Group Members

Dr. Alvi Ataur Khalil

Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track)
Email: a.khalil@siu.edu
Office: EGRA 409F

Alvi Ataur Khalil is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science, School of Computing, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA. He completed his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida International University (FIU), USA, in 2025. He received his M.S. degree in Computer Engineering from FIU in 2024, and his B.Sc. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET), Bangladesh, in 2018. From 2018 to 2019, he worked as a Software Developer at MazeGeek Technologies BD Ltd., Dhaka, Bangladesh, and served as a Lecturer at Daffodil International University. From 2020 to 2025, he was a Graduate Assistant at the Analytics for Cyber Defense (ACyD) Lab at FIU, contributing to research projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Department of Energy (DOE). Dr. Khalil’s research focuses on blockchain security, particularly off-chain Layer-2 vulnerabilities and defenses, intelligent UAV control using reinforcement learning, and AI-driven cybersecurity solutions for cyber-physical systems. He has authored over twenty peer-reviewed papers published in leading venues, including IEEE TNSM, Elsevier Computer Networks, IEEE/IFIP DSN, ACSAC, EAI SecureComm, IEEE CNS, ACM DLT, IEEE LCN, CNSM, IEEE SMARTCOMP, and IEEE COMPSAC. He is a recipient of several awards, including the Outstanding Graduate Scholar of the Year at FIU (2023–24), the Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) Honor Society Scholarship (2024), the FIU Dissertation Year Fellowship (2025), NSF I-Corps Grant as Entrepreneur Lead, and multiple NSF and IEEE travel awards.

Education

Abdullahil Kafi

PhD Student, Started Spring 2026
Email: abdullahil.kafi@siu.edu
Office: EGRA 409D

Research Areas:

Education

Md Khalid Syfullah

PhD Student, Started Spring 2026
Email: mdkhalid.syfullah@siu.edu
Office: EGRA 409D

Research Areas:

Education

Alvaro Alva Chavez

MS student, Graduated Summer 2024

Alvaro was mentored by Dr. Khalil during his Master’s program at Florida International University, where he conducted research on securing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in GPS-compromised environments. His work developed an intrusion detection system based on Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signals from UAV flight controllers and electronic speed controllers.

Syed Ahmad Shah

REU Scholar, Summer 2024 (Currently Software Developer @ PVEDI)

Syed was an NSF REU scholar during Summer 2024, mentored by Dr. Khalil, where he conducted research on autonomous UAV swarms for disaster response. His work developed a deep reinforcement learning–based framework for coordinated UAV-assisted surveillance and survivor identification in infrastructure-degraded environments.

Christopher Paladines

Undergrad Researcher with CREPES, Spring 2024 - Summer 2024

Christopher was mentored by Dr. Khalil from Spring 2024 through Summer 2024, where he conducted research spanning blockchain security and aerial surveillance analytics. His work focused on identifying security vulnerabilities in payment channel networks as well as analyzing UAV imagery datasets using deep learning models, including ResNet and convolutional neural networks, to enable reliable surveillance and situational awareness.

Edgar J. Barrera Castillo

REU Scholar, Summer 2023 (Currently Robotics Technician @ Serve Robotics)

Edgar was an NSF REU Scholar mentored by Dr. Khalil during Summer 2023 at Florida International University, where he conducted research on smart contract security and privacy in blockchain systems. His work focused on mitigating sensitive data exposure and reentrancy vulnerabilities by designing and evaluating abstracted smart contracts under adversarial conditions.

Alexander Byrne

REU Scholar, Summer 2021 (Currently Cyber Security Engineer @ MITRE)

Alexander was an NSF REU scholar mentored by Dr. Khalil during the Summer 2021 program, where he conducted research on multi-UAV coordination and autonomous trajectory planning. His work developed REPlanner, a multi-agent reinforcement-learning framework inspired by economic auction mechanisms that enables UAVs to cooperatively and competitively allocate tasks in complex, obstacle-rich environments.