CELEBRATING OUR 2022 PH.D. GRADUATES

The NYU Center for Cybersecurity is proud to recognize its 2022 Ph.D. graduates. After two years of virtual ceremonies, this year’s eight newly minted graduates got to mark their departure at an in-person graduation ceremony, held in May 2022 at the Barclays Center. Congratulations on the Center’s newest doctors.

Max Aliapoulios

(Advisor: Dr. Damon McCoy) Ph.D. Computer Science

In collaboration with his advisor, Max has contributed to a number of projects in security and privacy, applied machine learning, and cybercrime. Two recent studies have looked at the influence of dark web marketplaces on available supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic, and examined how QAnon theories were disseminated over time. During his tenure, he authored or coauthored numerous papers for conferences, such as the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media and the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.

Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University. Her Ph.D. dissertation is entitled, “Analyzing Harms of Online Platform and Policy Design.”

LAURA EDELSON

(Advisor: Dr. Damon McCoy)

Ph.D. Computer Science

SAMRAT ACHARYA (Advisors: Dr. Yury Dvorkin and Dr. Ramesh Karri) Ph.D. Electrical Engineering

Samrat was featured in CyberByte’s Spring 2021 issue for serving as an unofficial spokesperson for cybersecurity in his native Nepal during the pandemic. This role evolved when he wrote an article to ensure that the surge in online work would not open new cybersecurity threats. His research at NYU Tandon focused on smart grid security, and security of cyber-physical systems, and he wrote his dissertation on “Cybersecurity of Electric Vehicle Charging.” Over the past five years, Samrat has authored or co-authored 17 papers. He recently began a new post as a power systems research engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Rasika Bhalerao

(Advisor: Dr. Damon McCoy) Ph.D. Computer Science

Rasika has pursued research endeavors in cybersecurity, ethics, bias in machine learning during her tenure at Tandon. Her commitment to ethical approaches in education and research are reflected in several papers, including one presented at the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. Rasika has accepted a position as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the

Laura Edelson will not be leaving Tandon right away as she will be serving as a postdoctoral researcher at Cybersecurity for Democracy, a CCS initiative that promotes transparency in social media. Her work with this group, which she founded with her advisor, Dr. Damon McCoy, has made her a sought-after commentator for journalists on issues of privacy, disinformation, and the abuses of social media. Laura’s dissertation, “Characteristics of Misinformation and Political Content in Online Information Spaces,” was one of three from Tandon honored with a Pearl Brownstein Doctoral Research Award.

And Social

YU HU

(Advisor: Dr. Brendan Dolan-Gavitt)

Ph.D. Computer Science

Yu completed two master’s degrees at NYU Tandon—in wireless communication and cybersecurity—before starting his doctoral work at the school. His research initiatives have focused on automatic bug-finding techniques, and developing novel defenses against real-world software system attacks. As an associate researcher in the NYU Tandon MESS (Machine Learning, Embedded Systems, and Software/Systems Security) Lab, he contributed to research projects in crash widening, chaff bugs, and hybrid AEG. He also served as an adjunct lecturer for wireless and electronics. Yu’s dissertation topic is “Evaluating and Improving Symbolic Bug-finders for Security Vulnerabilities.”

Zekun Shen

(Advisor: Dr. Brendan Dolan-Gavitt)

Ph.D. Computer Science

Zekun completed a master’s in computer science at Tandon in 2017 before moving on to his doctoral studies at the school. Much of his work has focused on using fuzzing and sanitizing techniques to test programs and operating systems. Zekun co-authored a paper “Drifuzz: Harvesting Bugs in Device Drivers from Golden Seeds” that was presented at USENIX Security in August 2022. He is now working as a research scientist at Meta.

Preston Moore

(Advisors: Dr. Justin Cappos and Dr. Phyllis Frankl)

Ph.D. Computer Science

Preston’s research focused on application security and reliability, specifically exploring a novel testing technique that exposed applications to simulations of scenarios that had caused other applications to fail. In investigating this topic, he developed two new techniques that allow developers to detect situations where an application may fail before it is deployed, so that its deficiencies can be corrected without the negative consequences of a crash. Preston presented his work at ISSRE 2019, and was honored with the Best Paper and Presentation award. His dissertation is entitled “A PORT in Stormy SEAs: Leveraging Past Problems to Prevent Future Failures.” Preston is now working as a Senior Software Engineer for Anaconda in New York City

Janith Weerasinghe

(Advisor: Dr. Rachel Greenstadt)

Ph.D. Computer Science

Janith actually began his doctoral studies at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, following completion of his master’s degree there. Since arriving at Tandon, his research initiatives have focused on using machine learning to mitigate abuses that occur on social media platforms. His dissertation topic is entitled “Using Stylometry to Mitigate Abuse in Online Communities.” Janith is joining the staff of The Washington Post as a data scientist.

RESEARCH FOCUS: