Faculty at The University of Tulsa continue to demonstrate excellence in cybersecurity research with the latest recognition highlighting the School of Cyber Studies’ national prominence in the field.
Assistant Professor Weiping Pei, Ph.D., has been awarded a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for her project titled “Improving Work Quality and Worker Safety in AI-Supported Crowd Work.”
Pei also was awarded a three-year grant from NSF for her project titled “Security, Privacy, and Trust in Cyberspace (SaTC) 2.0: RES: Understanding and Detecting Online Scams from Generative AI.” This project aims to understand online scams in the era of generative artificial intelligence.
The CAREER Award recognizes early-career scholars who demonstrate strong potential as researchers and educators. What makes this award unique is its dual focus; it emphasizes pioneering research while recognizing early-career researchers who have integrated plans for educational impact.
“Receiving the CAREER Award is truly a dream come true,” said Pei. “It reflects NSF’s belief in the promise of my research and my commitment to education. This recognition is incredibly meaningful, and I’m deeply honored.”
Pei’s research has evolved alongside present-day issues in cybersecurity. In her early studies, her work centered on security and privacy issues in crowdsourcing – a technique that breaks large problems requiring human input into bite-sized tasks that can be divided among “crowd workers.”
Now, her work has evolved with the integration of artificial intelligence in crowd work, introducing a new form of a human-AI relationship. This shift invites innovation but also alerts systemic risk in cybersecurity and privacy. Pei’s research targets what is not yet understood on these risks.
The result from this project aims to address three key risks: potential risks of AI-based systems being misused by crowd workers, errors within AI systems themselves and privacy risks that AI systems might pose to workers.
The research will advance understanding of human-AI collaboration, create safer AI-based systems and develop more ethical crowd work systems globally. Pei plans to make results accessible across multiple cybersecurity disciplines for current and future researchers at UTulsa and beyond.
“The education goal in the project is to develop modules that bring more disciplinary perspectives to cybersecurity education and that integrate cybersecurity concepts into courses across disciplines,” explained Pei. “These modules, along with the theories, datasets and tools developed in the research, will be widely shared to support educational, research and practical impacts.”
Pei emphasized that this achievement is a shared milestone for herself and the Tulsa community. She also hopes it sends a clear message about the region’s research capabilities.
“This award affirms the value of the research I’m passionate about and provides critical support to pursue it in a sustained and impactful way,” Pei said. “For the broader Tulsa community, I hope it sends a clear message: nationally competitive, high-impact research can thrive here. Our region has the talent, vision and commitment to shape the future of secure and inclusive technologies.”
Achievements such as Pei’s are only one part of UTulsa’s continued story of excellence. Faculty in the College of Engineering & Computer Science continue to pave the path in cybersecurity research and innovation.