Media Coverage

Gasti Shares Expertise for Password Security Story

Dec 12, 2022

The tech news outlet Lifewire featured comments from Paolo Gasti, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science, in an article about password security. Gasti, whose research helped to develop a system that uses machine learning to predict users’ passwords, explains the “science” behind creating strong passwords. He notes that a bad password is one that can be easily guessed. 

“The best way to choose a password is to pick a string of letters and numbers that is long and random,” says Gasti. For instance, a password like ‘NJvJpCnG96Wz’ is “virtually impossible” to guess, he notes. Unfortunately, it is also “virtually impossible to remember.” Instead, he recommends choosing from a list of random words. 

 

Fox 5 New York Interviews Cybersecurity Expert

Dec 09, 2022

Fox 5 New York (WNYW-TV) interviewed cybersecurity expert Michael Nizich, Ph.D., director of the Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation Center (ETIC) and adjunct associate professor of computer science, regarding the Metropolitan Opera's cyberattack. Nizich discusses what may have motivated the hackers, including the ability to sell consumer data on the dark web.

“Threats of cyberattacks have always been there, but now they're growing at an exponential rate. That's because the ability and skillsets of cyber hackers and terrorists are also growing,” Nizich says. He adds that findings the parties responsible for the attack will be difficult, as the hack could have originated from anywhere in the world.

 

Dec 06, 2022

Times Higher Education highlighted research by Melissa Huey, Ph.D., assistant professor of behavioral sciences, which finds that smartphones negatively impact college students’ classroom experience. For the study, students enrolled in two New York Tech behavioral sciences classes had restricted access to their phones for the duration of the courses, while their peers in two other classes were allowed to continue smartphone usage as normal. Huey discovered that students had higher rates of comprehension and mindfulness, as well as less anxiety, when smartphones were not present.

 

Dec 05, 2022

Hometown news outlets, including, The Batavian, Hamlet Hub, and others, highlighted research by local medical students. The students had recently shared their projects at NYITCOM’s Fall 2022 Student Research Symposium on November 18, which showcased scientific findings ranging from community and global health to the toxicity of cancer treatments, concussions, vitamin deficiencies, and a variety of other subjects.

 

Newsday Taps Nizich for Ransomware Story

Dec 04, 2022

Michael Nizich, Ph.D., director of the ETIC and adjunct associate professor of computer science, lent his cybersecurity expertise to Newsday’s continued coverage of the Suffolk County ransomware attack. As Nizich explains, there are several reasons why the county may be slow to recover from the attack, which was first reported in September. For one, the county’s computers may rely on code that is no longer in widespread use, and the people who have the expertise in this code are either retired or gone. A second issue could be that different county departments use different systems. As Nizich explains, in this scenario “you have all kinds of different vulnerabilities that can get exploited.” He also notes that the thieves likely accessed the system long before Suffolk discovered the attack, as the four terabytes taken by the hackers would have taken much more than six hours to download.

 

Dec 02, 2022

New York Tech is featured in a Newsday article about local universities and colleges offering test-optional admissions. As noted in the story, applicants to undergraduate programs, with the exception of nursing and combined undergraduate/graduate health professions programs, are no longer required to submit SAT or ACT scores. Karen Vahey, Ed.D., dean of admissions and financial aid, notes that, since moving to test-optional, students of color represented a larger portion of New York Tech’s applicant and admitted pool in fall 2021, including as much as an 8 percent rise in applications from students of color and as much as a 13 percent increase in admitted students of color.

Vahey also shares that first-generation applicants rose by 12 percent year over year, and in fall 2021 New York Tech enrolled its largest freshman class in 12 years. The institution also saw a 10 percent hike in applicants for fall 2022.

 

Speights Featured in Emergency Wound Management Articles

Nov 22, 2022

Shane Speights, D.O., site dean for NYITCOM-Arkansas, is quoted in articles by the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange and Youth Today. In the latter article, Speights, who is a proponent of the American College of Surgeons’ Stop the Bleed program, shares that NYITCOM-Arkansas hosted its own Stop the Bleeding event, in which 125 participants, including medical students, gained hands-on training to quickly respond to wounded trauma victims. Upon completion of the training, the medical students received kits containing bandages and tourniquets, should they need to assist in an emergency situation.

“We’ve had students use these. They go out in the community and stop at a car accident, and they’ve broken into this pack and used it to help control bleeding,” said Speights. “We have our students providing care, meaningful trauma care, before they even graduate from medical school.”

 

Ravan Quoted in Lifewire Story on AI and Brain Research

Nov 18, 2022

Lifewire featured insight and research from Maryam Ravan, Ph.D, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, in an article that answers the question, “How can studying the brain lead to new forms of artificial intelligence (AI)?” As the article notes, Ravan recently co-authored research that used a machine learning algorithm to analyze patients’s brain waves and categorize their patterns as biomarkers for bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder. 

“Increased interest in AI technology has emerged as society has become more accepting and open about mental health,” she says. “Given this, I expect that we will continue to see additional studies that leverage forms of AI, including machine learning, to help streamline the treatment and diagnosis of neurological and psychiatric conditions.”

 

Cohn Tapped for DebtHammer Holiday Spending Article

Nov 15, 2022

According to a DebtHammer survey, half of U.S. shoppers expect to take on debt to cover the costs of holiday shopping. As part of a DebtHammer online expert panel, Deborah Y. Cohn, Ph.D., interim dean of the School of Management, shares tips to help consumers curb their holiday spending. In addition to other advice she notes, “It’s time to make deals with your friends and family that everyone will keep the costs down. Agree on budgets among gift givers. Talk about what everyone can afford to spend and set spending limits. Consider pooling your funds with friends and family and chipping in for gifts. This is made easy with online payment methods such as Venmo.”

 

Nov 14, 2022

As featured on KATV and in Talk Business and Politics and the Jonesboro Sun, pediatrician Christine Hartford, M.D., assistant professor of clinical medicine at NYITCOM-Arkansas, is urging Arkansans to get their influenza vaccine amid concerns for a "tripledemic" with the simultaneous circulation of influenza, COVID-19, and RSV. Following two years of relatively low flu and RSV numbers, Hartford, who also serves as a provider for St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro, Ark., notes that residents could be in for an unusual winter, especially considering what’s already happening this early in the season.

“The seasonal patterns of these infections are out the window post-COVID,” Hartford tells the Jonesboro Sun. “We were seeing RSV all summer, and RSV is usually a late fall to early spring virus. We’re already getting bombarded with it.”