Ziming ZhaoAssociate Professor Khoury College of Computer Sciences Northeastern University z.zhao AT northeastern.edu |
I am an associate professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University. I direct the CyberspACe securiTy and forensIcs lab (CactiLab). My research interests are in Systems and Software Security, Network and Web Security, and Human-centric Security. I am a recipient of the Test-of-Time Paper Award at SACMAT 2024 and Best/Distinguished Paper Awards at USENIX Security 2019, ACM AsiaCCS 2022, ACM CODASPY 2014, and ITU Kaleidoscope 2016. I got my PhD from Arizona State University CSE.
My research has been supported by National Science Foundation (NSF), National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C), and Department of Defense (DoD). I am a recipient of an NSF CAREER award and an NSF CRII award. I was a visiting faculty at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) in 2020/2021.
I am the faculty advisor and the founder of the CTF teams Cacti (all kinds of CTFs) and TigerBytes (hardware CTFs).
I have multiple RA openings starting Fall 2025. See my ads.
Awards and Recognitions
- University at Buffalo Teaching Innovation Award, 2024
- ACM SACMAT Test-of-time Paper Award, 2024
- NSF CAREER Award, 2023
- 2nd Place in UB Russell L. Agrusa CSE Innovation Competition, 2023
- ACM AsiaCCS Best Paper Award, 2022
- UB CSE Early Career Faculty Teaching Award, 2022
- UB CSE Career Initiation Award, 2021
- NSF CRII Award, 2021
- USENIX Security Distingushed Paper Award, 2019
- ITU Kaleidoscope Best Paper Award, 2016
- 3rd place Extreme Networks SDN Innovation Challenge, 2015
- ACM CODASPY Best Paper Award, 2014
Teaching
- Fall 2024, NEU CY 5770 Software Vulnerabilities and Security
- Spring 2024, UB CSE 712 Seminar: Microcontroller Systems Security
- Fall 2023, UB CSE 410/518 Software Security Student Evaluation: 5/5 (410), 4.8/5 (518)
- Spring 2023, UB CSE 410/565 Computer Security Student Evaluation: 4.8/5 (410), 4.3/5 (565)
- Fall 2022, UB CSE 410/510 Software Security. Student Evaluation: 4.8/5
- Spring 2022, UB CSE 410/510 Software Security. Student Evaluation: 4.4/5
- Fall 2021, UB CSE 410/510 Software Security. Student Evaluation: 4.8/5
- Spring 2021, UB CSE 703 Seminar: Advanced Software Security - Techniques and Tools
- Fall 2020, UB CSE 610 Special Topics: System Security - Attack and Defense for Binaries. Student Evaluation: 4.8/5
- Spring 2020, RIT CSEC 741 Internet of Things Security.
- Fall 2019, RIT CSEC 659 Seminar in Computing Security: Trusted Computing and Trusted Execution. Student Evaluation: 4.5/5
- Spring 2019, RIT CSEC 741 Sensor and SCADA Security. Student Evaluation: 4.45/5
- Fall 2018, RIT CSEC 750 Covert Communications.
- Spring 2018, ASU CSE 469 Computer and Network Forensics.
- Spring 2017, ASU CSE 469 Computer and Network Forensics. Student Evaluation: 4.49/5
- Fall 2016, ASU CSE 468 Computer Network Security. Student Evaluation: 4.49/5
Selected Publications
For the full list of publications, please refer to CactiLab Website.
Ph.D. Graduates
- Md Armanuzzaman Dissertation: Augmenting and Utilizing Trusted Execution Environments For Embedded System Security. University at Buffalo. 2024. (Postdoc at Northeastern University)
- Xi Tan Dissertation: Control-flow Security For Microcontroller-based Systems. University at Buffalo. 2024. (Assistant Professor at University of Colorado Colorado Springs)
- Cong Wu Dissertation: Research on Secure and Usable Biometric Authentication for Mobile Terminal. Wuhan University. 2022. (Co-advised with Prof. Jing Chen)
- Wonkyu Han Dissertation: Policy-driven Network Defense for Software Defined Networks. Arizona State University. 2016. (Co-advised with Prof. Gail-Joon Ahn)
Last updated 8/2024