STUDENTS: Kevin Haring, Niki Patel

PROJECT ADVISOR: Marilee Mulvey

ABSTRACT

Recently, deepfakes have been becoming more of an alarming threat.Deepfakes is a synthetic program that attempts to replace the person’s likeness. Deepfakes are made by using a type of machine learning technology known as Generative Adversarial Network, which with the correct amount of content or “training” it has access to can allow it to learn to act like the person. Using the Deepfake program, “GAN”, can make fake pictures and recordings that people can’t recognize them from the original ones. The ways to get deepfake technology is as simple as downloading an app and it is not illegal to own the tech in the first place. People who use deepfakes for illegal activities tend to lean towards extortion and support from a higher up looking to spread false information about a high ranking official. The defenses people have against deepfakes is looking for oddities in the pictures and videos and certain companies are creating software currently that can help identify what videos and images are deepfakes. With the accessibility of deepfakes and AI becoming more common, how threatening is the future of false information being spread?

First Place in Category #6 – Technology

STUDENTS: Harshil Patel, Gautam Patel

PROJECT ADVISOR: Alan Peslak

ABSTRACT

This app will help Kazakshatan University well organized with this Application and it will be easier to use and for them. Development and application for the avifauna of the city of Nur Sultan. Development of an interactive map on the distribution of birds and the location of feeders in the parks of the city of Nur Sultan.
Application Content Plan:
General description of the avifauna of Kazakhstan, Nur Sultan
Bird Detection Methods
How to make feeders
How to feed birds
Useful links (links to ornithological territories)
Points of the location of different birds species and feeders in the city

STUDENTS: Brandon Sicovitch, Markuss Bruveris, Benjamin Rudolph

PROJECT ADVISOR: Jayne Klenner

ABSTRACT

For our presentation we will be looking into various crimes in the Lackawanna County area such as murder, rape, theft, etc. We will also be comparing statistical criminal data across many different years in order to identify any significant increases or decreases. Utilizing this information, we will be able to create charts and graphs to portray the number of crimes occurring in different areas. In addition, we will be able to identify which areas have experienced the most frequent criminal activity. Through our research, we hope to be able to identify areas that have experienced decreases in criminal activity, as well as areas that have experienced increases. Further, we will then break that down into smaller sub-units of more specific criminal activity. As of right now, a lot of our information will be coming from two sites. We will be using Macrotrends.com for some information which will be very helpful due to the large amount of data available. There are many graphs showing the different trends areas in Lackawanna County are experiencing in relation to criminal activity. We will also look at population increases in different area to see if there are any significant correlations between population increases and criminal activity. Along with that idea it is also important to analyze the income of areas and see if high or low income play a significant role in the quantity of crimes. Another source which will be used to pull accurate, reliable information from is https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-us. This site will be especially helpful to our research as some of the information on the sites is already in excel so we will be able to utilize that as a basic starting point. We are curious to see how different types of crime have increased or decreased over the years, especially in areas like Scranton or Carbondale as they are local areas. As we view all the statistics of the various types of criminal activities in Lackawanna County we will also compare Lackawanna County with the state of Pennsylvania and analyze the two sets of data as a whole to see where the demographic of Lackawanna County stands.

STUDENTS: Nick Santos, Cameron Knickerbocker

PROJECT ADVISOR: Marilee Mulvey

ABSTRACT

The rise of malware for mobile technology has become an increasingly difficult problem to tackle. In doing our research, we sought to learn more about the distribution and accessibility of mobile malware and what is being done to tackle the problem. We found that mobile malware is very easy to distribute and get access to, but little is being done by people to protect their mobile devices. We hope to bring to light more solutions to interacting with technology as this problem continues to grow.

STUDENTS: Edward Andrukitis, Ryan Lane

PROJECT ADVISOR: Marilee Mulvey

ABSTRACT

If you see a car speeding through a red light about to hit someone, would you warn the person to get out of the way? Sharing cyber threat information may be more complex, but the principle is the same. In order to protect themselves and others, companies share intelligence regarding digital threats. Our team has researched cyber defense organizations, government departments, threat statistics, and many other academic resources. We have identified different strategies and techniques and compared the trends of cyber attacks against the rise in sharing intelligence. We found that regardless of the size and nature of their business, every organization can benefit from sharing threat information in some way. We found that malicious actors are also sharing exploit and vulnerability information, so in order to defend the organization effectively, a security professional must use all the information they can acquire.
Our conclusion is that sharing cyber threat intelligence is not without inherent risks. But the benefits to be gained, in addition to the ethical implications of not sharing this information, create a compelling case to participate for the good of all.

