Ph.D. Student in Information Technology
Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant
| Office: | IIT Mies Campus: Michael Paul Galvin Tower Room 14C4-1, 10 W
35th St, Chicago, IL (Google Map Location) |
| Office hours for Fall 2025: | Mies Campus: Tuesday 2:00 PM–3:00 PM; Wednesday 2:00 PM–3:00 PM. |
| Email: | ppakshad[at]hawk.illinoistech.edu |
| Snail Mail: | Puya Pakshad Department of Information Technology and Management
Illinois Institute of Technology 10 W 35th St
Chicago, Illinois, 60616-3792
USA |
| Google Scholar: | Profile |
| LinkedIn: | ![View [Your Name]'s profile on LinkedIn](http://www.linkedin.com/img/webpromo/btn_viewmy_160x25.gif){kind=small} |
Research Interests
AI Security, Cybersecurity, Software Engineering, Program Analysis, Machine Learning, Large Language Models
Education
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Ph.D. in Information Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago, USA
Expected Graduation: 2026 -
M.Sc. in Computer Engineering – Software
Shahid Beheshti University (SBU), Tehran, Iran
2018 – 2021 -
B.Sc. in Computer Engineering – Software
Arak University, Arak, Iran
2012 – 2017
Research Experience
- A Security Vulnerability Predictor Based on Source Code Metrics (Springer, 2023)
- Adaptive Security for Facilities in High-Risk Cities: A Case Study Approach (Journal of Computer Science, 2025)
- Vulnerability Scoring Metric of CVSS Needs to Be Adjusted per Each Product: Our Analysis on Linux and Apache (Taylor & Francis, 2025)
- An In-Depth Analysis of a Cyber Attack: Case Study and Security Insights (IGI Global, 2025)
- Are Textual Prompts in Large Language Models Sufficient for Vulnerability Detection? (IGI Global, 2025)
- An Empirical Analysis of Vulnerability Discovery in Windows Software (Under Review, Journal of Supercomputing, submitted Feb 2025)
- IEPIS: An Intelligent Endpoint Protection and Insight System (Under Review, IEEE TrustCom-2025 | The 24th International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications)
- Software Defect Detection through LLM-Augmented Reverse Engineering of Source Code (Under Review, 2025)
Professional Experience
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Graduate Teaching Assistant, Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, United States | Aug 2025 – Present- Cyber Forensics & Operating System Security: Grading research projects and assignments, leading discussion sections, designing final exam questions, proctoring exams
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Instructor & Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant, Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, United States | May 2025 – Aug 2025- Led the Code Masters: Programming Bootcamp for middle school students as part of the Elevate College Prep program, teaching Python fundamentals and project-based programming.
- Assisted in teaching an online courses on the Coursera platform as a Teaching Assistant, supporting Q&A, grading assignments, and guiding learners of varying cybersecurity backgrounds.
- Contributed to AI Security research with the College of Computing, extending PhD work and submit a research paper in summer 2025
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Graduate Teaching Assistant, Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, United States | Jan 2025 – May 2025- Cyber Forensics: Proctoring exams, designing midterm exam questions, grading research projects and assignments
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Graduate Teaching Assistant, Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, United States | Aug 2024 – Jan 2025- Cyber Forensics & Operating System Security: Grading research projects and assignments, leading discussion sections, designing final exam questions, proctoring exams
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Graduate Teaching Assistant, Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, United States | Jan 2024 – Jun 2024- Data Privacy & Security: Grading assignments and research projects, proctoring exams
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Graduate Research Assistant, Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, United States | Jun 2023 – Jan 2024- Research project: advancing information flow control (IFC) techniques using stack machines, identifying security flaws, and designing reduction rules
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Graduate Research Assistant, Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, United States | Aug 2022 – Jun 2023- Research project: directed fuzzing techniques and advancing time-scheduling approaches
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Senior Software Engineer, Chabokfa Co.
Tehran, Iran | Jul 2021 – 2022- ISMS software product development, ISO/IEC compliance, security testing (Burp Suite, Nmap), and machine learning applications
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Research Assistant, Shahid Beheshti University
Tehran, Iran | Sep 2019 – Jun 2021- Research project: detecting security vulnerabilities in C/C++ source code using graph-based static analysis and machine learning
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Software Engineer, Tajhiz Sara Co.
Location | Apr 2017 – Jul 2018- Server-side programming for online shopping systems using PHP backend and CodeIgniter framework
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Teaching Assistant, Shahid Beheshti University
Tehran, Iran | 2015 – 2020- Courses: Advanced Programming with Java, Principles of Database Design, Information Storage and Retrieval, and System Analysis & Design
- Responsibilities: grading assignments, projects, and exams; teaching SQLServer/MySQL; supervising group activities; supporting students needing additional guidance
Media Appearances
“Software Vulnerability Detection: From Static Metrics to LLM-Augmented Approaches” Meetup Page
- Demonstrated how early ML models using static code metrics compare to LLM-based detection on real C/C++ projects.
- Shared unpublished experimental results showing accuracy and scalability trade-offs in LLM-augmented vulnerability prediction.
- Connected academic research to practical developer tools, giving the audience actionable insights into secure coding workflows.
“Cybersecurity Awareness: Trends of AI, Blockchain, and Cybersecurity”
- Brought a PhD research perspective to an IIT panel on AI, blockchain, and cybersecurity.
- Spoke about the role of AI in modern malware detection and the need for defenses against adversarial attacks.
- Positioned vulnerability detection research in the broader context of ethical and technical challenges facing AI security.
“Vulnerability Data Collection and Visualization System”
- Developed a security tool integrating NVD, CVE, OSV, and MITRE data through specialized APIs.
- Standardized and centralized vulnerability datasets into a unified security database.
- Built interactive dashboards and predictive analytics to support security experts.
“Using Flawfinder for Security Scans on the Linux Kernel”
- Provided a full walkthrough of Flawfinder installation and usage on Windows.
- Scanned the Linux kernel and its modules to identify security vulnerabilities.
- Explained switches and commands for practical open-source vulnerability analysis.