Joel Coffman is a Senior Cyber Engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), which he joined in 2012. Joel contributes to a variety of sponsored and internally-funded research and development projects where he applies software engineering expertise to improve software quality. Joel also serves as the technical lead for JHU/APL’s involvement in the OpenStack cloud computing project where he has overseen the contribution of a variety of security features to the community.Joel received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Virginia under the guidance of Alfred C. Weaver and a B.S. in Computer Science from Furman University. While in school, Joel conducted research in topics spanning ranking methods for keyword search, search engine query log analysis, timing analysis, non-volatile memory, and computer science education. Joel’s Ph.D. research focused on keyword search in databases where he used a systematic evaluation of existing approaches to guide advances in ranking methods to improve search effectiveness.In addition to his work at JHU/APL, Joel serves as a lecturer in the Johns Hopkins University Engineering for Professionals program where he currently teaches software engineering.