AWARDS AND HONORS

the materials engineering field, Gupta was singled out for “pioneering contributions to the science and technology of lightweight polymer and metal matrix composites.” Gupta, who is also affiliated with the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering, and the NYU Center for Cybersecurity, was also recognized for exceptional dedication to educating the public about scientific discoveries.

Among Gupta’s other research pursuits are using machine learning tools to reverse engineer printing orientation to discover the makeup of proprietary materials. With support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), he is also exploring how to create a “zero waste paradigm” for lithium ion and lead acid lithium-ion batteries.

Gupta Named An Asm International Fellow

Dr. Nikhil Gupta, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, was recently named a Fellow of ASM International. In doing so the global organization of more than 20,000 members recognizes Gupta for making “significant contributions in the field of materials science and engineering.” Considered one of the highest honors in

Over the past few years, Gupta has been the focal point of initiatives at NYU promoting emerging 3D manufacturing technologies, and strategies to protect them from cyber risks. His recent technical accomplishments in this area include developing a method to hide secret codes in printed parts in order to verify that parts’ provenance (https://engineering. nyu.edu/news/researchers-turn-trackingcodes-unclonable-clouds-authenticategenuine-3d-printed-parts). He has also advocated for increased research in this area by regularly putting together panel discussions and workshops on the topic. Last summer, he also helped organize a program to bring together undergraduates from India and the U.S. to work on research initiatives in cybersecurity and 3-D manufacturing. Supported by a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) International Research Experience for Students (IRES) program, the initiative will be repeated in 2022 and 2023.

Gupta is also a recipient of the Young Leader Professional Development Award and the 2020 Brimacombe Medalist Award, both from the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society, the ASM International Silver Medal, and a Visiting Lectureship Award from the ASM-Indian Institute of Metals.

In acknowledging the honor, NYU Tandon Dean Jelena Kovačević states, “Nikhil’s election to the elite ranks of ASM Fellows is a well-deserved acknowledgement of his scholarship, research, and mentorship of students.” She adds, “It also speaks to the quality and innovative work of our faculty in all of our areas of excellence.”

AWARDS ROUND-UP

Congratulations to Brendan Dolan-Gavitt (picture above left) and several of his students who have presented papers at a number of top conferences over the past few months, and have garnered a few awards in doing so.

• What the Fork? Finding and Analyzing Malware in GitHub Forks, Alan Cao and Brendan Dolan-Gavitt, Workshop on Measurements, Attacks, and Defenses for the Web (MADWeb), co-located with NDSS. April 28, 2022. Winner of a Best Paper Runner Up Award.

• Asleep at the Keyboard? Assessing the Security of GitHub Copilot’s Code Contributions. Hammond Pearce, Baleegh Ahmad, Benjamin Tan, Brendan Dolan-Gavitt, and Ramesh Karri. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. May 23-25, 2022. Winner of a Best Paper Award.

• IRQDebloat: Reducing Driver Attack Surface in Embedded Devices. Zhenghao Hu and Brendan DolanGavitt. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, May 23–25, 2022.

• Drifuzz: Harvesting Bugs in Device Drivers from Golden Seeds. Zekun Shen, Ritik Roongta, and Brendan Dolan-Gavitt. USENIX Security. August 10–12, 2022.

HACK@DAC: At last year’s HACK@ DAC competition, NYU’s Center for Cybersecurity claimed not one but two places in the winners circle. The event, held December 2021 as part of the Design Automation Conference, is a Capture the Flag-style competition that challenges participants to find security weaknesses in hardware (https://hackatevent.org/ hackdac21/).

First place in the competition went to a team composed of Ph.D. candidate Baleegh Ahmad (photo above center), Dr. Benjamin Tan (now an assistant professor at the University of Calgary) and Abdul Khader Thalakkattu Moosa, all of NYU, and Wei-Kai Liu from Duke University, while Tandon Ph.D. candidate Animesh Chowdhury (photo above left) who took third place, was a team of one, with support from Dr, Ramesh Karri.

In a segment of the June 1 podcast “What That Means with Camille,” part of Intel’s Cyber Security Inside series, Ahmad and Chowdhury answered questions about strategy and solving the challenges of the competition. The podcast is available at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=3fBfS163oDg,

GRADUATION AWARDS: The following CCS-affiliated individuals were honored with 2022 department and university awards. Note that all three of these individuals are spotlighted elsewhere in this issue.

CSE Leadership Awards (Undergraduate)

Alan Cao, Rising Senior

Pearl Brownstein

Doctoral Research Award

Laura Edelson

Inclusive Excellence Award for the Cyber Fellows Program

Kiran Chaudhry