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 **Required skills or prerequisites:**
-Good programming and data analysis skills overall, and experience in using Jupyter and/or R for data analysis.  Ability to work indecently.
+Good programming and data analysis skills overall, and experience in using Jupyter and/or R for data analysis.  Ability to work independently.
 Interest in usable privacy, critical analysis of privacy policies and privacy related regulation.
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 Please fill in [[https://forms.gle/oVVg6hEConSNf9p28|this form]]
+==== Designing Privacy-preserving  Virtual Reality Systems ====
+**Course:**  EECS4080 or EECS4480
+**Supervisor:**  Yan Shvartzshnaider
+**Supervisor's email address:** rhythm.lab@yorku.ca
+**Project Description:**
+Designing a privacy-preserving VR experience requires adhering to contextual integrity of users’ data . This involves accounting for different modes of interaction and ensuring robustness to accommodate the evolving privacy norms associated with future VR adaptations.
+To tackle this challenge, the project will operationalize a cutting-edge privacy theory and methodologies to develop mechanisms  that ensure that information flows in accordance with users’ expectations and established societal norms in VR settings.
+Students will help analyze information handling practices of VR applications and design tools to enhance privacy of VR users.
+Specific tasks include conducting a comprehensive literature review of existing methodologies and tools, performing a dynamic analysis of data practices in VR applications, and checking for compliance with existing regulations and privacy policies.
+For reference, see these papers:
+  * https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.13684.pdf
+  *https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity22/presentation/trimananda
+**Required skills or prerequisites:**
+  *  Good programming skills (experience with coding in Unity is a plus)
+  *   Interest in usable privacy, critical analysis of privacy policies, and knowledge of privacy-related regulations
+  *   Ability to work independently
+**Recommended skills or prerequisites:**
+  *   Experience with data analysis using Jupyter and/or R
+  *   Familiarity with HCI design
+==== Visualizing the debugger for first-year computer science students ====
+**Course:**  EECS4080
+**Supervisor:**  Meiying Qin
+**Supervisor's email address:** mqin@yorku.ca
+**Project Description:**
+Debugging is one of the most important skills for computer science students. However, first-year students are usually not comfortable with working with a debugger. In order to help ease the process for first-year students, we plan to write an application that can visualize the process by animating the variable manipulated, either on a screen or using virtual reality/augmented reality. In this project, you will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in both designing and implementing a software application. You will gain experience in animation or virtual reality.
+**Required skills or prerequisites:**
+Proficient in Python (as you will write a visualized debugger for students learning Python)
+Strong learning ability (You will be expected to learn VR/AR programming if we decide to use NR/AR)
+**Recommended skills or prerequisites:**
+Experience with virtual reality/augmented reality or animation
+**Instructions:**
+Please send your c.v. and transcript to the project supervisor.
+If available, please also send your e-portfolio (e.g., GitHub, or other links) of your previous projects.
+==== Sims for University Life ====
+**Course:**  EECS4080
+**Supervisor:**  Meiying Qin
+**Supervisor's email address:** mqin@yorku.ca
+**Project Description:**
+One of the biggest challenges that first-year students face is the transition from high school to university. This is expected to be more pronounced once the York Markham campus opens as all courses will use the flipped-class model. In this model, students are required to be more active in learning and preview the content before each class in order to stay on track. In order to assist first-year students in making a smoother transition even before school starts, we plan to release a game that simulates the life of a computer science student at the Markham campus to provide students with a preview of university life. In this project, you'll have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in both designing and implementing a game.
+**Required skills or prerequisites:**
+Strong software engineering skills;
+The game will either be on Android or a web-based game. So you will need to have some experience in either Java or web development;
+an interest in helping first-year students and suggesting game components based on your own experience.
+**Recommended skills or prerequisites:**
+Experience with graphical user interface or game design.
+**Instructions:**
+Please send your c.v. and transcript to the project supervisor.
+If available, please also send your e-portfolio (e.g., GitHub, or other links) of your previous projects.
+==== Robots Tutors in First Year Programming Courses ====
+**Course:**  EECS4080
+**Supervisor:**  Meiying Qin
+**Supervisor's email address:** mqin@yorku.ca
+**Project Description:**
+The goal of this project is to deploy a robotic tutor to assist first-year programming students. Students enrolled in the first-year programming course will go to a designated location to interact with a robot to do exercises together. While robot tutors have been utilized in pre-university education, few studies have explored their effectiveness within post-secondary education settings. By participating in the 4080 project, students will gain immersive exposure to run user studies given a robot project. The roles and responsibilities of students involved in this project include deploying the robot system developed by other students in the fall term and brainstorming potential ways to analyze the data collected with statistical methods.
