Abstract: I believe that undergraduate education should empower students to become stewards of the world they live in. To be stewards, students should feel confident in their ability to solve even the most significant real-world challenges using technical knowledge. As an educator, my goal is to provide scaffolding and support to students as they develop the critical thinking and problem-solving skills necessary to achieve these goals.

 

To exemplify real-world problems, my focus will be on problems in cybersecurity, data privacy, and the impact of technology on society. My illustrative example will be e-voting. By exploring the ways in which technical skills can be applied to improve the accountability, transparency, and security of the voting process, I hope to demonstrate how students can use their technical knowledge to address real-world challenges.

Short Bio: As a recent PhD graduate in computer science from NC State, my research interests focus on cryptography, specifically managing user anonymity, decentralizing trust, and identifying gaps in current cryptographic schemes. I leverage my training as a Navy Nuclear Power School instructor and my undergraduate education at Carnegie Mellon to help students feel more confident in their technical and problem-solving skills.