Cybersecurity Conference Speaker Profiles
Nada Marie Anid
Dean
NYIT School of Engineering and Computing Sciences
Nada Marie Anid, Ph.D., is the first female dean of NYIT School of Engineering and Computing Sciences. In this role, she oversees more than 100 engineering and computing sciences faculty members and nearly 3,500 graduate and undergraduate students at campuses located in Manhattan and Old Westbury, N.Y., the Middle East, and China.
Anid embraces NYIT’s forward-thinking and applications-oriented mission and is working on several strategic partnerships between academia and the public and private sector, including the creation of NYIT’s Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation Center (ETIC) and its three labs focusing on IT & cybersecurity, bio-engineering and health, and energy and green technologies. Anid also led the initiative that resulted in NYIT being designated by the NSA and DHS as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education.
Anid is committed to educating a new generation of engineers ready to address societal challenges identified in and the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges for Engineering. Long an advocate for women pursuing education and career opportunities in STEM fields, Anid is an active proponent of K-12 education that encourages girls to experience the thrill of discovery and design. She is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the LISTnet Diamond Award, which recognizes her significant contributions toward the advancement of women in technology on Long Island as well as for her professional achievements in the technology field.
Anid is a member of the Long Island Regional Council’s Education and Workforce Committee, the NY State STEM Education Collaborative, and the Intrepid Museum’s STEM Advisory Committee. A program evaluator for the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, she also holds leadership positions in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the U.S. Deans Engineering Council and its Public Policy Committee, among others. She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Environmental Progress and Sustainable Energy and is an expert reviewer for the federal government and several engineering journals.
Anid earned her Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH-Stockholm).
Prior to joining NYIT, she was chair and graduate program director of the Chemical Engineering Department at Manhattan College.
Gary Albaugh
Deputy Chief Information Officer
U.S. Military Academy
Gary Albaugh’s education includes a Master of Information Systems, Business Administration and American Military History. He enlisted into the United States Army as an information systems operator/analyst. His Army decorations include a Commendation Medal (2nd Award), Achievement Medal, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon (2nd Award), and Driver and Mechanic Badge with Driver–Wheeled Vehicle Clasp.
Gary continued his service to his country and transitioned to the Department of Defense Civilian Workforce as the Deputy Director at the Network Enterprise Center located at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, N.Y., and most recently served as the Deputy Chief Information Officer/G6 at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Kiran Balagani
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
NYIT School of Engineering and Computing Sciences
Kiran Balagani, Ph.D., co-directs the cybersecurity laboratory in the NYIT School of Engineering and Computing Sciences and conducts research in behavioral biometrics, biometric security, privacy, and anomaly detection. His research has appeared in several leading peer-reviewed security journals and at conferences. He has three U.S. patents related to network-centric attack detection.
In addition, Balagani teaches graduate and undergraduate courses such as Computer Networks, Artificial Intelligence, and Network and Perimeter Security. He also created the new graduate course Biometrics and Its Applications in a Networked Society.
Amy Batallones
Information Security Senior Analyst
Consolidated Edison Company of New York
As an information security senior analyst at Consolidated Edison, Amy Batallones works for one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States. She focuses on cybersecurity risk management within the utility industry and has experience in designing and implementing cybersecurity solutions for operational technology (OT) and corporate environments. Her experience includes planning secure architectures for OT systems, implementing cybersecurity technologies, conducting vulnerability and risk assessments, and drafting cybersecurity policies. Batallones also supports Con Edison’s cybersecurity R&D efforts and is involved in energy sector cybersecurity projects and partnerships across academia, government, and the private sector. Batallones co-chaired the 2016 International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS).
Batallones has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Fordham University. She conducted research with Fordham’s Laboratory for Informatics and Data Mining and earned a Best Paper Award at the 2013 International Conference on Brain and Health Informatics as lead author.
Peter A. Bloniarz
Executive Director/Senior Policy Advisor
New York State Cyber Security Advisory Board
Peter Bloniarz is executive director and senior policy advisor for New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Cyber Security Advisory Board. The governor created the board in May 2013 to advise his administration on developments in cybersecurity and make recommendations for innovative strategies to keep all New Yorkers safe from cyber threats.
Bloniarz is also a faculty member at the University at Albany, where he has served in the Department of Computer Science for almost 40 years. At UAlbany, he was the founding dean of the College of Computing and Information, served as the interim vice president for research, and was one of the co-founders of the award-winning Center for Technology in Government. Bloniarz received university and SUNY Medallions for Excellence in Teaching, and he is a Collins Fellow. He received degrees from the College of the Holy Cross, the University of Massachusetts, and MIT.
