I am a Professor and Bradley Senior Faculty Fellow in Virginia Tech's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where I lead the Systems Software Research Group.
My research interests are in computer systems, with a focus on security, performance, energy-efficiency, and timing properties. I used to view systems as a research sub-discipline in the James Mickens sense. Over the years, I have come to view systems as a mindset, well articulated by Stephen Kell. Recently, I have been dabbling in software verification.
I am always glad to hear from students and postdocs interested in working in these areas.
Current projects
- Low-level reasoning machine (LLRM) — verifying security properties of binaries.
- Popcorn Linux — system software for ISA-heterogeneous hardware.
- MESA — program analysis via mathematical optimization.
Recent past projects
- Hyflow — concurrency control abstractions and algorithms.
- HermiTux — binary-compatible unikernel OS.
- SlimGuard — secure, fast, and memory-efficient heap allocator.
- HydraVM — automated concurrency refactoring of legacy software.
- KairosVM — KVM-based real-time hypervisor.
- LibrettOS — multiserver/library OS with POSIX and legacy driver support.
Teaching
- ECE/CS 5510 — Multiprocessor ProgrammingFall
- ECE/CS 5544 — Compiler OptimizationsSpring
- ECE 5984/SS — Modern Binary ExploitationFall · syllabus
- ECE 4974/IS — Software Fuzzing for SecurityIndependent study · syllabus
Service
Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing
Program Co-Chair, ACM SYSTOR'25
Program Committee, SoCC'26,
EuroSys'27, EMSOFT'26,
PLDI'26,
ASPLOS'25 and '26 (ERC)