+**Required skills or prerequisites:**
+The project will not involve much programming;
+  * Be reliable, responsive and responsible;
+  * Not afraid to interact with participants;
+  * Able to handle unexpected events on the fly;
+  * Be able to have at least one afternoon available per week to work on the project in order to run the study (you are expected to be able to work on the project 10 hours in total per week);
+**Recommended skills or prerequisites:**
+Have some background in statistical analysis (e.g., T-test, ANOVA)
+**Instructions:**
+Please send your c.v. and transcript to the project supervisor.
+==== Machine Learning for Cybersecurity ====
+**Course:**  EECS4480
+**Supervisor:**  Ruba Al Omari
+**Supervisor's email address:** alomari@yorku.ca
+**Project Description:**
+Machine learning plays a crucial role in Cybersecurity by detecting and responding to threats in an efficient manner. It is being used in areas like network anomaly detection, malware and phishing detection, and entity and user behaviour analytics.
+The goal of this project is to conduct a comprehensive survey to learn the following:
+  * Survey existing datasets (real-world and synthetic) that are used to train ML algorithms in the domain of Cybersecurity, such as network traffic datasets used for intrusion detection, datasets that are used in training for malware and phishing detection, insider threat and user and entity behaviour analytics, etc.
+  * Shortlist the datasets to the 10 to 15 most commonly used datasets in the field based on community adoption: usage in publications, usage in popular challenges on Kaggle, widely cited and used as benchmarks.
+  * Read the literature of work that used the shortlisted datasets. Summarize your findings in terms of data cleaning and preprocessing, algorithms used, performance metrics, and results. Do the same for official and/or popular Kaggle competitions
+Deliverable: Survey
+**Required skills or prerequisites:**
+  * Knowledge of Python programming
+  * Familiar with the use of Jupyter notebooks.
+  * Self-motivated
+  * Strong troubleshooting skills
+  * Ability to work with minimum supervision
+**Instructions:**
+Please send your c.v. and unofficial transcript to the project supervisor, along with a cover letter (maximum 500 words) of why you believe you are a suitable candidate for this project.
+==== Encryption Algorithms Implementation Optimized for Teaching and Learning ====
+**Course:**  EECS4480
+**Supervisor:**  Ruba Al Omari
+**Supervisor's email address:** alomari@yorku.ca
+**Project Description:**
+The goal of this project is to show how different encryption methods work under the hood. You will implement different encryption algorithms in Python to show how the internals of the algorithm work. For example, demonstrating how AES works by writing SubBytes, InvSubByets, ShiftRows, MixColumns, and AddRoundKey functions. These functions are then used in a full round of encryption. The same is to be done for the decryption phase. The user should be able to observe the state array at any point in the encryption/decryption process.
+Input variables will be block size, key size, key, plaintext (if encrypting), number of rounds, and ciphertext (if decrypting).
+The algorithms in order of implementation are: DES, AES, Feistel Cipher, S-AES, and SHA-256.
+If time permits, we will be working with other algorithms.
+Deliverables: A single Jupyter notebook per algorithm.
+**Required skills or prerequisites:**
+  * Took EECS3481 Applied Cryptography.
+  * Solid Python programming skills.
+  * Familiar with the use of Jupyter notebooks.
+  * Able to write efficient and clean modular code, but prioritize clarity over optimization.
+  * Self-motivated
+  * Strong troubleshooting skills
+  * Ability to work with minimum supervision
+**Recommended skills or prerequisites:**
+Interest in Cryptography
+**Instructions:**
+Please send your resume and unofficial transcript to the project supervisor, along with a cover letter (maximum 500 words) of why you believe you are a suitable candidate for this project.
+==== Generative AI and written assessment ====
+**Course:**  EECS4080
+**Supervisor:**  Kai Zhuang
+**Supervisor's email address:** kai.zhuang@lassonde.yorku.ca
+**Project Description:**
+Generative AI is revolutionizing education in many ways. We are looking to develop a AI assisted process/framework to assess written assignments, using either BING or ChatGPT platforms. The goal is to create an application / process that is straightforward for instructors to use, and can provide immediate feedback for students.
+**Required skills or prerequisites:**
+  * Competence in coding
+  * Passion for AI coding
+**Recommended skills or prerequisites:**
+  * Experience with generative AI CODING
+**Instructions:**
+Sending cv, any explanation or demonstration of requisite skills to project supervisor would be helpful.
+==== Developing an embedded systems project for undergraduate programming course ====
+**Course:**  EECS4080
+**Supervisor:**  Kai Zhuang
+**Supervisor's email address:** kai.zhuang@lassonde.yorku.ca
+**Project Description:**
+We are looking for a computer science student with experience with embedded systems to help develop one or more projects for undergraduate computer programming and mechatronics course(s). Specifically, we are looking to develop a project involving creating a musical instrument using the Arduino platform in combination with MATLAB, Java, and Python.
