Mehdi Mirakhorli Headshot

Mehdi Mirakhorli

Director of Cybersecurity Research in GCI

Department of Software Engineering
Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences
Kodak Endowed Scholar
Director of Research, ESL Global Cybersecurity Institute
mxmvse@rit.edu
585-475-4663
Office Location
GCI-3765
Office Mailing Address
70-3783

Mehdi Mirakhorli

Director of Cybersecurity Research in GCI

Department of Software Engineering
Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences
Kodak Endowed Scholar
Director of Research, ESL Global Cybersecurity Institute

Education

BS, Teacher Training University of Iran (Iran); MS, National University of Iran (Iran); Ph.D., DePaul University

Bio

Mehdi Mirakhorli is the Director of Research at ESL Global Cybersecurity Institute and Kodak Endowed Chair, Associate Professor at the Software Engineering Department. Mirakhorli is also the director of Software Design and Productivity Laboratory. His research is in the broad area of software engineering; he has carried out various projects of national importance in the areas of trustworthy software, software assurance, cybersecurity, resiliency, scientific software development, and software-enabled sustainable disposal.
His team has developed techniques based on program analysis, software verification and custom machine learning algorithms to solve software engineering problems at scale in the areas such as software architecture analysis, requirements engineering, software security, software compliance and verification, and source code comprehension. Mirakhorli has led several large fundamental research and technology transition projects with the Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and National Science Foundation (NSF). He has more than a decade of experience as a software architect and tech-lead on large, complex, and multi-stakeholder projects such as AI-enabled automation, cyber-threats and intelligence, data-intensive meteorological systems, and health care. In 2017, he worked at the Air Force Research Laboratory as a faculty fellow. Currently, he serves on the advisory board of two leading software companies in the technology development sector. Mirakhorli is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award. His paper "A Tactic-Centric Approach for Automating Traceability of Quality Concerns" received ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award at ICSE'2012. Mirakhorli's paper "Understanding Software Vulnerabilities Related to Architectural Security Tactics: An Empirical Investigation of Chromium, PHP and Thunderbird" received the Best Paper Award at the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture. Mirakhorli serves as associated editor for IEEE Transaction on Software Engineering (TSE) and Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE) Journals. He is a public speaker in the area of software architecture and application security. He is also an ACM Distinguished Speaker, has been ALTA Distinguished Speaker at Alcatel-Lucent, and has given several technical briefings.
 

mxmvse@rit.edu
585-475-4663
Areas of Expertise
Artificial Intelligence
Security and Privacy
Software Engineering

Currently Teaching

SWEN-599
Independent Study
1 - 3 Credits
The student will work independently under the supervision of a faculty adviser on a topic not covered in other courses (proposal signed by a faculty member)
SWEN-755
Software Architecture
3 Credits
A system’s software architecture is the first technical artifact that illustrates a proposed solution to a stated problem. For all but the simplest system, the achievement of qualities such as flexibility, modifiability, security, and reliability is critically dependent on the components and interactions defined by the architecture. The course focuses on the definition of architectural structures, the analysis of architectures in terms of trade-offs among conflicting constraints, the documentation of architecture for use over a product’s life cycle, and the role of architecture during coding activities.
SWEN-780
Capstone Research Project
3 - 6 Credits
This course provides the student with an opportunity to explore a project-based research experience that advances knowledge in that area. The student selects a research problem, conducts background research, develops the system, analyses the results, and builds a professional document and presentation that disseminates the project. The report must include an in-depth research report on a topic selected by the student and in agreement with the student's adviser. The report must be structured as a conference paper, and must be submitted to a conference selected by the student and his/her adviser.
SWEN-781
Continuation of Capstone
0 Credits
This course provides the student with an opportunity to complete their capstone project, if extra time if needed after enrollment in SWEN-790. The student continues to work closely with his/her adviser.
SWEN-790
Thesis
6 Credits
This course provides the student with an opportunity to execute a thesis project, analyze and document the project in thesis document form. An in-depth study of a software engineering topic will be research focused, having built upon the thesis proposal developed prior to this course. The student is advised by their primary faculty adviser and committee. The thesis and thesis defense is presented for approval by the thesis adviser and committee.
SWEN-791
Continuation of Thesis
0 Credits
This course provides the student with an opportunity to complete their thesis project once having enrolled in both thesis courses (SWEN-794, SWEN-795) if extra time is needed. The student continues to work closely with his/her adviser and thesis committee.
SWEN-799
Independent Study
3 - 6 Credits
This course provides the graduate student an opportunity to explore an aspect of software engineering in depth, under the direction of an adviser. The student selects a topic, conducts background research, develops the system, analyses results, and disseminates the project work. The report explains the topic/problem, the student's approach and the results. (Completion of 9 semester hours is needed for enrollment)

In the News

  • May 11, 2021

    environmental portrait of student Joanna C. S. Santos.

    Ph.D. students take different career paths

    More than 50 students are expected to earn their Ph.D. degrees by the end of June. The hooding ceremony, which will also include Ph.D. recipients in the class of 2020, is May 15.

  • April 28, 2021

    aerial view of several brick buildings on RIT's campus.

    Cybersecurity complex open for business

    The cyber pandemic is just one of many cybersecurity issues that RIT experts are working to address in the new Global Cybersecurity Institute (GCI). Late last fall, the GCI opened the doors to its 52,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility on campus. With the institute, RIT is on its way to becoming one of the best places in the world for cybersecurity education, training, and research.

  • April 2, 2021

    Three people sitting in front of laptops having a discussion.

    RIT researchers are making software secure by design

    With more than $4 million in support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and other organizations, Associate Professor Mehdi Mirakhorli and his student team are developing tools and techniques to help coders take an architectural approach to software design.

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