Maria M. Larrondo Petrie

Defining Security Requirements Through Misuse Actions

An important aspect of security requirements is the understanding and listing of the possible threats to the system. Only then can we decide what specific defense mechanisms to use. We show here an approach to list all threats by considering each action in each use case and analyzing how it can be subverted by an internal or external attacker. From this list we can deduce what policies are necessary to prevent or mitigate the threats. These policies can then be used as guidelines for design. The proposed method can include formal design notations for validation and verification.

Models and Smart Adaptive Interfaces for the Improvement of the Remote Laboratories User Experience in Education

Remote laboratories in the educational context are made possible by the integration of the latest advances in telecommunication technology, software architectures and educational standards support. Remote laboratories are important in education because they provide access to equipment that some institutions cannot afford to purchase or maintain, reduce the need for dedicated physical space for equipment and personnel to staff laboratories. But more than just fill the absence of a real physical laboratory, remote laboratories can improve the users experience through the use of enhanced adaptive interfaces that, when complemented with the use of educational standards like Tin can API, can provide information important in the educational context, for example, the mastery level of the student and the complexity of the experiment. Based on that information, the remote laboratory could take actions related to the controls of the experiment, for example, disabling or enabling part of the experiment controls. Using smart adaptive interfaces, the experiments can gradually increase their complexity, taking into account variables that are clearly identified as part of the learning processes, such as: difficulty level of the topic, students’ knowledge, and course level among others.

Security Requirements for Social Networks in Web 2.0

A social network is a structure of individuals or organizations, which are connected by one or more types of interdependency, such as friendship, affinity, common interests or knowledge. Social networks use now web 2.0 technology and the users may need to follow a series of restrictions or conditions to join or add contents. We look here at their context and threats, in order to ascertain their needs for security. We propose the use of patterns to specify these requirements in a precise way and we present two specific patterns. A pattern is an encapsulated solution to a software problem in a given context. We present here the Participation-Collaboration Pattern, which describes the functionality of the collaboration between users in applications and the Collaborative Tagging Pattern, which is useful to share content using keywords to tag bookmarks, photographs and other contents. We also discuss possible improvements to the current situation.

Generating Academic Success through Social Networking

By forming intimate study groups, the void of community within the intense academic lifestyle of engineering students can be filled, creating long-lasting connections throughout a student’s academic career. This research paper explores and analyzes the techniques of a student-led ad-hoc study group that was formed for a core engineering course. Through examining the trends of a successful student-led study group and its evolutionary transformation enabled by social networking, techniques of developing more collaborative environments for engineering students are enhanced.

Editorial A Broader Coverage of the IEEE Education Society IEEE-RITA Electronic Journal: Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions (LACCEI) Collaboration

This editorial introduces the first selection of papers in IEEE-RITA from the LACCEI annual conference held in 2014. It publishes a view of the LACCEI coverage of issues and topics inside their engineering coverage of Latin American and Caribbean countries, and of the solutions and vision they provide worldwide and for the Region.

Developing Leadership and Global Professional Engineer Competences in Our Students

In order to properly address the issues of todays global world, the importance of engineering students acquiring leadership and professional skills has increased tremendously. In fact, leadership is one of the basic pillars for global economic development. By immersing oneself in an engineering organization or honor society, one learns to cultivate a team-work mentality that will be invaluable in the future society. Global engineering organizations, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and Tau Beta Pi Honor Society, have student chapters that offer opportunities to develop those critical leadership skills needed to become an essential asset in the problem solving required to keep the world progressing to its full potential. Throughout this paper, engineering students give the first-person accounts of how becoming a leader within their respective organizations has transformed their undergraduate degree experience. These students have gone on to establish other organizations at Florida Atlantic University that have also enhanced the educational experience of other students and illustrate the importance of emphasizing leadership skills in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics fields.

Relating psychology's moral development levels to the ethical use of computers (abstract)

A disturbing increase in computer related crime highlights the lack of methodologies for promoting ethical computer use. Our research addresses this issue by developing an evaluation tool for determining ethical levels vis-a-vis computers. Educational methodologies are being developed which will be evaluated by this tool. The instrument, based on scenarios involving Kohlberg style ethical dilemmas pertaining to computers, is modeled after Rests Defining Issues Test. A pilot presentation of the scenarios to 18 computer students revealed interesting information about student attitudes. Students reacted to each of eight scenarios, explaining their reasoning in writing. After extended class debate, they reanalyzed the scenarios, ranking factors by degree of influence and stating whether the discussion changed their opinions.