Faculty and Staff
Principal Investigators
Dr. Deepak Tosh
Dr. Tosh is an assistant professor in Computer Science at the University of Texas at El Paso. His research interests include cybersecurity of critical infrastructures, data provenance mechanisms, Blockchain, security of Internet of Battlefield Things environments, cyber-threat information sharing, cyber-risk assessment, game theory and mechanism design, and nature-inspired optimization techniques. With a growing connectedness in our communities and increasing standards of cyber-crimes, cybersecurity challenges are vital to be addressed and make the critical infrastructures resilient. With these motivations, Dr. Tosh has aligned his research focus in designing secure, decentralized, and scalable solutions for both civilian application (e.g. Internet of Things, Cloud and Edge computing platforms) and military/battlefield environments. His research has been supported from Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and Department of Defense. He is a recipient of NSF CAREER Award. Besides research, Dr. Tosh truly believes in providing authentic cybersecurity related education experience to the next generation students who are becoming immersed in computing and technologies. He has a great passion of offering hands-on oriented classroom experience to better engage the students and learn difficult concepts in systems, networking, and cybersecurity.
Dr. Martine Ceberio
Dr. Ceberio is a professor in Computer Science at UTEP. Her research is in algorithms and theoretical computer science and is largely motivated by applications. Her expertise is in algorithms for solving non-linear continuous constraints and global optimization problems, as well as in handling uncertainty. Her passion lies broadly in designing approaches to making reliable decisions in the presence of uncertainty. She has a theoretical interest about these problems: can we achieve guarantees in the presence of uncertainty? What types of guarantees and why? Why and/or when do solving techniques work or not work? How scalable are these solving techniques? Her passion for reliability despite uncertainty combined with the curiosity to explain phenomena / decisions have led her to work on an array of real-life problems, from biomedical engineering problems about diagnosing gait issues, to simulating, predicting, and correcting dynamical systems like explosions, combustion, or flapping wings, to the automated identification of ducks for species conservation. Her current focus is on using her expertise to better understand / explain deep-learning decisions.
She is also passionate about broadening participation in computing. She seeks ways to connect to students and mentor them. For instance, she annually welcomes female high-school students in her research lab and mentors them throughout the school year; she visits local schools and engages students with opportunities that allow them to further explore her field and make informed decisions about their future. She’s led programs to promote and support women and traditionally under-represented minorities in computing (in K-12, at the UG and G levels at UTEP). She is particularly focused on her goal to improve teaching for equity in the classroom. She has been a Faculty in Residence at Google in 2018, a mentor of the program in 2019, and a lead of a cohort of Faculty in Residence alumni since summer 2020. Most notably, she feels very fortunate to have joined the University of Texas System’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers in spring 2020 after receiving a University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award in 2019.
Dr. William Robertson
Dr. William H. Robertson currently serves as the Dean of the College of Health Sciences, a position he assumed in April of 2022, after serving for 1 year as the Interim Dean of the college. Additionally, Dr. Robertson has served in administrative roles including Interim Dean and Associate Dean of the College of Education, Associate Provost, co-Chair of the Teacher Education Department and Director of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Division. Dr. Robertson has received several prestigious awards including the UT Regent’s Outstanding Teaching Award, as a Fulbright Scholar in Santiago, Chile, and the President’s Meritorious Service Award.
Dr. Robertson is also a Professor with academic areas of expertise are in science education, curriculum development and technology integration in the K-12 levels. Additionally, he develops, research and teach materials related to inquiry-based STEM Education, project-based learning, problem-based learning, and action science. As a Professor, Dr. Robertson is also focused on eLearning Pedagogy and the Ideal Mix of courses (face-to-face, hybrid, online) for programs, students, and faculty. This includes pedagogical efficacy, asset-optimization for transitional skills development, lifelong learning, curricular flexibility, and capacity building across the institution. He currently serves as a Distinguished Research Fellow with the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Before coming to UTEP, Dr. Robertson was an employee at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and was a middle school and high school teacher as well. A long-time participant and performer in skateboarding with over 40 years in the sport, Dr. Robertson has developed Dr. Skateboard’s Action Science, which addresses physical science concepts for middle school students utilizing skateboarding and bicycle motocross (BMX).
Martine Ceberio
Professor
CCSB 3.0406
mceberio@utep.edu
915-747-6950
Website
William H. Robertson
Professor
Education Building 807
robertson@utep.edu
915-747-6426
Website
Deepak Tosh
Assistant Professor
CCSB 3.1010
dktosh@utep.edu
(915) 747-6410
Website
Faculty Mentors
Palvi Aggarwal
Assistant Professor
CCSB 3.1014
paggarwal@utep.edu
(915) 747-6399
Website
Aritran Piplai
Assistant Professor
CCSB 3.0512
apiplai@utep.edu
(915) 747-8381
Website
Saeid Tizpaz-Nieri
Assistant Professor
CCSB 3.1006
saeid@utep.edu
(915) 747-8408
Website
Guest Speakers
Justice T. Walker
Assistant Professor
Education Building 803
jtwalker@utep.edu
(915) 747-7659
Website
Nigel Ward
Professor
CCSB 3.0408
nigel@utep.edu
(915) 747-6827
Website
Mohammad Saidur Rahman
Assistant Professor
TBD
Website
Sai Mounika Errapotu
Assistant Professor
Engineering Building A-309
serrapotu@utep.edu
(915) 747-6964
website