Mukkamala Chosen for Founder's Award, Highest Grad Award

by Kathy Hedges

SOCORRO, N.M. -- Srinivas Mukkamala was chosen to receive New Mexico Tech’s Founder’s Award, the highest award to a graduate student, at Commencement ceremonies on May 14, 2005. Mukkamala received his Ph.D. in computer science from the state-supported research university.

Mukkamala, the son of Dr. Sambasiva Rao Mukkamala and Subha Mukkamala, is originally from Kolavennu, Andhra Pradesh, India. He has been a resident of Socorro, New Mexico since 2000. He a 1995 graduate of Nalanda Junior College. He received his bachelor’s degree from Sathyabama Engineering College (University of Madras) and his master’s degree from New Mexico Tech.

Mukkamala received the award for both the research work he has done as a graduate student and for his many volunteer activities. He is a frequent contributor to information security and soft computing literature which includes book chapters, journal papers, conference proceedings, and magazines. He has over 60 publications in the areas of information assurance, information security practices and applied soft computing techniques. He is a frequent speaker on information system security audits and forensic incident analysis. He has a patent pending on Intelligent Agents for Distributed Intrusion Detection System and Method of Practicing Same. He was a student lead of the information assurance research group at New Mexico Tech that developed expertise in learning machines for intrusion detection, modeling, and feature selection algorithms for intrusion detection, trends in malware analysis and applied information assurance.

Mukkamala has assisted the Computer Science Department and New Mexico Tech with preparation of research proposals, recertification as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance, student recruiting, and teaching workshops in computer security. He has been the Computer Science Department's representative to the Graduate Student Association, where he has served on several committees. He has done a number of presentations on computer security, both on campus for prospective students and off-campus, for New Mexico schools, community colleges, and the state of New Mexico.

Mukkamala has also been the recipient of a number of awards, honors, and fellowships. In 2003, he was the recipient of the Patrick Orr Memorial Award, given by the Department of Computer Science at New Mexico Tech to an outstanding graduate student who demonstrates excellence in scholarship and potential for service in computer science education. The award was named for Patrick Orr, a faculty member who died in 1981.

He was also a recipient of the Tripuraneni Ramaiah Chowdary Memorial Scholarship.

Mukkamala was a member of the teams that were winners of the 2003 and 2002 Forensic Feuds, sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The Forensic Feud is a contest that tests forensic experts’ collective knowledge on a wide variety of questions from all forensic disciplines.

Mukkamala is a senior research scientist at Institute for Complex Additive Systems and Analysis (ICASA), a division of New Mexico Tech. He is a resident of Socorro.

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