Find Academic Supervisors

Bryan WardView profile

Assistant Professor

• Real-Time Systems
• Embedded Systems Security
• Cyber-Physical Systems
• +3 more

Bryan Ward is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Vanderbilt University's School of Engineering. His research focuses on enhancing the security and resilience of real-time and embedded systems in critical domains such as industrial control systems and space systems. Ward holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, along with dual bachelor's degrees in Computer Science and Engineering and Mathematics from Bucknell University. His academic contributions span multiple areas including operating system security, real-time scheduling, and hardware-software co-design for safety-critical systems. Key research themes include control-flow integrity, secure resource management in multi-core environments, and mitigating timing-based attacks in real-time embedded systems. Ward's work has explored advanced defense mechanisms like dynamic address space randomization, tagged architecture implementations, and retry-free transactional memory models. He has also investigated vulnerabilities in kernel scheduling and cache-sharing behaviors in multi-core platforms, proposing novel solutions to ensure predictability and security. Current projects emphasize securing cyber-physical systems through adaptive defenses that maintain strict timing guarantees required for safety-critical applications.

Binoy RavindranView profile

Professor

• Computer Systems
• Software Verification
• Concurrency
• +7 more

Binoy Ravindran is a Professor at Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, leading the Systems Software Research Group (SSRG). His research focuses on computer systems, emphasizing security, performance, concurrency, distributed systems, and real-time computing, with recent work in software verification and heterogeneous-ISA platforms. Key projects: Low-level Reasoning Machine (LLRM), Popcorn Linux, LibrettOS, Hyflow, HermiTux, SlimGuard, HydraVM, KairosVM. He has co-authored 15+ papers from 2025 to 2022, spanning venues like ASPLOS, POPL, PLDI, VEE, PPoPP, and MIDDLEWARE, with awards including ACM Distinguished Scientist and eight Best Paper Awards. Service roles: Editorial Boards (IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, ACM TECS), Program Co-Chair (ACM Systor 2025), Committee memberships across ASPLOS, PLDI, and more.

Branden GhenaView profile

Assistant Professor

• Embedded Systems
• Networking Protocols
• Internet of Things
• +3 more

Branden Ghena is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Computer Science at Northwestern University, part of the McCormick School of Engineering. His research focuses on embedded systems, networking protocols for IoT, and operating systems, particularly through the Tock project. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley (2020), an MSE in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan (2017), and a BS in Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering from Michigan Technological University (2013). His research interests include resource-constrained embedded hardware/software, wireless protocols like Bluetooth Low Energy, LoRaWAN, and LTE-M, and energy-harvesting platforms such as Signpost and PowerBlade. He emphasizes open-source contributions and practical embedded systems education. Teaching includes courses like CS211 (C/C++), CS213 (Computer Systems), CS343 (Operating Systems), CE346/CS346 (Microcontroller Design), and CS433 (Wireless IoT Protocols). He has received notable awards, including the 2022 Cole-Higgins Excellence in Teaching Award and the Instructor of the Year award. His teaching philosophy centers on bridging theory to real-world engineering challenges. Awards : Cole-Higgins Award for Excellence in Teaching (2022) Instructor of the Year (2022) Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor (UC Berkeley, 2018) NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2014–2017) Labs/Teams : Principal contributor to Tock OS, an open-source embedded OS Signpost platform for city-scale sensing Design of PowerBlade energy meters and Buckler development boards His advising includes supporting undergraduate research, with several students proceeding to PhD programs. He has also contributed to curriculum design, including redesigning labs for embedded systems courses using modern tools like Git, Make, and Rust. Branden actively participates in academic service roles, such as faculty search committees and workshop program committees.

Shahrear IqbalView profile

Adjunct Associate Professor

• Smart Systems Security and Privacy
• Critical Infrastructure Security
• Secure Software Engineering
• +3 more

Shahrear Iqbal is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Queen's University and a Cyber Security Researcher at the National Research Council (NRC) Canada . He holds a PhD in Cybersecurity (2017) and MSc in Combinatorial Optimization (2011) from Queen's University, along with a BSc in Computer Science and Engineering (2008) from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Research Focus: Security and Privacy of Smart Systems, including in-vehicle security, self-aware operating systems, IoT-cloud security, and AI-driven cybersecurity. Teaching: Previously taught CISC490: Cybersecurity at Queen's University. Key Projects: Droid Mood Swing (DMS) for context-aware Android security policies Securing ECU Communications in connected vehicles FCFraud for user-side click-fraud detection

