I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). I serve as the director of the Security and Privacy Enhanced Machine Learning Lab (SUPREME Lab), where my group develops privacy-enhanced secure systems with machine learning applications. I am also an affiliated faculty member of the UTEP AI Institute for Community-Engaged Research (AI-ICER), NSF IUCRC Center for Intelligent, Distributed, Embedded Applications and Systems (IDEAS) and Center for Research and Education in AI and Cybersecurity (CARE-AI-C). My current research interests include security and privacy in online systems, AI/ML, online social networks, cyber-physical and distributed systems, quantum security, and AI for social good. My research has received significant funding from leading federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Cyber Florida, and the Florida Center for Cybersecurity. Notable awards include a $500,000 U.S. NRC grant for AI-driven cybersecurity in U.S. nuclear plants, a NSF CISE CRII Award under the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program for AI-based defense against sockpuppet attacks in social networks, and a $99,000 IMEC Award from NIST for cybersecurity integration in industrial IoT environments. Previously, I served as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU), and prior to that, at Pennsylvania Western University (PennWest). I was nominated for PennWest’s Scholar of the Year in 2020, SIU’s University-Level Early Career Faculty Excellence Award in 2022 and 2024, and the Rising Star Faculty Award in 2024.

I have authored over one hundred (100+) peer-reviewed publications in leading venues such as ACM TSC, Nature Scientific Reports, ANS Transactions, ASONAM, ACM SAC, ICWSM, ICMLA, ACM CHI, ACM WebSci, COMPSAC, IEEE DSC, and my research has received media attention from many news outlets including prominent national and international outlets such as NBC, KMOV TV, and Sage Methods. NBC 6 has featured my research as a sweeps prime-time story and Sage Research Methods based on UK has made my research methods available to academic libraries for subscription or purchase aimed at helping students and early career researchers. I am the recipient of several research travel grants and have been invited by Facebook Research to their HQ. My paper has won best paper award on multiple occasions. I am an active member of IEEE and lifetime member of ACM. I have served/am serving on the editorial boards and review panels for journals such as ACM Transactions on Service Computing (TSC), IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems (TCSS), Springer Nature, KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS), Applied Sciences Journal, Frontiers in Human Dynamics, Big Data and Cognitive Computing (BDCC), and Nature Scientific Reports. Additionally, I am actively involved in program committees of prominent conferences including ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Advanced Social Network Analysis and Mining (ASONAM), International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM), ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC), ACM Asian Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ASIACCS), IEEE Computer Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC), EAI International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Systems (SecureComm), IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Cyber Security (CICS), IEEE International Conference on Networking Systems and Security (NSysS), and ACL Workshops on Abusive Language Online and Online Abuse and Harms (WOAH). I have mentored over 40 students, including K-12 high school teachers, undergraduate students, and graduate students in several programs, such as Science without Borders’s Summer Research Program, NSF’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), and NSF’s Research Experience for Teachers (RET).