October 3, 2008

Appointments, honors and activities

— The Purdue Panhellenic Association will hold a new member orientation at 7 p.m. Monday (Oct. 6) in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall. Amanda Fox, a Purdue alumna and former director of risk management for the group, will speak on the sorority experience and the responsibilities it requires. The current risk management directors for the Panhellenic Association and Interfraternity Council will talk about rules, policies and other issues including alcohol risk management, eating disorders, alcohol and drug use, date rape/sexual harassment and hazing.

Faculty and staff honors:

— Two faculty members won awards for presentations given at the American Society for Engineering Education Conference for Industry Education Collaboration held in February in New Orleans. Michael T. O'Hair, associate dean for engagement in the College of Technology, won the CIEC Best Session Award in the engineering technology division for the session titled, "The Role of Engagement in Higher Education: Focus on Engineering and Engineering Technology - Key Concepts and Examples that Strengthen our Future." Mark Pagano, dean of the Office for Continuing Education and Conferences, won the CIEC Best Moderator Award for the session titled "Highlighting Innovation in Engineering Technology" and the program titled "Vignette of Success." They will be honored at the 2009 conference on Feb. 4 in Orlando, Fla.

— Dongyan Xu, an associate professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering (by courtesy), and Ryan Riley, a doctoral student in computer science and the first author, earned the Best Paper Award at the 11th International  Symposium on Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection (RAID 2008) in Cambridge, Mass. This work is co-led by Xuxian Jiang, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University and Purdue PhD graduate, and Xu, who are Riley’s co-advisers. Xu and Riley’s research is associated with Purdue's Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security. The award-winning paper is titled "Guest-Transparent Prevention of Kernel Rootkits with VMM-based Memory Shadowing” and is about methods to prevent rootkits from “hijacking” computers’ operating systems. A rootkit is a malicious program that seizes control of the very core of an operating system – the kernel – and further "installs" unauthorized software that will be difficult to find and remove. The rootkit allows other unauthorized access or behavior to occur – all hidden from the computer user and administrator. This is a tactic used in many cyber attacks, including botnets. RAID is the premier conference on intrusion detection and response systems.

Student honors:

— The Barbara Cook Mortar Board chapter at Purdue was among the top chapters that were honored at the 2008 Mortar Board National Conference held this summer in Columbus, Ohio. The group was one of 27 chapters that received the Golden Torch Award, which is presented to chapters that excel in their devotion to the organization's ideals of scholarship, leadership and service. The chapter earned two Project Excellence Awards for their Mortar Board Leadership Conference and annual Reading Extravaganza. Purdue's chapter also received that national organization's Best Web Site Award and was named as a finalist for the Ruth Weimer Mount Chapter Excellence Award, Mortar Board's highest national honor for a collegiate chapter.

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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