Michael SwiftView profile

Professor

• Operating Systems
• Computer Architecture
• Device Drivers
• +4 more

Michael Swift is Professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison within the College of Letters and Sciences. He leads the Sonar research group and co-leads the Multifacet architecture group with Mark Hill, while contributing to the Wisconsin Institute on Software-defined Datacenters (WISDoM). His research centers on operating system/hardware interaction, with seminal work in device driver reliability (Nooks, Shadow Drivers), memory systems (storage-class memory integration), and cloud security. Projects like Microdrivers and Carburizer address driver complexity and fault tolerance, while recent work explores learned OS policies and heterogeneous processor support. Analysis of his 2023-2025 publications reveals intensifying focus on memory tiering, security in cloud environments, and hardware-accelerated systems, with growing integration of machine learning for system optimization. Key awards include: Best paper award at OSDI 2004 Best paper award at SOSP 2003 Best paper award at the 3rd Asia-Pacific Workshop on Networking (2019) Professor Swift mentors numerous PhD students (current and past) and secures research funding through NSF grants CNS-0915363 and CNS-0745517 plus Google support. He serves as Instructional Program Director and chairs both the Space committee and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee. The Sonar group drives innovation in system support for emerging hardware technologies, while Multifacet focuses on computer architecture advancements, particularly in heterogeneous computing and memory systems.

Hesham AlmataryView profile

Researcher

• Computer Security
• Operating Systems
• Computer Architecture
• +3 more

Hesham Almatary is a Researcher at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge on CHERI compartmentalisation for embedded systems. His research focuses on computer security, operating systems, systems software, and computer architecture, with contributions to open-source projects including Linux, seL4, RTEMS, and FreeRTOS. Education: PhD in Computer Science, University of Cambridge (CHERI Compartmentalisation for Embedded Systems) Research Interests: Secure embedded systems and operating systems CHERI architecture and compartmentalization techniques RISC-V processors and hardware validation Memory management and capability-based security Publications: Recent work includes studies on CHERI implementation in MMU-less Linux, embedded system security frameworks (CompartOS), and testing RISC-V processors. His contributions span both theoretical advancements in computer architecture and practical implementations in open-source software. Awards: No scientific awards explicitly mentioned. Advising/Grants: No advisees or grants listed in the provided information.

Stefan LankesView profile

Researcher

• Operating Systems
• System Software
• High-Performance Computing
• +4 more

Dr. rer. nat. Stefan Lankes is an academic researcher at the Chair of Automation of Complex Power Systems, RWTH Aachen University's Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology. His work focuses on operating systems, high-performance computing (HPC), cloud computing, and lightweight virtualization techniques for embedded and real-time systems. Stefan holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering (2003) for his dissertation on real-time distributed platforms. His career spans roles from Scientific Assistant (1998-2004) to Academic Director (since 2019), with key contributions to HPC infrastructure and simulation environments. Research highlights include Rust-based OS development ( HermitCore unikernel ), GPU virtualization in distributed systems, and energy-efficient embedded computing paradigms. He pioneered the FlippedOS digital teaching platform using virtual workstations for operating systems education. Scientific awards include the 2016 Digital Teaching Fellowship and the 2021 RWTH Lecturer distinction. His publications cover topics from NUMA memory management to real-time CORBA protocols, with recent works addressing unikernel security and CUDA virtualization. Stefan leads simulation infrastructure and HPC virtualization projects, with affiliations to the E.ON Energy Research Center and involvement in European workshops like Euro-Par. His work bridges system software innovation with practical applications in energy systems and supercomputing.

Daniel DannerView profile

Researcher

• Real-Time Systems
• Embedded Systems
• Operating Systems
• +4 more

**Daniel Danner** is a Researcher at the Department of Computer Science 4 (Distributed Systems and Operating Systems) at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. His work focuses on real-time operating systems (RTOS), embedded systems, and hardware-optimized scheduling solutions. He has contributed to projects like SLOTH, exploring efficient memory protection and multi-core RTOS design. His research emphasizes safety-critical systems, time-triggered execution, and hardware-software co-design. Teaching responsibilities include leading exercise sessions for Operating Systems (OS) and Operating Systems Engineering (BST) courses. Contact: danner@cs.fau.de | Room 0.044-113, Martensstraße 1, Erlangen

Scott A. CraverView profile

Associate Professor

• Information Security
• Cryptology
• Steganography
• +3 more

Scott A. Craver is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Director in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Binghamton University. His research focuses on information security, cryptology, steganography, watermarking, and security engineering. He holds a BS and MS from Northern Illinois University and a PhD from Princeton University. Craver is known for his work on ambiguity attacks in watermarking systems and contributed to the SDMI Challenge, leading to legal disputes with the RIAA. He also patented multilinearization data structures for image browsing with Intel Corporation. Education: PhD in Electrical Engineering, Princeton University BS and MS in Electrical Engineering, Northern Illinois University Research highlights include cryptographic protocols, steganographic channel design, and security analysis of public-key systems. His Erdős number is 3, connected through co-authorships in mathematical publications. Awards include the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service (2013-2014). Key contributions include patents on data structures for efficient image storage, and pioneering work in steganography, including the supraliminal channel concept for secure communication. His teaching focuses on cryptography and information security (e.g., EE 405 course), emphasizing hands-on assignments and programming projects.

