Wilton Student Gives Oral Presentation at CREATE Conference

From Eastern Connecticut State University:

WILLIMANTIC, CT (05/05/2016)-- More than 250 talented students at Eastern Connecticut State University presented research and creative work at the university's second annual CREATE conference this past April. CREATE stands for Celebrating Research Excellence and Artistic Talent at Eastern, and is the university's premier, academic year-end showcase. At the culminating event, students of all majors presented professional posters, live music, dance performances, artwork, photography, documentaries and panel discussions.

John Harakas '16 of Wilton, who majors in Computer Science and Mathematics, gave an oral presentation at the event. His oral presentation was titled "Analyzing Keyboard Vibrations Recorded by Mobile Devices."

"The explosion of affordable computing has packed mobile devices with sensors that observe our physical environment such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, temperature, humidity, orientation, and magnometers, with each subsequent generation of devices becoming increasingly accurate," said Harakas. "One field of computer security focuses on side-channels, in which information leaked from the physical surroundings can be used as an attack vector. This research explored methods of keystroke recovery using an Android device accelerometer with a sampling rate of 100Hz. The low sampling rate posed a tremendous challenge in determining if the recorded vibrations contained enough information to uniquely identify keystrokes."

Remarking on the variety of presentations, Professor Dickson Cunningham, conference co-chair, said, "CREATE encapsulates the essence of the liberal arts in one afternoon. It is an intellectual smorgasbord."

Speaking to the value of CREATE, Eastern President Elsa Nunez said, "It takes a very strong and dedicated student to produce this quality of work, and it's important for other students to see this output." Praising the faculty, she added, "It takes a committed and skillful mentor to guide students to the work that is on display. Mentorship is such an integral part of undergraduate research."

During the one-day conference, the Student Center crawled with artistic and scholarly activity. Students in professional attire addressed their peers, faculty and family. In the cafe, ensembles performed; in the theatre, student-produced documentaries were shown; in the Betty R. Tipton Room, aisles of posters depicting scientific research were displayed; across the hall, a gallery-worth of paintings lined the walls; and on the ground floor, panel discussions and oral presentations about the humanities took place.

Founded in 1889, Eastern Connecticut State University is the state's public liberal arts university and one of only 29 such designated institutions in North America. Eastern is home to 5,300 students who come from 158 of Connecticut's 169 townships, from 20 states throughout the country, and from 63 foreign countries. As a predominantly residential campus, Eastern has approximately 60 percent of undergraduate students living on its beautiful campus. With more than 150 buildings and 2.3 million square feet of space, Eastern's physical plant is admired by students and visitors alike; in January 2016, a new Fine Arts Center opened, further advancing Eastern's liberal arts mission.

The university offers 38 undergraduate majors, 55 minors, and seven master's degree programs. An excellent student/teacher ratio (15.5:1) and small class sizes (average class size is 23.3) allow students to receive exceptional personal attention.