ProperData Education and Outreach
The broader impact of ProperData includes: training next-generation graduate and undergraduate students jointly in technology and policy; broadening participation of women, underrepresented minorities, and community college students; informing the research community and the public through seminars and events; interacting with policy makers and other placeholders. Next, we highlight activities related to broadening participation in computing (BPC) via education and outreach. Examples of broader impact in privacy policy are described separately here.
People
Past BPC Leads
NEW: ProperData Seminar Series: Privacy Frontiers
ProperData Seminar Series: Privacy Frontiers, First Friday of the Month
In AY 2023-24, ProperData launched a new monthly seminar series (Privacy Frontiers) to present the latest developments and trends related to privacy and data transparency, from leading experts in technology and the policy aspects of privacy. The seminar is hybrid or zoom-only, and open to the public. It built on our internal ProperData Friday seminars on Fridays, by opening to the public those talks that are of general interest.
Privacy and IoT Research Exploration Workshop Series
ProperData has designed and offered annually Research Exploration Workshops on Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Privacy. The target audience is primarily undergraduate students, with a special focus on students from community colleges and underrepresented groups in computer science and engineering, including women, Latinx/Hispanics, Blacks/African Americans, Native Americans, persons with disabilities, and those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. The program is designed based on ProperData research, and is delivered by ProperData PIs, postdocs, and graduate students. The workshops offer a combination of technical training (e.g., networking, privacy, IoT, voice assistants, recommendation algorithms) and career development and networking opportunities (to encourage participants to pursue careers and graduate school in related fields).
Research Exploration Workshop #3, June 20 – June 30, 2023 (in-person, commuter)
In June 2023, ProperData continued to host our two week in-person program at UCI. Seventeen community college students received training on IoT, privacy, network traffic monitoring and ad targeting & personalization research. Students duplicated our curriculum from Workshop 2 and built their own voice assistant devices from scratch on Raspberry Pi (RPi) microcomputers. In addition to voice assistant devices, our curriculum expanded to include modules on understanding the privacy concerns of mobile and web tracking, ad targeting, and personalization when utilizing web and mobile services such as online news sites and social media platforms like TikTok. Students also participated in professional development opportunities throughout our program through faculty and graduate student panels and workshops on college transfer applications.
Research Exploration Workshop #2, June 20 – July 1, 2022 (in person, commuter & residential)
In June 2022, ProperData sponsored a two week in-person program at our UCI campus. Eighteen participants received hands-on training on network traffic collection, web crawling and persona training, and programming on Raspberry Pi (RPi) microcomputers. Participants built their own voice assistant device from scratch by utilizing the MyCroft software and installing skills. In addition to the technical curriculum, students participated in career development opportunities such as panels with faculty + industry professionals and graduate students, workshops on undergraduate research and graduate school admissions, and an industry visit to learn how to program tinyML chips at Syntiant Corp.
Research Exploration Workshop #1 (exploreCSR) May 8, 15, & 22, 2021 (online)
In May 2021, funded through a Google exploreCSR grant, we virtually hosted three four hour long workshop sessions on Saturdays. Sixty participants were exposed to IoT, privacy, mobile systems, and networking research and received hands-on training on Raspberry Pi (RPi) microcomputers. Participants completed a privacy server project they presented and pitched during the last session. In addition to technical programming, students were able to participate in career development opportunities in the form of panels with faculty, graduate students, and industry professionals from Google and Broadcom.
Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS)
Prof. Markopoulou is the founding mentor of the UCI Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) chapter. ProperData graduate students lead the efforts and programming for the chapter. Currently, the leadership team includes: Olivia Figueira (president), Renascence Prapty (VP & Treasurer), Ismat Jarin (Secretary), and Elina Van Kempen and Yu Duan (program coordinators).
ProperData co-sponsors WiCyS activities at UCI and across ProperData.