Pedro Jose Sousa Da FonsecaView profile

Assistant Professor

• Computer Security
• Operating Systems
• Distributed Systems
• +3 more

Pedro Jose Sousa Da Fonseca is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Purdue University, where he leads the Reliable and Secure Systems Lab. His research focuses on building reliable and secure systems, particularly in core software components like operating systems, hypervisors, and distributed systems. He joined Purdue in Fall 2018 and has received awards including the NSF CAREER Award and Google Faculty Research Awards. Education: PhD from Max Planck Institute for Software Systems and University of Saarland (advised by Rodrigo Rodrigues), postdoc at University of Washington (with Arvind Krishnamurthy, Hank Levy). Research interests span system reliability, security, and concurrency testing. His work includes frameworks like MultiNyx for hypervisor analysis, SKI for kernel bug detection, and KARD for data race detection. Teaching includes courses on Operating Systems (CS503), Reliable and Secure Systems (CS592), and Software Testing (CS408). Active in academic service as PC member for OSDI, EuroSys, and SOSP. Advises PhD students on topics like kernel testing, serverless computing, and confidential cloud systems. Awards: NSF CAREER Award (202?), Google Faculty Research Award, Google Research Scholar Award. Over 30 publications in top venues like SOSP, OSDI, EuroSys, and ASPLOS. Collaborations with institutions like MPI-SWS, University of Washington, and industry partnerships with Google.

Zhihao YaoView profile

Assistant Professor

• Computer Security
• Operating Systems
• Mobile Computing
• +3 more

Zhihao Yao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). His research focuses on secure systems design, mobile security, and hardware-software co-design for trustworthy computing. He holds a Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. in Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine (2023, 2020, 2017 respectively). His work emphasizes minimizing trust in computing systems through physically isolated hardware, secure code generation, and privacy-preserving technologies. Notable contributions include developing frameworks like Hora for life-critical smartphone applications, Casper for LLM privacy protection, and ProvCam for verifiable video capture systems. He received the 2023 Best Artifact Award at ACM MobiSys for impactful research contributions. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of California-Irvine (2023) M.S. in Computer Science, University of California-Irvine (2020) B.S. in Computer Science, University of California-Irvine (2017) Recent work explores fuzzer-assisted security testing for WebGL, real-time anomaly detection in energy systems, and minimizing trusted computing bases (TCBs) in mobile devices. His research bridges theoretical security principles with practical implementations across hardware, operating systems, and application layers. Awards: 2023 Best Artifact Award, ACM MobiSys Teaching includes advanced courses on operating systems principles. His lab develops novel solutions for securing modern computing environments through interdisciplinary approaches.

Adam BelayView profile

Associate Professor

• Computer Architecture
• Distributed Systems
• Operating Systems
• +5 more

Adam Belay is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at MIT, affiliated with the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He holds the Jamieson Career Development Chair and focuses on operating systems, runtime systems, and distributed systems, with a particular emphasis on optimizing datacenter efficiency, security, and resource utilization. His work bridges theoretical systems research with practical implementations in cloud environments. Before joining MIT, Belay completed his Ph.D. at Stanford University and worked at Google on datacenter networking. His research addresses challenges such as latency reduction, resource fungibility, and carbon-aware software design. He leads the Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems (PDOS) group and contributes to the Systems Community of Research (CoR) at MIT. His recent publications highlight innovations like Quicksand (resource-efficient datacenter systems), Junction (kernel-bypass networking), and Hermit (low-latency remote memory systems). These projects emphasize real-world scalability and sustainability, reflecting his commitment to advancing both academic and industrial systems. Awarded the 2014 OSDI Best Paper for IX (a protected dataplane OS), Belay has advised numerous students and postdocs, many of whom now hold prominent roles at top universities and companies like Google, Microsoft, and UCSD. He actively serves on program committees for top systems conferences (e.g., OSDI, NSDI, SOSP) and teaches graduate-level OS seminars and undergraduate systems courses.

