Margaret Loper

Margaret L. Loper, Ph.D., is an associate director of the Institute for Information Security & Privacy (IISP) for the area of trust research, and chief scientist of the Georgia Tech Research Institute's Information and Communications Laboratory (ICL). Her current research is in the area of computational trust algorithms for machine-to-machine communications. Loper also teaches simulation courses for both academic and professional education, and she is involved in projects that bring modeling and simulation into K-12 education.

She has been involved in modeling and simulation for more than 30 years, specifically focused on parallel and distributed systems. Loper has led projects on compliance testing and federation testing, as well as the interoperability of live, virtual and constructive systems. Previous work in casual ordering focused on improving performance of synchronization algorithms by exploiting temporal uncertainty of simulation events. Past projects at Georgia Tech included the Department of Defense High-Level Architecture Federate Testing project, which consisted of the process, tools, and procedures used for HLA compliance and the HLA Federation Verification Tool used to assist federation developers during federation integration. Other projects included the M&S WebBook, Distributed Interactive Simulation Standards Development, and DIS compliance test procedures and tools.

Loper earned a Doctorate in Computer Science from Georgia Tech, a Master's in Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Clemson University. Women in Technology named Loper the 2010 Woman of the Year in Technology in the Medium Business category.

Research Highlights

• Ling, L., Loper, M., Ozkaya, Y., Yasar, A., Yigitoglu, E. “Machine to Machine Trust in the IoT Era”, Trust 2016: International Workshop on Trust in Agent Societies at the 15th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems, May 2016
• “The Internet of Things and the Importance of Modeling and Simulation: A look at why modeling and simulation capabilities are becoming an indispensable element of the Internet of Things toolbox,” Loper, M. and Louchez, A.; Automation World, 3 August (2015)
• Loper, M. (editor) Modeling & Simulation in the Systems Engineering Life Cycle: Core Concepts and Accompanying Lectures, Series: Simulation Foundations, Methods and Applications," Springer; 14 May (2015)
• “Machine to Machine Trusted Behaviors," Loper, M, McCreary, JD; The Eighth International Conference on Mobile Ubiquitous Computing, Systems, Services and Technologies (UBICOMM 2014), Rome, Italy; (2014)
• "Grand Challenges in Modeling and Simulation: Expanding Our Horizons," Taylor, S., Balci, O., Cai, W., Loper, M., Nicol, D., Riley, G.; SIGSIM Conference on the Principles of Advanced Discrete Simulation, Montreal, Canada; (2013)
• “Multi-Level Modeling of Complex Socio-Technical Systems,” McDermott, T., Rouse, W., Goodman, S., Loper, M.; Conference on Systems Engineering Research, Atlanta, GA; (2013)
• “Lessons from a Conceptual Modeling Exercise,” Loper, M., Birta, L., Arbez, G.; Winter Simulation Conference, Berlin, Germany; (2012)
• Loper, M., Register, A., and Whitaker, E. “Introduction to Modeling and Simulation” in Modeling & Simulation Flexbook for High School Teachers: Principles, Problems, and Lesson Plans. Edited by Behzad Raiszadeh, NASA, August 2012. Received "Special Recognition" award at Virginia Governor’s Technology Award ceremony; (2012)
• “History of Combat Modeling and Distributed Simulation” in Engineering Principles of Combat Modeling and Distributed Simulation," Loper, M. and Turnitsa, C.; Andreas Tolk (editor); Wiley Publishing; (2012)
• “A Methodological Approach to Identify Future M&S Standard Needs,” Tolk, A., Balci, O., Fishwick, P., Loper, M., Petty, M., Reynolds, P., Sarjoughian, H., Zeigler, B.; Winter Simulation Conference, Phoenix, AZ; (2011)
• Loper, M., Diem, J., Henninger, A., Petty, M., Tolk, A.: “Educating the Workforce: M&S Professional Education”, Winter Simulation Conference, Phoenix, AZ; (2011)