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People

Director

Sandip Ray

 Email: sandip@ece.ufl.edu
Warren B. Nelms Endowed Professor
Director of Industrial Programs, Warren B. Nelms Institute for Connected World

Graduation Snapshots

 

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Ph.D. Students

Bhagawat Yedla

 Email: b.yedlaravi@ufl.edu

Bhagawat is currently pursuing his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He received his Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida. He has 2 years of end to end product design and development experience with consumer electronics and automotive systems. His research interests include connected and autonomous vehicle systems, computer vision, and novel IoT device design. He loves sketching, painting, making comic books, playing cricket, swimming, taking apart electronics and piecing them back to build new gadgets.

Chengwei (Derek) Duan

 Email: duan.c@ufl.edu

Chengwei Duan is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree in the ECE department at the University of Florida. His research interest is on the cybersecurity of connected and autonomous vehicle applications. He likes basketball, swimming, cooking and listening to music in his spare time.

Dipal Halder

 Email: dipal.halder@ufl.edu

Dipal Halder has recently joined in RISING lab at UF to pursue his doctorate degree. Before this, he has received master’s degree in Computer Aided Engineering from Eastern Michigan University and actively engaged in an autonomous vehicle project. Furthermore, he has worked as a system engineer intern in R&D section of a company named Groupe SEB in France. He also received an advance master’s degrees in Computer Engineering from Grenoble INP, ESISAR, France as a part of full scholarship provided by IDEX, University of Grenoble Alpes. Dipal’s bachelor was in Electrical and Electronic Engineering that he completed from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh. His research interest includes SoC security, IoT security, Autonomous vehicle security and likes to do multidisciplinary research. Apart from academia and research, Dipal is particularly fond of listening to old music, sketching, writing poems and cooking as well. Dipal’s Personal Site: https://sites.google.com/view/dipalhalder/home

Sumaiya Afroz Mila

 Email: mila.s@ufl.edu

Sumaiya Afroz Mila received her Bachelor’s degree in CSE from Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), Dhaka, Bangladesh and is currently pursuing her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Sandip Ray. After her graduation, she joined MIST as a lecturer of the Department of CSE. Her research interest is in IoT devices and Machine learning applications in healthcare. In her leisure time, she loves playing with her pet cat, watching movies, series and listening to classical Bengali songs.

Kelsey Horace-Herron

 Email: khoraceherron@ufl.edu

Kelsey Horace-Herron is a Ph.D. student at University of Florida. She is from East St. Louis, IL. She received her B.S. in Computer Engineering at Jackson State University and M.S. at University of Florida. Her current research is based on authenticating medicine and detecting illegal substances using nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) spectroscopy. In her spare time she enjoys hanging out with friends and reading.

Kazi Mejbaul Islam

 Email: kmejbaulislam@ufl.edu

Kazi Mejbaul Islam completed his Master’s in Computer Science from Florida State University and Bachelor’s in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh. He is pursuing his PhD in RISING lab under the supervision of Dr. Sandip Ray. Currently, he is working with security of deep learning accelerator. Besides academia, he likes playing soccer, guitar and long drive.

Godstime Kemele

 Email: kemelegodstime@ufl.edu

Godstime Kemele is currently pursuing his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Sandip Ray at the University of Florida. He received his BSc in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria where he was engaged in FPGA design and implementation project. His research interests include System Security, ML applications in autonomous systems, hardware and IoT system design, FPGAs and VLSI. He also enjoys multidisciplinary research in emerging technologies. In his spare time, he loves traveling, cooking, playing soccer, and is particularly fond of oldies and classical music.

Tambiara Tabassum

 Email: tambiaratabassum@ufl.edu

Tambiara Tabassum is currently pursuing her Doctoral degree under the supervision of Dr. Sandip Ray at the University of Florida. She received her B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh and she got her MS degree in Electrical Engineering from Florida Polytechnic University, Lakeland, Florida. Her research interest is in SoC architecture and security and high performance computing. Apart from academia and research, Tambiara is an Indian semi-classical dancer and in her free time, she enjoys cooking, binge watching TV shows, and napping.

Mustafa Mohammad Shaky

 Email: mustafa.shaky@ufl.edu
Mustafa Mohammad Shaky is currently pursuing his Doctoral degree under the supervision of Dr. Sandip Ray at the University of Florida. He received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from American International University – Bangladesh and M.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Independent University, Bangladesh. He worked in Independent University, Bangladesh and BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh as a Lecturer of Mathematics. His Doctoral research interest focuses on cybersecurity of connected and autonomous vehicle applications. Over and above, Mustafa likes to involve himself in arm-wrestling, swimming, playing soccer and basketball, watching movies, writing poems, reading books, exploring new places or going on a long drive and experimental cooking.

