CCI News Bytes: Fall 2025 & Winter 2026

Welcome to the Fall 2025 & Winter 2026 edition of News Bytes! News Bytes is your go-to source for the latest happenings at Drexel University's College of Computing & Informatics (CCI), where we recognize academic and professional milestones of our students and faculty, including notable achievements in conferences, scholarships, awards, fellowships and more. Whether you're looking for inspiration or just want to stay in the loop, we’ve got highlights from across the CCI community.

Recognition and Innovation

CCI Tops National Rankings for Best Online Cybersecurity Undergraduate Degree

CCI’s online Bachelor of Science in Computing and Security Technology (BSCST) program was ranked the best online cybersecurity program in the United States for 2026 by OnlineCybersecurity.org. In ranking CCI’s program #1, the online platform for cybersecurity professionals mentioned its innovative curriculum, strong faculty leadership, and commitment to preparing students to meet the growing challenges of today’s digital landscape.

Chris Carroll, MS, teaching professor in computer science, leads the BS in Computing and Security Technology as its program director.

CCI Introduces Micro‑Credentials Aligned with Employer‑Driven Skills

CCI has developed a new Digital Badging Program that enables students to demonstrate proficiency in specific computing and informatics skills that are now prioritized by employers in an on-going effort to prepare students for an ever-changing industry environment. Digital badges transform undergraduate learning into recognizable skills that open doors to opportunity. They make learning visible, meaningful, and marketable to employers and supplement CCI’s standard Undergraduate curriculum.

Dario Salvucci, PhD, professor of computer science and interim associate dean for academic operations and Karen DeVose, Ed.D, assistant dean for academic advising and student success, have overseen the development of the program.

Your Promising Future in Computer and Information Sciences: The AI Age

What’s the real situation with AI and future job prospects? We asked two experts — Ali Shokoufandeh, PhD, interim dean of CCI and distinguished university professor, and Dario Salvucci, PhD, interim associate dean of academic operations at CCI and professor of computer science — to weigh in on the future of computer and information science careers.

Community Impact

CCI Faculty Member Helps Arizona Students Build a Replica of the Ginormous ENIAC Computer

Drexel CCI Computer Science Teaching Professor Brian Stuart, PhD, helped bring to life a ginormous replica of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC). Debuted in Philadelphia in 1946 as a tool for the US Army, the original ENIAC covered 1,800 square feet and weighed over 30 tons.

A group of 80 neurodivergent students, aged 12 to 16, at PS Academy Arizona, built a full-scale recreation of the ENIAC computer. Over the course of five months, the students created 22,000 custom parts and assembled the massive structure to reflect the look, lighting and sound of the original machine.

With guidance from Stuart—an ENIAC historian—as well as descendants of ENIAC’s creators and the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, the students gained access to original patents, army documents and photographs.

The students hosted a ceremony in January 2026 to reveal their creation to friends and families. Stuart attended the ceremony and had the chance to see the replica in person. “I never thought I would be able to see the full, physical scale of this machine,” says Stuart. “It really is impressive.”

Computer Science Student Launches Buzzi, a Marketplace for Safer Peer‑to‑Peer Trading

Seeing gaps in student buying and selling, Drexel student Prashastha Nirwan, BS computer science ’26, has developed Buzzi, to streamline student exchanges.

WHYY Spotlights Drexel’s Innovative STEAM Program Co-Founded by CCI’s Michelle Rogers, PhD

The program, Black Girls STEAMing Through Dance, offers workshops that lead Philadelphia-area elementary and middle-school students to combine their creativity with new technical skills.

Student Success

CCI Undergraduate Students Win Top Category at Temple University Hackathon

Congratulations to CCI undergraduate students Christopher Hussain (BS software engineering ’26), Muhammad Rashid (BS computer science ’27), Rufayda Sanjida (MS computer science & mathematics ’27), Chetna Chaudhary (BS computer science ’29) and Micah Brinson (BS software engineering ’27) for winning the “future mobility” category at the Temple University OwlHacks in September 2025. OwlHacks is a 30-hour, student-organized hackathon that attracts university students and employers from around the region.

