Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science School of Computing Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC)
Find more about me:
Multiple Ph.D. Positions are Open!
This might be an excellent opportunity if you are excited about researching Blockchain/Security/ML. Find more on the Vacancies Page.
I am an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the School of Computing at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (started in Fall 2025). I obtained my Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida International University, where my dissertation explores AI-driven defenses for cyber-physical and security of off-chain scalability solutions of blockchain.
At SIUC, I lead the Transformative Innovation for Trustworthy AI and Network Security (TITANS) Lab. My research interests span cybersecurity, machine learning, and distributed ledgers, with an emphasis on protecting autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles, smart grids, and off-chain Layer-2 blockchain protocols. I develop systematic defenses, intrusion-detection pipelines, formal verification workflows, and cryptographic protocol enhancements by combining data-driven modeling, program analysis, and zero-knowledge techniques. Looking ahead, my goal is to build resilient, self-healing security frameworks for next-generation autonomous systems and decentralized finance, ensuring that AI-enabled cyber-physical platforms remain trustworthy, adaptable, and secure by design.
[April 2025] Our paper, “OptiGame: Game-Theoretic Enhancements for Optimistic Rollups through Bayesian Strategies,” was accepted for publication in the 21st EAI International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks (SecureComm 2025).
[February 2025] Our paper, "RollGuard: Defending RPC Manipulation Attacks in Optimistic Rollups with Graph ML," was accepted for publication in the 26th International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design (ISQED2025).
[January 2025] Invited to serve as a member of the Scientific Program Committee for the 12th IEEE Swiss Conference on Data Science (SDS 2025), taking place on June 26-27, 2025, in Zürich, Switzerland.
[January 2025] Awarded the Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) Honor SocietyScholarship2024 with the IEEE Computing Sciences and the IEEE Computer Society (the largest association of computer professionals), for academic achievement and extracurricular activities related to the discipline of computing.
[April 2024] Awarded the "Graduate Scholar of the Year 2024" by the Outstanding Student Life Awards organized by the Division of Academic & Student Affairs at FIU, for research contributions made in the academic year 2023-24.
[March 2024] Our paper, "PAROLE: Profitable Arbitrage in Optimistic Rollup with ERC-721 Token Transactions," was accepted for publication in the 54th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN 2024).
[February 2024] Our paper, "Secured UAV Navigation: A Novel Intrusion Detection System Based on PWM Signal Analysis," was accepted for publication in the IEEE Swiss Conference on Data Science (SDS2024).
[November 2023] Honored with the 2023 "ECE Ph.D. Publication Incentive Awards" by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at FIU, for the research regarding UAV-assisted Energy Harvesting of IoT devices, which resulted in one conference and one journal paper.
[October 2023] Presented a poster titled "SHiP: Securing Hashed Timelock Contracts in Payment Channel Networks" at the 2023 IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS 2023)
[October 2023] Awarded NSF Student Travel Grant for 2023 IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS). This award recognizes students who have strong academic background and research potentials in the field of Secured Communications and Networking, as demonstrated by their coursework and/or research experience (Award Abstract #2331646).
[September 2023] Our paper, "Feasibility Analysis for Sybil Attacks in Shard-Based Permissionless Blockchains," was accepted for publication in ACM Journal on Distributed Ledger Technologies (ACM DLT).
[August 2023] Our paper, "FAKey: Fake Hashed Key Attack on Payment Channel Networks," was accepted for publication in the 2023 IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS 2023).
[June 2023] Our paper, "Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System-Based Lightweight Intrusion Detection System for UAVs," was accepted for publication at the 48th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN 2023).
[April 2023] Our paper, "Deep Learning-based Energy Harvesting with Intelligent Deployment of RIS-assisted UAV-CFmMIMOs," was accepted for publication in Elsevier International Journal of Computer and Telecommunications Networking (Elsevier Computer Networks).
[April 2023] FIU UGS invited to represent FIU in the Engineering category at the 8th Conference of Florida Graduate Schools (CFGS 2023). [Statewide Graduate Research Symposium]
[April 2023] Awarded Second Place (among 81 posters) in the Engineering category for the poster titled "Data driven ANFIS-based IDS for UAV" at the FIU GSAW Scholarly Forum 2023.
[January 2023] Completed and obtained Microsoft: Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals (MS SC-900) Certification.(Credential)
[November 2022] Completed and obtained Microsoft: Azure AI Fundamentals (MS AI-900) Certification.(Credential)
[September 2022] Our paper, "Trajectory Synthesis for a UAV Swarm Based on Resilient Data Collection Objectives," was accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (IEEE TNSM).
