Ph.D. Candidate
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), 2019 – present
- Department of Information Systems
- Empirical & Applied Software Engineering Lab (EASEL)
- Center for Cybersecurity
Dissertation (May 2026)
- Regulate, Recover, Repeat: Multistakeholder Conflict Analysis for Software Cybersecurity
- Read a sample case study from my research: The OPM Data Breach
Software Engineering & Cybersecurity Research
- The Role of the User in Privacy Regulation (Forthcoming)
- Artificial Labor: An Ethnography of Conflict in Freelance Work and GenAI (Forthcoming)
- Organizational Conflicts in the Adoption of Continuous Software Engineering, published in XP 2023: Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming
- Testing Formally Specified Software Requirements for Cybersecurity Regulatory Compliance (US Naval Academy & UMBC Research)
- US Army Cyber Command Virtual Student Federal Service – IT tower & budget analysis
M.A. Public Policy – International Conflict Resolution & Mediation
Tel Aviv University, 2014
Conducted qualitative and quantitative research on transnational dispute resolution and international law
Research Assistant Publications
- Sommer, U., & Frishman, O. (2016). Translating Justice: The International Organization of Constitutional Courts. Law & Policy.
- Asal V. & Sommer, U. (2016) Legal Path Dependence and the Long Arm of the Religious State: Sodomy Provisions and Gay Rights across Nations and over Time. SUNY Press.
Research Projects
- Resources and stability in Jordan during the refugee crisis from the Syrian civil war – Supporting facilities in the Za’atari Refugee Camp to help prevent sexual and gender-based violence
- Analysis of the outcomes of transnational violent conflicts involving state and non-state actors
B.A. Media & Communications Studies
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), 2011
- Minor: Sociology
- Brunel University, London international student: sociology & media studies