UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #1310

Submission information
Submission Number: 1310
Submission ID: 21146
Submission UUID: 8f982364-4b37-4ebf-945c-eeecf8b33993

Created: Thu, 08/21/2025 - 08:08 PM
Completed: Thu, 08/21/2025 - 08:09 PM
Changed: Mon, 08/25/2025 - 11:25 AM

Remote IP address: 69.254.218.185
Submitted by: Anonymous
Language: English

Is draft: No
Primary Research Mentor Name Zhixin Pan
Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns
When potential research assistants are reaching out via email, what is your preferred honorific? zp23e@fsu.edu
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated) zp23e@fsu.edu
Position Title Faculty
FSU College (if applicable) FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Headshot (optional)
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from above)
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Pronouns
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Honorific?
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated)
Name of Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) (if applicable)
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Pronouns
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Honorific?
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated)
Title of the Project Lightweight Malware Detector using Machine Learning
Project Keywords Machine Learning, Cybersecurity, High-performance Computing
Are you currently looking for research assistants? Yes
Number of Research Assistants Needed 2
Relevant Research Assistant Major(s) Computer Science (CS)
Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
Project Location: FAMU–FSU College of Engineering (Innovation Park, 2525 Pottsdamer St.) / Center for Advanced Power Systems.
If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation? No, the project is remote
Please select the choice that most accurately describes your expectations for the research assistant(s): Fully Remote
Approximately how many hours a week would the research assistant(s) need to work? 5-10
Roughly what time frame do you expect research assistant(s) to work? Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Overall Research Project Description Malware and ransomware continue to evolve, creating challenges for traditional defense systems. This project investigates lightweight zero-shot malware detection, where machine learning models can identify new threats without requiring extensive retraining. We will focus on making models efficient through advanced machine learning techniques, including quantization and contrastive learning. Students will begin with public malware datasets, building baseline models and exploring how these techniques improve detection performance. This project offers hands-on experience at the intersection of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, with opportunities to present results at FSU’s Undergraduate Research Symposium and potentially contribute to a research publication.
Research Tasks UROP students will participate in the following activities:

1. Data Preparation – Download and organize publicly available malware datasets (e.g., EMBER, Malimg) and perform basic preprocessing.

2. Literature Reviewing - Survey existing research on machine learning for malware detection, focusing on lightweight methods and zero-shot or few-shot learning.

3. Baseline Modeling – Train and test simple machine learning models (e.g., Random Forest, Support Vector Machines, basic neural networks) using Python and scikit-learn.

4. Lightweight Models – Apply quantization techniques to reduce model size and improve efficiency while monitoring accuracy trade-offs.

5. Zero-Shot Learning – Explore contrastive learning approaches to enable the system to detect previously unseen malware families.

6. Evaluation & Communication – Analyze results, prepare figures/tables, and present findings at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in the spring.
Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Required:
Basic programming experience (preferably in Python)
Familiarity with data handling tools (e.g., Excel, pandas, or similar)

Recommended:
Interest in machine learning and cybersecurity
Ability to read and summarize academic articles for a literature review
Strong attention to detail and willingness to learn new tools
Mentoring Philosophy My mentoring philosophy is to create a supportive, engaging environment where students can grow as researchers and critical thinkers. I begin by learning about each student’s goals, motivations, and current skill set. Together, we set clear and achievable milestones that help students gain confidence while gradually increasing the technical and intellectual depth of their work.

I believe in giving mentees ownership of their projects. Students are expected to take responsibility for their tasks, but they are never left without support. I encourage them to ask questions, share ideas, and learn from challenges in a safe environment where mistakes are viewed as opportunities to improve. Open communication and mutual respect are central to this process.

To provide layered mentoring, I involve graduate students in my lab as day-to-day guides, while I provide higher-level direction, regular check-ins, and professional development advice. This structure ensures that undergraduates receive practical training as well as broader context for their research.
Please provide a link to your publications, a video clip, or a website for your research project (if applicable): https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=iCt6DooAAAAJ
Please add any additional information here (if applicable):
Are you interested in participating in the UROP Research Mentor Roundtable? No
Roundtable times and Zoom links
Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication Yes
UROP Performance Evaluation Yes
Materials Grant Yes
UROP Poster Presentation Yes
Year 2025
update url https://cre.fsu.edu/urop-research-mentor-project-submission-portal?token=u2vtkWi8wWtNhLajkAoNomiHcHy-9hseS-Y8mSctfrE