Nicholas Christiano, Jr.
Northeast Practice Leader – Healthcare
Tatum
With over 45 years of experience in banking, manufacturing, broadcasting, and healthcare, Nicholas Christiano, Jr. is an accomplished former CEO, COO, and CIO. He has championed major organizational and cultural change at the board level with the introduction of best practices to properly align governance and management with frameworks that provided a lasting positive effect at organizations like Health Quest, St. Barnabas Healthcare System and NYU Langone in addition to non-healthcare organizations like American Broadcasting Company and Manufacturers Hanover Trust.
Christiano is now responsible for the overall execution of the Northeast Healthcare Practice for Tatum, a Randstad company. The Healthcare Practice provides executive leadership solutions to healthcare provider organizations, health plans, private equity-backed biotech firms, and affiliated organizations where subject matter expertise is critical to a successful client engagement. Working with Randstad, Christiano is driving integrated solutions that extend from the C-suite to the clinical and operational floors of a healthcare organization and deals directly at the board level, providing major “C-suite” leadership changes.
Christiano is recognized as a driven leader, tireless in the pursuit of patient care, productivity, efficiencies, cost management and navigating the new challenges in the healthcare field. He has an M.B.A. in MIS/Finance from the John Hagan School of Business–Iona College and a B.S. with a dual major in Computer Science/Electrical Engineering from NYIT.
Lynne Clark
Chief, U.S. National Security Agency/Department of Homeland Security
National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Program
Prior to her current role, Lynne Clark was deputy chief of Workforce Resources, Education and Development for the National Security Agency’s Information Assurance Directorate (IAD). This included responsibility for IAD’s hiring and intern programs as well as education and professional development for IAD personnel.
From 1993 to 2012, Clark was assigned to the Interagency OPSEC Support Staff, where she had responsibility for Operations Security (OPSEC) Training and Program Development consultation to all federal departments and agencies with a national security mission. During her tenure there, she participated in several interagency working groups, most notably as chair of the National Security Policy Board’s OPSEC and Risk Management Working Group. Prior to this, she was on active duty with the U.S. Air Force; retiring with the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1999.
Clark’s academic credentials include a master’s degree in clinical psychology from the Fielding Institute and a B.A. in community development from Baldwin-Wallace College.
Chris Drake
Chief Technology Officer
iconectiv
Chris Drake is responsible for internal and external technology initiatives at iconectiv, including emerging opportunities in mobile content, cybersecurity, mobile identity, virtualization, and M2M/IoT. As the authoritative partner of the communications industry for more than 30 years, iconectiv’s market-leading solutions enable the interconnection of networks, devices, and applications for more than two billion people every day. A U.S.-based company, Telcordia Technologies, Inc., doing business as iconectiv, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson.
Drake began his career at Bell Northern Research and has more than 25 years in the telecommunications industry. Prior to iconectiv, he held executive positions at Aricent Group, Neustar, Sonus Networks, Telcordia Technologies, and Advanced Switching Communications. Drake also serves as an advisor to a number of technology startups and the Canadian Consulate Tech Accelerator @ NYC. He is on the board and executive committee of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), chair of the ATIS TOPS Council, and on the board and CTO for the Council for the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). Drake has served on the industrial advisory board for the Security and Software Engineering Research Center (S2ERC IAB) through Georgetown University and the National Science Foundation.
Paolo Gasti
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
NYIT School of Engineering and Computing Sciences
Paolo Gasti's research focuses on behavioral biometrics, privacy-preserving biometric authentication and identification, secure multiparty protocols, and network security. His recent work includes protocols for secure genomic computation, privacy-preserving document similarity, secure document caching, and distributed denial-of-service detection and prevention in future Internet architectures. He served as a member of the NDN project, a National Science Foundation-sponsored initiative with the goal of designing a new network architecture that might eventually replace the current Internet. His work has been sponsored by DARPA and the National Science Foundation.
Gasti worked as a research scholar at University of California, Irvine and received a Fulbright scholarship, attending Johns Hopkins University.
Tariq Habib
Chief Information Security Officer
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Tariq Habib is chief information security officer at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), where he's responsible for all aspects of MTA information security strategy and operations. He brings a unique perspective of someone who is experienced in Intelligent Transportation Systems programs as well as broad experience in security strategy and operations. With many years of information security experience, Habib is promoting an evolution of the security and risk management models. He has strong understandings of threat landscape, public policy, and critical infrastructure systems security. Prior to his role as the CISO of MTA, he worked as the chief technology officer for MTA Bridges & Tunnels. Habib also has worked at the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, American Physical Institute, IBM, UPS, and Pan Am.
