Funds are requested to support students to attend the first IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS), which is sponsored by IEEE ComSoc and will be held on October 14-16, 2013, in Washington DC, USA. IEEE CNS conference is a spin-off of IEEE INFOCOM, and is positioned to be a core ComSoc conference that serves as a premier forum for communications and network researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and users to exchange ideas, techniques and tools, raise awareness, and share experience related to security and privacy. It provides a unique bridge for the communications and networking community and the security community. The technical scope of this conference encompasses a large number of areas in communications and network security which facilitates gathering of prominent scientists from academia, governments and industries from around the world to discuss the emerging and multidisciplinary frontiers of networking security technology. The PI requests support from NSF (at the total amount of $14,000) to help cover the expenses of approximately 15-20 US-based graduate students. The selection process for the travel award will involve a sub-committee of the CNS 2013 Executive Committee, chaired by the PI. Priority will be given to students who will benefit from attending this conference, but are unlikely to attend due to the unavailability of travel funding. The travel grants will tend to benefit a wider demographic of graduate students, which will help to broaden participation in the research area of communications and network security.
IEEE Conference on Communication and Network Security (CNS) is a new conference series established by IEEE ComSoc in response to the fast growing interests in the security aspect of communication and network security area. It is a spinoff of the top ranked networking conference, IEEE INFOCOM, and is positioned to be a premiere venue for communications and networking researchers to present new research results in the area of communcations and network security. With the support of NSF, we were able to support 19 selected students to receive the student travel grants. CNS conference formed a Student Travel Grant Committee consisting of the CNS 2013 General Chair, Program Chairs and the Student Travel Grant Chair. The committee has give high priority to women and other under-represented minority students. Among the 19 selected students, we had two females students, 16 Ph.D. students, and 3 MS students. At the conference, the student participants not only enjoyed the academic parts of the conference and interacted with other senior researchers in the field, but also participated in student-oriented efforts, such as poster/demo presentations and helped the conference in a variety of roles. Through these activities, the students have worked with the conference organizers and understood how a conference is organized, and how to actively get involved in the conference/workshop and other professional organizations in the future.