Their project, DroneDash, focused on using AI-powered drones to help in the delivery of groceries, reducing costs and optimizing delivery for sustainability and convenience.

Inaugural Hackathon Organized by CCI Undergraduate Students Attracts 200+ Attendees and Multiple Sponsors

In November 2025, Drexel CCI students Likitha Tejaswini Kambidi (BS computer science ’27), Naman Bajpai (BS computer science ’27) and Muhammad Rashid (BS computer science ’27) —co-founders of The Foundry — organized and launched the organization’s inaugural Start Up in a Weekend hackathon.

The event brought together 200+ hackers, awarded $10,000 in cash prizes and included multiple sponsors, including Keller Williams, which hosted the event at its Philadelphia headquarters.

Their work is rooted in The Foundry, Philadelphia’s first builder-led community designed to give founders direct access to the people, capital and knowledge they need to grow. The start-up helps turn Philly-born ideas into venture-scale companies.

Drexel Senior Blends Fashion, Data Science and UX in Custom-Designed Major

Omisha Chabria, a Drexel University senior in the Custom-Designed Major (CSDN), created an interdisciplinary degree blending data science, the business of fashion and user experience design, culminating in a three-term capstone project. With guidance from her mentor, CCI Associate Teaching Professor Tim Gorichanaz, PhD, she developed a user-centered e‑commerce prototype. Reflecting on her experience, Chabria highlights the value of self-directed learning, staying current with the fast‑moving fashion‑tech landscape and designing an academic path aligned with long‑term career goals.

A Co-op Abroad

 Audra Stein, BS computer science '26, recently had the opportunity to travel to Walldorf, Germany, as part of her co-op experience with SAP.

CCI Students Explore Aging Science Through CNHP Program

Two CCI undergraduate students, Joseph Luisi, software engineering ’27, and Meng Wang, computer science ’28, were recently recognized as inaugural scholars in the Drexel College of Nursing and Health Professions’ (CNHP) first cohort of DREAM Scholars.

CCI Grad Student Applies AI to Power Holiday Train

Anthony Parone used lessons from a recent class on applied AI and LLMs to give holiday guests control over his holiday train via a chatbot this past December.

Faculty Distinction

Alex Poole, PhD, Receives the ALISE/Bohdan H. Wynar Research Paper Award

CCI is proud to announce that Alex Poole, PhD, associate professor of information science, received the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE)/Bohdan H. Wynar Research Paper Award for his paper, "‘If I’m fighting for myself, it is so that whoever stands on my shoulders can go further than I’: Charlemae Rollins, Augusta Baker, Effie Lee Morris, and the Community Care Information Practices of Black Women Children’s Librarians in the Mid-Twentieth Century United States."

The awards jury commended the paper for its innovation and significant contribution to LIS scholarship. It will be published in the Library Quarterly.

Feng Liu, PhD, Receives NVIDIA Academic Grant Program Award to Support Autonomous Driving AI Research

 The grant provides Liu, assistant professor of computer science, and his research team access to a high-performance server equipped with eight NVIDIA A100 80GB GPUs.

Rosina Weber, PhD, and Co-Authors Advance Privacy-Preserving Methods for AI Explainability

In the Nov. 25, 2025 issue of AI journal Knowledge-Based Systems, Weber, CCI professor of information science and computer science, and fellow researchers explain one challenge in developing feature attributions in regression tasks is a lack of data sets to evaluate feature attributions. Weber et al. demonstrate a new way to generate those data while meeting privacy requirements.

Pragati Awasthi, MS, on Turning Enterprise Machine Learning Challenges into Opportunities

In an article for CXOTech magazine, Awasthi, CCI assistant teaching professor, examines the complications organizations encounter in implementing and using machine learning models and offers solutions to address those issues.

Tim Gorichanaz, PhD, Offers Expert Insight on AI’s Impact in the Classroom

Gorichanaz, Drexel CCI associate teaching professor, was prominently featured in The 74, a leading nonprofit educational news site, exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping student-teacher dynamics.

