In the first of what will be a collaborative series of workshops with other universities in the greater New York City area, NYU Tandon hosted NYC Cybersecurity Day on November 20. Organized by Tandon Ph.D. students Yunfei Ge and Ya-Ting Yang, the half-day workshop focused on various aspects of human elements in cybersecurity, including privacy, network management, ethics in AI systems, legal considerations, and more.

The program consisted of half-hour presentations by three featured speakers:

Dr. Robert Thomson, Associate Professor, Engineering Psychology Program, United States Military Academy at West Point, on “The Forgotten Few: Why Human Factors is the Future of Cybersecurity”

S. Matthew Liao, Director of the Center for Bioethics, NYU School of Global Public Health, on “Ethics of Artificial Intelligence”

Rae Zimmerman, Research Professor and Professor Emerita of Planning and Public Administration at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, on “The Influence of Human Behavior on Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity”

Following the formal presentations, the speakers participated in a 45-minute panel discussion where they had the opportunity to expand on their presentations and answer student questions. The event concluded with lunch and a time for informal discussion with speakers and other attendees.

Sponsored by Google and NYU’s Center for Cybersecurity, the workshop is a first step in a new initiative to unite experts from the New York City region to discuss the future of cybersecurity. Participating schools in this effort include the City University of New York, Columbia University and Cornell University.