Core Faculty Members
Jean-François Biasse
Jean-Francois Biasse is a Professor of Mathematics. His research interest is in the mathematical aspects of cryptography. At the USF, he has taught MAD 4471 (Introduction to Cryptography & Coding Theory) as well as the online course MAT 5932 (Applied Cryptography). He is the recipient of the CAREER award of the National Science Foundation. His research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Standards and Technology, The Florida Center for Cybersecurity (CyberFlorida) and the Simons Foundation.
Giacomo Micheli
Giacomo Micheli is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at USF. His research interests spans from pure number theory to applied algebra, with particular emphasis on applications to cryptography and coding theory.
Before coming to USF, Dr. Micheli has been conducting his research at MIT as postdoctoral fellow, at the University of Oxford as a lecturer and research fellow, and at EPFL as a research fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Attila
Yavuz
Attila Yavuz is an Associate Professor of Computer Science. His research interests are the practical applications of cryptography. At USF, he has taught COP4931 (Information Privacy and Trustworthy Systems) and CIS4930 (Privacy-Preserving and Trustworthy Cyber-Infrastructures). He is the recipient of the CAREER award of the National Science Foundation. His research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and Bosch.
Mehran Kermani
Mehran Mozaffari Kermani is an Associate Professor with the Computer Science and Engineering Department (College of Engineering) at University of South Florida, where he is the PI for the Cryptographic Engineering and Hardware Security Lab. Currently, he is serving as an Associate Editor for the IEEE TVLSI (2016-present), the IEEE TCAS I (2016-present), and the ACM TECS (2015-present). He has been Guest Editing (Cryptographic Engineering and Hardware Security) special issues for the IEEE TCBB.
Affiliated Faculty
Rouzbeh
Behnia
Dr. Behnia is an assistant professor in the USF School of Information Systems and Management (SISM). His research spans the privacy and security of AI, post-quantum cryptography, and efficient authentication schemes. He is especially interested in devising fair AI models that minimize data leakage with minimal performance penalty. His research has been published in CS venues such as ACM CCS, IEEE TDSC, and ACM AsiaCCS. At USF, he teaches ISM4324 (Information Security and IT Risk Management) and ISM4263/6930 (Cloud Solution Architecture).
Kwang-Cheng
Chen
Kwang-Cheng Chen is a Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, an IEEE Fellow, and an AAIA Fellow. He serves as a Section Editor in Quantum Engineering for Nature Scientific Reports, and GITC Chair, IEEE Communications Society. Dr. Chen is a member of US National Committee for ISO/IEC JTC-3 Quantum Technologies. His research interests include quantum communications and sensing, quantum computing and processors, quantum cryptographic systems, multi-agent systems and AI, and wireless networks.
ROBERT
Karam
Dr. Karam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. His research focuses on hardware security for reconfigurable platforms such as FPGAs, energy-efficient and domain-specific reconfigurable computing architectures, and algorithm/hardware codesign for ultra-constrained bioimplantable systems. He received funding from NSF to develop innovative curriculum in hardware security. As part of this effort, he has designed hands-on activities on side-channel attacks for the CodeBreakHERs summer camp.
Lukas
kÖlsch
Lukas Kölsch is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics. He graduated from the University of Rostock in 2020, and joined the USF as a postdoctoral scholar in 2021. He joined the faculty in 2023. Dr. Kölsch specializes in tools of algebra, combinatorics and number theory that can be used to solve specific problems that are related to applications in coding theory or cryptography. Recently, Recently, he has been working on semifields, rank-metric codes and non-linear Boolean functions like APN functions.
Hemant
Pendharkar
Dr. Pendharkar is the Associate Chair for the St Petersburg campus of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Prior to joining the USF, he was a Professor of Computer Science at Worcester State University. Dr. Pendarkar’s research was funded by NASA, DoD, and the Office of Naval Research. In particular, he worked on ideal lattices while participating to the Crypto project of Space and Naval Warfare Laboratory under an ONR fellowship. He is a senior personnel of the REU Site program on Cryptography and Coding Theory run by the Center.
Dmytro
Savchuk
Dr. Savchuk is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Deparmtent of Mathematics and Statistics. His research focuses on computational group theory, and its applications to cryptography. His work also includes the development of packages for the GAP algebra system. He is the Co-PI of the NSF grant that funds the REU Site program on Cryptography and Coding Theory organized by the Center. He is also an associate editor for the Journal of Mathematical Cryptology.
Ruthmae
Sears
Dr. Sears, Ph.D., is a Professor of secondary mathematics education, the Associate Director of Coalition for Science Literacy with a focus on Inclusive Excellence, and the lead faculty facilitator for the university’s newly created Inclusive and Equitable Pedagogy program. Her research includes curriculum issues, systemic change initiatives in K-20 STEM settings, , and the integration of technology in mathematics. The is the K-12 Pedagogical Expert of the CodeBreakHERs summer camp run by the Center.
Shivendu Shivendu
Shivendu Shivendu is an associate professor of information systems and PhD program coordinator in the School of Information Systems and Management. He has created and taught undergraduate, MBA, master’s and doctoral courses in areas related to economics of information systems, blockchain technology, FinTech, IT strategy and the design of information systems. Shivendu’s research focuses on the emerging business and policy issues at the intersection of technology, economics and public policy.
Kaiqi
Xiong
Dr. Xiong is a Professor at the USF, affiliated with the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, and the Department of Electrical Engineering. He holds PhD degrees in Mathematics and in Computer Engineering. His research interests lie in the broad areas of Security, Networking, and Big Data Analytics. Dr. Xiong teaches MAD5474 “Applied Cryptography”, and MAD 2470 “Introduction to Cryptography and its Applications”, a core course of the Cryptography Certificate run by the Center.