Team

Director

Hanif Rahbari, Ph.D.

Hanif Rahbari, Ph.D.

Dr. Rahbari received the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering (ECE) from the University of Arizona (UA) in 2016 in WiCON lab. He joined RIT in Spring 2018 after a brief experience as a postdoctoral associate at Virginia Tech in WiNSeR lab. He also holds a B.Sc. degree in information technology engineering and an M.Sc. degree in computer networks from Sharif University of Technology and AmirKabir University of Technology (Iran), respectively. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2023.

 Personal Website
Office: GOL-3789 (Cybersecurity Hall)
Faraday LabGOL-3739
Email: hanif.rahbari@rit.edu

Ph.D. Candidates

Naureen Hoque

Naureen Hoque

Education: I completed my Master's degree in Computer Science from The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), NE in 2018. Prior to joining UNL as a graduate student in 2016, I worked as a Lecturer at the Daffodil International University (Bangladesh). I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic & Telecommunication Engineering from the North South University (Bangladesh).

PhD: I started my Ph.D. in Computing and Information Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in the Fall of 2019. My research interests are Security & Privacy, and Machine Learning.

Emailnaureen.hoque@mail.rit.edu
Office: Cybersecurity Hall (open research space)

Portrait of Sid Dongre

Sid Dongre

Education: I completed my Master of Science in Computing Security from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in May 2020. Prior to that, I received my Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering from Pune University, India in July 2017.

PhD: I started my Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at RIT in Fall 2020. My research interests include secure spectrum sharing in 5G, Wi-Fi and radio astronomy services; beamforming in MIMO systems; and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications security.

Emailsd4767@rit.edu
Office: Cybersecurity Hall (open research space)

Ph.D. Students

Portrait of Geoff Twardokus

Geoff Twardokus

EducationI received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computing Security from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in 2021. Prior to my studies at RIT, I received two Associate of Science (A.S.) degrees, one in Computer Science and the other in Mathematics, from Tompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden, NY.

PhD: I started my Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at RIT in Fall 2021. My research interests include secure vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, security in emerging and next-generation vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies, post-quantum security for connected vehicles, and testbed development for wireless systems.

Emailgeoff.twardokus@mail.rit.edu
Office: Cybersecurity Hall (open research space)

Portrait of Shima Mashhadi

Shima Mashhadi

Education: I received my B.Sc. degree from Alzahra University and my M.Sc. degree from Iran University of Science and Technology, Iran, in 2018 and 2022, respectively, both in Electrical Engineering.
PhD: Currently, I am pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), starting in Fall 2023. My research interests are wireless security, machine learning, and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication.
Email: sm3709@rit.edu
Office: Cybersecurity Hall (open research space)

Undergraduate Students

Portrait of Nick Geiger

Nick Geigel

Education: I pursue an accelerated dual-degree program in Computing Security at RIT with expected graduation in 2025.

Research: Introductory cybersecurity training targeted at workers in the smart manufacturing industry.

Email: nlg9323@rit.edu

Portrait of Ben Carini

Ben Carini

Education: I am pursuing a B.S. in Computing Security at RIT with expected graduation in May 2024.

Research: Post-quantum security for wireless and other constrained networks. I also have interest in security of wireless communication between UAVs.

Email: btc5343@rit.edu

Group Alumni

Portrait of Geoff Twardokus

Geoff Twardokus

M.S. in August 2021 (Currently a Ph.D. student in the ECE program at Rochester Institute of Technology)

Geoff entered the accelerated dual-degree program in Computing Security at RIT in 2019, completing the B.S. requirements in 2020 and the M.S. requirements in 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Rahbari. His research focus was on testbed development and security in vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications.

Thesis title: Intelligent Lower-Layer Denial-of-Service Attacks Against Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (available from RIT Scholar Works)

Emailgdt5762@rit.edu

Portrait of Leul Berhane-Meskel

Leul Berhane-Meskel

M.S. in May 2021 (Currently a Site Reliability Engineer at Grubhub, Chicago)

While a Computer Science student at RIT, Leul moved into the accelerated Master's program in Computing Security in 2019 as a BS/MS student. His research focus was on Zigbee Security.

Project title: Only as strong as the weakest [ZigBee] Touchlink 

Emaillgb9445@rit.edu
SocialLinkedIn