ML Resilience & Open-World Recognition
Quantifying and engineering the resilience of ML systems — particularly intrusion detectors — under distribution shift, novel classes, and adversarial inputs.
Gokhan Kul, Ph.D.
Associate Professor · Department of Computer & Information Science
Our lab works at the intersection of AI for Cybersecurity, Cybersecurity for AI, and software systems. We design methods for detecting threats and intrusion detection in critical systems, build models that stay reliable under distribution shift and adversarial pressure, and develop tools that make security and performance properties measurable across the software lifecycle.
Prospective students: I am always looking for motivated Ph.D. students. While there are no immediate openings,
early conversations about research interests are welcome. Master's students interested in thesis or project work should
reach out as early as possible.
Research Areas
Our current projects revolve around AI for Cybersecurity. For more details see Research.
Database & Insider Threat Security
SQL query intent modeling, query similarity, and detection of data exfiltration and insider attacks against enterprise databases.
Software Performance & Vulnerability Detection
Continuous performance prediction (PACE), microarchitectural side-channel detection, and tooling that catches regressions before they ship.
Digital Forensics
Image attribute estimation and reconstruction from fragments, and post-incident forensic protocols for autonomous and connected systems.
Cybersecurity Education & Workforce Development
NSF-funded programs through UMassD's NSA Center of Academic Excellence — including the Building Blocks of Microprocessors SFS supplement.
Recent News
- March 2026 University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Cyber Games team that I mentor recently won first place in the regional competition of the 2026 NCAE Cyber Games. The team beat out 11 other teams in the Northeast 2 division and earned the highest overall score of all 140 teams across the U.S. News article: Read more
- February 2026 I am organizing the Workshop on Dependable and Secure Autonomous Systems at DSN 2026 conference. Read more
- Jul 2024 NSF supplement Building Blocks of Microprocessors: Simulations, Labs and Citizen Science for Inclusive STEM Learning awarded $241k for one year. Leading PI.
- Jun 2024 Resilience Engineering of Machine Learning-enabled Open World Recognition renewed for $247k by the U.S. Department of the Army — bringing the project total to $546k over three years.