University of North Texas 
People
Director
Ram Dantu
Professor
Dr. Ram Dantu has 15 years of industrial experience in the networking industry, where
he worked for Cisco, Nortel, Alcatel, and Fujitsu and was responsible for advanced
technology products from concept to delivery. He is a full professor in the Department
of Computer Science and Engineering, University of North Texas (UNT). During 2011,
he was a visiting professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the
School of Engineering.
Faculty
Kirill Morozov
Associate Professor
Dr. Morozov's area of research interests is cryptography based on coding and correlated
randomness, including post-quantum cryptography and secret sharing, with applications
to cloud computing.
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Profile page
Cihan Tunc
Assistant Professor
Dr. Tunc's research areas include cybersecurity, cloud computing, Internet of Things
(IoT), autonomous vehicle security, and social media analysis for cybersecurity.
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PhD Students
Amal Alshehri
PhD Student
Hakiza Bucuti
PhD Student
Cynthia Claiborne
PhD Student
Guarding Sensitive Sensor Data against Malicious Mobile Applications (2020)
Random anonymization of mobile sensor data: Modified Android framework (2015)
Android Sensor Data Anonymization (2013)
Leslie Delval
PhD Student
Leslie is a Research Assistant focusing on Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence.
She also serves as Lab Manager for the Network Security Lab (NSL) since her undergraduate
studies. She earned her B.S. in Computer Engineering at UNT specializing in Artificial
Intelligence with a minor in Mathematics.
Mark Dockendorf
PhD Student
Julie Germain
PhD Student
Julie Germain is currently a PhD CSCE student, with a research focus in the area of
Quantum Computing. She has a background as a multidisciplinary engineer, including
education and industry experience in the areas of Mechanical Engineering (Aircraft
Structures), Civil Engineering (with education focused in construction engineering),
Manufacturing Engineering, Producibility Engineering, Systems Engineering (with an
educational focus in Software Engineering) and Technology sales and sales support.
Chris Hickingbottom
PhD Student
John Long
PhD Student
Thomas McCullough
PhD Student
Thomas is a doctoral student studying how traditional natural language pipelines can
be transformed and improved through the use of Large Language Models. He is also exploring
how to make video games more accessible to the blind and visually impaired. While
he isn’t programming, he leads visually impaired students at Criss Cole Rehabilitation
Center in Austin through teambuilding exercises during their journey back into the
workforce.
Apurba Pokharel
PhD Student
Apurba is a graduate student in the Network Security Lab at UNT. His research areas
include blockchains and formal verification. He also labels himself as a part-time
athlete and loves and participates in all forms of exercise.
Vinh Quach
PhD Student
Vinh Quach is a doctoral student and a research assistant in the Network Security
Lab at the University of North Texas (UNT). His primary research areas include Zero
Trust, Zero Knowledge Proof, and Cybersecurity for the Internet of Things (IoT). He
obtained his Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas
at Arlington (UTA) and has over 10 years of experience in the biotechnology field.
Ishan Ranasinghe
PhD Student
Ishan Ranasinghe is a doctoral student and a research assistant in the Network Security Lab (NSL) at the University of North Texas (UNT). The key areas of his research are Human-Machine Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, and the Future Workforce. Ishan is studying how humans can intervene to make the autonomous system more efficient and reliable. He obtained his Master's degree in Computer Science from St. Cloud State University. He has over seven years of experience in the academic and research field. Ishan worked as an Adjunct Faculty at Southwest Minnesota State University, Computer Science Instructor at Century Community and Technical College, and Teaching Assistant at UNT and St. Cloud State University. He also worked as a Software Engineer at Sumeru Lanka (Private) Limited in Sri Lanka before he started to pursue his Master's degree.
Sirisha Madhuri Talapuru
PhD Student
Burak Tufekci
PhD Student
Burak received his BS degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey, in 2018, and his MS degree in Computer Science from Ozyegin University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2020.
He worked as a Computer Hardware and Software Engineer at Baykar Defense Inc. between March 2021 and September 2021. Since September 2021, he has been pursuing a doctoral degree in the Computer Science and Engineering department at the University of North Texas.
His current research interests include vulnerability and threat analysis for UAVs,
drone swarm applications, and secure and lightweight path planning for drone swarms.
Vulnerability_and_Threat_Analysis_of_UAVs.pdf
Efficient_FPGA_Implementation_of_Field_Oriented_Control_for_3-Phase_Machine_Drives.pdf
Hardware_Implementation_of_Field_Oriented_Control_for_Three_Phase_Machine_Drives.pdf
Logan Widick
PhD Student
Logan Widick is a doctoral student in the Network Security Laboratory (NSL) at the University of North Texas (UNT). His current research area is identity management.
Prior to starting doctoral studies at UNT, Logan was an undergraduate research assistant
at the NSL. As an undergraduate, Logan designed, developed, and tested vital sign
monitoring applications for Android smartphones. He participated in a webcast at the
National Science Foundation and presented the vital sign monitoring applications,
and helped conduct field trials of said applications in Boston, MA.
Blockchain Based Authentication and Authorization Framework for Remote Collaboration
Systems (2019)
A framework for secured collaboration in mHealth (2015)
Shakila Zaman
PhD Student
Shakila Zaman is a Ph.D. student in the Network Security Lab at the University of
North Texas. She works on Metaverse Interoperability where the Blockchain network
is chosen as the underlying technology. Moreover, she works as a Teaching Assistant
in the Computer Science and Engineering department.