Erik van der Kouwe

Erik van der Kouwe is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, holding dual appointments in the Computer Systems department and the Network Institute. His research focuses on system security, fault injection, fuzzing, and embedded systems security. He contributes to both theoretical advancements and practical implementations of security mechanisms.

Key research areas include mitigating vulnerabilities through hardware-software co-design, exposing compiler optimization flaws that evade sanitizers, and developing efficient fuzzing frameworks for malware analysis. His work often bridges academic research with real-world applications in embedded systems and operating systems.

Recent publications highlight innovations like InvisiGuard for microcontroller security, hwdbg for hardware debugging frameworks, and Enviral for environment-aware malware analysis. His research has been published in top-tier venues such as IEEE Transactions, ACM conferences, and workshops like EuroSEC.

Teaching responsibilities include Advanced Operating Systems, Secure Programming, and Software Security courses. Collaborations span international teams working on topics like compiler hardening, embedded system resilience, and vulnerability benchmarking.