Elizabethtown College Assistant Professor of Computer Science Peilong Li recently received a pair of grants to continue his work on using artificial intelligence that detects malicious behaviors from cyberspace in real-time.
His latest Intel Research Grant for the project, “Accelerated Malware Detection in Executable Files with Machine Learning” was a part of a $500,000 insitutional grant while his Google Cloud Research Award for the project, “Edge Network Malware Detection with Deep Learning for Smart Homes” totaled $10,000 in credits for teaching and research.
Li has received a total of three Intel Research Grants since joining Etown. His latest has led to collaborative research this summer for Li, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Jingwen Wang, and Data Science majors Yusuke Satani ’25 and Ethan Weitkamp ’23 for Etown’s Summer Creative Arts and Research Program (SCARP). The Google Grant is expected to lead to future SCARP research as well, with plans in place for Li to work with two additional students in summer 2023.
While the common theme for all of these projects has remained the same throughout Li’s research, the focus of the malware detection targets has shifted over the years from network traffic to executable files and eventually progressing to smart devices. His latest grant is aiming to create malware detection that proactively searches for viruses people may not know about, such as malware from smart thermostats.
“In the ever-changing field of computer science and data science, both our faculty and students need to step out of the ivory tower and stay on top of cutting-edge technology,” Li explained. “I feel lucky to have established a long-lasting collaboration with our industry partners so that I can learn the real-world needs and turn them into my research and teaching topics.”
Li’s Research Grant Timeline
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