Sikha Bagui

Dr. Sikha Bagui is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of West Florida, within the Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering. She previously served as Chair of the department and Founding Director of the Center for Cybersecurity. Her research spans Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Data Mining, and Database Design, with extensive publications and funded projects from NSF and NSA.

• Ed.D. in Curriculum & Instruction: Math & Stat / Science / Computer Science, University of West Florida
• M.B.A., University of Toledo
• B.S., Cuttington University (Liberia)

Dr. Bagui's research centers on data-intensive computing, focusing on scalable algorithms for Big Data analytics, optimization in distributed environments (Hadoop, Spark, Hive), and applications in cybersecurity such as intrusion detection and phishing classification. She is particularly known for her work in data preprocessing, association rule mining, and improving classifier performance on imbalanced datasets.

Her recent publications reveal a strong trend toward cybersecurity applications of machine learning, leveraging frameworks like MapReduce and Spark for scalable solutions. Topics include network traffic classification, load balancing in FP-Growth, and resampling techniques for intrusion detection. Her work bridges theoretical algorithm development with practical implementation in real-world Big Data systems.

• Distinguished University Professor
• Askew Fellow
• NSF CSForALL Grant ($300,000)
• NSA NCAE Grant ($375,511)

Dr. Bagui has successfully led multiple federally funded research projects and mentored numerous students through research and academic programs. While specific advisees are not listed, her leadership in research groups and outreach initiatives like Women in Computing demonstrates strong mentorship. She has also authored influential textbooks used internationally. Her lab and research efforts are aligned with the UWF Smart Home Research, AI Research Group, and High Performance Computing Research, contributing to interdisciplinary innovation.