Yingying (Jennifer) Chen is a Distinguished Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University, affiliated with the Wireless Information Network Laboratory (WINLAB) and the DAISY Lab. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from Rutgers University (2007). Her research focuses on Smart Healthcare, IoT, Cyber Security, Machine Learning, and AR/VR Security, with over 300 publications and multiple patents. Key roles include Associate Director of WINLAB, Fellow of ACM, IEEE, and AAIA, and recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (2010), Henry Morton Teaching Award (2017), and ACM Distinguished Scientist distinction. Awards also include the 2024 ACM Fellow and NAI Fellow (2022). Her work emphasizes interdisciplinary applications, such as AR/VR privacy attacks, adversarial machine learning defenses, and edge computing. Notable grants include NSF projects on AI on edge devices, NextG-enabled manufacturing, and healthcare system design. She advises Ph.D. students and collaborates with industry on testbeds like the Community-based Edge Sensing Testbed (NSF CCRI). Current research explores AI-driven sensing, privacy in immersive technologies, and robust multi-model analytics. Publications span top venues like ACM MobiCom, IEEE INFOCOM, and IEEE S&P. Labs include DAISY Lab (data analysis & security) and collaborations with WINLAB for wireless innovation. She serves on editorial boards of IEEE/ACM Transactions and organizes conferences like ACM MobiCom and IEEE ICDCS.
Dr. Ioanna Kantzavelou is an Associate Professor at the Department of Informatics and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering, University of West Attica. She leads the INSSec Research Group, focusing on Information, Networks, and Systems Security. Her expertise spans Cybersecurity, Game Theoretic approaches in Intrusion Detection, and Critical Infrastructure Protection. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of the Aegean (2011), an M.Sc. from University College Dublin (1994), and a B.Sc. from the Technological Educational Institution of Athens (1991). Education: Ph.D. in Intrusion Detection with Game Theoretic Approaches – University of the Aegean (2011) M.Sc. in Computer Security – University College Dublin (1994) B.Sc. in Informatics – TEI of Athens (1991) Research Interests: Intrusion Detection in IoT/Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and Cyber-Physical Systems Cyber Ranges for Education and Research Cybersecurity for Merchant Shipping and Critical Infrastructures Hybrid Threats, Cyberterrorism, and Cyberwarfare Digital Forensics and Blockchain-Based Authentication Systems Her work includes over 30 peer-reviewed publications, three books, and contributions to R&D projects funded by the Greek government, EU, and Irish government. She actively reviews for IEEE, Elsevier, and Springer journals, and is a member of ACM, IEEE Computer Society, and the Greek Computer Society. Grants & Collaborations: EU-funded projects on Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Greek government grants for Cyber Ranges and IoT Security Labs/Teams: Head of the INSSec Research Group, collaborating with industry partners on Cybersecurity solutions for maritime and industrial sectors.
Lu Su is an Associate Professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering , Purdue University , with prior appointments at SUNY Buffalo . His research spans Internet of Things , cyber-physical systems , mmWave sensing , and crowd-sourced data validation , focusing on quality-of-information aware distributed sensing and security in autonomous systems . Ph.D. in Computer Science (2013) and M.S. in Statistics (2012) from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign M.E. and B.E. from Harbin Institute of Technology Research Interests: IoT , cyber-physical systems , crowd sensing , security and privacy , and machine learning for sensor networks. His work addresses quality-aware information integration , adversarial attacks in autonomous vehicles , and privacy-preserving crowd-sourced systems . Recent publications focus on mmWave-based sensing (e.g., 3D pose reconstruction), federated learning (driver monitoring), and data poisoning attacks in crowd-sourced systems. His research also extends to traffic optimization and human activity recognition using wireless networks. Professional Roles: Workshop Chair (INFOCOM 2023, 2022) TPC Vice Chair (INFOCOM 2021) Program Committee Member for top conferences Editorial Board, ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks Teaching: Courses on Embedded Systems , Internet of Things , and Network Concepts at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
Guanhong Tao is an Assistant Professor at the Kahlert School of Computing, University of Utah. His research focuses on the security and safety of AI-enabled systems, particularly addressing adversarial attacks on machine learning models and large language models (LLMs). He has received notable awards, including the NVIDIA Academic Grant Award (2025) and the Maurice H. Halstead Memorial Award (2023). Educational Background: He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University under Dr. Xiangyu Zhang’s supervision. His work spans adversarial generative AI, LLM agent security, and machine learning for security applications. Research Interests: Tao’s research emphasizes securing AI systems against adversarial threats, including backdoor attacks, alignment loss in LLMs, and privacy-preserving techniques. His projects have been published in top venues like IEEE S&P, USENIX Security, and NeurIPS. Recent Contributions: Key publications include 'Alleviating the Fear of Losing Alignment in LLM Fine-tuning' (S&P 2025) and 'BAIT: Large Language Model Backdoor Scanning' (S&P 2025). His work often bridges cybersecurity and machine learning, addressing real-world vulnerabilities in AI systems. Grants & Awards: In addition to his NVIDIA grant, Tao has received the ACM SIGPLAN Distinguished Paper Award (2019) and multiple best-paper recognitions. His research is funded by leading industry and academic partnerships. Advising & Teaching: He advises students like Shih-Chieh Dai and co-advises Kang Yang (with Dr. Jun Xu). He teaches courses such as 'Machine Learning Security' at the University of Utah and has guest-lectured at institutions like Purdue and Rutgers. Professional Service: Tao serves on program committees for top conferences, including IEEE S&P, ACM CCS, NeurIPS, and CVPR. He chairs workshops like BANDS (ICLR) and AISCC (NDSS), fostering collaborative research in AI security.
