“I grew up thinking in a very disciplined way, a very algorithmic way,” she recalls. “In dinner table conversations, they would ask, ‘Okay, how do you solve this problem? What are the three things you need to do to look at the problem?’” 

Her mother also passed on her joy in interacting with students. “Getting to know students is making a personal connection,” Mitra says. “Each student is different. You have to understand where the student is coming from. What are their major challenges? What are their strengths?” 

Today, she applies both kinds of thinking at Southeast Missouri State University, where she teaches graduate students in the Master of Science in Applied Computer Science and Master of Science in Cybersecurity degree programs.  

Working with the students “takes left brain activity and right brain activity,” she says. “Both need to come together.” 

A Tradition of Mentorship 

Mitra grew up in the Indian state of Gujarat, a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity. It was also a state that fostered education for young women. Her schooling was free, all the way through college, where she got her bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat. 

She came to the United States for graduate studies, earning her master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She put those degrees to work in Texas, where she interned in the Samsung Austin Research and Development Center. 

There, Mitra’s job involved performance monitoring—measuring and analyzing a wide variety of parameters to improve computer systems. She also absorbed lessons from another female role model, a team leader who mentored her in how to handle a fast-paced corporate environment.  

“We had to run these 50 tests on a daily basis,” Mitra says. “She helped me calm down and not get too stressed. She helped me think strategically, like, ‘How can you divide the work? How can you talk to the different stakeholders who are in charge of those tests?’” 

Mitra feels fortunate to have had such a wide variety of mentors, both female and male, in her career. She carries on this tradition by forming connections with her students and involving them in research projects.  

Creating a Chatbot Student Advisor 

After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Mitra came to SEMO in 2019 as a graduate coordinator and an assistant professor. One of her first projects at SEMO was to create a new service for students.  

It was a chatbot that advised incoming graduate students—particularly international students—and helped them learn their way around the university. Under the hood, it was powered by artificial intelligence (AI): the IBM Watson virtual assistant. 

“I wanted to provide information to students who were not here yet,” she says. “To get them into our departmental system was very important. We had a record number of enrollments. But we didn’t have a lot of budget, so we had to come up with creative solutions.” 

She involved her students in designing and testing the bot, which the team eventually wrote up in a published paper, hoping other schools might adapt it. 

Cybersecurity Research: From Phones to Drones 

In addition to engaging her in the role of associate professor, SEMO has encouraged Mitra to conduct research in one of her passions: cybersecurity.  

While her PhD and postdoctoral research focused on high-performance computing and cloud computing, she’s currently focused on conducting cybersecurity research in the field of distributed systems security. This field involves protecting systems in which a wide variety of devices collaborate for tasks such as scientific research computing, multiplayer video games or cryptocurrency processing.  

Because the devices may number from thousands to millions, from phones to servers, they can be vulnerable to hacking. Mitra’s work explores the use of AI and machine learning to monitor devices on networks to better detect and respond to security threats through the development of improved intrusion detection systems.  

Another major interest is aerial drones. Under a grant from the National Security Agency (NSA), Mitra and a group of colleagues conducted research into zero trust architecture for drone security. These security solutions are meant for battlefields, where enemy signals try to jam or hijack drones. Using task-based access control algorithms, the solutions allow for split-second decisions on who’s allowed access at any given time.  

“If you are in a battlefield situation, you need to be context-aware,” Mitra says. “Based on what the mission is, a particular drone can allow someone access and then take away access. If they start behaving badly, if there is some kind of suspicious activity, then you kill the access.” 

The research paper, “Demonstration of Low-Overhead Zero Trust at the Tactical Warfighting Edge,” was published in the 2024 IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM) proceedings.  

The research group’s findings were also presented at the prestigious National Defense University’s NSA-sponsored University Consortium for Cybersecurity (UC2) Workshop at Fort McNair in Washington, DC, in December 2023, June 2024, December 2024, and August 2025. Mitra served as co-principal investigator on the project, and she and her colleagues received NSA funding of $25,000 each for the first two years of their research, between September 2023 and September 2025. Mitra also received funding from SEMO’s Grants and Research Funding Committee (GRFC). 

Cybersecurity and Purpose 

Mitra’s involvement in cybersecurity benefits her students as well. She tells them it’s a field of boundless opportunity.  

“If you get into cybersecurity, this field is not going to get old,” she says. “It is only growing. There are always new devices and new protocols coming up.” 

When she was in college, she says, cybersecurity jobs fell into only two or three roles focused on software security and network security. Today, the government’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education lists more than 40. They include not only programmers but also technical writers and project managers. 

That gives students a wealth of choices. “You need to understand what your strengths are, and then you understand what kind of roles you want to focus on,” Mitra adds. 

Mitra works to keep students up to speed on the latest security developments, such as the use of AI. She’ll give them an assignment to write a plan for handling a cybersecurity incident using generative AI tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini. “I promote AI to students, because nowadays, once they graduate and they start working, they will have to be able to use it,” Mitra says. 

Away from work, she balances her left-brained work in computer science with right-brained activities such as yoga, meditation and tending to her houseplants. It keeps her grounded, but it also reminds her that her work has a larger purpose.  

“I have all these wonderful tools at my disposal,” she says. “But if I’m not using those tools for the human good, then what am I here for? You have to have a good brain, but you also have to have a good heart.” 

Explore a Career in Computer Science or Cybersecurity 

With rapid growth in fields such as AI and smart devices, both computer science and cybersecurity continue to expand in new directions. A degree program such as SEMO’s MS in Applied Computer Science or MS in Cybersecurity can equip students with the knowledge and hands-on experience in the latest technologies to pursue positions in either field.  

Both programs have online versions—the online MS in Computer Science and the newly launched online MS in Cybersecurity—offered through SEMO Online. These programs feature the same rigorous curricula and industry-experienced faculty, including Dr. Reshmi Mitra, as their on-campus counterparts. 

Learn more about how these programs can help you start or advance a rewarding career in the world of cutting-edge computing. 

Recommended Readings 

Computer Information Systems vs. Computer Science 
Computer Science vs. AI: How the Fields Fit Together 
How to Choose the Right Computer Science Specialization: AI, Cybersecurity and More 

Sources: 

Google Scholar, Reshmi Mitra  
National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies, NICE Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity (NICE Framework)