Utku Tefek

Dr. Utku Tefek is a Senior Research Scientist at the Illinois Advanced Research Center in Singapore, focusing on cyberphysical systems security. He concurrently serves as an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the National University of Singapore (NUS), teaching courses on Network Protocols & Applications and Cellular Networks. He holds a BSc from Bilkent University (2013) and a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from NUS (2017), supported by the Singapore International Graduate Award.

His research interests span Network Security, Applied Cryptography, Cyberphysical Systems, and Wireless Communications. He has led or co-led several grants, including

• 2023–2024: Principal Investigator for 'Future Internet Resilience Economics'
• 2022–2023: Co-PI for 'Automated Security Policy Generation'
• 2021–2023: Co-PI for 'Secure and Accountable Data Exchange'

His publications focus on advancing cybersecurity for industrial systems and optimizing wireless communication protocols. He holds patents on message authentication techniques, including 'Precomputation-based Message Authentication' (2022) and 'Message Authentication' (2022). His work bridges theoretical research with practical applications in critical infrastructure protection and smart grid security.