Adam Hickey
Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Asset Protection
National Security Division
U.S. Department of Justice
As the deputy assistant attorney general for national asset protection, Adam Hickey oversees the U.S. Department of Justice National Security Division’s efforts to combat national security threats from computer intrusions and attacks, economic espionage, proliferation, and through foreign investment.
Hickey joined the department in 2007. Previously, he served as the deputy chief of appeals in the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted terrorism and international drug and arms trafficking cases. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, and he clerked for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Kathy Hughes
Vice President/Chief Information Security Officer
Northwell Health
In her role as vice president and chief information security officer at Northwell Health, Kathy Hughes is responsible for overseeing the IT security, IT risk management and IT disaster recovery teams. She is also responsible for the development and implementation of the enterprise IT security policies and standards as well as ensuring that appropriate tools and metrics are in place to allow for effective monitoring, measurement, and control of IT security risk.
Prior to joining Northwell Health, Hughes was a member of the Eclipsys/Allscripts account leadership team providing infrastructure support services to North Shore-LIJ (now Northwell Health). Before that, she worked at The Estée Lauder Companies, where she was responsible for overseeing the global data network, and infrastructure services support teams. Earlier, she worked at Stony Brook University Hospital, where she developed and implemented the information technology strategy and directed operational activities for the Infrastructure, Desktop Support, Help Desk and Security Technology departments.
Kathy received her bachelor’s degree in business management with a double minor in economics and computer science from Molloy College. She subsequently earned her M.B.A. in business computer information systems from Hofstra University and obtained various technical and professional certifications including PMP, ITIL, CNE, CCENT, and CCDA.
Richard T. Jacobs
Assistant Special Agent in-Charge, Cyber Branch, New York
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Richard T. Jacobs oversees the FBI’s Cyber Branch that investigates national security and criminal cyber matters and responds to cyber incidents in the New York metropolitan area. In 2014, Jacobs helped establish the Financial Cyber Crimes Task Force, a multi-agency initiative targeting cyber crime and technology-based fraud schemes.
Following graduation from the FBI Academy in 1999, Jacobs was assigned to New York, where he investigated a variety of securities fraud matters. From 2002 to 2005, he played the role of a corrupt stockbroker in a market manipulation undercover operation that resulted in the conviction of 49 individuals. In June 2010, he was selected to lead a Manhattan-based securities fraud unit that handled the Bernard L. Madoff and the Galleon Group insider trading investigations. He was named assistant special agent in-charge in October 2014.
Prior to joining the FBI, Jacobs was a risk manager on Wall Street. He holds an M.B.A. degree with a concentration in finance and international business and was awarded the credential of Certified Information Systems Security Professional in 2015.
Elena Kvochko
Chief Information Officer, Group Security Divison
Barclays Bank
Prior to becoming CIO for Barclays Bank’s Group Security Division, Elena Kvochko served as head of Global Cyber Security Strategy Implementation at Barclays. Her focus is on enabling the highest degree of security that scales to protect over 48 million customers and 130,000 employees globally. She has worked to develop and introduce a new security model to deliver a holistic end-to-end security bringing together physical, cybersecurity, intelligence, investigations, and resilience, protecting the company from threats regardless of their nature and enabling cross-channel visibility.
Kvochko has co-authored books on managing complex security and technology transformations for enterprises and contributed to Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and other media outlets. She was named among the Top 100 CIOs 2017 by CIO Magazine and was part of Fortune Magazine's Most Powerful Women International.
Noel Kyle
Program Lead, Cybersecurity Education and Awareness
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Noel Kyle is a program manager within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity Education and Awareness Branch. She manages nationally focused programs such as the Federal Virtual Training Environment (FedVTE) and its in-person component, FedVTE Live.
Kyle is a subject matter expert in cybersecurity workforce development, with a focus on the human capital lifecycle—from identifying and hiring talent to retaining and engaging workers. She has been closely involved with efforts to define cybersecurity work, such as with a refresh of the National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework, and with work to develop cybersecurity recruitment and retention policies and programs.
With more than six years of experience studying and supporting the cybersecurity workforce at DHS and more than a decade of experience managing financial, marketing, and supply chain projects with Fortune 100 companies and small businesses, she has a unique and strategic perspective on overcoming challenges and identifying opportunities.
Kyle has an M.B.A. from the University of Miami in Florida and an undergraduate degree from Old Dominion University in Virginia. She also holds Project Management Professional (PMP) and Six Sigma Green Belt certifications.
Nashira W. Layade
Senior Vice President/Chief Information Security Officer
Realogy Holdings Corp.
