Cybersecurity Fall 2023 Capstone Project Showcase

Judges

Vinicius Da Costa

Over the past two decades, Vinicius held executive cybersecurity and information technology leadership positions for international operations, new business development, and joint ventures at Fortune 500 companies spanning multiple industries. He also served as chief technology officer for Latin America, overseeing information technology organizations in 21 countries. In that assignment Vinicius led technology integration for multiple high-profile mergers and acquisitions. In his current position as senior vice president of cybersecurity at Bank of America, Vinicius leads the cybersecurity innovation organization focused on the evolution of the digital threat environment. Before trust adaptive access and machine learning behavior anomaly detection. Vinicius earned a master’s degree in information and cybersecurity from UC Berkeley’s School of Information (MICS). In addition to his job, he serves as adjunct professor for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Master of Science in cybersecurity program teaching access control and security architecture.

Vinicius’ current personal project is to give back to the community. He has conducted pro-bono cybersecurity assessments for at-risk non-profit organizations as part of MICS Citizen Clinic and served at the boards of Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC) Foundation and ALPFA Charlotte. He is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

Ajit Gaddam

Ajit Gaddam is currently the senior vice president and head of cyber and fraud technology at Wells Fargo. With over 18+ years of experience, he is passionate about building great products, growing world class organizations, and solving complex problems the fields of fraud, cybersecurity, and A.I. He is the current chairman of advisory board for the US Dept. of Commerce and a senior advisor for the LA school district on their cybersecurity matters. Ajit is the author of two books in AI, cyber, and big data, is an active participant in various open source and standards bodies, is a prolific inventor of disruptive technologies (over 120+ global patents), and has over 2500+ citations on his research work. He has presented at leading conferences worldwide, including USENIX Enigma, RSA, BlackHat, Strata Data Hadoop, COSO Dublin, and GCS Ukraine and has been quoted in major media organizations with his work showcased in academic journals, textbooks, and security publications.

Chelsie Thompson

Chelsie Thompson, a security specialist at Microsoft, applies her expertise in cybersecurity analytics and machine learning to help teach customers how to detect, investigate, and respond to complex cyber threats and incidents. She also contribute to the development and improvement of security tools, processes, and learning by leveraging my machine learning and data analysis background.

In addition to her role at Microsoft, she is passionate about education and research. She is a university lecturer at University of Maryland Global Campus, where she teaches courses on cybersecurity, data science, and artificial intelligence. She also conducts and publishes research on various topics related to security, privacy, and machine learning, aiming to advance the knowledge and practice of the field. She holds a Doctor of Engineering degree from George Washington University, a master’s degree in cybersecurity & information system management from University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a bachelor’s degree in management information systems from University of Alabama.