Ph.D. Student Receives Self Graduate Fellowship

Ph.D. Student Dalton Hahn is a recipient of the prestigious Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowship, which will provide him with four years of support to pursue his research interests in cybersecurity and privacy.

The Self Graduate Fellowship Program sponsors incoming or first-year doctoral students at KU for four years. The fellowship covers tuition and fees fully, and also provides a generous stipend in the form of a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) appointment. In addition, the Self Graduate Fellowship provides access to professional development funds and opportunities, along with access to the Society of Self Fellows, which includes all current and former program fellows.

With the support of this fellowship, Hahn is interested in exploring new strategies for cybersecurity, particularly moving target defenses and how these might be used in cyber-physical systems and critical infrastructure applications. His aim is to create a platform for defining system requirements in a way that alternative software options can be swapped in and out of a running system to increase the overall security of the target in a dynamic way.

Photo: Computer Science Ph.D. student Dalton Hahn.

Several factors led to Hahn choosing KU as the place to pursue his Ph.D. in computer science. A key part of this was the positive relationship he was able to develop with his advisor, Prof. Alexandru Bardas, prior to his application to the program. Also, he felt he would have the freedom to pursue his creative interests in research and in the classroom.

“The Self Fellowship is an incredible opportunity, not only as a student and researcher, but as a professional as well. The network and support offered through the program can't be found anywhere else,” Hahn said. “The main draw of the program to me was the Society of Self Fellows and the reputation of the program itself. In addition, the financial support is certainly a large benefit of being a member of the program. More than anything, I'm excited to be a part of the program and to contribute to the fellowship – not only in the present, but also in the future as an alum.”

His advisor is pleased to see Hahn receive the prestigious fellowship.

“Dalton is a talented and hard-working student with real potential to be a leader in his field,” said Prof. Bardas. “His research work in cybersecurity sets the intellectual foundations for practical applications to make our information networks more dynamic, and to better predict, resist, and recover from cyber attacks.”