Nashira W. Layade is responsible for establishing and maintaining the enterprise vision, strategy, and programs necessary to ensure the adequate protection of Realogy’s digital information assets and technologies. Layade’s background includes nearly 20 years of experience as an executive and thought leader in information security, data privacy, and risk management for multinational Fortune 500 firms in the financial services, media and entertainment, and real estate industries.
Layade holds an M.S. in Telecommunication Networks from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. She obtained a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania and is also an alumna of Phillips Academy Andover. Layade is wholeheartedly committed to the advancement of youth, especially those in urban communities. She participates in various mentoring programs, is an active member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, and serves on the board of directors of the Seven Roses Legacy Foundation and Jamaica YMCA of Greater New York, and is an executive advisory board member for Forcepoint.
Wenjia Li, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
NYIT School of Engineering and Computing Sciences
Wenja Li’s research focuses on security, trust, and privacy issues in wireless networks and cyber-physical systems (CPS), such as intelligent transportation systems, Internet of Things (IoT), and mobile systems. His research is supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT) Region 2 University Transportation Research Center (UTRC). Li is a member of ACM and IEEE. Prior to joining NYIT in 2014, he was a tenure-track assistant professor at Georgia Southern University from 2011 to 2014. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from University of Maryland Baltimore County and his master’s degree in computer science and bachelor’s degree in telecommunication engineering from Hunan University, China.
Ben Nelson
Vice President, Cloud Security
Oracle
Ben Nelson has spent the past 16 years building, operating, and securing public cloud environments for the public and the private sector. Prior to his current role, where he is in charge of security and regulatory compliance for the Oracle Public Cloud, he was the Chief Information Security Officer for RightNow Technologies. At RightNow, Nelson was responsible for bringing broad regulatory compliance to the premier Customer Experience Cloud platform in the market. That effort has continued in his current responsibilities for Oracle. Nelson takes a very pragmatic approach to security and risk management, understanding the need to provide not only good security but also regulatory compliance “proof points” to cloud buyers.
Michael Nizich
Director
NYIT Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation Center
In addition to overseeing the NYIT Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation Center, Michael Nizich is the director of the DHS/NSA Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity program at NYIT and an adjunct assistant professor of computer science.
Nizich holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Information Systems, a master's degree in Technology Systems Management, and a Ph.D. in Information Studies. He is a 25-year information technology professional and has worked in several industries including aviation, education, law enforcement, and security. Nizich has held IT leadership positions at both the management and executive levels and has extensive experience successfully designing and implementing new technologies to create more efficient and secure work environments. He has more than 10 years of teaching experience at higher education institutions in both computer science and computer information systems and regularly instructs on network and infrastructure security and database security.
Lou Reinisch
Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
NYIT
Lou Reinisch is a physicist with a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in Urbana, IL. He has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and several patents. He has consulted with various companies and had two spin-off companies formed using his work in fluorescence. One company, Veritide, manufactures a fast, non-invasive, reagent-free test for the bacterial spore, anthrax. The other company is in the investigative phase of developing a non-invasive screening tool for diabetes.
Prior to joining NYIT, Reinisch held the following positions, including: Dean of Arts and Sciences at Farmingdale State College (2013-2016); head of the Department of Physical and Earth Sciences at Jacksonville State University (2009-2013); Dean of Science and the Director of Medical Physics at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand (2002-2008); and Director of Laser Research at the Department of Otolaryngology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (1991-2002). He was also an associate professor at the Laser Biophysics Center at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (1988-1991), an assistant professor at the Department of Physics at Northeastern University (1984-1988), and an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of Muenster in Germany (1982-1984). The core of Reinisch’s research involves lasers and spectroscopy in medicine, and he has published extensively regarding the use of free-electron lasers in medicine.
Heather Ricciuto
Global Academic Outreach Leader
IBM Security
A 28-year veteran of IBM, Heather Y. Ricciuto spent much of her career within IBM's Supply Chain, developing operations, transformation, people management, and project management skills along the way. In her current role, she partners with educational and research institutions around the globe to develop top cybersecurity talent and close the skills gap. Her passions include workforce diversity, the advancement of women, volunteering, continuous learning, travelling, and spending time with her family.
An active public speaker and blogger, Ricciuto strives to inspire others by sharing her passion for leadership and learning. She believes that if we are not learning, we are not growing, and she is continuously enhancing her own professional development in her spare time.
