3 FSU Students Participate in Research Day
Three Fairmont State students will participate in Undergraduate Research Day at the
Capitol, planned for Tuesday, March 1.
The event will take place from 9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the State Capitol building
in Charleston. The day is intended to help members of the state Legislature and the
executive branch understand the importance of undergraduate research by talking directly
with the students impacted.
Michael Ware and Johnny Dean, computer science/information technology students at
FSU, will present a paper titled "Improving User Awareness". Faculty member Don Tobin
serves as their adviser.
Ware's and Dean's research focuses on improving personal computer security. In an
effort to build a security awareness training tool, they developed an attack simulator
for personal computers known as AWARE (A Windows Attack Intrusion Emulator). The goal
of AWARE is to transform user's passive attitudes, which allows an attack to take
complete control of a computer system, into an active mindset, which would enforce
system protection, detect suspicious activity and counteract future attacks.
Justin Morgan, a biology student at FSU, will present a paper titled "ATR (Ataxia
Telangiectasia Mutated and Rad3 Related) as a Potential Link Between Obesity and Cancer."
Morgan's research focuses on the incidence of certain cancers in obese individuals.
Research suggests that ATR, a checkpoint protein that regulates cell cycle progression
and is important for the survival of cells following DNA damage, may be a factor linking
obesity and cancer.