Rongxing Lu is an Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science, University of New Brunswick (UNB), Canada, since August 2016. Previously, he held positions at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore (2012–2016) and the University of Waterloo, Canada (PhD in 2012). His research focuses on applied cryptography, privacy enhancing technologies, and IoT-big data security. He has over 7,500 citations and received prestigious awards like the Governor General’s Gold Medal (2012) and the IEEE ComSoc Asia Pacific Outstanding Young Researcher Award (2013). He is an IEEE senior member and serves on editorial boards of journals like IEEE Network. **Education**: PhD in Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo (2012), awarded Governor General’s Gold Medal Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Waterloo (2012–2013) **Research Interests**: Developing cryptographic protocols for IoT and big data systems Privacy-preserving techniques for distributed systems Secure communication in 5G/6G networks and vehicular systems **Awards and Recognition**: Recipient of multiple best paper awards in IEEE conferences 2016–2017 Excellence in Teaching Award at UNB **Editorial and Leadership Roles**: Symposium co-chair at IEEE Globecom’16 Secretary of IEEE ComSoc CIS-TC Organized special issues on fog computing security (Elsevier) and big data security (IEEE IoT Journal) **Key Contributions**: Pioneered privacy-aware data reporting schemes for vehicular networks Designed lightweight IoT authentication protocols Advanced secure machine learning frameworks with privacy guarantees
Jedidiah Crandall is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University's School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, with an affiliation to the Biodesign Center for Biocomputing, Security and Society. His research focuses on Internet censorship, network security, and privacy-preserving technologies. Crandall collaborates with journalists and activists to expose surveillance mechanisms, particularly in politically sensitive regions like Russia and China. His work includes analyzing VPN vulnerabilities , decentralized censorship systems , and cross-border data flows . He teaches advanced courses in computer network security and advises graduate students on thesis/dissertation research. Research trends in his publications emphasize measuring state-level information control , attack vectors in modern networks , and secure communication technologies . Notable work includes TSPU: Russia's censorship infrastructure and Hidden Links: Analyzing Secret Families of VPN Apps . Crandall's teaching spans courses like Advanced Computer Network Security and Applied Cryptography , reflecting his commitment to preparing the next generation of security professionals. His Censored Planet project tracks global Internet censorship patterns through large-scale measurements.
Ana Filipa Sequeira is a researcher affiliated with INESC TEC, Porto, Portugal, and the University of Porto. Her work spans biometrics, fairness in AI, and explainable artificial intelligence. She has contributed to advancements in face recognition, synthetic data applications, and bias mitigation through techniques like knowledge distillation and model compression. Institution: INESC TEC (Porto, Portugal) Research Themes: Face recognition, fairness, explainability, synthetic data, biometric security Her recent publications focus on addressing demographic biases in face recognition systems, developing privacy-preserving explainable methods, and evaluating synthetic data's impact. She collaborates extensively with researchers like Pedro C. Neto, Jaime S. Cardoso, and Naser Damer. Sequeira has participated in organizing and analyzing competitions such as FRCSyn, BIOSIG, and SYN-MAD, emphasizing robust evaluation frameworks. Her work intersects technical innovation with ethical considerations, advocating for responsible AI applications in biometrics.
Andreas Ekelhart is a Researcher at TU Wien's Department of Information and Software Engineering. His work focuses on cybersecurity, cyber-physical systems, and industrial control systems. He specializes in developing frameworks like SLOGERT for automated log analysis and Kyrstal for attack discovery using knowledge graphs. His research also explores digital twin technology for threat detection and semantic web applications in machine learning systems. Key contributions include the VloGraph framework for distributed security log analysis and the QualSec approach for automated security risk identification in production systems. He collaborates on standards like AutomationML and emphasizes privacy-preserving data analysis through semantic architectures.
