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Birhanu Eshete

Assistant Professor, Computer Science

University of Michigan, Dearborn

Welcome!

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, where I lead the Data-Driven Security & Privacy Lab (DSPLab).

My current research focus is on trustworthy machine learning, cybercrime analysis, and cyber threat intelligence. In the DSPLab, we aim to improve trustworthiness of ML in the face of targeted adversarial manipulations ([1], [2], [3], [4]), privacy-motivated inference attacks ([5], [6], [7]), and study ML trustworthiness via the interaction among security, privacy, transparency, and fairness properties of ML in high-stakes applications. On the cybercrime front, we focus on characterization, detection, and forensics of cybercriminal activities ([8], [9], [10]). In cyber threat intelligence, we focus on characterization, measurement, and forensics of cyber attacks including advanced persistent threats ([11], [12], [13]).

My research has appeared in top security & privacy venues such as IEEE S&P, ACM CCS, USENIX Security, ISOC NDSS, ACM PETS, ACM ACSAC, IEEE/IFIP DSN, and widely accessible venues such as the Science Magazine. I am a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (2023), USENIX Security Symposium Distinguished Paper Award (2018), Finalist (top 10) for CSAW Best Applied Security Paper award (2018), and IEEE ICDS Best Paper Award (2010).

Before joining UM-Dearborn, I was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Systems & Internet Security Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I earned my PhD in Computer Science from the University of Trento, and my B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Computer Science from Addis Ababa University. For more, here is my full CV.

Selected Talks and Interviews:

BIC@DEFCON’30: Trustworthy Machine Learning USENIX ENIGMA: Adventures with Cybercrime Toolkits
New Frontiers: Machine Learning Attack Surface Science Magazine: Attacks on Machine Learning

Recent Publications

(2023). Designing Secure Performance Metrics for Last-Level Cache. Proceedings of the 28th International Workshop on High-Level Parallel Programming Models and Supportive Environments (HIPS 2023).

(2022). Adversarial Detection of Censorship Measurements. Proceedings of the 21st ACM Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society (WPES’22), co-located with the 29th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), 2022.

Project

(2022). DP-UTIL: Comprehensive Utility Analysis of Differential Privacy in Machine Learning. Proceedings of the 12th ACM Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy (ACM CODASPY).

PDF Code Project Video

Students

[B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.]

Current Students:

Abderrahmen Amich 2019- Ph.D. Candidate
Firas Ben Hmida 2023- Ph.D. Student
Philemon E. Hailemariam 2023- Ph.D. Student
Christine Carlton 2023- Master’s Student
Elie Rizk 2023- Master’s Student

Former Students:

Ata Kaboudi M.Sc., 2022-2023, U of Michigan, Dearborn
Jon-Nicklaus Jackson M.Sc., 2023, U of Michigan, Dearborn => IT Security and Compliance Analyst, Bosch USA
Hassaan Ali M.Sc., 2023, U of Michigan, Dearborn => Senior Software Engineer, Tesla
Ismat Jarin Ph.D., 2019-2022 (DNF) => Ph.D. Student, UC Irvine
Chevy Pawlik B.Sc., 2022, U of Michigan, Dearborn => IT Security Analyst, Auto-Owners Insurance
Olajide David M.Sc., 2022, U of Michigan, Dearborn => on the job market
Hassan Ali M.Sc., 2022, U of Michigan, Dearborn => Senior Software Engineer, General Motors
Zeineb Moalla B.Sc., 2022, U of Michigan, Dearborn => MS Student at U of Michigan, Dearborn
Majed Chamseddine M.Sc., 2021, U of Michigan, Dearborn => Security Engineer, Amazon
Abdullah Ali M.Sc., 2019, U of Michigan, Dearborn => Software Engineer
Prasanth Kommini M.Sc., 2016, U of Illinois, Chicago => Senior Security Software Engineer, SnowFlake
Stefano Arseni M.Sc., 2016, U of Illinois, Chicago => Site Reliability Engineer, Google
Sohaib Choudhry B.Sc., 2014, U of Illinois, Chicago => Partner, Noor Consulting Group
Patrick Tam B.Sc., 2014, U of Illinois, Chicago => Full Stack Engineer, Zoom
Claudio Frigo B.Sc., 2010, U of Trento, Italy => Software Engineer, Qlik
Valentino Sartori B.Sc., 2010, U of Trento, Italy => ICT Operation, Dolomit Energy Holdings, Trento, Italy

