A view of the world from the fourth floor of Parmly Hall
The Computer Science Department celebrated Halloween in style at Professor Matthews’ home on Thursday, October 29. Professor Matthews had awesome decorations and treats — it was an evening of fun, food and good company.
Check out these party pics ! 🎃👻🍬
The Summer Research Scholars (SRS) program provides support for students engaged in collaborative research under the guidance of W&L faculty. It is designed to foster the development of discipline-specific research skills, encourage active knowledge acquisition, and spark student interest in scholarly inquiry.
Here are the 2026 Computer Science SRS students, along with their faculty mentors and summaries of their research:
Professor Sana Habib:
This summer, Professor Habib had three SRS students: Saad Ahmed Khan Ghori ’27, Slsabil (Zazo) Hassan ’28 and Taeyun Kim ’29.
Research Synopsis:
This summer’s research projects explore critical challenges in cybersecurity, privacy, and trustworthy computing—from securing future 5G/6G network architectures and protecting user privacy in cloud-native systems to developing hands-on educational tools for teaching secure software development. Together, these projects contribute to creating more secure, resilient, and privacy-conscious digital technologies.
Saad Ahmed Khan Ghori ‘27
Saad has been working on Metadata Leakage in 5G-Based Service Architectures: A Cloud-Native Measurement and Analysis. His research examines how metadata generated within cloud-native 5G networks may inadvertently reveal sensitive information. By measuring and analyzing these potential information leaks, the project seeks to better understand privacy risks in modern telecommunications infrastructure and identify opportunities to strengthen user privacy.
Slsabil (Zazo) Hassan ‘28
Slsabil has been developing the Security & Privacy Dojo, an interactive educational platform that teaches secure programming through hands-on exercises based on core data structures. By identifying and fixing realistic vulnerabilities in code, students gain practical experience with secure software development while learning the security and privacy challenges that can arise from incorrect implementations.
Taeyun Kim ‘29
Taeyun has been conducting research on Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) at the Service Layer: Trust Graph Analysis for Federated FutureG Networks. The project explores trust relationships in next-generation mobile networks, investigating how service providers can securely communicate and collaborate in future federated 5G and 6G environments. The research aims to identify potential trust vulnerabilities and contribute to the design of more secure and resilient network architectures.
The students have made excellent progress on their projects so far, and it has been exciting to see their ideas develop over the course of the summer.
Professor Sara Sprenkle:
This summer, Professor Sprenkle mentored three SRS students: Alan Liu ’28, Takunda Mawere ’28 and Danilo Sindric ’29. These students worked on The Ancient Graffiti Project (AGP) which is a digital scholarly resource for searching, studying and analyzing ancient Roman inscriptions.
Alan Liu ‘28
Alan’s research investigates how to accurately and efficiently represent the archeological sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum on a digital map that grants access to 3500+ different types of graffiti. He worked on developing more features for AGP’s mapping such as seamless canvas rendering, permanent labels, map aesthetics, and numerous bug fixes and simplification of the development code. Effectively, the maps received a complete overhaul that significantly boosts the productivity of the user skimming through dozens of graffiti.
Takunda Mawere ’28
Takunda’s research project involves developing new features to continue improving the AGP website. His work this summer was mainly focused on improving the search functionality. He upgraded the system from Elasticsearch 7 to Elasticsearch 8/9 API. Takunda also leveraged the new API to improve the pipeline for searching and sorting results.
Danilo Sindric ‘29
Danilo’s research this summer began with improving the filtering system on the main AGP website. He then transitioned to the VESTA project, where he worked on a variety of development tasks. Danilo’s primary contributions included building an evaluation tool that enables comparisons with similar digital humanities projects, as well as developing several analysis tools.
On September 26 and 27, William & Mary hosted &hacks XII, a 24-hour event where students team up to build software projects from scratch. Bringing together over 270 students from seven universities, this year’s event challenged participants to create new technologies based on the theme of “Imagination.”
Students spent the fast-paced weekend creating apps and tech solutions for real-world challenges while building AI and coding skills through hands-on workshops.
Washington and Lee students brought home multiple awards!
DiatoMeter (Aditya Thakur ’30, Menilik Deneke ’28, and Damir Syrlybayev ’29) earned Gold in the Nano Bio Lab track as a tool that helps analyze microscopic biological samples more quickly and accurately.
Lingo (Paula Yaniz Macia ’28, Anh Nhu’28, Danilo Sindric ’29, and Devin Upadhyay ’29) earned Silver and the Best Use of ElevenLabs award for building an AI-powered language-learning tool designed for ESL learners to master spoken English pronunciation and linguistics.
