UROP Project

Machine Learning, Cybersecurity, Quantum Computing
Zhixin-Pan.jpg
Research Mentor: Dr. Zhixin Pan,
Department, College, Affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Contact Email: zp23e@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:
Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Computer Science, Electronic & Engineering, Statistics
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5-10,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

The goal of our project is to conduct research in developing efficient Artificial Intelligence (AI) based frameworks to protect computer systems against malicious security threats. We are interested in the study of defending malicious software attack (malware), hardware attack (Trojans), as well as adversarial AI attacks. Our goals include the design, analysis, and control of advanced Machine Learning (ML) systems, which is capable of detecting and alleviating various types of cybersecurity threats. To improve the efficiency of AI frameworks, we are also interested in hardware-based acceleration of ML techniques to achieve real-time detection; AI-based computer vision tasks to improve cybersecurity checking process; resilient and robust neural networks; and quantum-computing based accelerators for various ML models.

Research Tasks: Design and build of various machine learning algorithms/models for cybersecurity/computer vision tasks.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Required: Proficient in any programming skills (Python, C/C++, Matlab), Linear algebra, knowledge on computer architecture

Recommended: Probability theory, Computer Vision/Digital Image Processing

Mentoring Philosophy

I consider that teaching is an integral part of being a researcher. I want to provide excellent, interactive, and collaborative experience to undergraduate and graduate students. I want to take the opportunity to teach and mentor both graduate and undergraduate students. I also want to fulfill my fascination to observe them grow as independent researchers and/or help them to develop their career. I am very much looking forward to
starting my career as a full-time instructor and contributing to the department and university.
I strongly believe that knowledge can be enriched by excellent teachers who can teach the background, discuss the applicability of the subject, and encourage the students to think about the challenges and try to solve them. This fact motivates me to mentor students in academia, to not only conduct cutting-edge research but also teach and inspire both undergraduate and graduate students to develop the required cognitive skills and solve computer science and computer engineering related problems. I enjoy teaching technical subjects and I cannot find anything more satisfying than triggering the passion and interest of the students by guiding them to think critically, and helping them to extend and apply the knowledge.

Additional Information

Please find more information about me on https://eng.famu.fsu.edu/ece/people/pan, or contact me via email.

Link to Publications

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=iCt6DooAAAAJ