Conferences and Research Activities

STAR Showcase Demonstrates Students’ Research Skills

Of 12 students selected by the Undergraduate Research & Enrichment Programs in the Pennoni Honors College to receive undergraduate research mini-grants to support research projects in the upcoming Winter Term, five are CCI students.

These grants of $1,000 each support faculty and student collaboration in undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative work while also helping students practice writing applications for funding opportunities.

CCI celebrates the accomplishments of David Abraham, computer science and mathematics ’28; Ethan Erb, computer science ’28; Ruhma Hashmi, computer science (Honors) ’29; Stuti Mohan, computer science (Honors) ’28; and Ebube Wobo, computer and security technology ’26.

Faculty and Students Present High-Impact Research at ASIS&T 2025

Alex H. Poole, PhD, received the Bob Williams History Fund Best Paper Award while fellow CCI faculty and students presented workshops, panels, posters, and short and long papers at the annual meeting.

Drexel CCI Brought Its Largest-Ever Presence to ACM CSCW 2025

In October, the Drexel interdisciplinary contingent showcased their work at this leading venue for human-centered research.

Drexel CCI Highlights at Healthcare Informatics Symposium AMIA 2025

CCI faculty, alumni, and students made a strong showing at the AMIA 2025 Annual Symposium in November 2025, presenting a full paper, two posters and a lightning talk.

How and When Could AI Be Used in Emergency Medicine?

Supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, researchers from Drexel, in collaboration with the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC, created a prototype of an AI assistant to study how it might be used to support pediatric trauma care in order to test the limits of AI in supporting doctors in situations where split-second decision making can mean the difference between life and death. This research, which is ongoing, is led by Angela Mastrianni, PhD, a Drexel CCI graduate who is a postdoctoral fellow at NYU Langone Health and Aleksandra Sarcevic, PhD, professor of information science and director of the Interactive Systems for Healthcare Research Lab.

Faculty Represent CCI at Leading Metadata and Semantics Conference

Paper presenters included David Breen, PhD, professor of computer science, (with CCI contributing authors Bahareh Shakibajahromi, PhD in computer science ’19; Edward Kim, PhD, associate professor of computer science; and Jane Greenberg, PhD, Alice B. Kroeger professor of information science and director of CCI’s Metadata Center), together with Yuan An, PhD, associate professor of information science (with contributions from CCI’s Mat Kelly, PhD, assistant professor of information science, PhD students Scott McClellan and Chris Rauch, as well as Colorado School of Mines collaborators).

CCI Innovation in Data Science on Display at IEEE Big Data Conference

The IEEE Big Data Conference, an event founded in 2012 by CCI’s Tony Hu, PhD, professor of information science, was recently held in Macau, China in December. A highly competitive and internationally recognized conference, this year’s event featured 1,500 paper submissions, with a 15% acceptance rate, and 1,100 participants. Jane Greenberg, PhD, Alice B. Kroeger professor of information science; Edward Kim, PhD, associate professor of computer science; Yuan An, PhD, and Michelle Rogers, PhD, both associate professors of information science; Manil Shrestha, doctoral candidate in computer science; Ruhma Hashmi, BS computer science '29 presented at the conference.

Computer Science Research Accomplishments — Fall Quarter 2025

Advancing the fields of artificial intelligence, software engineering, computer vision, smart textiles, big data and game theory, Drexel University Computer Science faculty and students, including undergraduate, master, and PhD students, have published these papers at top-tier computer science conferences and journals recently.

Alumni Updates

CCI Alumni Profile: Thai Vong, BS '05/MS '14, Information Systems

Vong, recently recognized as the 2025 Global ORBIE Award for CIO of the Year and a Top 100 C-Level executive in the Philadelphia region by the Titan 100, discusses staying current, building strong networks and why the future of tech leadership depends on curiosity and collaboration.

Welcome

Four New Faculty Members Joined CCI Last Fall

We heartily welcomed new faculty members to the CCI community.