BYU College of Computational, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences

We want to say thanks for coming and making it a GREAT time at our last tailgate in Flordia! We loved chatting with alumni and fans of BYU. We will be at the BYU tailgate in Arizona this Saturday, Nov. 23 from 10:30am-12:30pm. Keep an eye out for our booth and come participate in the fun we have planned! Hope to see you there!

Congratulations to Professor Xinru Page!

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Today, we are thrilled to spotlight Warda, a PhD student in Computer Science who is making incredible strides in her field. Warda, whose name means "Rose" in Arabic, is from Pakistan. With a passion for understanding diverse people and a love of math, she found the perfect fit in computer science. Her research focuses on how individuals make online privacy and security decisions, aiming to design systems that better protect users. Recently, Warda achieved a major milestone, having two papers accepted to the prestigious 2025 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, where she is the first author. With only a 14% acceptance rate, this marks her lab's first publication at this top-tier conference. Her papers address key security and privacy issues: Security and Privacy Experiences of First- and Second-Generation Pakistani Immigrants to the US — This study, done with Scott Ruoti and others, explores the security experiences of Pakistani immigrants, highlighting the challenges they face and the role family dynamics play in their practices. SoK: A Framework and Guide for Human-Centered Threat Modeling — Warda and her team coined the term "human-centered threat modeling," providing researchers a guide to understanding the security needs of diverse communities. She dedicated over four hours a week for more than a year to ensure its success. Warda expressed her deep gratitude, saying, “I consider myself to be incredibly fortunate to have Dr. Daniel Zappala as my advisor. He has supported me at every step and taught me everything I know about research.” She added, “Our research formalizes human-centered threat modeling, helping researchers understand how people make decisions about online safety, leading to better technologies.” Warda’s research is not only academically rigorous but also impactful. We are incredibly proud of her and look forward to seeing what she accomplishes next. Congratulations, Warda—you represent the best of BYU! #BYU #ComputerScience #SoftwareEngineering #MachineLearning #BYUCS

The College of Computational, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences would like to extend congratulations to Jeremy Johnson. Having received a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Johnson will continue his research within crystal chirality. These studies may very well change the future of high-speed computational devices. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g8k8iifP #Chemistry #Biochemistry #BYU #MoorePhysics #ScienceFunding BYU Chemistry and Biochemistry

At the beginning of spring term, Grant Jensen, dean of the College of Computational, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences delivered a devotional address. His remarks focused on the blessing of marriage and children, emphasizing that there are many good things in life, but family is among the greatest. Read/listen to his devotional here: https://lnkd.in/gU9rYFqf Photo by Abby Shelton/BYU

Warda Usman is a Computer Science PhD from Pakistan and in her community, the word ‘privacy’ typically has a negative connotation. This impacts their personal information security and Usman is studying such vulnerable populations and others that are at privacy risk to discover and address their security threats, and design technology to combat them. Before dedicating herself to CS, Usman experimented with science courses and explored psychology, and poetry. She keeps her interest in psychology alive as she has combined her CS research with psychology methods, which is called human computer interaction research. Now that she has completed the required courses for her PhD, she is now focusing on conducting user studies, and hopes to interact with organizations who assist vulnerable populations. Usman plans on conducting interviews with underrepresented communities to best determine how to improve technology development. Her decision to focus on underrepresented communities in technology comes from her experiences as a Pakistani woman studying STEM in Utah. Usman’s interest in BYU was piqued when a BYU professor collaborated with a professor from her university in Pakistan, the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences . She was excited to learn about BYU’s honor code and how it aligned with her values. Her transition to Utah has been made easier by her professors, along with the CS Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Office (CSIDE). Usman is currently the lead mentor of CS Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Office (CSIDE), as she guides and trains other mentors to help promote inclusion, diversity, and equity within the computer science program. Her experience in CSIDE motivated her to think about everyone, and she plans on carrying that philosophy to the rest of her research. Usman concludes, “The professors in my department talk about how diversity is a strength, which has inspired me to think about diverse populations. I want to guide everyone to be more secure and make technology that’s easier to use for everyone.” #byu #provo #computerscience #compsci #cs

Dr. David Wingate discusses all potential upsides in using AI technologies to better our future, and it sounds like chatGPT is only the beginning. #byu #provo #computerscience #compsci #cs

Marc J. Ellison is our alumnus of the week. He majored in Earth & Space Science Education through the Geology Department after falling in love with geology in 9th grade when he took an Earth Science class and found out how the mountains were formed and what types of rocks he was "walking, climbing, and camping on in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia." During his time at BYU he really enjoyed all the geology field trips they went on. He in fact loved them so much that he still goes on them with the BYU Geology Alumni group. Marc is currently working for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Headquarters Facility Department for a brand-new division entitled Resiliency Operations. There he helps prepare the Church for and mitigate natural, human-caused, and technological emergencies. A piece of knowledge he shared was that, "When all other forms of communication fail, ham radio will always be an effective way to communicate." #byu #provo #geology

PhD student Ashley Chang loved the 3MT as an opportunity to discover the science that is occurring across The College of Science and Math, from the atomic level to the galactic, and everything in-between. The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) is a research presentation competition that originated at the University of Queensland in 2008, and has since spread worldwide. Students participating have three minutes to give an oral presentation based on their research. This should be achieved using language understandable to a lay audience, and avoiding discipline-specific jargon. Chang displayed her passion and knowledge and emphasized the importance of communicating the research work done, stating that, “if we can’t share our work, it’s pointless, and we work too hard for it to be pointless.” She shared with us about idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which has a 100 % mortality rate after 3-5 years of diagnosis. Chang formulates novel protein design methods to create drugs for IPF, and has mentored 12 undergraduates during her program. This focus on undergraduates lends itself to a spirit of collaboration and camaraderie, as no one is trying to compete with the scientist next to them. This gospel focus and camaraderie does not affect the precision of their work; due to their work with animals, it is incredibly important to Chang to continue in the highest standards possible, to treat the animals with the respect they deserve.