Ben Lazzarine

Education

• Ph.D., Information Systems, Indiana University
• B.S. and M.S. in Management Information Systems, University of Arizona

 

Biography

Ben Lazarine’s research focuses on managing security vulnerabilities inherent in open-source AI software by addressing issues early in the app development cycle. In his doctoral dissertation research at Indiana University, he identified secure AI building blocks that developers can leverage in their app design, and he introduced a large language model approach to address persistent security concerns later in the development cycle.

His research has been integrated into industry systems, including MITRE’s AI Risk Database, a tool for discovering and reporting the risks associated with public machine learning models.

As a Ph.D. student fellow with the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana, he applied his AI expertise to a project that provided free cybersecurity assessments for Indiana public sector organizations, introducing automation into cybersecurity processes.

His research also contributed to securing grants from the National Science Foundation. He won two prestigious Indiana University Kelley School of Business awards for his research — the Alan R. Dennis Fellowship and Robert James Waller Fellowship.  The Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) also recognized him with its Outstanding Reviewer Award.

He co-authored a paper that addressed vulnerabilities in cloud computing, which was published in the Journal of Management Information Systems, a premier research publication.

At Auburn, he is teaching Business Applications with Open-Source Software (ISMN 5620).

In his spare time, he enjoys playing and watching basketball and going to the movies. He has attended more 200 concerts and is a big fan of 1980s new wave bands.