Computer Science PhD Student First to Receive Competitive Award

April 25, 2024 

BATON ROUGE, LA – LSU Computer Science Ph.D. student Ruxin Wang is the recipient of the highly competitive 2024 Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Rising Stars Award, making her the first-ever LSU student to receive the honor. She is also the first female LSU student to publish a first-author security paper at one of the Big 4 Security conferences.

Wang will next attend the 2024 CPS Rising Stars Workshop in May at the University of Virginia. There, she will receive the award, which aims to identify and mentor outstanding Ph.D. and post-doctoral students who are interested in pursuing academic careers in CPS core research areas.

“This award recognizes my research in CPS security and using CPS to improve traffic safety and public health,” Wang said. “In addition to my research, this award also recognizes my efforts in engaging women scholars in STEM research. I greatly appreciate the help and guidance of my Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Chen Wang, who consistently encouraged me to apply for this national award and be brave enough to compete with other top-ranking university peers. I am now more determined to pursue a faculty position after graduation, and I am now more confident that I can make significant contributions to CPS research and education.”

Last May, Wang became the first female LSU student to publish a first-author security paper at a Big 4 Security conference when her paper on developing a low-effort authentication method for VR headset users was published at the 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. Existing VR authentications require users to enter a PIN number or draw graphical passwords, which can be observed by others in proximity to the user and create security issues. Wang’s proposed method would be based on the unique skull-reverberated sounds, which can be acquired when the user wears the VR device.

“It is very challenging to publish a first-author paper at a Big 4 Security conference, such as IEEE S&P, which has a low acceptance rate (e.g., 13%),” Wang said. “The review process is double-blind, and reviewers don’t know who you are…[they only have] your submitted paper to make decisions. I worked with my advisor, Dr. Wang, and my colleague, Mr. Long Huang, for over two years on the VR authentication topic, and our submission has been rejected many times. We kept researching on this area, solving challenges, and improving our paper to finally make it to the level of the Big 4 Security conferences.

“To me, it is a high recognition of my research achievements in ‘Cyber-Physical Systems for Security, Safety, and Healthcare’ at LSU and a milestone in my academic career. ‘First’ means there will be a second and a third. I am now working towards publishing the second Big 4 paper.

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Contact: Joshua Duplechain
Director of Communications
225-578-5706
josh@lsu.edu