STUDENTS: Bernardina Maldonado, Mansi Patel, David Vanbuskirk

PROJECT ADVISOR: Alan Peslak

ABSTRACT

The Lackawanna County Area Agency on Aging’s mission is to serve and protect older adults, act as a resource for families, and enhance opportunities for individuals to be empowered in areas of health and wellness, dignity and independence. However, their current website needs an upgrade since it is not updated, not organized, is hard to navigate, and not pleasing to use. We are building Lackawanna County Area Agency on Aging (AAA) a brand-new website using Wix, a website builder, as our interface. The goal is to provide the Area Agency on Aging a pleasant website that their current and future users can navigate easily and is pleasing to the eye, with current and up-to-date information. Also, a website that is simple for AAA to keep up-to-date on their own

Runner-up Library Literacy Award for Posters

STUDENTS: Christian Pane, William Blaum

PROJECT ADVISOR: Marilee Mulvey

ABSTRACT

This topic of election security is a very important issue, especially in the upcoming year with the 2020 election right around the corner. Our research question is: How secure is our election system? We will investigate the security of our election systems. Our main finding is that the United States does not spend enough money on election security, and that the election system is not secure. We will start by looking at voting systems and regulations. The voting system regulations that are chosen are different for every state or city, because they are not required to use the same one. This is a dangerous practice and can lead to some gaps in the system because there is not one standard system that the United States uses. In addition to the regulations, the approved machines by the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) have many holes and flaws in the machine approval process from obsolete machines to machines susceptible to physical theft are just a few of the categories of threats facing these devices. While money has been previously spent on election security, it is still not enough to cover all threats. Inadequate funding is a large threat that needs to be solved. Another thing that presents a threat to the security of our election is the use of outdated operating systems on voting machines. From a technical perspective, the security of the election is at risk just from the information we found on the Internet. All of the information about the election machines, operating systems and who creates the machines is there for all to see, letting everyone view and try to crack the security system that has been laid out in front of them. The objective of our research is to make people aware of potential security breaches in our election system. We will suggest several ways that our election systems can be improved.

Students: Ed Andrukitis, Roman Crisafulli

ABSTRACT

Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) provides nursing care for Hospice and Home Health in Lackawanna County and Surrounding Communities. VNA has been providing care for more than 120 years. Since the website hasn’t been updated for over five years, our goal for this project is to update and improve the website’s functionality. So far, we have completed an audit which basically shows how to improve the website’s performance. We have updated the website’s theme along with the plugins. After updating several plugins, we saw an improvement in the loading time of the website. We want to update the website’s content and the layout to make the website easy to navigate. We also want to add an option to donate to VNA using an easier option then sending a check in the mail. Overall, we aim to fully update and improve the website in every way possible.

STUDENTS: Ed Andrukitis, Roman Crisafulli

PROJECT ADVISOR:  Alan Peslak

ABSTRACT

During our project we worked with the Lackawanna County System of Care to build a new and inviting website that would set them apart from the stereotypical government website experience.

The Lackawanna County System of Care (LC SOC) is an equal opportunity partnership of youth, families, and service providers committed to coordinating and enhancing community resources to support all people to thrive in Lackawanna County.

To develop this website, we used the Wix website designing software which required a period of familiarization, after which we met with our sponsor to gain a good understanding of their expectations.
We communicated frequently during the development process in order to provide a tailored, friendly website that appealed to both our sponsor and to their expected audience.
We shared our progress with our advisor and the other teams involved throughout the project and shared our insights as we learned from the other team’s experiences. The result was that we all learned beneficial lessons pertaining to website development and working with a professional partner.

Second Place in Category #6 – Technology

STUDENTS: Benjamin Basalyga, Jacob Klemovitch, John Lasewicz

PROJECT ADVISOR: Alan Peslak

ABSTRACT

Crystal Vision Center is a locally run eyeglasses optical center. They provide services such as eye examinations, eye care, and frames in their stores. The problem that Crystal Vision faces is that their website is outdated in design, style, information and general overall feel. The goals of this project are to design an entirely new website using the web creation tool Wix. The Crystal Vision site will have new features such as a chat portal to quickly answer customer questions and concerns. The site will contain a vast amount of information to answer customer questions and create a better overall customer experience. The website will also be designed with user-friendliness in mind, with a clean and modern look and feel. Search engine optimization methods will be implemented to ensure that customers can find the Crystal Vision website and get the information they need.