Research Areas

Cybersecurity and Privacy

Our research includes securing and maintaining privacy and confidentiality of data in smart homes, high-performance computers, sensor networks, distributed systems, and cyber-physical systems, among others.

Research Highlights

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SCI's LERSAIS redesignated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense

The University of Pittsburgh, through SCI's Laboratory of Education and Research on Security Assured Information Systems (LERSAIS), has been redesignated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (NCAE-CD). 

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Professor James Joshi Honored as an AAAS Fellow for Driving Transformative Change in Technology

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) recently named James Joshi, professor in the Department of Informatics and Networked Systems, as an Honorary Fellow for his outstanding research and contributions to cybersecurity, trust, and privacy. 

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SCI Associate Professor Balaji Palanisamy and former SCI students receive Distinguished Paper award at CCS 2023

The paper discusses the vulnerability of Takeover attacks in Delegated Proof-of-Stake Blockchains and their study provides novel insights into improving the takeover resistance of any blockchain that implements the coin-based voting governance model.

Want to Learn More about SCI's Research?

Check out the most recent grants, research profiles, and more in our Research news section.

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Affiliated Faculty
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Nicholas Farnan, Teaching Associate Professor

Dr. Farnan has taught courses on algorithms and data structures, as well as programming languages for web applications.

Faculty Profile
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William Garrison, Associate Teaching Professor

Dr. Garrison's research interests are based in the formal study of computer systems to better understand the practical implications of security decisions. 

Faculty Profile
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Ahmed Ibrahim, Teaching Associate Professor

Dr. Ibrahim currently teaches courses with a focus on Cybersecurity. He is passionate about enhancing and improving cybersecurity education and is actively developing hands-on cybersecurity content. 

Faculty Profile
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James Joshi, Professor

Dr. Joshi's research interest is broadly in the areas of Cybersecurity and Privacy, with primary focus on advanced access control, distributed systems security and privacy, trust, and privacy in AI/ML areas.

Faculty Profile
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Sherif Khattab, Teaching Assistant Professor

Dr. Khattab's research focuses on the systems aspects of cybersecurity as applied to cloud computing, Internet-of-Things, electronic voting, and Big Data.

Faculty Profile
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Thumrongsak Kosiyatrakul, Teaching Associate Professor

Regarding research, Dr. Kosiyatrakul is specifically interested in verifying properties of security protocols using automated theorem provers.

Faculty Profile
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Prashant Krishnamurthy, Professor

Dr. Krishnamurthy's research interests include information and network security, wireless security, wireless data networks.

Faculty Profile
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Alexandros Labrinidis, Professor

Dr. Labrinidis' research focuses on user-centric data management for scalable network-centric applications, including web-databases, data stream management systems, sensor networks, and scientific data management (with an emphasis on big data).

Faculty Profile
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Adam Lee, Professor

Dr. Lee's research interests lie at the intersection of the computer security, privacy, and distributed systems fields. 

Faculty Profile
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Stephen Lee, Assistant Professor

Dr. Lee's research interests lie broadly in the area of distributed systems and cyber-physical systems (CPS), with an emphasis on sustainability. 

Faculty Profile
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Junyu Liu, Assistant Professor

Dr. Liu is interested in finding useful quantum information technologies for real-world applications, including quantum computing, quantum algorithms, quantum network and quantum sensing. 

Faculty Profile
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Balaji Palanisamy, Associate Professor

Dr. Palanisamy's research interest lies in the areas of Blockchains, Data Privacy, Privacy-aware Computing, Distributed Computer Systems, Edge Computing and Cloud Computing. I am especially interested in tackling problems related to scalable and privacy-conscious computing and data sharing in untrusted and outsourced computing environments.

Faculty Profile
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Youtao Zhang, Professor

Dr. Zhang's research interests are in the areas of the computer security, program analysis and compiler optimization, and computer architecture. 

Faculty Profile