U.S. - Israel Energy Center

Advisor- Yang Weng

Educational Background- Kinjal received his Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, India in 2021 and currently pursuing Master of Science (M.S.) in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

Research Work- Kinjal works in the Power System and Machine Learning area to detect incipient faults for his Masters' thesis.

Advisor- Yang Weng

Educational Background- Bilal received his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Pakistan. He received his Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Electrical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He also received his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

Research Work- Bilal's research interest is Power Distribution System Topology Identification. Currently, his research is more focused on Cyber Security for smart grids.

Advisor- Yang Weng

Educational Background- Napoleon received his Bachelors in Electric Engineering from the Instituto Tecnologico de Morelia, Morelia, Mexico, in 2014 and the Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree from the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Morelia, Mexico, in 2017. He is working towards a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

Research Work- Napoleon's research interests are optimization, machine learning, and data analysis for enhancing the planning, operation, and security of power grids.

Advisors- Lalitha Sankar and Oliver Kosut

Educational Background- Rajasekhar received his Bachelors of Technology (B.Tech) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India. He completed Master of Science (M.S.) in Statistics and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Riverside, USA. Rajasekhar is currently a Postdoc at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

Research Work- Rajasekhar mainly uses control theory, optimization, and data science tools to solve emerging problems in critical infrastructure (e.g., electric grid) and cyber-physical systems.

Advisor- Lalitha Sankar

Educational Background- Obai received his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Electrical Engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia in 2016 and Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in Electrical Power Engineering from Chalemrs University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden in 2018. He is currently pursuing his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

Research Work- Obai's research interests include application of machine learning and data science in power systems as well as Power System Stability and Optimization.

Advisors- Lalitha Sankar and Oliver Kosut

Educational Background- Nima received his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) and Master of Science (M.Sc.) degrees in Electrical Engineering from Shahid Beheshti University and K.N.Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2015, and 2018, respectively. He is currently pursuing the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

Research Work- Nima works on the application of machine learning (ML) and data science in identifying various types of events in power systems using the huge amount of high-dimensional Spatio-temporal data obtained from GPS-synchronized phasor measurement units (PMU) devices. His research interests include application of machine learning and data science in power systems, and resilience in critical infrastructure networks.

Advisor- Lalitha Sankar

Educational Background- Joel completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communications Engineering from University of Mumbai, India. He received his Masters of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, USA.

Research Work- Joel's research directions are two-fold: one aspect involves working with Ph.D. students on systematic, physics-based generation of adversarial attacks on phasor measurement unit (PMU) data that can spoof an event detector into misclassifying events (known as event-mimicking attacks). This research helps us develop an understanding of the vulnerabilities of an event detector, which will then inform the design of event detectors that are robust to event-mimicking attacks. A second, theory-focused aspect of my research involves robust multi-agent reinforcement learning, i.e., data-driven decision making among multiple agents taking into account the dynamics of the system agents. A particular application to the electricity grid involves the optimal dispatch of distributed energy resources in the presence of disturbances.

Advisor- Ying-Cheng Lai

Educational Background- Ling received his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He is currently a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) student at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

Research Work- Ling's topic of interests are Machine Learning Solutions to Nonlinear Dynamics, Reservoir Computing, Anticipating Tipping Point, Percolation (Cascading Failure), and Synchronization on Complex Networks.

Advisor- Ying-Cheng Lai

Educational Background- Mohammadamin received his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Tehran. He completed his Master's in Electrical Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology. Mohammadamin is currently a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) student at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

Research Work- Mohammadamin's topic of interests are Cyber-physical security and control of power grid using reinforcement learning.

Advisor- Sukarno Mertoguno

Educational Background- Muhammad did his Bachelor's degree from LUMS University, Lahore, Pakistan in 2022 and currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in cyber security at Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.

Research Work- Muhammad has been working in the field of security and program analysis for the past 2 years, specifically in the area of software debloating, and now plan to work on cyber-physical system security. His work will specifically be on the Byzantine Fault Tolerance which leverages the physical phenomena of inertia to enable a cyber physical system to evade attacks and safely recover data.

Advisor- Yossi Oren

Educational Background- Michael received the Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Software Engineering from Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel. He is pursuing his Master of Science (M.Sc.) in the Software and Information Systems Engineering Department at Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Research Work- Michael's current research interests are side channel analysis and machine learning. His task under the consortium is to detect cyber attacks on Programmable Logic Controllers using side channel leaks.

Advisors- Rami Puzis and Aviad Elyashar

Educational Background- Nir is a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) student in Software Engineering and a Master of Science (M.Sc.) student in Information-systems Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Research Work- Nir is currently conducting research on threat hunting in industrial control systems at Cyber@BGU laboratory.

Advisors- Lior Rokach and Bracha Shapira

Educational Background- Liat completed her Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) and Master of Science (M.Sc.) degrees in Information-systems Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel and currently, she is a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) student in the same university.

Research Work- Liat's primary research topic is Explainable AI. However, she conducts research on XAI from different directions like explaining anomalies revealed by unsupervised model (Autoencoder), evaluating explanations, and integrating explanation methods within the ML pipeline.

Advisors- Asaf Shabtai and Rami Puzis

Educational Background- Ofir has received his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree in Electrical engineering from Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Research Work- Ofir is currently conducting research on {PlaybookGen} which is related to generation and enhancement of defensive ICS cyber security.

Advisors- Asaf Shabtai, Robert Moskovich, and Rami Puzis

Educational Background- Tali finished her Bachelors in Systems Engineering and working on her thesis parallel to Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Research Work- Tali's research in the thesis consisted of analyzing the output of frequent patterns discovery algorithm, the KarmaLego algorithm, and scanning the output in two different ways (both forward and backwards) in order to visualize both ways, and supply the user with access to frequent discovered patterns and the ability to move from one pattern of interest to another both forward or backwards.

Advisors- Rami Puzis and Lior Rokach

Educational Background- Moti has a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in Computer Science from Reichmann University in Israel. He is currently a Docotr of Philosophy (Ph.D.) student in Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Research Work- Moti's thesis was related to static code analysis and fuzzing. During his Ph.D. studies, he worked on ICS attack knowledge base, CTI knowledge representation and other domains.

Advisors- Asaf Shabtai and Robert Moskovich

Educational Background- Lielle received hee Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree in Software and Information Systems Engineering from Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel. She is currently completing her Masters degree in the Complex Data Analytics Lab, specializing in machine learning and big data from the same university.

Research Work- Lielle's research topic is Negative Sequential Pattern Mining. As part of the research, she developed a new algorithm that mines the complete set of negative sequential patterns.

Advisors- Asaf Shabtai, Rami Puzis, and Robert Moskovich

Educational Background- Michael is a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Software engineering student in Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Research Work- Michael is studying Framework and a method for representing COPEs as temporal patterns.

Advisors- Asaf Shabtai and Robert Moskovich

Educational Background- Omer is a 4th-year Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) student in Data Science & Engineering and Masters of Science (M.Sc.) student in Information-Systems Engineering at Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Research Work- Omer's research deals with the development of an anomaly detection model using sequential patterns representation.