🏷️ Pronouns: she/her/hers

📢 Bilingual: English, Hindi

👩‍💼 Assistant Professor, Massry School of Business

🔗 Check my official webpage below.

Quote of the day

💡💡💡 “You are stronger than you think, you have greater powers than you know.” ——- from The Wonder Woman

Theory behind Gamification

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Hi, I’m Dr. Yansi Keim! I am a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at the University at Albany.

• My broad research area is studying Gamification Theories in Information Systems. Specifically, my research explores theory-oriented game design in higher education (e.g., cybersecurity, digital forensics) to better understand participants' motivation, engagement, and flow and to support workforce development.
• I am also the Lead Editor on my first academic book, “AI in Cybersecurity Higher Education: Innovation, Ethics, and Practice”. Call for Abstracts is open: https://tinyurl.com/k7cdwcbs
• Beyond academia, I enjoy consistency and following my routine. My day-to-day fun activities include working out, watching anime (One Piece is real), and I’m a big fan of Wonder Woman (DC over Marvel). Comfort food, any day, is homemade gnocchi pasta with minced chicken!

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News!!!

• Feb 2026: Attended my first ACM’s Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) conference in St. Louis, MO and presented my research on “Empowering Neurodiverse Talent in Cybersecurity Through Fair and Inclusive AI Education” with co-author Dr. Sheikh (CEHC, UAlbany).
• Feb 2026: Attended my first American Academy of Forensics Sciences (AAFS) conference in New Orleans, LA and presented my research on “Applied Gamification Research in Digital Forensics Higher Education for Knowledge and Skill Retention” with co-author “Dr. Marcus Rogers (Purdue University).
• Jan 2026: Call for Abstracts for my book is live. Consider submitting an abstract today!
  • LinkedIn Post here to apply: https://tinyurl.com/k7cdwcbs
• Dec 2025: Liaison between Hudson Valley Community College and UAlbany. Planning to organize the first CTF Event at HVCC in Feb 2025.
• Nov 2025: SIGCSE Poster accepted, co-presenting talk in Feb 2025 at Missouri.
• Oct 2025: AAFS abstract accepted, presenting talk in Feb 2025 at New Orleans
• Sep 2025: Joined UAlbany, Department of Information Security and Digital Forensics at Massry School of Business. Teaching the following classes
  • BFOR 305: Cyber Defense (photo below)
  • BFOR 412: Cyber Incident Response and Penetration Testing (photo below)
• May 2025: I recently passed my PhD Defense in Cybersecurity from the Department of CIT at the Purdue University, Indiana. I am honored to be advised by Dr. Marcus Rogers.
• Spring 2025: I worked as a Research Assistant at the Office of the Dean, Purdue University from Jan 2025 - May 2025.
• In my dissertation, I research Capture The Flag competitions and their ****amalgamation in Undergraduate Education to propose a hybrid model of education. To achieve such, I use
  1. NIST NICE (National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education) model, and
  2. Quantitative Methods

• Fall 2024: I worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at **CyberTAP,** where I help my team in developing and delivering cybersecurity curriculum to professionals, tweak Blue Team playbooks for Cyber Range, and conduct in-house training using HackTheBox.

Leadership 👑

1. I am an Affiliate Advisor at **WiCyS Northern Indiana Affiliate.** My role includes co-launching the affiliate (Oct 1st, 2024), and advising board to make strategic decisions to market their reach, recruit and retain Women in Cybersecurity.
2. I am a Student Cell Coordinator at **Breaking Barriers Women in Cybersecurity (BBWIC).** My role is to educate our student members on meeting with grad student opportunities available in United States.
3. Earlier, I served as the **Presidentof **WiCyS Purdue Chapter. Under my leadership, we won the “Best Chapter Award at WiCyS 2022 Annual Conference”. My presidency marked with significant milestones such engaging 200+ members, conducting 10+ events per semester, and bringing first cohort of graduate students to the club.

