Deception and Cybersecurity

WATCH Series

July 19, 2012 12:00 PM  to

July 19, 2012 1:00 PM

NSF, Room 110

Abstract

Deception is one of the most significant and pervasive social phenomena of our age, but the psychology of deception is poorly understood in the context of cybersecurity. We know little about important questions, including:  How does communication technology change the ways and reasons we deceive others? Can people detect if they are being lied to in online contexts any better (or worse) than offline? And can computer programs identify patterns on the Internet that reveal whether someone is lying or not that can exceed human-detection? In this talk we will examine these questions and recent research that may shed some light on the answers, focusing on the motivations for deception, a review of the state-of-the-art in deception detection research, and a sense of what the future holds for the way we lie.  

Speaker

Jeff Hancock is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Communication and Information Science. He is currently the Chair of the Information Science Department and the co-Director of Cognitive Science at Cornell University.  He is also Associate Editor of Discourse Processes. His work is concerned with how social media affect psychological and interpersonal processes, with a particular emphasis on understanding how language can reveal psychological and social dynamics, such as deception and credibility, emotional contagion, intimacy and relationships, and social support. Funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense supports his research, which has been frequently featured in the popular media, including the New York Times, CNN, NPR, and the BBC. Dr. Hancock earned his PhD in psychology at Dalhousie University, Canada, and joined Cornell in 2002.

Meeting Type

Lecture

Contacts

 Keith Marzullo, (703) 292-8950 kmarzull@nsf.gov

NSF Related Organizations

 Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering

Scientists Complete Most Comprehensive Genetic Analysis Yet of Corn

Genetic analysis could help meet nutrition needs of growing population

An interdisciplinary team, led by researchers at Cornell University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), today published the most comprehensive analysis to date of the corn genome.

The team expects the achievement to speed up development of improved varieties of one of the world's most important agricultural commodities. The results should boost international efforts to increase yields, expand areas where corn can be cultivated and produce varieties better equipped to resist pests and disease.

Funded in the United States by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the USDA, the work was a collaborative effort by scientists at 17 U.S. and foreign institutions that include the University of Wisconsin-Madison; University of Missouri-Columbia; North Carolina State University; Beijing Genome Institute; University of California, Davis and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Mexico City, Mexico.

The study appears in two corn genome projects published in separate reports in the June 3 online edition of the journal Nature Genetics.

"This work represents a major step forward and an important tool in the arsenal available to scientists and breeders for improving a vital source of nutrition," said Edward B. Knipling, administrator of USDA's Agricultural Research Service.

The analysis could also help those who develop corn yields as a source of fuel, who manage crops in the face of changing climates and who are concerned about the diminishing supply of arable land and growing populations, he said.

"This project is a stellar example of how collaborations of scientists, here and abroad, leverage resources across multiple agencies to enable transformational research with the potential to address urgent societal needs for a bio-based economy," said John Wingfield, assistant director for NSF's Biological Sciences Directorate.

It is anticipated that the tools and approaches generated in this project will enable scientists to look at genetic differences in other organisms as they respond to global climate change, human disturbance and invasive species, Wingfield explained.

The studies' collaborators shed light on corn's genetic diversity, detail how it evolved and outline how corn--known as maize among scientists--continues to diversify as it adapts to changing climates and habitats.

One study, published in the journal led by team member, USDA-ARS and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientist Doreen Ware, examines the genetic structure and the relationships and sequential ordering of individual genes in more than 100 varieties of wild and domesticated corn.

Another study led by team member Jeff Ross-Ibarra from the University of California, Davis gives an extraordinary glimpse into how corn evolved more than 8,700 years ago from a wild grass in the lowland areas of southwestern Mexico into today's ubiquitous international commodity.

The researchers compared wild varieties with traditional corn varieties from across the Americas and with modern improved breeding lines. They identified hundreds of genes that played a role in the transformation of corn from its wild origins to today's cultivated crop and show how that transition was largely achieved by ancient farmers who first domesticated it thousands of years ago.

Last year, the economic value of the U.S. corn crop was $76 billion, with U.S. growers producing an estimated 12 billion bushels, more than a third of the world's supply.  Corn is the largest production crop worldwide, providing food for billions of people and livestock and critical feedstock for production of biofuels.

-NSF-

NASA Administrator Names Peck Agency’s Chief Technologist

David Weaver
Headquarters, Washington                         

Blaine Friedlander

Cornell University Press Office, Ithaca, N.Y.

If you’re passionate about science, you should consider forensic science careers that will make a big difference in catching criminals and making your community safe… using science!

WASHINGTON -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has named Cornell University Professor Mason Peck to be the agency's chief technologist, effective in January. Peck will serve as the agency’s principal advisor and advocate on matters concerning technology policy and programs.