Teaching

[undergrad, grad]

Graduate

Winter 2023: Advanced Computer and Network Security (CIS584), Compiler Design (CIS574)
Fall 2022: Data Security and Privacy (CIS545), Foundations of Information Security (CIS540)
Winter 2022: Compiler Design (CIS574)
Fall 2021: Data Security and Privacy (CIS545), Foundations of Information Security (CIS540)
Winter 2021: Compiler Design (CIS574)
Fall 2020: Data Security and Privacy (CIS545), Foundations of Information Security (CIS540)
Winter 2020: Compiler Design (CIS574)
Fall 2019: Data Security and Privacy (CIS545)
Winter 2019: Compiler Design (CIS574)
Fall 2018: Data Security and Privacy (CIS545)

Undergraduate

Winter 2023: Compiler Design (CIS474)
Winter 2022: Senior Design (CIS4951)
Winter 2022: Compiler Design (CIS474)
Fall 2021: Data Security and Privacy (CIS4851)
Winter 2021: Digital Forensics II (CIS467)
Fall 2020: Data Security and Privacy (CIS4851)
Winter 2020: Compiler Design (CIS474)
Fall 2019: Data Security and Privacy (CIS4851)
Winter 2019: Compiler Design (CIS474)
Fall 2018: Data Security and Privacy (CIS4851)

Professional Service

[Conferences, Journals, Misc]

Organizing Committee Member

43rd IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Co-Chair. 2022.
Dearborn AI Symposium - Poster and Demo Track Co-Chair: University of Michigan, Dearborn, Nov 05 – Nov 06, 2020.
Dearborn Cybersecurity Day: Co-Organizer: University of Michigan, Dearborn, April 01, 2019.
Program Committee Member
ACM Web: The Web Conference, 2024.
ACM CODASPY: ACM Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy, 2024.
USENIX SEC: USENIX Security Symposium, 2023.
ACM CODASPY: ACM Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy, 2023.
IEEE EuroS\&P : IEEE Eurpean Security and Privacy Symposium, 2023.
USENIX SEC: USENIX Security Symposium, 2022.
USENIX SEC: USENIX Security Symposium, 2020.
SecureComm: Security and Privacy in Communication Networks, 2020.
SecureComm: Security and Privacy in Communication Networks, 2019.
SecureComm: Security and Privacy in Communication Networks, 2018.
SecureComm: Security and Privacy in Communication Networks, 2017.
MAICS: Modern Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science Conference, 2017.
SecureComm: Security and Privacy in Communication Networks, 2016.
MAICS: Modern Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science Conference, 2016.

Invited Journal Article Reviewer

IJIS: International Journal of Information Security, 2022.
ITS: IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, 2021.
TIFS: IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics & Security, 2021.
ITS: IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, 2019.
TIFS: IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics & Security, 2018.
TDSC: IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, 2017.
IJIS: International Journal of Information Security, 2016.
NEPL: Neural Processing Letters, 2015.
TDSC: IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, 2015.
ESEJ: e-Informatica Software Engineering Journal, 2015.
JSS: Journal of Systems and Software, 2013.

External Conference Reviewer

CCS: ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, 2018.
NDSS: Network and Distributed Systems Security Symposium, 2016.
QRS: International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability & Security, 2015.
ICWE: International Conference on Web Engineering, 2015.
NDSS: Network and Distributed Systems Security Symposium, 2015.
ICISS: International Conference on Information Systems Security, 2014.
SERE: International Conference on Security and Reliability, 2014.
Misc
UIC SRF: Faculty Judge: UIC Student Research Forum, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2015.

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