Last Role

✍️ Publications ✍️

1. Diliberti, N., Chung, H., Keim, Y., Rogers, M., Karabiyik, U., Aggarwal, S., ... & Pettus, C. (2023, July). Supporting and Motivating Re-integration of Justice-Involved Individuals Through Dynamic Gamification. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 258-275). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
2. Keim, Y., & Mohapatra, A. K. (2022). Cyber threat intelligence framework using advanced malware forensics. International Journal of Information Technology, 14(1), 521-530.
3. Keim, Y., Hutchinson, S., Shrivastava, A., & Karabiyik, U. (2022). Forensic analysis of TikTok alternatives on android and iOS devices: byte, Dubsmash, and Triller. Electronics, 11(18), 2972.
4. Salam, A., Keim, Y., Hoang, A. D., Meghna, A., Martin, D. R., Guzman, G., Yoon, Y. H., ... & Fan, X. (2019). The future of emerging IoT paradigms: architectures and technologies. Preprints, 2019120276, 1803020.
5. Keim, Y., Yoon, Y. H., & Karabiyik, U. (2021). Digital forensics analysis of ubuntu touch on pinephone. Electronics, 10(3), 343.
6. Keim, Y., Tyagi S., Gangwar K., (2016). Proactive Forensic Data Collection Framework for SaaS Consumer. Cyber Times International Journal of Technology & Management pp (195-201).
7. Keim, Y., Bhardwaj, M., Saroop, S., & Tandon, A. (2014). Software cost estimation models and techniques: a survey. International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology, 3(2), 1763-1768.

📝Posters 📝

1. Keim Y, Islam S, et. al (Feb 2026) “Empowering Neurodiverse Talent in Cybersecurity Through Fair and Inclusive AI Education” at ACM’s Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) conference in St. Louis, MO, USA.

2. Keim, Y and Rogers, MK (2023, March). THE BIG PICTURE: Capture the Flag Competitions for Cybersecurity Education and Curriculum at 23rd CERIAS Annual Conference.

3. Keim, Y and Srivastava, A (2021, March). Forensic analysis of TikTok alternatives on android and iOS devices: byte, Dubsmash, and Triller, WiCyS Conference, 2021

   🎖️🎖️🎖️Honorable Mention, “Grad Category” for Forensic analysis of TikTok alternatives on android and iOS devices: byte, Dubsmash, and Triller, WiCyS Conference, 2021

4. Keim, Y and Singh S, Masiwal V (2018, January) Quick Response Codes for Scalable and Secure Forensic Solutions at 14th Annual IFIP 11.9 WG International Conference on Digital Forensics.

   🎖️🎖️🎖️ Acted as Emcee for the entire conference, student member of Hospitality and Speaker Relations Committee

5. Keim, Y and Tyagi, Sonali (2016, January) Pro-active Forensic Data Collection for SaaS Consumer at 12th Annual International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) 11.9 Working Group for Digital Forensics.

   🎖️🎖️🎖️ Student Member of the Logistics Committee

🏫Scholarships 🏫

1. Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS), TX, USA, 2025
2. Digital Forensics Research Workshop (DFRWS), LA, 2024
3. Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS), TN, USA, 2024
4. Day of Shecurity - India, 2024
5. CERIAS Annual Security Symposium, IN, USA 2023
6. Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS), CO, USA, 2023
7. Women in LEADERSHIP (WIL Institute), IN, USA, 2023
8. Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS), OH, USA, 2022
9. Women in Forensic Computing Workshop, Oxford, UK, 2022
10. Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS), CO, USA, 2021
11. RSA Security Scholar Conference (RSAC), SF, USA, 2021
12. 42nd IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P), USA, 2021
13. Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS), CO, USA, 2020
14. RSA Security Scholar Conference (RSAC) 2020, CA, USA
15. BlackHat 2019, NV, USA

Photos (Professional)

BFOR 305 and 412 students - Fall 2025