Current Interests
My current research interests are digital privacy and computing pedagogy. On the privacy side, I am exploring the use of anti-forensic techniques to build software and systems that minimize the creation of artifacts that can be used to draw inferences about the user. In today's surveillance-based economy, artifact minimization may reduce an individual's digital footprint, reducing information available for data mining and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to predict a person's behavior or try to manipulate them toward some outcome.
In order to train the next generation of computing professionals, I am experimenting with different pedagogical approaches, including the use of ungrading and a focus on experiential learning activities. One area in which computing education perpetually seems to be lacking is in exposing students to larger-scale software and systems that transcend the bounds of typical "toy" problems used in the classroom. I am working to address this issue in two ways: first, I am working to create open source software applications that students can access, maintain, and modify instead of writing smaller systems as greenfield projects. Second, I am developing techniques to incorporate single-board computers, such as the Raspberry Pi 5, into the curriculum. Single board computers enable students to manipulate an entire software stack without disrupting access to their regular laptops or requiring virtualization software.
By intersecting these two research areas, I am working toward the creation of privacy-preserving personal computing systems. My first published artifact in this area is TealPlay, which is an open source media player and library manager first announced in a publication at the 67th ACM Mid-Southeast Conference in November 2025.
Cyberinfrastructure
My prior research work was centered around Cyberinfrastructure and development of middleware and systems to support scientific research and education. The central theme was that computing environments should be tailored to the needs of the user, as opposed to forcing the user to adapt to whatever environment is convenient to provide. I focused on delivering and managing systems for scientific computation, especially for atmospheric models, oceanographic applications, and experiential learning in the computing and marine sciences. The ultimate culmination of this work was the Coastal Carolina University Cyberinfrastructure (formerly the Cyberinfrastructure Project), which was designed to be a private cloud system. It would provide a graphical desktop environment in a web browser, allowing users to access a variety of interconnected resources, including High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters and student-accessible virtualization systems.
As of late 2019, I turned over the completed project to CCU Information Technology Services, where it is fully supported on an ongoing basis by a dedicated system administrator. This system was being used for research in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences, as well as for teaching in the marine science, computing sciences, chemistry, and engineering science disciplines. Eight years of work culminated in $119,150 in total grant support, of which $108,524 was provided by a National Science Foundation Major Research Instrument (MRI) grant. While my primary obligation on the MRI grant was to implement and manage the Cyberinfrastructure system, I did manage to coauthor three peer-reviewed publications related to this work (one on the Pulley system management tool we created, and two on computer science pedagogy that made use of the system).
Virtual Organization Clusters
For my doctoral dissertation, I focused on distributed systems, particularly on grid and cloud computing. This direction led me to design a new architecture for grid computing known as the Virtual Organization Cluster Model, which permits participating entities to move end-user computation into autonomically provisioned virtual containers without disrupting or substantially decreasing the performance of existing production grids. In addition to the completed and defended dissertation, this work yielded 3 journal articles and 10 refereed conference proceedings.
Sensor Networks and Remote Sensing
My undergraduate and early graduate school research focused on sensor networks and remote sensing systems for environmental applications. This work included the use of Berkeley Motes and TinyOS, yielding systems that were deployed in the Clemson Experimental Forest for ephemeral stream detection research related to water quality applications. I also worked with Weather Surveillance Radar - 1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) data to visualize and quantify total accumulated precipitation over a watershed. This environmentally-focused work yielded a journal article, a proceeding in a computing conference, and two presentations in domain science conferences. I also completed an undergraduate honors thesis and presented two posters at a university research forum.
Funding
My career total funding as of 2026 totals $328,250. This includes $230,024 from the National Science Foundation (MRI grant and Graduate Research Fellowship Program funding), $90,228 from collaborative internal grants at Coastal Carolina University (course development, professional enhancement, and assessment), and $7,998 from the South Carolina Space Grant Consortium.