As the chief advocate, Peck will help communicate how NASA technologies benefit space missions and the day-to-day lives of Americans. The office coordinates, tracks and integrates technology investments across the agency and works to infuse innovative discoveries into future missions. The office also documents, demonstrates and communicates the societal impact of NASA's technology investments.

In addition, the chief technologist leads NASA technology transfer and technology commercialization efforts, facilitating internal creativity and innovation, and works directly with other government agencies, the commercial aerospace community and academia.

"Mason's lifelong commitment to learning and expertise in aerospace engineering makes him ideally suited to advise and help guide the agency toward the technologies and innovations that will enable our future missions," Bolden said. "His passion for education and his accomplishments in spacecraft design and robotics, along with his experience in the private sector, bring the skills I've come to depend on from my chief technologist."

Peck will serve as NASA's chief technologist through an intergovernmental personnel agreement with Cornell University, where he is on the faculty as an associate professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He also teaches in Cornell's Systems Engineering Program. Peck succeeds Robert Braun, who returned to his teaching and research positions at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

Peck has a broad background in aerospace technology, which comes from nearly 20 years in industry and academia. He has worked with NASA as an engineer on a variety of technology programs, including the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts sponsored his academic research in modular spacecraft architectures and propellant-less propulsion, and the International Space Station currently hosts his research group’s flight experiment in microchip-size spacecraft.

As an engineer and consultant in the aerospace industry, he has worked with organizations including Boeing, Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, Goodrich and Lockheed Martin. He has authored 82 academic articles and holds 17 patents in the U.S. and European Union.

Peck spent some of his early career at Bell Helicopter, where he worked on the V-22 Osprey and a smaller tilt-rotor aircraft that later would become the BA609. He also has experience with commercial communications satellites and military spacecraft as a guidance and control engineer and in mission operations at Boeing Defense, Space and Security. He was a principal fellow at Honeywell Defense and Space Electronic Systems, where he led advanced-technology programs, helped direct patent and intellectual-property investments, and worked in business development.

At Cornell, Peck's work focuses on spacecraft dynamics, control and mission architectures. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and aerospace contractors have funded his academic and research and science projects. Some of this research includes microscale flight dynamics, gyroscopic robotics, and magnetically controlled spacecraft, most of which have been demonstrated on NASA microgravity flights.

He currently is the principal investigator on the CUSat in-orbit inspection technology demonstration, which is a pair of satellites built at Cornell. They are scheduled to launch in 2013 on a Falcon 9 rocket through the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's University Nanosatellite Program. CUSat technology represents a capability that will help enable commercial, government and human space missions envisioned for the coming decades.

Peck also is the principal investigator for the Violet experiment, another satellite built at Cornell. Violet will provide an orbiting test bed for investigations in technology that will enable more capable commercial earth-imaging satellites. Violet carries an ultraviolet spectrometer that will be used as a precursor to understanding exoplanet atmospheres.

Peck earned a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles as a Howard Hughes Fellow and a master's degree in English literature from the University of Chicago. For more information about NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist, visit http://www.nasa.gov/oct.

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NASA Releases Images of Man-Made Crater on Comet

Dwayne Brown

Headquarters, Washington

 

DC Agle

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

 

Blaine Friedlander

Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

 

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Stardust spacecraft returned new images of a comet showing a scar resulting from the 2005 Deep Impact mission. The images also showed the comet has a fragile and weak nucleus.

The spacecraft made its closest approach to comet Tempel 1 on Monday, Feb. 14, at 8:40 p.m. PST at a distance of approximately 111 miles. Stardust took 72 high-resolution images of the comet. It also accumulated 468 kilobytes of data about the dust in its coma, the cloud that is a comet's atmosphere. The craft is on its second mission of exploration called Stardust-NExT, having completed its prime mission collecting cometary particles and returning them to Earth in 2006.

The Stardust-NExT mission met its goals which included observing surface features that changed in areas previously seen during the 2005 Deep Impact mission; imaging new terrain; and viewing the crater generated when the 2005 mission propelled an impactor at the comet.

"This mission is 100 percent successful," said Joe Veverka, Stardust-NExT principal investigator of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. "We saw a lot of new things that we didn't expect, and we'll be working hard to figure out what Tempel 1 is trying to tell us."

Several of the images provide tantalizing clues to the result of the Deep Impact mission's collision with Tempel 1.

"We see a crater with a small mound in the center, and it appears that some of the ejecta went up and came right back down," said Pete Schultz of Brown University, Providence, R.I. "This tells us this cometary nucleus is fragile and weak based on how subdued the crater is we see today."

Engineering telemetry downlinked after closest approach indicates the spacecraft flew through waves of disintegrating cometary particles including a dozen impacts that penetrated more than one layer of its protective shielding.

"The data indicate Stardust went through something similar to a B-17 bomber flying through flak in World War II," said Don Brownlee, Stardust-NExT co-investigator from the University of Washington in Seattle. "Instead of having a little stream of uniform particles coming out, they apparently came out in chunks and crumbled."

