Research on the road: A conversation with REU student Fabion Walden

Fabion Walden stands next to his poster about protecting users from spam

Fabion Walden stands next to his poster titled “A Secure and Scalable SMS Classification Platform for Scam Warning Research.” Photo courtesy of Fabion Walden.

For several University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students, the past summer provided an opportunity to delve deeper into research and further explore their academic interests.

Students were able to conduct applicable research, consult with faculty, work in a lab environment and bond with fellow students in the same field.

These opportunities are made possible through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, which provides funding for students to conduct research projects at universities across the nation.

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Senior Fabion Walden is a computer science major with a concentration in cybersecurity in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. During his time at UTC, he has been a work-study student worker advised by Dr. Mengjun Xie, head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Walden is currently a software engineer intern at Flourish Software.

This past summer, he participated in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Software Engineering (REUSE) Program at the Carnegie Mellon University CyLab in Pittsburgh, where he worked on detecting and preventing spam Short Message Service (SMS) messages.

The Nashville native sat down to explain his research.

How did you find out about this REU?

“I found out from Dr. (Lisa) Piazza, who’s over URaCE, the undergraduate research program here. That’s what got me into research. She reached out to me and asked if I wanted to do research. I said, ‘Of course.’ Halfway through last year, at about the start of the spring semester, she was telling me about the REU and how I should apply.”

Can you explain your research?

“My project was the detection and prevention of SMS scams for at-risk users. It was a big project. I was a part of a smaller project where I built the server infrastructure for an AI message classifier. Messages from unknown senders would automatically get filtered to my server, where ChatGPT, for example, would classify it as scam, spam or a regular message.”

What did a typical day look like for you?

“We had our weeks planned. The first week there, my mentor had assigned me to create a week-by-week plan so I could have a clear idea of what I planned to get done by the end of the week. I could have deliverables. Every day I would go into the office, work on my goals for the week, then at the end of the week we would present what I did.”

Were you able to explore the area?

“I was very fortunate for the REU I picked because they were very friendly. My principal investigator (Dr. Lorrie Cranor, professor of computer science and director of the Cylab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory) is very famous in our field. She would always ask me, ‘Is there anything you want to do in Pittsburgh while you’re here? I know it was your first time here.’

“She took me to the museum, a couple of other touristy spots and always took me out to dinner or brunch at her house.

“I was a part of that very tight-knit group. We always did stuff together. I worked closely with Ph.D. student Elijah Bouma-Sims, who helped me a lot during the summer. It was a great experience. We weren’t just restricted to the office. We can go do our work elsewhere, explore and find new places to work.”

How did this align with your academic and career goals?

“It basically set things in stone. I was on the fence about getting my Ph.D., but after attending the program and seeing the school that leads the world in computer science research, being in that environment definitely made up my mind that I’m going to pursue my Ph.D. Actually, I just got done drafting my list of 10 schools, and I am applying this fall.”

What does it mean to have a research experience like this as an undergraduate student?

“Everything. One of the opportunities there is we had seminars every week with a whole boatload of people, different people that come to Carnegie Mellon to speak. In one of the seminars, I got to speak with the head of admissions at CMU, and the question that everybody asked was, ‘How impactful is REU?’

“He said, ‘It’s very impactful.’ I don’t know about any other schools, but I know for sure that at CMU, he told me what matters is how much you want to do research when you’re applying. Having an REU on your resume reinforces how much you want to do research. You could have gone and done an internship elsewhere and gotten paid more, but you decided to do an REU.”