Undergraduate Student Research
The department has a strong tradition of undergraduate involvement in research projects with an excellent record of participation in publications 鈥� students have traveled as far as Ireland to present joint faculty/student work, and they helped write the software that cracked the Human Genome. Students primarily work on research as either a senior research project, or as a summer Hauber researcher. The summer Hauber research students are paid a stipend and may live on campus. In both cases, students work closely with one or two faculty advisors to pursue novel research areas.
Research at Loyola
How to Get Involved
Students who are interested in a research experience should talk to a faculty member whose research matches their interests. Alternatively, students can talk to their computer science advisor about the research opportunities and how to get involved. The Hauber application deadline is usually in January or early February, and is competitive entry. Students should start thinking about if they'd like to apply to Hauber and research out to faculty by the end of the fall semester. Students who are interested in a research project for their senior capstone project should being talking to faculty about this possibility by Thanksgiving.
Recent Student Research Projects
- 2024: Speeding Up Iris Recognition Using Distributed Computing. Senior project students: David Avallone and Kelly Reynolds. Faculty Mentor: Dr. Hoang Bui
- 2024: Predicting a LLM鈥檚 ability to solve a Coding Problem. Senior project students: Joshua Brooks and Sajiv Gnanasekaran. Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nguyen Ho
- 2024: Code Vulnerability Detection. Senior project student: Karis Woo. Faculty Mentor: Drs. Binkely and Isaacman.
- 2023: Comparing Tools for Detecting Smart Contracts Vulnerabilities. Hauber Fellow: Jarno Ottati. Faculty Mentor: Dr. Henrique Rocha
- 2022: Simulating Load Balancing on Distributed Systems. Senior Project student: Amanda Condron. Faculty Mentor: Dr. Megan Olsen.
- 2022: "Snapshot Testing Dataset" Hauber Fellow Emily Bui. Faculty Mentor: Dr. Henrique Rocha.
- 2021: Applying Machine Learning to Predict Agent-based Modeling Results. Hauber Fellow: Naylah Perodin. Faculty Mentor: Dr. Megan Olsen.
- 2021: Developing a Quantum Computer Emulator: Writing the Computing Primitives. Hauber: Fellow Kyle Geary. Faculty Mentor Dr. David Binkley.
- 2021: "The Use of Deep Neural Networks to find security vulnerabilities in Source Code" Hauber Fellow: Erik Henson. Faculty Mentors: Dr. David Binkley and Dr. Sibren Isaacman
- 2021: DNN Security. Hauber Fellow: Jack Still. Faculty Mentors Dr. David Binkley and Dr. Sibren Isaacman
- 2020: Testing for Deep Neural Networks in Autonomous Vehicles. Hauber Fellow: Jack Toohey. Faculty Mentors: Drs. Dave Binkley & M Raunak.
- 2019: Testing Corner Cases in Machine Learning. Hauber Fellow: Victoria Matos. Faculty Mentors: Drs. Dave Binkley & M Raunak.
- 2019: Segmented Testing of Machine Learning Models. Hauber Fellow: Jacob Norris. Faculty Mentors: Drs. Dave Binkley & Raunak.
Example Student Publications and Presentations
- L. Moonen, D. Binkley, and S. Pugh. On Adaptive Change Recommendation. Journal of Systems and Software special issue on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation. Journal of Systems and Software, June 2020.
- MS Raunak, R Kuhn, R Kogut, R Kacker. Vulnerability trends in web servers and browsers. Proceedings of the 7th Symposium on Hot Topics in the Science of Security, 2020.
- C. Maalouf, M. Olsen, M. Raunak. Combinatorial Testing for Parameter Evaluation. Proceedings of the 2019 Winter Simulation Conference. December 2019.
- M. Olsen, M. Raunak, M. Setteducati. Enabling quantified validation for model credibility. Proceedings of the Summer Simulation Multi-Conference (SummerSim'18). July 2018.
- M. Olsen, J. Laspesa, T. Taylor-D'Ambrosio. On Genetic Algorithm Effectiveness for Finding Behaviors in Agent-based Predator Prey Models. Proceedings of the Summer Simulation Multi-Conference (SummerSim'18). July 2018.
- D. Binkley, D. Heinz, D. Lawrie, and J. Overfelt. Source code analysis with LDA. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, August 2016. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, 2016.
- D. Binkley, D. Lawrie and C. Uehlinger. Vocabulary Normalization Improves IR-Based Concept Location. In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Software Maintenance, 2012
Research Away from Loyola
In addition to research experiences at Loyola, students can also get involved in research at other universities over the summer. These programs are called Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU). They exist all around the country, and also usually include housing and a stipend. Deadlines vary, but are usually around winter break. You can see the entire list at the .