Dr. Laurie Williams, associate professor of computer science, won a $10,000 IBM Smarter Planet Innovation Faculty Award to support her work on developing secure electronic health records.

Williams’ proposal, “On Educational Materials for Secure and Privacy-Preserving Development of Healthcare IT Electronic Health Records Applications,” will fund educational materials to teach students and software developers about protecting sensitive health records, an attractive target for hackers.

The award cites Williams for her “forward-thinking approach” to preparing the next generation of students.