Ryan G Benton

Dr. Ryan Benton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science within the School of Computing (SOC) at the University of South Alabama. He is a member of the Data Science Ensemble. Prior to joining USA, Dr. Benton was a research scientist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette). While at UL Lafayette, he served within the Informatics Research Institute (IRI) and the Center for Advanced Computer Studies (CACS); he was also a founding member of the Center for Visual and Decision Informatics (CVDI), which was, at that time, the only National Science Foundation Industry/University Collaborative Research Center in Louisiana. Dr. Benton, while associated with UL Lafayette, also served as Director of Research for Star Software Systems Corporation from 2001 to 2005. He received his B.S. degree in Computer Information Systems (1995) from Loyola University New Orleans and his M.S. (1997) and Ph.D. (2001) in Computer Science at UL Lafayette. His research interest lies in the fields of data mining and machine learning, with a current focus upon advanced pattern mining methods, novel graph mining algorithms, and applied applications.

General Information

Publication Lists

Classes

Fall

CSC 331 - Software Engineering Principles, 2015-2017
CSC 399 - Concurrent and Distributed Computing, 2018, 2020-present
CSC 426 - Data Mining (undergraduate), 2020-present
CSC 434 - Automata, 2023
CSC 526 - Data Mining (graduate), 2015-present

Spring

CSC 331 - Software Engineering Principles, 2016-2018, 2024
CSC 320 - Computer Architecture, 2024
CSC 399 - Concurrent and Distributed Computing, 2019-2023
CSC 626 - Advanced Big Data, 2016-present

Current Research

Research Projects

Research Groups

Students

Current

Dhanasak Bhumichai, dissertation, chair
Reeve Cabral, dissertation, member
Chad Callegari, thesis, member
Russell Cantrell, dissertation, member
Becca Clark, honors, member
Kevin Hughes, thesis, member
Dylan Johnson, thesis, member
Yuwei Lu, dissertation, chair
Daniel Miller, dissertation, member
Anthony Monge, dissertation, member
Nelson Navas, dissertation, chair
Barbara Pilate, dissertation, member
Anwar Rassoul, dissertation, chair
Sam Russel, dissertation, chair
Mahesh Sunuwar, dissertation, member
Joshua Jude Thomas, thesis, chair
Harith Kolitha Warnakulasooriya, dissertation, member
Melody Wilkinson, dissertation, member

Completed, Disseration, South Alabama

Lorelei Koory, 2023, Evaluating the Effectiveness of Ensemble Machine Learning Approaches for Detecting Healthcare Insider Threats, Computing, Member
Ralf Riedel, 2023, Explainable Artificial Intelligence: Approaching It from the Lowest Level (alternate at JagWorks), Computing, member
Aleise McGown, 2022, Evaluating the Persuasiveness of Mobile Health: The Intersection of Persuasive System Design and Data Science (alternative at JagWorks), Computing, Member
Colby Parker, 2022, Adversarial Machine Learning for the Protection of Legitimate Software (alternate at JagWorks), Computing, Member
Matthew Peterson, 2022, Detecting Selfish Mining Attacks Against a Blockchain Using Machine Learning, Computing, Member
Shengyu Li, 2021, Mapping Common Data Elements to the Cancer Data Standards Registry and Repository, Computing, Member
Edward Harshany,2020, Distributed File System Digital Forensic Triage Integration, Computing, Chair
Christopher Scott Brown, 2020, Local Model Feature Transformations, Computing, Chair
Thomas Watts, 2020, Visualization of Orchestrated Containerized Workloads, Computing, Chair
Stacy Miller, 2019, Examining Engagement Behavior on Social Media Related to Fake News, Computing, Member
Dustin Mink, 2019, Indicators of Compromise for the United States Federal Aviation Administration Next Generation Air Transportation System Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, Computing, Member
Patrick Luckett, 2018, Nonlinear Methods For Detection And Prediction Of Epileptic Seizures, Computing, Member

