Meet the 2018 IRPD Grant Recipients

One of the targets for cybercriminals is the "internet of things" – the array of devices and systems connected to the internet, from satellites in orbit to the router in your home.

This includes lifesaving medical devices such as pacemakers and implantable cardiac defibrillators. Their privacy and security are of particular concern to Roman Lysecky, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and his collaborators at the UA and at the Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria.

Lysecky and his research partner, Jerzy Rozenblit, a University Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor in the College of Medicine, are part of the second cohort of recipients of the International Research and Academic Program Development grants, a program initiated last year and co-sponsored by the office of Research, Discovery and Innovation and Arizona Global.

With the goal of jump-starting and quickly growing either international transdisciplinary research collaborations or the development of new academic programs with international partner institutions, the program supports three tracks:

 Track 1 – International Research Initiative, which funds up to $30,000 to be spent on activities leading to an extramural proposal submission for global research and development projects;

 Track 2 – International Academic Program Development, which funds up to $15,000 to be spent on activities leading to a new international student mobility initiative;

 Track 3 – International Research and Scholar Colloquium, which funds up to $10,000 for a three- to five-day colloquium for international visiting scholars from international partner institutions to be held at the UA.

Lysecky received funding under Track 1 for his proposal, "Formal Models and Self-Adaptive Techniques to Automatically Mitigate Privacy and Security Threats in Life-Critical Systems."

This year's other awardees were:

Kevin Anchukaitis 
Associate Professor, School of Geography & Development
"Stable and Radiogenic Isotope Approach to Paleoclimate Dynamics in Central America"
Track 1

Margaret Evans 
Assistant Professor, Forest Ecology, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research
"Jump-Starting the Continental-Scale Assimilation of Tree-Ring and Forest Inventory Data for Carbon Cycle Science"
Track 1

John Streicher
Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology
"Determining the Side Effect Profile and Chronic Pain Efficacy of the MACE Series of Fluorinated Cyclic Biphalin Analogs"
Track 1

William Simmons 
Professor, Department of Gender and Women's Studies
Director, Online Graduate Programs in Human Rights Practice
"Curricular and Strategic Litigation Partnerships between the UA Online Graduate Program in Human Rights Practice and Two Russian-Language Universities"
Track 2

Carol Brochin
Assistant Professor, Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs
"Crossing Borders through Books/Cruzando Fronteras con Libros"
Track 3

Christopher Cokinos
Associate Professor, Department of English
"Crafting the Long Tomorrow: Difficult Conversations Across Science and Humanities Boundaries as the Global Emergency Worsens – A Proposed 3-Day Symposium at Biosphere 2"
Track 3

Katherine Snyder
Associate Professor, School of Geography and Development
Director, Master's Program in Development Practice
"Integrating Ecosystem Services into Development Planning"
Track 3