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Dmitry Goldgof and Mehran Mozaffari Kermani awarded USF Nexus Initiative Grants

June 25, 2019

USF Department of Computer Science and Engineering Distinguished University Professor and Vice Chair Dmitry Goldgof was awarded a $13,100 University of South Florida Nexus Initiative (UNI) grant to conduct collaborative research for the project entitled “Automated assessment of pain in neonates.” Goldgof will be collaborating with Mark Last, professor and head of the Data Science Research Center at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.  According to Goldgof, the goal of this project is “to develop an intelligent system that continuously monitors neonates in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), assesses the pain intensity, and sends instant notifications to caregivers when pain is detected. Such a system promises to mitigate the shortcomings of the current pain assessment standards and improve outcomes of neonatal care. UNI funded partnership with Ben-Gurian University (BGU) will extend and enhance our research efforts by bringing in BGU Data Science Research Center expertise in data analytics, and expand our Tampa General Hospital (TGH) data collection through BGU collaboration with Soroka Medical Center NICU.”

USF Department of Computer Science and Engineering Assistant Professor Mehran Mozaffari Kermani was awarded an $11,800 University of South Florida Nexus Initiative (UNI) grant to conduct collaborative research for the project entitled “Active Side-Channel Attacks and Countermeasures for Lightweight Cryptography”. Kermani will be collaborating with Erkay Savas from Sabanci University, Turkey. According to Kermani, the goal of this project is “to explore a paradigm shift in scrutinizing lightweight cryptography with respect to side-channel attacks for highly-constrained devices and hardware/software usage models, including but not limited to implantable medical devices, smart nano-sensors and smart fabrics. During the visits and also throughout this one-year project, we plan to investigate the contrast between legacy and lightweight cryptography with respect to attack immunity without compromising usability, energy-efficacy and resistance to implementation attacks. Initiating grants to explore the opportunities beyond this one-year award is also among the goals.”

The UNI award is intended to fund the travel and expenses for two week-long trips, during the course of the year, for the professor and a graduate student to the collaboration site. The UNI is managed by the USF Office of the Provost and has helped finance 81 unique collaborations in 32 countries and 12 states.