Completed, Thesis, South Alabama

Amber Surles, 2023, Epileptic Seizure Classification Using Image-Based Data Representation, (alternative at Jageworks, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Member
Shelby Caldwell, 2023, A Framework for Identifying Malware Threat Distribution on the Dark Web (alternative at JagWorks), Computer and Information Sciences, Information Sciences Specialization, Member
Claire Wills, 2022, Identification of Clear Text Data Obfuscated within Active File Stack (alternative at JagWorks), Computer and Information Sciences, Information Sciences Specialization, Member
Mindy Wongsa, 2022, Identifying Text File Similarities in Forensic Disk Images Using Fuzzy Logic (alternative at JagWorks), Computer and Information Sciences, Information Sciences Specialization, Member
Robert Cox, 2021, Repackaged Android Application Classification Through Static Global Image Feature Analysis, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Chair
Blake Johns, 2021, Rare Action Rule Exploration, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Chair
Brittney Booker, 2021, Data Carving Against Known File Obfuscation Techniques: A Proposed Data Carving Algorithm, Computer and Information Sciences, Information Sciences Specialization, Member
Wyatt L. Green, 2021, Parallelized Cell-Based Outlier Detection for Data Streams, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Member
Ryan Odeneal, 2021, The Structure of K_n-Free Graphs, Mathematics, Member
Austin Sanders, 2021, An Empirical Test of a Framework for Casual Eating Behavior, Computer and Information Sciences, Information Sciences Specialization, Member
Alec Austin, 2020, Sub-Ensemble Learning for the Handling of Missing Classifier Ensemble Members, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Chair
Ho Yin Chan, 2020, Mining Discriminative Patterns Using Self-Organizing Map, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Chair
Adam Gautier, 2020, Hardware-Based Intrusion Detection Using Thermal Side-Channels, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Member
Nathan Herron, 2020, Android Malware Detection Using Machine Learning Algorithms, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Member
Lowell Crook, 2019, Query Driven Association Action Rule Mining, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Chair
Adam Minor, 2019, Android Malware Detection Using Textural Feature Recognition of Visualized Binary, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Member
Grant Daly, 2018, Application of Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms to Action Rule Mining, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Co-Chair
Colby Parker, 2018, "Android Malware Detection Using Step-Size Based Mutil-Layered Vector Space Models", Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Member
Rafi Qumsieh, 2017, Synthesizing Additional Training Data To Increase The Classification Accuracy of Visual Data Using Feed-Forward Neural Networks on Small Datasets, Mathematics, Member
Jay Lewis, 2016, "Enhancements to Itemset Tree", Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Chair

Completed, Master Project, South Alabama

Timonthy Sullivan, 2019, Visualization-based VMDK Integrity Checking, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Chair
Zachary Denton, 2017, Dynamic Action Set Mining, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Chair
Mohan Vamsi Kasukurthi, 2017, OmniSearch: Ontology-based Semantic Search System for microRNA Research, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Science Specialization, Member

Completed, Disseration, UL Lafayette

Murali Krishna Pusala, 2018, "Link Discovery through Iterative Link Classification - Towards a Real-Time Analysis of Graph Evolution", Computer Science, Member
Satya Katragadda, 2016, "A Framework for Real Time Event Detection for Emergency Situations Using Social Media Streams", Computer Science, Member
Mohammad Amir Sharif, 2015, "Large-Scale, Hybrid Approaches for Recommending Web Pages Based on Content and User's Previous Click Patterns", Computer Science, Member
Elshaimaa Ali, 2015, "A Framework for Building Light Weight Ontologies Based on Semi-Structured Data for Semantic Annotation", Computer Science, Member
Jennifer Lavergne, 2013, "An In-Memory Data Structure for Targeted Association Rule Mining in Time-Varying Domains", Computer Science, Member
Nicholas Ruiz, 2011, "Statistical Parsing and Integration of Result Records for Answering Factual Questions", Computer Science, Member

Completed, Thesis, UL Lafayette

Subasish Das, 2012, "Evaluating safety improvement from edge lines on rural two-lane highways", Civil Engineering, Member
Long Li, 2011, "Louisiana Urban and Suburban Roadway Safety Study: Application of 1st Edition of Highway Safety Manual", Civil Engineering, Member
Kaushik Das, 2010, "Investigation of Menu Properties and Pointing Techniques in a Projection-based VR Environment", Computer Science, Member
Tejas Nomulwar, 2010, "Web Personalization Using Wikipedia", Computer Science, Member
Vertie Louise Jordan, 2008, "Safety Performance of Horizontal Curves on Rural Two-Lane Highways", Civil Engineering, Member

Schedule

Spring 2024

Note, these are the regularly scheduled meetings. Others will occur (and some of these may be preempted).

Monday

Rassoul Research Meeting, 11:00am - 12:00pm
Bhumichai Research Meeting, 1:30pm - 2:30 pm
Yu Research Meeting, 2:30pm - 3:30pm
Navas Research Meeting, 4:15pm - 5:15pm
CSC 626, Advanced Big Data, 6:00pm - 7:15pm

Tuesday

Office Hours, 9:30am - 10:30am
CSC 331, Software Engineering, 11:00pm - 12:15pm
CSC 320, Computer Architecture, 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
Cole Research Meeting, 3:30pm - 4:30pm
Sayeed Research Meeting, 4:30pm - 5:30pm

Wednesday

Meeting (bi-weekly), 10:30 am - 11:45 am
Russel Research Meeting, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Office Hours, 3:30pm - 5:30pm
CSC 626, Advanced Big Data, 6:00pm - 7:15pm

Thursday

Office Hours, 9:30am - 10:30am
CSC 331, Software Engineering, 11:00pm - 12:15pm
CSC 311, Software Engineering Lab, 12:30 - 1:45 pm
CSC 320, Computer Architecture, 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
Thornton Independent Study Meeting, 3:30pm - 4:30pm
Office Hours, 4:45pm - 5:45pm

Friday

Systems Protection and Exploitation Research Group, 10:00am - 11:00am
Thomas Research Meeting, 2:00pm - 3:00pm

Sessions and Minitracks

Upcoming

Past

Second Discriminative Pattern Mining Workshop at IEEE Big Data 2021
Data Predictive Maintenance using Artificial Intelligence at IEEE Big Data 2020
Discriminative Pattern Mining Workshop at IEEE Big Data 2020
Data Predictive Maintenance using Artificial Intelligence at IEEE Big Data 2019
Demo Session at ICDM 2017