Nickolai Zeldovich is the Joan and Irwin M. Jacobs Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He received his PhD from Stanford University in 2008 and focuses on building practical secure systems, including encrypted databases, undefined behavior detection tools, formally verified file systems, and cryptocurrency protocols. His work spans both theoretical and applied aspects of computer security and distributed systems. Research interests include: Secure system design Distributed consensus mechanisms Formal verification of software/hardware Cryptographic protocols Privacy-preserving web technologies Publications & Verification Tools Recent work focuses on modular verification of complex systems, including: Shipwright (2025): Byzantine-fault-tolerant distributed system verification PoWER (2025): Crash consistency verification framework K2 Architecture (2023): Trustworthy hardware security modules Grove (2023): Separation-logic-based verification library Tiptoe (2023): Private web search protocols Major Awards Best paper award, ACM SOSP (2011, 2015, 2017) Sloan Research Fellowship (2010) NSF CAREER award (2011) MIT Jamieson Award for Teaching (2024) Active in multiple startup ventures including Algorand (cryptocurrency), MokaFive (virtualization), and PreVeil (end-to-end encryption).
Karthik Dantu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, within the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His research focuses on mobile sensor networks, robot networks, networked embedded systems, mobile computing, wireless networks, and embedded operating systems. He leads the Distributed Robotics and Networked Embedded Sensing (DRONES) Lab and has received significant funding including an NSF CAREER Award. Dr. Dantu's educational background includes: PhD in Computer Science from University of Southern California (2009) BE in Computer Science from Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (1999) His research interests center on algorithmic and systems challenges in Edge Computing Systems, with particular focus on enabling seamless vision sensing in cloud-edge environments. Dantu's work bridges mobile systems and robotics, developing novel approaches for UAV software, visual SLAM, and distributed sensing. His research addresses critical challenges in resource-constrained environments, security, and real-time performance for mobile and robotic systems, with emphasis on practical implementations that solve real-world problems in autonomous systems. Dr. Dantu's publication record shows a strong trajectory in mobile systems and robotics research, with increasing focus on edge computing applications for visual sensing. His recent work demonstrates expertise in adapting visual SLAM to edge environments, securing mobile systems through technologies like Rushmore, and developing novel approaches for UAV software reliability and depth sensing. The research spans theoretical algorithms and practical system implementations, with particular strength in bringing academic research to practical applications in robotics and mobile computing. Dr. Dantu has received several scientific honors: NSF CAREER Award on Enabling Seamless Vision Sensing in Cloud-Edge Systems Outstanding service award from the Office of International Services NSF Travel Grant for SenSys 2005 Conference Travel Grant for SIGCOMM 2002 As an advisor, Dr. Dantu has mentored numerous PhD students to completion, with graduates now working at companies like Samsung Research and Zoox Inc., or continuing academic careers as Assistant Professors. His research is supported by substantial grants including a DARPA OFFSET Sprint 4 award ($470k), an NSF CAREER award ($550k), and multiple NSF collaborative grants totaling over $1.5 million. He serves on numerous conference committees including Mobicom, MobiSys, and ICRA, demonstrating leadership in the mobile systems and robotics research communities. Dr. Dantu leads the Distributed Robotics and Networked Embedded Sensing (DRONES) Lab at UB, which focuses on developing algorithms and systems for mobile sensor networks, robot networks, and embedded sensing applications. The lab's work spans theoretical foundations to practical implementations, with particular expertise in UAV systems, visual SLAM, and edge computing for robotics, maintaining strong collaborations with industry partners and other academic institutions to advance the state of the art in mobile and robotic systems.
Xueqiang (Brandon) Wang is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Central Florida (UCF), where he is affiliated with the Cyber Security and Privacy Cluster. He leads the Security and PRIvacy for smarT systems (SPIRIT) lab, focusing on technical solutions for security and privacy threats in real-world systems. Education Ph.D. in Computer Science, Indiana University Bloomington (2021) Master’s in Computer Science, IIE CAS (2015) Bachelor’s in Computer Science, USTC (2012) Research Interests Security and privacy compliance for software supply chains Mobile and IoT systems security Cybercrime analysis Vulnerability discovery and exploitation Automated security analysis and data-driven mitigation strategies Labs & Teams Lead the SPIRIT Lab at UCF, specializing in security and privacy for smart systems.