While the Valentine's Day night encounter of Tempel 1 is complete, the spacecraft will continue to look at its latest cometary obsession from afar.                                              

"This spacecraft has logged over 3.5 billion miles since launch, and while its last close encounter is complete, its mission of discovery is not," said Tim Larson, Stardust-NExT project manager at JPL. "We'll continue imaging the comet as long as the science team can gain useful information, and then Stardust will get its well-deserved rest."

Stardust-NExT is a low-cost mission that is expanding the investigation of comet Tempel 1 initiated by the Deep Impact spacecraft. The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft and manages day-to-day mission operations.

For more information about Stardust-NExT, visit http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov.

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NASA Reschedules News Conference on Stardust-Next Comet Flyby

Dwayne Brown

Headquarters, Washington                                   

 

DC Agle            

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

 

Blaine Friedlander

Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA has rescheduled the news conference about the Stardust-NExT comet flyby for 12:30 p.m. PST (3:30 p.m. EST) today. The briefing will release images and early data from the comet encounter and will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

The participants are:

-Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, Washington

-Joe Veverka, Stardust-NExT principal investigator, Cornell University

-Tim Larson, Stardust-NExT project manager, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

-Don Brownlee, Stardust-NExT co-investigator, University of Washington, Seattle

-Pete Schultz, Stardust-NExT co-investigator, Brown University

The news conference was originally scheduled for 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST). The additional time will allow scientists to process and analyze data and images gathered when the spacecraft flew past comet Tempel 1, with closest approach at a distance of 112 miles. The mission team had expected the closest-approach images to be sent first. Instead, the images were downlinked in chronological order, starting with the most distant approach views.

The briefing also can be viewed on one of JPL's Ustream channels at http://www.ustream.tv/user/NASAJPL2.

The first six, most distant approach images are available online at http://www.nasa.gov/stardust and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov.

For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

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This article was sponsored by Forensic Science Books.

NASA Hosting Events For Valentine's Night Comet Encounter

Dwayne Brown

Headquarters, Washington     

 

DC Agle               

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

 

Blaine Friedlander

Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

 

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA will host several live media activities for the Stardust-NExT mission's close encounter with comet Tempel 1. The closest approach is expected at approximately 8:37 p.m. PST, with confirmation received on Earth at about 8:56 p.m. PST on Monday, Feb. 14.

Live coverage of the Tempel 1 encounter will begin at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 14 on NASA Television and the agency's website. The coverage will include live commentary from mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and video from Lockheed Martin Space System's mission support area in Denver.

A news briefing is planned for 10 a.m. on Feb. 15. Scheduled participants are:

-Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate

-Joe Veverka, Stardust-NExT principal investigator, Cornell University

-Tim Larson, Stardust-NExT project manager, JPL

-Don Brownlee, Stardust-NExT co-investigator, University of Washington, Seattle

To cover the Tempel 1 flyby at JPL, journalists must contact the JPL Media Relations Office at 818-354-5011. Valid media credentials are required. Non-U.S. citizens must bring passports.

Starting Feb. 14 at 8 p.m., news media representatives can watch live coverage of the control room via a feed to JPL's von Karman Auditorium. The auditorium will remain open through the evening for media. Reporters who will not travel to JPL may call the Media Relations Office to make arrangements to ask questions during the Feb. 15 briefing.

Mission coverage schedule (all times PST and subject to change):

8:30 to 10 p.m., Feb. 14: Live NASA TV commentary begins from mission control; includes coverage of closest approach and the re-establishment of contact with the spacecraft following the encounter.

Midnight to 1:30 a.m., Feb. 15: NASA TV commentary will chronicle the arrival and processing of the first five of 72 close-approach images expected to be down linked after the encounter. The images are expected to include a close-up view of the comet's surface.

10 a.m., Feb. 15: News briefing

Starting on Feb. 9, NASA TV will air Stardust-NExT mission animation and b-roll during its Video File segments. For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

Live commentary and the news conference also will be carried live on one of JPL's Ustream channels. Viewers during events can engage in a real-time chat and submit questions to the Stardust-NExT team at http://www.ustream.tv/user/NASAJPL2.

The public can watch a real-time animation of the Stardust-NExT comet flyby using NASA's new "Eyes on the Solar System" Web tool. JPL created this 3-D environment, which allows people to explore the solar system directly from their computers. It is available at http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eyes.

This flyby of Tempel 1 will give scientists an opportunity to look for changes on the comet's surface since it was visited by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft in July 2005. Since then, Tempel 1 has completed one orbit of the sun, and scientists are looking forward to monitoring any differences in the comet.

During its 12 years in space, Stardust became the first spacecraft to collect samples of a comet (Wild 2) in 2004, which were sent in 2006 to Earth for study. The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft and manages day-to-day mission operations.

A press kit and other detailed information about Stardust-NExT is available at http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov.

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