+**Required skills or prerequisites:**
+  * Competence with Embedded Systems, especially Arduino.
+  * Competence with MATLAB coding.
+**Recommended skills or prerequisites:**
+Familiarity with Java and Python coding
+**Instructions:**
+Sending cv, any explanation or demonstration of requisite skills or experience to project supervisor would be helpful.  Examples of embedded systems projects from past can be particularly helpful.
+==== Large Language Models Based Mutation Testing ====
+**Course:**  EECS4080
+**Supervisor:**  Song Wang
+**Supervisor's email address:** wangsong@yorku.ca
+**Project Description:**
+Recently, pre-trained large language models (LLMs) have emerged as a breakthrough technology in natural language processing and artificial intelligence, with the ability to handle large-scale datasets and exhibit remarkable performance across a wide range of tasks. Meanwhile, software testing is a crucial undertaking that serves as a cornerstone for ensuring the quality and reliability of software products. As the scope and complexity of software systems continue to grow, the need for more effective software testing techniques becomes increasingly urgent, making it an area ripe for innovative approaches such as the use of LLMs. Our recent collaboration with Meta also confirms the limitations of existing widely used testing techniques in mutation testing. This project takes a solid initial step toward exploring the next-generation software mutation testing techniques powered by LLMs.
+**Required skills or prerequisites:**
+Familiarity with DL libraries such as Tensorflow and Pytorch;
+**Instructions:**
+Send c.v. and transcript to the project supervisor.
+==== Image Processing for Software Teams ====
+**Course:**  EECS4070/EECS4080
+**Supervisor:**  Maleknaz Nayebi
+**Supervisor's email address:** mnayebi@yorku.ca
+**Project Description:**
+In today's software development landscape, the integration of visual data has become increasingly vital. The Image Processing for Software Teams project aims to empower software teams with robust image processing capabilities, enhancing their ability to work with and derive insights from visual content within their applications. The project includes:
+  * Image Recognition and Classification,
+  * Image Transformation and Enhancement, and
+  * Text Extraction from Images.
+**Required skills or prerequisites:**
+  * Python programming
+  * Self-learner
+  * Team work
+**Recommended skills or prerequisites:**
+  * Image processing and machine learning
+  * NLP
+**Instructions:**
+  * Please email me your transcripts and CVs with the title "[EECS 4070/80]"
+==== Chat Bots in LMS for Easy Course Navigation ====
+**Course:**  EECS4080
+**Supervisor:**  Pooja Vashisth
+**Supervisor's email address:**  vashistp@yorku.ca
+**Project Description:**
+The aim of this project is to enhance the course navigation experience for students by providing them with an interactive and intuitive interface that can assist with accessing course materials, finding relevant information, and answering commonly asked questions.
+The main objectives of this project are as follows:
+  - Develop a chat bot capable of understanding natural language queries and responses.
+  - Integrate the chat bot into the existing LMS platform used by our institution.
+  - Implement functionality for students to interact with the chat bot to access course materials, find information about courses, assignments, deadlines, and grades.
+  - Provide personalized recommendations to students based on their preferences, past interactions, and learning progress.
+  - Ensure the chat bot is responsive, reliable, and efficient in handling concurrent user requests.
+  - Design a user-friendly interface for both desktop and mobile devices.
+**Required skills or prerequisites:**
+  - Expertise in Development tools and IDEs (e.g., Python, NLP libraries, web development frameworks)
+  - Understanding of existing LMS platform and its database structure
+  - Knowledge of Hardware and software infrastructure for hosting and deploying the chat bot system
+  - Knowledge of Web Development:
+    * HTML/CSS: Knowledge of HTML and CSS is essential for designing the user interface of the chatbot within the LMS.
+    * JavaScript: JavaScript can be used to add interactivity and dynamic features to the chatbot interface.
+**Recommended skills or prerequisites:**
+  * Machine Learning (Optional):  TensorFlow or PyTorch. These popular machine learning frameworks can be used for more advanced NLP tasks, such as intent recognition and sentiment analysis, if the project requires more sophisticated chatbot capabilities.
+  * Database:  SQLite or PostgreSQL. These relational database management systems (RDBMS) can be used to store and manage data related to user interactions, course materials, FAQs, and personalized recommendations.
+  * User Authentication and Integration:  LMS API. Depending on the LMS platform being used, you may need to utilize the LMS API to integrate the chatbot system with the existing LMS, allowing access to course materials, user data, and other relevant information.  User Authentication Libraries: Libraries such as OAuth or JWT (JSON Web Tokens) can be used to handle user authentication and secure access to the chatbot system.
