The pursuit of knowledge is a well-appreciated endeavor in Shreenandan Rajarathnam’s family, with both his parents earning doctoral degrees and his younger brother planning to do the same in a few years.
The soon-to-be alumnus is proud to carry on the family tradition of valuing research and academics as he graduates with his doctoral degree from the College of Communication and Information this week.
“My mom and dad will be flying in from India, and my wife will be coming as well. It’ll be amazing,” Rajarathnam said. “I’m excited about the next part of my journey.”
Rajarathnam worked as a senior associate for a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Cybersecurity and Privacy practice in Atlanta before joining the PhD program at CCI to pursue research to make cybersecurity tools, standards, and policies more user-friendly.
“Since I wanted to focus on usable security, which is a niche field that brings cybersecurity and user experience together, the School of Information Sciences (SIS) stood out as a really good program,” Rajarathnam said. “I’m fortunate that I was selected.”
He had some prior research experience at PwC, where he was involved in the development of several white papers and thought leadership as part of his duties. However, enrolling in a doctoral program allowed him to fully immerse himself into the typical research experience, which includes presenting at conferences and publishing journal articles.
Rajarathnam said his experience as a PhD student was greatly enhanced by the strong support system within SIS. He said professors such as Abebe Rorissa, who is also the school’s director, and Vandana Singh, who served as his dissertation committee chair, were not only supportive of his research, but worked diligently to set him up to succeed in the program.
Rajarathnam is also appreciative of the other doctoral students’ support. This spurred him to pay it forward by serving in the CCI Graduate Students Association. He sat as the organization’s vice president for two and a half years and enjoyed helping other CCI doctoral students acclimate to the program and culture at CCI and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Rajarathnam said another highlight of his PhD student experience was teaching. He taught the Foundations of User Experience undergraduate course. This classroom experience complemented his research as he took the knowledge he imparted to his students in the course and applied it to his dissertation.
Rajaranthnam’ dissertation, The Development of a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF)-Based Usable Security Community Profile: Integrating User Experience into Organizational Cybersecurity Practices, focused on how to make cybersecurity tools, platforms, policies and standards, training and awareness programs more user-friendly in organizational settings.
Specifically, he worked on developing a community profile or implementation guidance based on the NIST cybersecurity framework to help organizations improve usable security. Rajarathnam said there is not a widely adopted standard or framework for usable security and hopes his research can help address that gap in the industry.
Rajarathnam said, while others in his doctoral student cohort plan to go into academia after graduating, he plans to work in the cybersecurity industry again. He said his mother and father worked in industry after earning their doctorate degrees and were still able to work on research as practitioners.
That said, he enjoyed his experience at UT so much that he is open to teaching at his alma mater as an adjunct faculty member, if it is a good fit. Rajarathnam said he would recommend SIS’ doctoral program to others as the program’s flexibility and faculty expertise made his experience invaluable.
“I had an amazing time at UT,” Rajarathnam said. “I would love to be involved as an alumnus as well. I’ve seen past students who are still involved in some capacity, and that’s great. I look forward to all those aspects that comes with being a UT alum.”