Maanak GuptA

Looking for hard working and motivated students. If AI-assisted Cybersecurity, and Security of AI is interesting, shoot me an email.  Funding opportunities available.

Maanak Gupta is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Computer Science at Tennessee Tech University where he is the director of the Applied and Basic Cyber Security (ABCyS) research laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), under the supervision of Prof. Ravi Sandhu in December 2018, and has worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Cyber Security, UTSA. He is also an associated faculty with the CEROC: Cybersecurity Education, Research & Outreach Center at Tennessee Tech. His primary area of research includes security and privacy in cyber space. In particular, he is interested in studying scientific foundational aspects of access control and their applications in real world 21st century technologies including cyber physical systems, precision agriculture, smart cars, Internet of Things, cloud computing, and Big Data. He is also interested in AI and machine learning driven security solutions including malware analysis and classification for Cloud IaaS. His scholarly work is regularly published at top peer-reviewed security venues including ACM SIGSAC conferences and refereed journals. He was awarded the 2019 computer science outstanding doctoral dissertation research award from UT San Antonio. His research has been funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, US Department of Defense (DoD) and private industry. He holds an MS in Information Systems from Northeastern University, Boston, USA.  

Research Interests 

I am primarily interested in Security and Privacy in Cyber space. My current focus is mainly on: 

1. Foundational aspects in authorization including  Access Control Models and Formal safety analysis.

2. AI and Machine Learning assisted security including Malware Analysis and Adversarial attacks. 

3. Application of 1 & 2 in:

• Internet of Things, Smart Connected Cars and Cyber Physical Systems.

• Secure Cloud Computing.

My publications can be found here. 

Work Experience

• Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Tennessee Tech University, Tennessee, USA, Aug 2019 - Present.

• Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Cyber Security, University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas, USA, 2018 - 2019.

• Research Assistant, Institute for Cyber Security, University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas, USA, 2015 - 2018.

• Teaching Assistant, Department of Computer Science, University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas, USA, 2014 - 2015.

• Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, DIT University, Dehradun, India, 2012 - 2014.

Education

• PhD in Computer Science, University of Texas at San Antonio, 2014 - 2018.

• MS in Computer Science (Concentration: Computer and Information Security), University of Texas at San Antonio, 2017.

• MS in Information Systems, Northeastern University, Boston, 2012.

• B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering, Kurukshetra University, 2010.

Personal Briefing

I was born in India where I was raised in local vicinity playing cricket, volleyball, badminton etc. I like to travel and visit new places, play outdoor sports, racquet-ball, and cardio. I am an enthusiast of current affairs and avid listener of television debates.