to increased demand for qualified human resources, for 'new & rare skills', for software solutions, reliable products and services in the field of applied informatics, there are large available financial funds that can be accessed by Informatics and Cybernetics schools. Edu-cational and research departments must capitalize funds provided by the Europe-an/international institutions and private companies, by supporting the creation of spin-off en-tities that will conduct technology transfer projects. These funds must be used to increase the quality of teaching and to improve research results by assuring the financial needs and tech-nical resources of teachers (project based payments), students (scholarships projects) and the community (public available projects). The presented strategy, University 4.4 describes four development directions for a four years period. It has been developed by Catalin Boja, Razvan Bologa, Marius Popa and Cristian Toma and since November 2011 it represents the assumed development strategy of The Department of Economic Informatics and Cybernetics (DICE) from The Bucharest University of Economic Studies.University, Research, Strategy, Education, Informatics, Cybernetics, Department, DICE

Flashover performance of lightning protected buildings using scaled models and electric field analysis

In early era, Benjamin Franklin discovered that the application of Lightning Rod (also known as the Franklin Rod) method is found to be effectived as a lightning protective device for buildings. Hence, it was considered among the best solution to overcome the problems facing by publics due to lightning strikes. However, few years later it was found that the corroded Franklin Rod due to the impact of environmental contaminations tends to reduce its ability to effectively capture the lightning strikes. The directly or indirectly impacts of lightning strikes had caused owners to spend huge amount of money just to repair damages on the buildings. Nowadays, there were many professional standards and documents guiding public to properly install the building’s lightning protection system, yet the same damages problems had shown to be frequently occur that related to the strikes often bypasses the of Lightning Air Terminal (LAT) system. The main reason for this could be due to lacking ideas by learned circle of lightning experts as not to fully understand the behavior of Franklin Rods system when it interacts with the lightning leaders. Therefore, this thesis discusses the works that investigated the flashover performances occurred on the buildings with various structural geometry shapes. The case study method is using small scaled models for both laboratory and simulation works, aiming to understand the Franklin Rods performance on capturing lightning leaders. Summarizing the works, about 11 scaled-down building shape models equipped with Franklin Rods system are selected in the case studies such as follows; a conical, gable, triangular, half circle, L-shape, square, cylindrical, butterfly, pyramid, rectangular and inclined like shapes. These models were then injected with 30 lightning flashes each using the 100 kVpeak single stage impulse generator. This number of flashes is considered as total two-years lightning activity frequencies in Malaysia, which the lighting flash density is statistically recorded to be around 15 flashes / year / km2. The maximum applied voltage is about 86.5 kVpeak. The model scaling concept is based on 1:30 cm ratio for every 3 m height of building structure. Interestingly, the overall work data had shown that the pyramid-like shapes is found to be the best structure type to be used in reducing the LAT bypasses and direct strike damages. The structure’s Franklin Rod protection system captured the least number of strikes during competitive tests conducted on all of the scaled down building models. Works of electric field analysis on all building models were conducted using ANSYS Maxwell simulation tool. Utilisation of electric field plot data in this work enables the creation of likelihood factor (ranging from 0.1 to 0.9) method that so useful to capable predict the strikes pattern occurring on dedicated terminal rod. Both laboratory and simulation work also confirm that the edge shapes play crucial roles as intense electric fields is found to accumulate on the edges area when the Franklin Rod intercepts the lightning leaders. These mentioned findings lead to introducing better method of LAT placement on the top of the building, whereby the existing lightning protection system is recommended to have one of installed LAT rods elongated to act as sacrificial point to directly attract lightning strikes. All the work and key findings in this work can contribute to the science and technology field toward having a better LAT lightning protection system and also lead to better decision in selecting / designing the shapes and edges concept as to reduce likelihood of LAT bypasses and damages of the building structure

2017-18 VCU Faculty Handbook

The VCU Faculty Handbook contains information about the university, its campus and the surrounding community. The Handbook is not a complete guide to academics, research and other services, but is intended as a reference guide to orient new and continuing faculty to the university and provides additional sources for information. For detailed school or department information, please reach out to the specific departmental office. The VCU Office of Faculty Affairs is committed to updating the Handbook on a yearly basis

Degrees of Freedom: Expanding College Opportunities - for Currently and Formerly Incarcerated Californians

This report begins with a background on the higher education and criminal justice systems in California. This background section highlights the vocabulary and common pathways for each system, and provides a primer on California community colleges. Part II explains why California needs this initiative. Part III presents the landscape of existing college programs dedicated to criminal justice-involved populations in the community and in jails and prisons. This landscape identifies promising strategies and sites of innovation across the state, as well as current challenges to sustaining and expanding these programs. Part IV lays out concrete recommendations California should take to realize the vision of expanding high-quality college opportunities for currently and formerly incarcerated individuals. It includes guidelines for developing high-quality, sustainable programs, building and strengthening partnerships, and shaping the policy landscape, both by using existing opportunities and by advocating for specific legislative and policy changes. Profiles of current college students and graduates with criminal records divide the sections and offer first-hand accounts of the joys and challenges of a college experience

Public Research Universities: Serving the Public Good

Public research universities educate about 20 percent of all students nationwide; among the nation's research universities, they award 65 percent of all master's degrees and 68 percent of all research doctorate degrees. They enroll 3.8 million students, including almost 900,000 graduate students, annually.1 Public research universities produce researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, civic leaders, and the basic research breakthroughs that drive innovation, grow our economy, and benefit the daily lives of all Americans.2 Between 2012 and 2013 alone, research at public universities resulted in more than 13,322 patent applications, 522 start-up companies, and 3,094 intellectual property licenses.Public research universities also support the upward social mobility of large numbers of talented and ambitious young people from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, many of whom are the first in their family to pursue postsecondary education. Public research universities provide a high-quality university education at reduced cost and act as pathways to higher-paying jobs than would otherwise be obtainable for most students. The sizable enrollment of undergraduate students from low-income families reflects the mission of public research universities to serve all facets of U.S. society; 31 percent of undergraduate students who attend public research universities receive Pell Grants, and the eight research universities with the highest shares of students who receive Pell Grants are all public.But there is growing concern about the future of these vital institutions. Over the last decade, and especially following the economic collapse of 2008, nearly every state in the nation has dramatically reduced its investment in higher education, with public research universities receiving the most severe cuts. Since 2008, public research universities have suffered a 26 percent drop in state investment.5 Further, declining federal funds for research have added to the strain, despite the slight rebound afforded by the 2016 omnibus spending measure. The current funding model is broken and getting worse, putting at risk a critical component of the nation's postsecondary education system and research infrastructure.The American Academy of Arts & Sciences has created the Lincoln Project: Excellence and Access in Public Higher Education to study the importance of public research universities, analyze economic trends affecting their operation, and recommend new strategies to sustain and strengthen these critical institutions. This publication, the fourth in a series of five Lincoln Project reports, examines the many ways in which public research universities contribute to their communities, states, regions, and the nation, and provides empirical evidence of their service to the public good