Program Chair – Tempestt Neal
Dr. Tempestt Neal is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at the University of South Florida and the founder/director of the Cyber Identity and Behavior Research (CIBeR) Lab. Dr. Neal’s research focuses on biometrics and smart sensing for person identification and multidisciplinary applications of human behavior analysis. She also conducts research leading to increased cybersecurity awareness among populations historically excluded in science and engineering. She earned a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the University of Florida in 2018, a M.S. in Computer Science from Clemson University in 2014, and a B.S. in Computer Science from South Carolina State University in 2012.
Dr. Neal is active in the Biometrics, Identity Science, and Artificial Intelligence communities, serving as the 2019/2020 IEEE Women in Engineering Society Liaison for the IEEE Biometrics Council, Associate Editor for the IEEE Biometrics Council Newsletter, and Guest Editor for the MDPI Electronics Special Issue on Recent Advances in Biometric Security in IoT Based on Machine Learning, among others. She was a 2021-2022 recipient of the Florida Education Fund Junior Faculty Fellowship Award, University of Florida Delores Auzenne Dissertation Award, and National Science Foundation (NSF) CyberCorps Scholarship for Service Fellowship. Her research has been funded by multiple agencies, including an NSF CAREER award that supports the development of inclusive and accessible cybersecurity systems.