Chad Williams

Dr. Chad Williams is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and co-coordinator of the Cybersecurity Center at Central Connecticut State University, where he oversees the ABET-accredited Computer Science program. CCSU is a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) and Cyber Operations (CAE-CO). He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2010, where he focused on developing privacy preserving machine learning and data mining algorithms for learning and projecting activity patterns of individuals. Prior to that, he received his M.S. in Computer Science from DePaul University, where he researched profile injection attack detection for securing collaborative recommender systems.  Dr. Williams has extensive professional experience in the fields of software engineering and cybersecurity as a technical architect and project manager in the financial services industry. He has led the development of secure systems for Fortune 500 companies in the banking, insurance, and capital markets.

Dr. Williams has taught a variety of courses in computer science, software engineering, and cybersecurity, including developing 11 courses related to cybersecurity, software engineering, and core computer science topics. He helped co-create the Cybersecurity B.S. program, which has been recognized by the National Security Agency as having both a validated Program of Study in Cyber Defense and a validated Program of Study in Cyber Operations. Dr. Williams has an established record of obtaining over $1.1 million in national external grants as PI or co-PI, and has been named a semi-finalist for the Excellence in Teaching Award three times. His research interests include applications of machine learning and data mining in cybersecurity, intrusion detection, software engineering, and computer science educational methods.