Psst (listed on Devpost as Accountability App), developed by Connor Sweeney ’27, earned Silver for developing an AI accountability app that helps users stay on track with goals and habits.
A big congratulations to all the W&L students on their impressive success at the hackathon!
Congratulations to the Computer Science Class of 2025 — majors and minors alike — for their outstanding achievements!
Below are their accomplishments, listed along with those of select CS undergraduates, as they appear in the Commencement Bulletin.
Majors:
Computer Science students Trey Custodio ’26 and Sanjog Basnet ’27 co-authored a paper with CS Professor Liz Matthews titled “Exploring User Demographics for Research on Video Games,”. Their work used a survey to study gaming preferences and identify patterns in player behavior, helping improve how researchers classify gamers.
Custodio (CS major; Creative Writing and German minor) and Basnet (double major in Cognitive and Behavioral Science and Computer Science; Japanese minor) conducted the research as Summer Scholars in 2025.
The research will be presented at the Gaming and Technology Conference, held July 25–27 in Valencia, Spain.
Congratulations to Trey and Sanjog on this exciting accomplishment!
You can read the full Columns article here: https://columns.wlu.edu/wl-students-accepted-for-publication-at-the-gaming-and-technology-conference/
In February 2026, W&L Visiting Assistant Professor Sana Habib presented the paper “Evaluating the Impact of Legacy DNS Vulnerabilities in FutureG Mobile Networks” at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium in San Diego, CA. The research explores how older DNS security weaknesses still pose risks to today’s 5G and future 6G mobile networks, where DNS is used for important tasks like routing calls and connecting services. By studying 84 known DNS threats, the paper shows how small DNS issues can spread across shared network systems and affect multiple services, emphasizing the need for stronger security in future mobile networks.
Through this research, Professor Habib continues to contribute important insights into the future of secure 5G and 6G networks.
To learn more about the symposium, Professor Habib’s presentation, and to access the paper, visit the following resources:
Washington and Lee University welcomed 53 juniors and seniors into Phi Beta Kappa during the university’s annual Phi Beta Kappa/Society of the Cincinnati Convocation on March 26.
Founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary, Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest and one of its most prestigious academic honor societies. The organization recognizes students for exceptional achievement in the arts and sciences, with membership regarded as one of the highest honors for undergraduate academic excellence.
The Gamma of Virginia Chapter at Washington and Lee was chartered in 1911.
This year’s inductees from the Classes of 2026 and 2027 were selected for their outstanding academic accomplishments. Of those inducted, the following are computer science majors or minors:
Class of 2026
Class of 2027
Click here for the full Columns article: https://columns.wlu.edu/phi-beta-kappa-initiates-new-members-during-2026-convocation-ceremony/
On Tuesday, May 5, students and faculty from the Computer Science Department gathered outside for the annual lunchtime picnic—a breezy, sunny break from the usual routine.
Yard games were a big draw, with giant Jenga, interactive Tetris, and a Coney Island toss game!
The picnic was a chance to relax, catch up, and spend time together outside of class, making it another fun and relaxing department tradition.
Ciel Morrill ’26, a computer science and Japanese double major, has been awarded a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) for Summer 2026. Morrill will study Japanese in Okayama, Japan, through an intensive eight‑week program at Okayama University.
Funded by the U.S. Department of State, the Critical Language Scholarship is a highly competitive, fully funded study‑abroad opportunity that helps U.S. college students gain proficiency in languages critical to global engagement. The program requires full language immersion—students use only the target language throughout the program—allowing participants to achieve rapid progress equivalent to a year of coursework.
The CLS supports Morrill’s interest in combining computer science and language study, helping her prepare for graduate school and a career where technology and cross‑cultural communication intersect.
Congratulations, Ciel, on this outstanding achievement!
Click here to read the full Columns article: https://columns.wlu.edu/wls-ciel-morrill-to-study-abroad-with-critical-language-scholarship/
On Saturday, April 11, the Great Hall hosted Game Demo Day, an exciting display of student innovation and design.
Students from Professor Liz Matthews’ Computer Science 319: Video Game Design course presented their final game projects, the culmination of a semester of hard work, problem‑solving, and imagination.
Visitors were invited to do more than just watch—they were encouraged to play the games themselves, interact with the student developers, and learn about the design process behind each project. The event provided an interactive environment for students to present their work to the campus community.
Game Demo Day 2026 was a fun and successful celebration of student creativity and game design.