M.S. Students

Ankan Ghosh

 Email: ghoshankan@ufl.edu
Ankan Ghosh is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida, focusing on machine learning and digital twins. He holds a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University. Ankan has professional experience in diverse projects, including GIS data analytics and medical image analysis. His research interests include AI/ML integration and digital twins. As a Bengali, football and good food are always welcome. An avid fan of Andrés Iniesta, Ankan loves exploring new places, engaging in outdoor activities, and immersing himself in anime and music.

Hrithik Das

 Email: hdas@ufl.edu
Hrithik Das is a Master’s student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida, and he has recently joined the Rising Lab to focus on automotive security research. His academic foundation includes a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from California State University, Northridge. His research interests are acutely centered on the evolving landscape of vehicle technology, encompassing security for connected and software-defined vehicles, hardware security, and rigorous security verification. Prior to his master’s studies, Hrithik accumulated professional experience as a Systems Engineer at Denso Ten America Limited. In this capacity, he oversaw the development of Navigation and Voice Assistant features for next-generation infotainment systems for a major Japanese OEM. Beyond his technical pursuits, Hrithik maintains a keen personal interest in the automotive world. He is also an enthusiastic traveler, having explored 44 states across the U.S., and finds balance in his free time through reading, listening to music, and cooking.

Undergraduate Students

Emmanuel Elias

 Email: emmanuel.elias@ufl.edu

Emmanuel Elias is pursuing a combined B.S/M.S Electrical and Computer Engineering degree at the University of Florida. His academic and research interests include SoC Security, Computer Architecture, and Hardware Design. In his leisure time, he enjoys baking, watching movies, and exploring new places.

Ph.D. Alumni

Rafiul Kabir

 Email: kabirm@ufl.edu

Rafiul Kabir completed his Ph.D. under Dr. Sandip Ray at the University of Florida and joined Central Michigan University. His research interest is in Automotive Safety and Security. In his spare time, he loves watching movies, traveling, playing cricket, tennis, and ping-pong.

Tashfia Alam

 Email: tashfia.alam@ufl.edu
Tashfia completed her PhD under Dr. Sandip Ray at the University of Florida and Caspia Technologies. Her research interests include digital design, computer architecture and formal validation.

Maneesh Merugu

 Email: maneesh.merugu@ufl.edu
Maneesh completed his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Sandip Ray at the University of Florida and joined AMD Inc. His research interests include Computer Architecture, VLSI Design and IoT systems design. His hobbies include tennis, cricket and exploring new culinary skills in his free time.

Kshitij Raj

 Email: kshitijraj@ufl.edu

Kshitij completed his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Sandip Ray at the University of Florida and joined Intel Corporation. His research interests lies in the field of Silicon Architecture and Design. He enjoys cooking, reading about space science, philosophy and conspiracy theories.

Richard Olatomiwa Owoputi

 Email: rowoputi@ufl.edu

Richard Owoputi completed his PhD degree under the supervision of Dr. Sandip Ray at the University of Florida and joined Volvo Car USA. His research focuses on Autonomous vehicle applications, Machine learning, and IoT system design. He enjoys watching movies and tv shows, playing soccer and listening to pop music at his spare time.

Xiangru Chen

 Email: cxr1994816@ufl.edu

Xiangru Chen is completed his Ph.D. in ECE department at University of Florida in Fall 2023 and joined ByteDance Ltd. His research focuses on the architecture support for ML applications. He has experiences about FPGA design and implementation. He loves sports, music, movie, and video games.

Srivalli Boddupalli

 Email: bodsrivalli12@ufl.edu

Srivalli Boddupalli completed her PhD in Fall 2022, and joined Lucid Motors. She comes from Hyderabad, India. Her research interests are in the field of automotive security with a primary focus on connected and autonomous vehicle applications and machine learning. She enjoys cooking and listening to Indian classical music in her free time.

Jiaqi Zhang

 Email: jiaqizhang@UFL.EDU

Jiaqi Zhang graduated with a PhD from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Florida, and joined AMD Inc. Her research interests lie in software and hardware acceleration of emerging algorithms and applications including machine learning and IoT. She likes traveling, reading, and fitness training in her spare time.

Atul Prasad Deb Nath (Jointly with Nanoscape Research Lab)

 Email: atulprasad@ufl.edu

Atul Prasad Deb Nath completed his PhD in the ECE department of University of Florida in Spring 2021, and joined Qualcomm Inc. He has research experience in System-on-Chip (SoC) platform security. His research primarily focuses on the development and evaluation of resilient SoC security architectures for diverse applications including IoT and automotive systems. His hobbies include traveling and photography.