Tony Sager
Chief Technology Officer, Commercial Markets
BlackRidge Technology
Tony Sager is a senior product development executive and CTO with extensive experience in communications, networking, virtualization, big data, and servers. He built and launched numerous new products and served in various CTO roles for networking product development, alliances, and partnerships. At Brocade, Sager led the business development team for IBM, and he was a distinguished architect. He held numerous positions at IBM as both a distinguished engineer and director specializing in networking products, alliances, and partnerships.
Cordell Schachter
Chief Technology Officer
New York City Department of Transportation
Cordell Schachter leads New York City Department of Transportation’s (DOT) IT and telecom organization, which innovates in mobility, software development, mapping, communications, on-site and cloud infrastructure, project management, public data, and customer support. The division has earned local, state, and national recognition for its work.
The DOT embraces technology of all kinds to achieve its goal of Vision Zero: eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries. It collaborates to make New York City “Safer, Faster, Smarter, and Cheaper.”
Schachter has more than 20 years of experience in New York City government and private sector technology management. He is certified as a Project Management Professional-PMP and is an IBM Senior Certified Professional in project management. He holds an M.S. in management from NYU's Wagner School of Public Service and a B.A. in economics from SUNY Buffalo. He serves on the board of directors of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America and is an adjunct associate professor at NYU’s Center for Urban Science + Progress.
Stephen Schneiter
Program Manager, Instructor Network
CompTIA
Stephen Schneiter is responsible for assisting instructors internationally get the most out of CompTIA certifications. The goal of the network is to help instructors with best practices, strategies, and tools to help lead a successful training event and help their students attain certification. He also supports sales personnel and customers in aligning certifications to programs and conducting workshops and webinars that highlight certifications and implementation.
Jonathan Voris, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
NYIT School of Engineering and Computing Sciences
Jon Voris received his Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Polytechnic Institute of NYU in Brooklyn, N.Y. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology in 2006 and obtained a Computer Science Master's Degree from Stevens in 2007. Prior to his academic career, Voris worked as a software engineer and network manager for companies in the New York metropolitan area.
Prior to joining NYIT's Computer Science Department, Voris had appointments as an adjunct assistant professor in the Columbia University Computer Science Department and as a postdoctoral research scientist in Columbia's Intrusion Detection Systems Lab. He conducts research into the security, privacy, and usability of systems, particularly emerging mobile and embedded platforms. His work has been published at a variety of venues including TETC, FC, PerCom, WiSec, and SOUPS.
Erik Wallace
Director, Program Management
Comtech Telecommunications Corp.
Erik Wallace is responsible for the development of cyber training products to include workforce assessment solutions at Comtech. CYBRScore is a performance-based assessment tool that uniquely and adaptively measures performance skills across a range of credible responses to a defined set of tasks.
Erik holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and an M.S. in electrical engineering from Clemson University. He holds 13 U.S. patents in the areas of messaging and telecommunications.
Matthew Webster
Chief Information Security Officer
Healthix
Matthew Webster is responsible for providing the vision, strategy, and leadership for all aspects of the information security for Healthix. He joined Healthix during a period of rapid growth and innovative change and has been given the critical role of building Healthix information security program for all aspects of the organization.
Before joining Healthix, Webster spent more than seven years advising on health security for The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where he focused on work related to the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), a legislative framework which protects government information, operations, and assets against natural or manmade threats. He also spent several years as a senior security solutions architect, creating and architecting security solutions for Fortune 500 companies across a wide range of verticals including health care. He also helped to found a burgeoning information security prototype lab and managed a SOC (Security Operations Center).
With more than 15 years of experience, Webster has provided information security products and services, audit management, and gap assessments as well as risk assessments throughout the Northeast. Webster possesses almost 20 certifications, including CISSP, CISA, CRISC, HISP, and GLEG. He also has a master of arts in liberal studies from the New School and a bachelor of arts from Western Washington University in Philosophy of Social Theory Integrating Political Science and Economics.
Susanne Wetzel
Program Director
National Science Foundation
Susanne Wetzel recently joined the National Science Foundation (NSF) as program director for the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program. She is also a professor in the Computer Science Department at Stevens Institute of Technology, where she leads a broad research program in cybersecurity and algorithmic number theory.
Wetzel has contributed to research advances in secure multi-party computation (with applications in bartering, reconciliation, electronic voting, and auctions), wireless security, privacy, biometrics, security economics, and lattice-based cryptography. She developed and directed the department’s undergraduate degree program in cybersecurity, which graduated its first class in spring 2011. Before joining NSF, Wetzel also headed the Stevens’ Cybercorps®: Scholarship for Service program. Her work in cybersecurity education and research has been supported by grants from NSF, DHS, and DoD. Wetzel received her Diploma in Computer Science from the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) and her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Saarland University (Germany).