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CU • News & Events

NSF Awards $250,000 to Three Clarkson University Professors for Biometrics-based Authentication Research

Release Date
Tuesday August 3, 2021
The NSF has awarded a $250,000 grant to three Clarkson University electrical & computer engineering professors to prototype advanced behavioral biometrics-based computer user authentication systems. Left to right: Associate Professor Mahesh Banavar, Paynter-Krigman Endowed Professor in Engineering Science and Director of the Center for Identification Technology Research Stephanie Schuckers, and Professor & Director of Software Engineering Daqing Hou.
The NSF has awarded a $250,000 grant to three Clarkson University electrical & computer engineering professors to prototype advanced behavioral biometrics-based computer user authentication systems. Left to right: Associate Professor Mahesh Banavar, Paynter-Krigman Endowed Professor in Engineering Science and Director of the Center for Identification Technology Research Stephanie Schuckers, and Professor & Director of Software Engineering Daqing Hou.

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $250,000 Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) grant to three Clarkson University electrical & computer engineering professors to prototype advanced behavioral biometrics-based computer user authentication systems.

The broader impact and commercial potential of this project is in online fraud detection and prevention for large populations of users in industries such as healthcare, credit card processing and the retail banking business.

U.S. consumers lose $5.1 billion annually due to account takeover fraud and online shopping presents the greatest fraud risk. There is strong demand for online fraud detection in sectors such as e-commerce and financial services. 

The project, titled "PFI-TT: Behavior-Based Account Recovery, Trust Assessment, and Continuous Authentication for Strengthening Online Identity,"  involves the prototyping of new software for online fraud detection and prevention based on behavioral biometrics. The team will collaborate with industry partners to evaluate the market fit of the developed prototype.

The research team's principal investigator is Professor & Director of Software Engineering Daqing Hou, who will work with co-principal investigators Associate Professor Mahesh Banavar and  Paynter-Krigman Endowed Professor in Engineering Science and Director of the Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR) Stephanie Schuckers.

"This PFI award provides us with an excellent opportunity to translate nearly a decade of our basic research in behavioral biometrics into demonstration systems, so that we can further explore its potential commercial and societal benefits in offering secure and frictionless user authentication," says Hou. 

The project includes an entrepreneurial education and leadership development plan for the graduate students on the team that will include customer discovery activities, mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs in the biometrics business area, and innovation and entrepreneurship activities at CITeR. The project activities will also support underrepresented graduate students and provide research opportunities for undergraduate students from diverse groups.

Read more about this research at https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2122746.

As a private, national research university, Clarkson is a leader in technological education and sustainable economic development through teaching, scholarship, research and innovation. We ignite personal connections across academic fields and industries to create the entrepreneurial mindset, knowledge and intellectual curiosity needed to innovate world-relevant solutions and cultivate the leaders of tomorrow. With its main campus located in Potsdam, N.Y., and additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital Region, Beacon, N.Y., and New York City, Clarkson educates 4,600+ students across 95 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, the arts, education, sciences and health professions. Our alumni earn salaries that are among the top 2.5% in the nation and realize accelerated career growth. One in five already leads as a CEO, senior executive or owner of a company. To learn more about Clarkson University, go to www.clarkson.edu.


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News directors and editors: For more information, contact Melissa Lindell, Director of Media Relations, at 315-268-6716 or mlindell@clarkson.edu.

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