My research is centered on (numeric) constraint solving, interval computations, and optimization. As part of my research work, I also explore applications of constraints to diverse fields. In particular, part of my research is dedicated to using (soft) constraints in order to prevent cascading security leaks in computer networks.
To some extent, my work on interval computations also contributes to information assurance since the objective in using intervals is to achieve reliability of computations as well as reproducibility.
Cheon's research includes program specification and verification, including specification language design, program correctness reasoning and program testing. His research in Information Assurance (IA) focuses on developing formal techniques for specifying and reasoning about IA-related properties such as access control of a program. In particular, he is interested in specifying these non-functional properties of a program module as a part of the module's interface and applying the interface specification to various dynamic verification techniques such as runtime checking and dynamic testing.
I enjoy designing systems that achieve robustness through adaptation to changing constraints. My recent focus has been in decentralized systems, including mechanisms for expressing and enforcing security relationships among mutually distrustful administrative domains, securely deploying mobile agents, and the efficient dissemination of on-line content. My background also includes electrical design, architecture, interprocess coordination, and computer vision.
My main area of interest is interval computations and, more generally, data processing under uncertainty. An important particular case of this problem is when we introduce uncertainty (e.g., interval uncertainty) on purpose, to guarantee privacy. If we perform this operation in a statistical database, we face a computational problem of computing statistical characteristics for data known with interval uncertainty. This problem is currently one of the main directions of my research. I am especially interested in data processing in cyberinfrastructure.
My main area of interest is privacy. Since this topic has become so important to Information Assurance, I am often surprised by the scarcity of reasonable formal definitions of privacy. The various protocols that pertain to protecting privacy usually have a binary approach to privacy: either there is a breach of privacy or there isn't. We are studying various definitions designed to measure the loss of privacy. We are also interested in privacy preservation in statistical databases and in privacy preservation when accessing databases in general, revealing the minimum amount of information necessary to accomplish a goal.
I am the leader of the Trust Laboratory at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), a member of the Software Engineering Affinity Laboratory, and a co-PI of UTEP Cyber-ShARE Center of Excellence that aims to provide scientists and other cyber-infrastructure (CI) users with information that will enable them to make informed decisions about retrieved resources and to have confidence in using results from CI-based applications. I am a recipient of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Early Career Faculty Award under the DHS Scientific Leadership Awards for Minority Serving Institutions program.