Nick Giacobe is a research technologist and graduate student at the Pennsylvania State University's College of Information Sciences and Technology. He studies situational awareness in the cyber security domain, focusing on the cognitive aspects of the human analyst. He has an interest in methods to increase the awareness of events happening on the network through multi-sensor data fusion and visual analytics. In particular, Nick is working on the measurement of situation awareness and identifying methods to compare the SA of different analysts. Nick is also interested in comparing different visual analytic and data fusion tools and measuring their effects on human cognition.
My Research ...
Situation Awareness in Cyber Security
My dissertation (still under design at the moment) will be focused on the use of systems to develop situation awareness for security analysts. This work has three parts - (1) leveraging existing "sensors", (2) applying fusion algorithms and (3) representing the fusion system in an HCI/represenation that reduces cognitive load and increases situational awareness. more...
Other Related Research Interests...
- Cognitive Concerns in IT Security Policies more...
- Using Humans as Soft Sensors in Extreme Events and Daily Experiences more...
The History of My Professional Work
In one way, I could describe my early career as a 18 year-long ethnographic study in computer network design, operations and support. Is that a bit prentious? Sure. However, I do consider my roots in computer network support as being an important aspect of my current and future academic work. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty and generally distrust those who isolate themselves in the ivory tower of academia. more...
What's in a Name?
Some are often very confused by the prounciation of my last name. I prefer /JA ko bee/ similar to how one pronounces Jacoby, but also equally accept /JEE uh KO bee/. Please note that the "e" at the end is definitely not silent. more...