Gabor DrescherView profile

Researcher

• Operating Systems
• Parallel Computing
• Real-Time Systems
• +4 more

Dr. Gabor Drescher is a Researcher at the Department of Computer Science 4 (Distributed Systems and Operating Systems) at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. He holds a Dr.-Ing. (PhD) in Computer Science from FAU, where he has been a member of the research staff since 2012. His work focuses on operating systems for many-core architectures, real-time systems, parallel computing, and security mechanisms in distributed environments. Education: 2007–2010: Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, FAU 2010–2012: Master of Science with Honors in Computer Science, FAU 2021: Dr.-Ing. in Computer Science (PhD), FAU Research interests include: LAOS (Latency-Aware Operating Systems) Non-blocking synchronization algorithms Invasive Runtime Support Systems (iRTSS) Kernel-level security and encryption (e.g., RamCrypt) Custom OS design for many-core processors Teaching includes courses on operating systems, concurrent systems, and configurable system software engineering. He has supervised multiple student theses on topics like NUMA-aware memory distribution and kernel-level security mechanisms. His research contributes to improving the scalability and predictability of operating systems in many-core environments, with applications in embedded real-time systems and high-performance computing.

Anjo Vahldiek-OberwagnerView profile

Adjunct Professor

• System Security
• Operating Systems
• Trusted Execution Environments
• +7 more

Anjo Vahldiek-Oberwagner is a Research Scientist at Intel Labs and an Adjunct Lecturer at TU Munich, where he contributes to both industrial R&D and academic education in systems and security. His work bridges hardware and software security, focusing on confidential computing, in-process isolation, and secure cloud deployments. PhD in Computer Science, Max Planck Institute for Software Systems & Saarland University, 2019 B.Sc. in Applied Computer Science, Cooperative University State University Baden-Wuertemberg, 2009 His research centers on system security, particularly techniques for protecting data confidentiality and integrity at rest, in-flight, and in-memory. He explores operating systems, distributed systems, and hardware-assisted security mechanisms such as Intel MPK and SGX. His work on ERIM, HFI, Endokernel, and Graphene has advanced secure in-process isolation and trusted execution environments. He has published extensively in top venues like USENIX Security, ASPLOS, and IEEE S&P. His recent publications reflect a strong trend toward practical, deployable security solutions for modern computing environments, including secure AI/ML deployments, efficient in-process isolation, and hardware-accelerated sandboxing. Themes include memory safety, performance optimization, and real-world applicability of security primitives. Scientific awards include: Distinguished Paper Award and Internet Defense Prize, USENIX Security 2019 (ERIM) Distinguished Paper Award, ASPLOS 2023 (HFI) IEEE Micro Top Picks 2024 (HFI) Intel Hardware Security Academic Award (Honorable Mention) DARPA Riser 2022 Intel Labs Gordy Award Honorable Mention He actively mentors and serves on program committees (EuroSys, USENIX Security, ASPLOS), chairs artifact evaluation (USENIX Security, EuroSys, SC), and is an Associate Editor for ACM TOPS. He has advised no formal students listed, but collaborates widely across Intel and academia. His work is supported by Intel and DARPA, and he holds multiple patents in secure computing and TEEs. He leads research on memory-safe architectures and secure cloud deployments at Intel Labs. He is involved in several research projects, including: Secure In-Process Memory Isolation, Shielding Applications in Untrusted Clouds via SGX, Memory-Safe Hardware and Software Architecture, and Research Artifacts and Evaluation. He is also a key contributor to the Graphene Library OS and works on validation and endorsement services for confidential computing.

Timo HönigView profile

Professor

• Operating Systems
• Energy Efficiency
• Computer Security
• +3 more

Timo Hönig is a Professor and Head of the Chair for Operating Systems and System Software at the Faculty of Computer Science, Ruhr-University Bochum. His research focuses on energy efficiency, persistent memory systems, computer security, and system software design. Current projects include DFG-funded SUSTAINET-inNOvAte and DOSS , with former projects like InvasIC (DFG/Transregio 89) and Antillas (BMBF/VDI). He serves on program committees for HotCarbon, DIMES, DSN, DATE, and other conferences. His recent publications address energy profiling, carbon-aware memory placement, kernel security, and persistent OS design. He has received best paper awards at SBESC'22 and ISORC'17. Scientific Awards: Best Paper at SBESC'22 Best Paper at ISORC'17 His teaching includes courses on operating systems, resource-efficient systems, and energy-aware computing. He has advised numerous research collaborations on embedded systems, concurrency, and sustainable computing.