M.S. Alumni

Ceenu Shaji

 Email: ceenushaji@ufl.edu

Ceenu Shaji received her Master’s degree from the University of Florida’s Electrical and Computer Engineering department and joined Caspia Technologies. She interned with several companies, including Intel Corporation. Her current research interests include IoT and machine learning. She enjoys spending her free time cooking, traveling new places, and learning new cultures and cuisines.

Tashfique Hasnine Choudhury

 Email: choudhury.t@ufl.edu

Tashfique received his Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida (UF) under Dr. Sandip Ray and joined Caspia Technologies. His research interests are in the field of autonomous vehicles and automotive security, machine learning and its applications and systems control. In his leisure time, he loves playing soccer, travelling, going on a long drive and listening to music.

Venkata Sai Gireesh Chamarthi

 Email: vchamarthi@ufl.edu

Gireesh completed his Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida (spring 2021) under Dr. Sandip Ray and joined Intel Corporation. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Amrita School of Engineering, India in 2018. He has prior work experience as a Software Engineer at RNTBCI, Renault-Nissan Joint venture (2018-2020). His research interests are in the field of embedded software systems, automotive security and IoT design. In his leisure time, he loves to cook, watching space and science documentaries, playing mobile games and listening to music.

Darshith Madvinkodi Prakash

 Email: darshith.madvink@ufl.edu

Darshith completed his Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida and joined Microchip Technology. He received bachelors degree from Visvesvaraya Technological University, India. He has 3 years of work experience as a software engineer and his research interests are in embedded software, automotive security, IoT and firmware. He loves stargazing, watching space documentaries, playing football and sketching.

Neha Mishra

 Email: nehamishra@ufl.edu

Neha Mishra completed her Masters thesis under Dr. Sandip Ray at the University of Florida and decided to pursue another Master’s degree at SUNY Buffalo, this time in IoT. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Nagpur University, India. She has a work experience of 4 years as a Senior Test Engineer at Larsen and Toubro Infotech. Her research interests are in the areas of automotive safety and security and embedded applications. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing and kick-boxing.

Venkata Adithya Nimmagadda

 Email: vnimmagadda@ufl.edu

Venkata Adithya Nimmagadda completed his Master’s Thesis under Dr. Sandip Ray at the University of Florida in Spring 2021 and joined Intel Corporation. He received his B.Tech degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Andhra University, India. His research interests include Formal Verification of System on Chip designs, security validation of device drivers, and Firmware validation. He enjoys going for long drives, playing billiards, and table tennis.

Sai Shanmukh Chinimilli

 Email: schinimilli@ufl.edu

Sai Shanmukh Chinimilli completed his Masters thesis in Electrical Engineering, University of Florida under Dr. Sandip Ray in Spring 2021, and joined Qualcomm Inc. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Osmania University, India. His research interests include Architecture Design, FPGA and VLSI Design, Hardware security. His hobbies include playing cricket, watching movies and travelling.

Indira Bhoomareddy Ramaiah

 Email: indira.bhoomared@ufl.edu

Indira Ramaiah completed her Masters (Thesis) in Spring 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Sandip Ray in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida, and joined Qualcomm Inc. She has recieved her B.Tech degree in Electronics and Communication from Visvesvaraya Technological University, India. Her research interests include Hardware Software Covalidation, Post-Silicon Validation and Verification and VLSI and Physical Design. In her spare time she enjoys travelling and cooking.

Ashwini Hegde

 

Email: hegde.ashwini@ufl.eduAshwini Hegde completed her Masters thesis under Dr. Sandip Ray at the University of Florida in Spring 2021, and joined Apple Inc. She received her BE Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University, India. She worked as a Software Engineer at Accenture for a year. Her research interests lie in the areas of automotive safety and security, computer architecture, FPGA and VLSI design. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking and dancing.

Arrush Hegde

 Email: arrush.hegde@ufl.edu

Arrush M. Hegde completed is M.S. thesis under Dr. Sandip Ray in Spring 2021, and joined AMD Inc. Prior to that, he was awarded a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology, India. His areas of interest include SoC Security, Post-Silicon Verification, and Hardware Design.

Akash Someshwar Rao

 Email: akash.someshwarr@ufl.edu

Akash Someshwar Rao completed his Masters thesis in Spring 2020 under Dr. Sandip Ray at the University of Florida, and joined Qualcomm Inc. He received his B.E degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University, India. He worked as a Software Engineer at Robert Bosch in Bangalore for 2 years. His research interests lie in the areas of microprocessor security, automotive safety and security, computer architecture, firmware and machine learning. In his spare time he enjoys hiking and playing tennis.