CSEE Professor, Dr. Anupam Joshi, named Oros Family...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:03:01 -0500
news, research

Full Title: CSEE Professor, Dr. Anupam Joshi, named Oros Family Professor of Technology
Dr. Joshi has been a faculty member of UMBC’s Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department since 1998. His research focuses on wireless and mobile computing, trust, security, privacy issues in distributed systems, and analytics of social media. He is a core member of UMBC's Ebiquity research group.

Congratulations to Dr. Anupam Joshi, who was recently appointed as the Oros Family Professor of Technology. This five year endowed professorship will provide Dr. Joshi with nearly $33,000 to spend on enhancing education in the fields of Information Technology at UMBC.

The Oros Family Professorship in Technology–established by David Oros, a UMBC alumnus who graduated with a Math degree in 1985– was established to support the work of Computer Science faculty whose research is geared toward mobile computing and wireless technology. Dr. Zary Segall, a former professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at UMBC previously served as the Oros Family Professor in Technology.

Apart from being a prestigious distinction, the award allows support by way of a generous donation. Broadly defined, the money will be used to support students with assistantships and fellowships, develop international collaborations, and buy equipment to keep labs up to date. But, the funds are also meant to enhance and extend Dr. Joshi’s own research at the intersection of healthcare IT and mobility.

“The funds enable me to merge these two existing and very strong research threads to pursue a new “Blue Sky” opportunity,” says Dr. Joshi.

For example, Dr. Joshi is interested in creating a mobile device that can be used to diagnose illness— something similar to the “Tricorder” used in Star Trek. What Joshi envisions is a small, wireless tool (think smartphone) that could do things like take sensor readings and measure vitals. Essentially, it could diagnose a patient who is thousands of miles away from a hospital. Joshi explains that the implications of a device like this are especially encouraging for people in remote areas and poorer populations, where access to modern healthcare is limited if not non-existent.

Though Dr. Joshi acknowledges the incredible potential of the encroaching age of ubiquitous computing, he is nevertheless wary of the consequences. As a result, he hopes the award will help him look more closely at the implications of mobile and social computing on our privacy. This Spring, Dr. Joshi will teach a course on the topic: Security and Privacy in a Mobile Social World, which will look at cases like that of 13-year old Megan Meier, who committed suicide after being cyberbullied by a friend’s mother who was posing as a 16-year old boy on Myspace.