Aidong Zhang is the Thomas M. Linville Professor of Computer Science at the University of Virginia, with joint appointments in Biomedical Engineering and the School of Data Science. Her research focuses on machine learning, interpretable AI, federated learning, and generative AI applications in healthcare and bioinformatics. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University. Dr. Zhang has been honored with prestigious awards including the ACM Fellow (2017), IEEE Fellow (2009), and the 2025 Distinguished Researcher Award from UVA. Her work bridges computational methods with biomedical challenges, emphasizing fairness, robustness, and explainability in AI systems. Key research areas include federated learning frameworks, concept-based models, and large language models for scientific hypothesis generation. Dr. Zhang leads a lab offering PhD positions in machine learning, bioinformatics, and health informatics. Notable grants include NSF projects on explainable AI platforms and hardware-software co-design for extreme-scale machine learning. Education: Ph.D., Computer Science, Purdue University Affiliations: School of Engineering and Applied Science, School of Data Science Grants: NSF-funded projects on federated learning, multimodal analysis, and biomedical AI Labs/Teams: Zhang's Research Group focusing on interpretable machine learning and healthcare applications
Riham AlTawy is an Associate Professor and MTIS Program Director at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria. She previously held positions as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Waterloo and an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholar at Concordia University. Her research focuses on IoT security, blockchain consensus mechanisms, lightweight cryptographic primitives, and privacy-preserving protocols. She leads the IoTSec group, which develops application-specific cryptographic solutions for IoT authentication and privacy challenges. Education includes postdoctoral training at the Communication Security (ComSec) group (University of Waterloo) and doctoral studies at Concordia University. Her work has led to publications in top venues such as IEEE Transactions and CANS conferences. She actively seeks PhD research assistants and postdoctoral fellows in cryptographic research. Key research areas include authentication protocols for edge computing, privacy in cross-domain systems, and lightweight algorithms for constrained devices. Her group emphasizes practical solutions for real-world IoT security challenges.
Robert J.K. Jacob is a Professor of Computer Science at Tufts University, affiliated with the School of Engineering's Department of Computer Science. His research focuses on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), particularly implicit brain-computer interfaces (BCI) using fNIRS and EEG technologies. He has held visiting positions at University College London, Université Paris-Sud, and MIT Media Lab. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. Research Interests : Jacob's work explores novel interaction techniques, adaptive interfaces, and BCI applications. Current projects emphasize real-time fNIRS-based systems for effortless user input, cognitive workload assessment, and neuroadaptive technologies. His lab investigates how brain signals can enhance user interfaces in domains like music learning, gaming, and urban design. Recent Trends in Articles : Recent publications highlight advancements in BCI design, neuroadaptive systems, and interdisciplinary applications of fNIRS. Work spans theoretical frameworks (e.g., NeuroCHI ethics) to practical tools like the Tufts fNIRS dataset. Key themes include improving BCI calibration, exploring AI's role in urban environments, and integrating affective computing into artistic interfaces. Awards : ACM Fellow (2016) ACM CHI Academy Membership (2007) Best Paper Award at CHI 2016 Advising & Grants : Supervised 15+ Ph.D. alumni in HCI and BCI. Served as Vice-President of ACM SIGCHI and co-chair of UIST/CHI conferences. Active in editorial roles for Human-Computer Interaction and ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction . Labs & Teams : Directs the Tufts HCI Lab in the Joyce Cummings Center. Collaborates with interdisciplinary teams on projects like the Marble Track Audio Manipulator and Reality-Based Interaction Framework.
Vinod Vaikuntanathan is the Ford Foundation Professor of Engineering in the MIT EECS department and a principal investigator at MIT CSAIL. He holds a BTech from IIT Madras (2003), and SM/PhD degrees from MIT (2005/2009). His research focuses on cryptography, particularly fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), lattice-based cryptography, and quantum-resistant systems. He co-founded Duality Technologies as Chief Cryptographer. **Education:** BTech in Computer Science (2003), Indian Institute of Technology Madras SM in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (2005), MIT PhD in Computer Science (2009), MIT **Research Interests:** His work spans FHE (enabling computations on encrypted data), lattice-based cryptography (post-quantum security), and intersections with quantum computing, machine learning, and privacy. He explores applications in secure computation, algorithm design, and cryptographic protocols. **Awards:** Recipient of the Gödel Prize (2022), Simons Investigator (2023), and MacVicar Faculty Fellow (2024). His work on FHE and lattice algorithms has earned widespread acclaim in cryptography and theoretical computer science. **Teaching & Mentorship:** Advanced cryptography courses at MIT (e.g., 6.5630, 6.876J) Advised PhD students (e.g., Sergey Gorbunov, Tianren Liu) and postdocs (e.g., Nir Bitansky, Mark Zhandry) now leading positions in academia and industry **Collaborations:** Organizer of the Charles River Crypto Day and MIT Cryptography Seminar Principal investigator on grants from NSF, DARPA, and Microsoft
