Research Assistant on National Science Foundation Award # 2032292 2024 Spring – present
NSF-funded project designed to broaden participation in cybersecurity education by teaching social engineering and the human dimensions of cyber threats. The project engaged students, educators, and community members through hands-on competitions, classroom projects, and outreach workshops across diverse STEM disciplines.
- Communicated with risk management, IT services, the ethics board, and CAT to ensure subject matter expertise and ethical AI use across social media competitions
- Conducted research to observe adversarial behavior in cyberattacks
- Reported and analyzed data to understand adversarial behavior and group dynamics in cyberattacks
- Assisted with designing international cybersecurity competitions (A nationally recognized, prevention-focused cybersecurity competition examining the human dimensions of cybercrime through hands-on social engineering simulations grounded in the social science. Engaged over 650 high school, undergraduate, and graduate students across six annual competitions from 2020 to 2026)
- Assisted with designing course projects for cybersecurity education
Research Assistant at the Office of CLA Community Engagement 2025 Fall – present
- Facilitated and sustained meaningful connections between local Philadelphia communities and CLA students, faculty, and staff to better education.
- Supported administrative operations and program delivery such as community engaged learning for undergraduates, the CLA Community Scholars Program, and CLA Translation Institute, and the University-Community Collaborative.
- Assisted in information-gathering, including research, grants; compiled grant documentation and maintain submission records
- Supported outreach and scheduling for program partners
- Processed stipend requests for external facilitators and guest speakers
- Managed social media account
Research Assistant at the CARE Lab (Cybersecurity Community Outreach) 2024 Spring – present
- Designed and developed cybersecurity and cyberhygiene educational content tailored for diverse age groups, delivering programming across youth-only, older adult-only, and intergenerational formats
- Facilitated regular awareness sessions on topics including cyberhygiene, scams and fraud, deepfakes, surveillance, and AI safety, adapting frequency and format to each program’s needs
- Youth Cyber Hygiene and Security Training Program: We raise cybersecurity awareness among youth with the Juvenile Justice Center of Philadelphia (JJCP), the Institute for the Development of African American Youth (IDAAY), Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA), and Temple Upward Bound. Our program covers essential topics such as deepfakes, dangers of texting, surveillance, the role of AI in future cybercrime, the use of social media, online safety, and careers in cybersecurity.
- Hunting Park Community Revitalization Corporation: We partnered with the HPCRC to host a cybersecurity and awareness session for members of the Hunting Park Community.
- Community Cybersecurity Clinics (C3): We host free, hands-on cybersecurity workshops open to community members of all ages, covering practical online safety topics such as romance scam, tax fraud, digital security best practices to help the public stay safe online.
- Cyber Security Day: We partnered with Temple University’s Digital Access Center to help raise awareness about cybercrimes targeting older populations and how to stay safe.
DEF CON 34 Hacking Conference Summer 2026
- Analyzed live vishing calls, documenting attacker tactics and techniques in real-time findings reports
- Identified and categorized attacker pretexts and cover stories, which background stories worked, assessing their effectiveness in manipulating targets
- Documented persuasion principles employed by attackers to understand psychological manipulation tactics
- Synthesized findings across multiple calls to write the reports
PSU Cognitive Control, Cognitive Skills, and Memory Research Lab Fall 2017 – Spring 2018
Research Assistant University Park, PA
- Concerned with the role of intentions in cognitive control, cognitive skill, and working memory, especially with the nature of errors in routine skills
- Collected data, designed and implemented experiments, and participated in lab meetings
- Communicated with participants, researchers, and other research assistants