Assistant Professor, Department of Information Sciences & Technologies

Email: [email protected]
Phone: (616) 331-4380
Office: MAK D-2-222

Education
Ph.D., Computer Science & Informatics, Oakland University, 2020
M.S., Computer Science and Information System, University of Michigan, 2012

Dr. Sara Sutton’s research focuses on advancing cybersecurity in modern computing environments, with emphasis on cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous technologies, and cyber deception. Her work investigates how intelligent algorithms, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics can be leveraged to detect and respond to evolving cyber threats and enhance the security of critical technologies.

She is the principal investigator on several externally funded projects, including the GenCyber Teacher Programs supported by NSA/NSF and a NASA research grant awarded through the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (MSGC). Dr. Sutton’s work has been published in prestigious journals and conferences and is committed to mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, guiding their research and professional development.

She also integrates her research into the classroom by teaching courses such as Introduction to Cybersecurity, Information Assurance, System Security, Data Security and Privacy, Ethical Hacking, and Database Systems, helping to prepare the next generation of professionals.

• Islam, Mohammad Shafiqul, Sara Sutton, and Rahat Ibn Rafiq. "A Generative AI Powered Approach to Cyberbullying Detection." Proceedings of the 2024 8th International Conference on Information System and Data Mining. 2024.
• Tarazi, Hussam, Sutton, Sara, et al. "A watchdog model for physics-based anomaly detection in digital substations." International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection 44 (2024): 100660.
• Sutton, Sara, and Nazli Siasi. "Decoy VNF for Enhanced Security in Fog Computing." 2021 IEEE Global Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (GCAIoT). IEEE, 2021.
• Sutton, Sara, et al. "Countering Malware Via Decoy Processes with Improved Resource Utilization Consistency." 2019 First IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems and Applications (TPS-ISA). IEEE, 2019.
• Sutton, Sara, Garret Michilli, and Julian Rrushi. "Redirecting malware’s target selection with decoy processes." IFIP Annual Conference on Data and Applications Security and Privacy. Springer, Cham, 2019.