Research Overview

My research lies at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity, with two complementary research directions:

  1. AI for Cybersecurity
  2. Cybersecurity for AI

AI for Cybersecurity: I develop intelligent and adaptive cyber defence approaches using machine learning, reinforcement learning, LLMs, context engineering, and agentic AI. My research focuses AI-driven cyber risk detection, assessment, prioritization, and mitigation. I also investigate explainable and responsible AI to support transparent, accountable, and trustworthy security decision-making.

Cybersecurity for AI: I focus on making AI systems secure, resilient, privacy-preserving, and trustworthy throughout their lifecycle. This includes the end-to-end security of AI pipelines, from data collection and model development to deployment and operation, as well as the security of LLM and agentic AI systems against emerging attacks and vulnerabilities.

Top Journals of Publications

  1. ACM Computing Surveys (ACM; Impact Factor = 30.4)
  2. Expert Systems with Applications (Elsevier; Impact Factor = 9.4)
  3. Cluster Computing (Springer; Impact Factor = 5.5)
  4. Journal of Systems and Software (Elsevier; Impact Factor = 4.1)
  5. IEEE Software (IEEE; Impact Factor = 4.0)

Publications

25+ Research Papers 1000+ Citations h-index: 13 Collaborative research with government, defence, and industry partners

Research Supervision

Supervised 80+ students across doctoral and master's research and industry capstone projects in cybersecurity, AI, data science, and software engineering.

2025

SCALAR: Self-Calibrating Adaptive Latent Attention Representation Learning

37th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI), Athens, Greece

SCALAR Presentation - IEEE ICTAI 2025 SCALAR Presentation at IEEE ICTAI 2025
2025

Resilient Auto-Scaling of Microservice Architectures with Efficient Resource Management

32nd Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC), Macau, China

APSEC 2025 Presentation APSEC 2025 Research Presentation
2024

Smart HPA: A Resource-Efficient Horizontal Pod Auto-scaler for Microservice Architectures

21st IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA), Hyderabad, India

ICSA 2024 Poster Presentation ICSA 2024 Research Poster Presentation
2024

Smart HPA: A Resource-Efficient Horizontal Pod Auto-scaler for Microservice Architectures

Invited Talk – CSIRO Data61, Melbourne, Australia

CSIRO Data61 Invited Talk Presentation Presentation Session at CSIRO Data61
CSIRO Data61 Discussion & Slide Architecture & Auto-scaling Discussion
2024

Self-Adaptive Software Security and Scalability

Invited Talk – Maptek Headquarters, Adelaide, Australia

Maptek Invited Talk Keynote on Self-Adaptive Security
Maptek Talk Q&A Industry Technical Discussion
2023

Secure Coding Principles

Invited Talk – Cyber Security Awareness Seminar, University of Adelaide

University of Adelaide Cyber Security Awareness Seminar Seminar Presentation
Secure Coding Principles Talk Secure Coding Principles Talk
2022

A Review on C3I Systems’ Security: Vulnerabilities, Attacks, and Countermeasures

Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC) Symposium, Melbourne

CSCRC Annual Symposium Presentation CSCRC Symposium Presentation
2022

Secure Multi-User Content Sharing for Augmented Reality Applications

Centre for Research on Engineering Software Technologies (CREST), Adelaide

CREST Augmented Reality Security Presentation CREST Research Presentation
2021

A Review on C3I Systems’ Security: Vulnerabilities, Attacks, and Countermeasures

Centre for Research on Engineering Software Technologies (CREST), Adelaide

CREST C3I Systems Presentation CREST Research Presentation
AUD 100,000

Seed-Start Grant

Department of State Development, South Australia (2024)

Enhancing digital operations and AI-driven tech integration for Migrova platform.

AUD 75,000

Cyber Security CRC R&D Grant

Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (2021)

Development of an autonomous Cyber Common Operating Picture platform.

AUD 5,000

Seed Grant

School of Computer Science, University of Adelaide (2025)

Advancing focused research on Security for AI with end-to-end AI pipeline security.

AUD 3,500

CSIRO ON Prime Innovation Grant

CSIRO’s ON Prime Innovation Program (2025)

Customer discovery, market validation, and research commercialization.

AUD 8,000

AWS Cloud Research Grant

Amazon Web Services (2023)

Cloud infrastructure grant supporting microservice auto-scaling R&D.

AUD 5,000

Google Cloud Research Grant

Google Cloud Platform (2024)

High-performance cloud grant for large-scale kubernetes simulation experiments.

Editorial Board Memberships

Journal of Intelligence & Robotics

Jan 2026 – Present

Editorial Board Member – Managing peer review workflows and ensuring scientific rigor, research quality, and integrity.

Certificate of Service - Journal of Intelligence & Robotics

Journal of Cybersecurity and Privacy

Aug 2025 – Present

Early Career Editorial Board Member – Overseeing manuscript evaluation and reviewer coordination in security and privacy domains.

Certificate of Service - Journal of Cybersecurity and Privacy

Program Committee Memberships

IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA 2026)

July 2025 – Present

Program Committee Member – Research Papers Track (peer review, paper selection, and upholding publication standards).

ICSA 2026 Program Committee Member - Research Papers Track

IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA 2024)

Feb 2024 – Mar 2024

Program Committee Member – Artifacts Evaluation Track (evaluating software artifact reproducibility and quality).

ICSA 2024 Program Committee Member - Tools & Artifacts Track

Peer Review Services for Research Journals

Invited peer reviewer and scientific evaluator across premier international journals (2025 – Present):

  • IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC)
  • Computers & Security (Elsevier)
  • Expert Systems with Applications (Elsevier)
  • Future Generation Computer Systems (Elsevier)
  • Journal of Information Security and Applications (Elsevier)
  • IEEE Internet of Things Journal
  • Cluster Computing (Springer)
  • Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience (Wiley)
  • Journal of Cybersecurity and Privacy (MDPI)

Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Representative

School of Computer Science, Adelaide University, Australia

Served as the elected representative for Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidates, advocating for postgraduate student concerns, mental health, and professional development needs across university committees and academic forums.

Organised regular academic workshops, peer support sessions, networking meetups, and social engagement activities aimed at cultivating a constructive, vibrant, and collaborative research environment among PhD and Master's scholars.

Gender, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (GEDI) Representative

Adelaide University, Australia

Held the dedicated role of GEDI Representative for Higher Degree Researchers, championing initiatives that promote an equitable, accessible, and inclusive culture across the academic institution.

Collaborated closely with faculty, student groups, and staff to organize diversity roundtables, inclusive engagement initiatives, and cultural celebration forums, ensuring that students from diverse backgrounds and underrepresented groups receive continuous support and visibility.

Higher Degree by Research Student Mentor

Adelaide University, Australia

Provided one-on-one and group mentoring to newly enrolled PhD and Master's research students, helping them navigate early research challenges, milestones, literature analysis methodologies, and academic integration into the school community.

Guided students through practical skills development, academic writing strategies, and effective work-life balance throughout their candidature.