ACES Senior Awarded Honorable Mention for CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award

ACES senior, Ashton Webster was selected for honorable mention for the Computing Research Association's (CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award for PhD-granting institutions 2017.

The CRA’s Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award recognizes undergraduate students in North American universities who show outstanding research potential in the area of computing research.

In order to be an eligible nominee for the program, applicants must be nominated by two faculty members, and the chair of their home department must sign the cover letter to confirm they are in good standing and eligible for the award. Read more about the CRA award program here.

Ashton said, “I’m very grateful to be recognized for such a competitive award. I’m also thankful to have had such excellent team members and advisors for my projects.”

Ashton began working with ACES Director, Dr. Michel Cukier and a team of undergraduate and graduate students as a sophomore at University of Maryland. Through this research project, he worked on a method for developing network scan detection models. The team submitted their research paper on this project and was accepted to the SECURECOMM conference. They presented their work in Dallas, Texas in October 2015.

Following this project, Ashton began working with Dr. James Purtilo on using machine learning technique known as "transfer learning” to better identify software defects and vulnerabilities in source code. This semester Ashton completed his honors thesis on this topic.

Ashton said, “So far, my research has resulted in a new framework for network scan detection models and insight into the power of transfer learning algorithms, but this is just the beginning. I look forward to using what I have learned from these projects to continue to contribute practical methods and insightful recommendations as I complete my undergraduate degree and pursue a graduate degree in Computer Science.”

Congratulations Ashton!