[August 2022] Our paper, "FeD-UP: Federated Deep Reinforcement Learning-based UAV Path Planning against Hostile Defense System," was accepted for publication in the 18th International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM 2022).
[May 2022] Our paper, "A Literature Review on Blockchain-enabled Security and Operation of Cyber Physical Systems," was accepted for publication in the 16th IEEE International Workshop on Security, Trust, and Privacy for Software Applications (STPSA 2022).
[April 2022] Inducted by the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi by election of the chapter at FIU (Phi Kappa Phi FIU) for outstanding academic achievements in the academic year 2020-2021.
[December 2021] Successfully completed the Fall 2021 NSF I-Corps cohort (Midwest Oct - Dec 2021) as Entrepreneurial Lead of team 2426 - SHChecker.
[November 2021] Our paper, "FICBIT: An improved Fractal Image Compression using Bio-Inspired Techniques," was accepted for publication in the 5th IEEE International Conference on Electrical Information and Communication Technology (EICT 2021).
[August 2021] Our paper, "iAttackGen: Generative Synthesis of False Data Injection Attacks in Cyber-physical Systems," was accepted for publication in the 9th IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS 2021).
[August 2021] Got accepted to the NSF National I-Corps program, as team SHChecker (Serving as the Entrepreneurial Lead). Title: "I-Corps: Smart Healthcare System Threat Analyzer" (Award Abstract # 2138301).
[July 2021] Our paper, "BIOCAD: Bio-Inspired Optimization for Classification and Anomaly Detection in Digital Healthcare Systems," was accepted for publication in the IEEE International Conference on Digital Health (ICDH 2021).
[June 2021] Our paper, "CURE: Enabling RF Energy Harvesting using Cell-Free Massive MIMO UAVs Assisted by RIS," was accepted for publication in the IEEE 46th Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN 2021).
[May 2021] Our paper, "REPlanner: Efficient UAV Trajectory-Planning using Economic Reinforcement Learning," was accepted for publication in the 7th IEEE International Conference on Smart Computing (SMARTCOMP 2021).
[April 2021] Got recommendation from the Bay Area NSF I-Corps program held virtually at UC Berkeley, as team SHChecker. (Served as the Entrepreneurial Co-Lead)
Contact Information:
Email: alviataur [dot] khalil [at] siu [dot] edu Office: EGRA 409F, 1230 Lincoln Dr, Carbondale, IL
Research Areas:
My primary research agenda centers on safeguarding next-generation autonomous and distributed systems: spanning cyber-physical platforms, edge IoT networks, and Layer-2 blockchains. Specifically, I focus on:
I primarily apply data-centric machine learning, formal verification, zero-knowledge cryptography, and game-theoretic modeling in my research.
AI-driven intrusion detection for UAVs and other safety-critical CPSs
Security analysis and hardening of blockchain protocols
Trust, safety, and policy enforcement for reinforcement-learning-based autonomy
Privacy-preserving cryptographic protocols (e.g., zero-knowledge proofs) for cyber hardening
Resilient and secure resource orchestration across heterogeneous IoT infrastructures.
Awards and Honors:
Awarded the Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) Honor Society Scholarship 2024 with the IEEE Computing Sciences and the IEEE Computer Society (the largest association of computer professionals), for academic achievement and extracurricular activities related to the discipline of computing.
Awarded the Prestigious Dissertation Fellowship from FIU University Graduate School (UGS) for Spring and Summer 2025 semesters.
Awarded the Graduate Scholar of the Year 2024 by the Outstanding Student Life Awards organized by the Division of Academic & Student Affairs at FIU, for research contributions made in the academic year 2023-24.
Honored with the 2023 ECE Ph.D. Publication Incentive Awards by Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at FIU, for the research regarding UAV-assisted Energy Harvesting of IoT devices, which resulted in one conference and one journal paper.
Awarded NSF Student Travel Grant for 2023 IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS). This award recognizes students who have strong academic background and research potentials in the field of Secured Communications and Networking, as demonstrated by their coursework and/or research experience.
Awarded Second Place (among 81 posters) in the Engineering category for the poster titled "Data driven ANFIS-based IDS for UAV" at the FIU GSAW Scholarly Forum 2023.
Invited and inducted by the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi by election of the chapter at FIU for outstanding academic achievements in the academic year 2020-2021. (Certificate)