+**Instructions:**
+Please send your c.v., transcript, and Statement of Interest in the project to the project supervisor.
+==== Autograders for C and Linux Programs in Undergraduate Courses ====
+**Course:**  EECS4080
+**Supervisor:**  Pooja Vashisth
+**Supervisor's email address:**  vashistp@yorku.ca
+**Project Description:**
+The objective of this project is to streamline the process of evaluating programming assignments by automating the grading process, providing timely feedback to students, and reducing the workload of instructors.
+The main objectives of this project are as follows:
+  - Develop an autograding system capable of executing and evaluating C and Linux programs.
+  - Design a user-friendly interface for instructors to define test cases and grading criteria.
+  - Implement a secure and scalable infrastructure to handle multiple submissions and concurrent grading tasks.
+  - Provide detailed feedback and grading reports to students, highlighting areas of improvement and errors.
+  - Support various programming concepts and features, including file handling, system calls, and command-line utilities.
+  - Ensure the autograder system is reliable, efficient, and scalable to accommodate a large number of students and assignments.
+Methodology:  The project will follow these general steps.
+  - Conduct a thorough analysis of the requirements and specifications for autograding C and Linux programs.
+  - Research and select appropriate tools, frameworks, and libraries for building the autograding system.
+  - Design and develop the autograder system, including the front-end interface for instructors and the back-end components for executing and evaluating programs.
+  - Implement a secure sandbox environment to run student programs safely and prevent malicious activities.
+  - Integrate tools and utilities for compiling, executing, and capturing program output and errors.
+  - Develop a grading engine that compares student outputs with expected outputs, considering various edge cases.
+  - Implement a user-friendly interface for instructors to define test cases, grading rubrics, and manage assignments.
+  - Test and evaluate the autograder system's performance, accuracy, and scalability using representative test cases and a simulated workload.
+  - Document the development process, including system architecture, algorithms used, and any challenges faced during implementation.
+**Required skills or prerequisites:**
+Tech stack for this project:
+  - Programming Languages:
+    * C: As the project involves autograding C programs, a strong understanding of the C programming language is necessary.
+    * Python: Python can be used for developing the autograder system, as it offers a wide range of libraries and frameworks for web development, automation, and scripting.
+  - Web Development:
+    * HTML/CSS: Knowledge of HTML and CSS is essential for designing the user interface of the autograder system.
+    * JavaScript: JavaScript can be used to add interactivity and dynamic functionality to the web-based interface.
+  - System Execution and Grading:
+    * Linux Environment: Good knowledge of Linux is crucial for setting up the execution environment and running student programs in a secure sandbox.
+    * Bash scripting: Bash scripting can be used to automate the execution of student programs, capture output, and evaluate correctness based on defined test cases.
+**Recommended skills or prerequisites:**
+  - Frameworks and Libraries:
+    * Flask or Django: These Python web frameworks can be used to build the back-end of the autograder system, handle requests, and manage the database.
+    * Bootstrap: Bootstrap is a popular front-end framework that provides pre-built UI components and responsive design features, making it easier to create a user-friendly interface.
+  - Database:
+    * SQLite or PostgreSQL: These relational database management systems (RDBMS) can be used to store and manage data related to students, assignments, test cases, and grading criteria.
+**Instructions:**
+Please send your c.v., transcript, and Statement of Interest in the project to the project supervisor
+==== Investigating Reasoning about Action and Change in Pretrained Language Models ====
+**Course:**  EECS4080
+**Supervisor:**  Yves Lesperance
+**Supervisor's email address:**   lesperan@yorku.ca
+**Project Description:**
+Reasoning about action (RAC), including generating plans to achieve goals, is a key capability for autonomous agents.  Mainstream techniques for RAC and automated planning (based on heuristic search), are very effective, but they rely on a human modeler specifying the dynamic domain and queries/goals formally. Some recent research has investigated whether pretrained language models (LM) can effectively reason about action and change while avoiding the need to formally specify the domain.  For instance, He et al. (ACL 2023) has studied the performance of some LMs on fundamental RAC tasks such as Projection, Executability, Plan Verification, and Goal Recognition.  The LMs were first fine-tuned/pretrained on Blocks World domains and task instances (with a STRIPS semantics) and then tested on new instances.  The LMs performed rather well on similar instances, but generalized poorly to tasks involving longer action sequences or more domain objects.  In this project, the student will use the datasets generated in this work to experiment with newer language models and various fine-tuning methods to see if generalization can be improved.
+**Required skills or prerequisites:**
+EECS3401, Python programming skills.
+**Recommended skills or prerequisites:**
+Some previous exposure to machine learning, automated planning, first-order logic.
+**Instructions:**
+Send CV and unofficial transcript to project supervisor.