David Mohaisen

I am the Associate Dean for Graduate Affairs in the College of Engineering and Computer Science and a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Central Florida, with joint appointments in Computer Engineering and Modeling and Simulation. My research spans security and privacy, artificial intelligence, and software and networked systems. I direct the SEAL research group, where my students and I work on problems at the intersection of these areas. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 2012 and previously worked in research and development at ETRI and Verisign Labs.

I care deeply about graduate education, academic governance, and the policies that support student success. At UCF, I have served multiple terms on the Faculty Senate and, as Chair of the Graduate Policy Committee, led the development and adoption of major university policies affecting graduate education. I also established and led the UCF–Inha University joint Ph.D. program, an international partnership that has graduated several students who now serve as faculty and senior researchers. In 2025, I received UCF's university-wide Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral Students award. This commitment now shapes my work as Associate Dean, where I focus on strengthening graduate programs and supporting students and faculty across the college.

Graduate Advisees

Current Doctoral Students

33 Mandana Ghadamian (2025--)
32 Khalid Alquonus (2025--)
31 Yahya Hmaiti (2025--)^🍁
30 Steffen Camarato (2025--)
29 Pelumi Ogunwale (2025--)
28 Mukhtar Hussain (2025--)
27 Cuong Dang (2025--)
26 Niveen Jaffal (2024--)^🗽

Current Masters Students

15 James Love (2025--)
14 Floriano Costa Neto (2026--)
13 Rafael Montalvo (2026--)

Former Doctoral Students

25 Mo Kharma (2026)^🗽
24 Ahmed Sabbah (2026)^🗽
23 Soohyeon Choi (2025)
22 Aziz Alghamdi(2025)
21 Ahod Alguried (2025)
20 Ilkin Isler (2025)^🍁
19 Ali Alkinoon (2025)
18 Jie Lin (2025)
17 Mohammed Alqadhi (2024)
16 Mohammed Alkinoon (2024)
15 Ayodeji Adeniran (2024)
14 Hattan Althebeiti (2023)
13 Ulku Meteriz (2022)
12 Ahmed Abusnaina (2022)
11 A. Alabduljabbar (2022)
10 Muhammad Saad (2021)
09 Afsah Anwar (2021)
08 Sultan Alshamrany (2021)
07 Hisham Alasmary (2020)
06 Mo Abuhamad (2020)^📌
05 Rhongho Jang (2020)^📌
04 Jinchun Choi (2020)^📌
03 Jeman Park (2020)
02 Ashar Ahmad (2019)
01 Jeff Spaulding (2018)

Former Masters Students

12 Nigel Francis (2025)
11 Kieran Human (2023)
10 S. Upadhyay (2020)
09 Priyanka Gona (2020)
08 Necip Yildiran (2020)
07 Amin Khormali (2019)
06 Joe D'Amato (2016)
05 Jesse Freeman (2016)
04 Chris Weeden (2016)
03 Woodams Clark (2016)
02 Pranav Jain (2016)
01 Qi Li (2016)

^📌 UCF-INHA Dual Ph.D. Program ^🍁 co-advised at ucf. ^🗽 co-advised externally

Selected Recent Publications

Conferences · 11

NDSS'26 Evaluating Learning-Based Ethereum Phishing Transaction Detection and Pitfalls PDF
PoPETs'26 Measuring Computational Universality of Fully Homomorphic Encryption PDF
NDSS'25 A Comparative Evaluation of Large Language Models in Vulnerability Detection PDF
ICDCS'25 Attributing ChatGPT-Transformed Synthetic Code PDF
SEC'24 Enhancing Network Attack Detection with Distributed and Data Collection System PDF
S&P'23 Three Birds with One Stone: Efficient Partitioning of Interdependent Networks PDF
NDSS'23 A Robust Counting Sketch for Data Plane Intrusion Detection PDF
CCS'22 A Scalable and Dynamic ACL System for In-Network Defense PDF
VR'22 A Keylogging Inference Attack on Air-Tapping Keyboards PDF
CCS'21 Revisiting Nakamoto Consensus in Asynchronous Networks PDF
CCS'21 SyncAttack: Double-spending in Bitcoin Without Mining Power PDF

Journals · 11

TDSC'26 Security and Quality in LLM-Generated Code: A Multi-Language, Multi-Model Analysis. PDF
TDSC'26 Mujaz: A Summarization-Based Approach for Normalized Vulnerability Description PDF
TDSC'26 Understanding Concept Drift with Deprecated Permissions in Android Malware DetectionPDF
TDSC'25 Semantics-Preserving Node Injection Attacks Against GNN-Based ACFG Malware Classifiers PDF
TDSC'25 Attributing ChatGPT-Generated Source Codes PDF
TDSC'24 Analyzing In-Browser Cryptojacking PDF
TMC'24 Learning Location From Shared Elevation Profiles in Fitness Apps: A Privacy Perspective PDF
TMC'20 Catch Me If You Can: Rogue Access Point Detection Using Intentional Channel Interference PDF
TON'24 A Comprehensive Analysis of Bitcoin Safety and Chain Quality PDF
TON'22 A Large-Scale Behavioral Analysis of the Open DNS Resolvers on the Internet PDF
TON'22 Exploring Partitioning Attacks on the Bitcoin Network PDF

Honors and Awards

2026 — Distinguished Paper Award, NDSS (Network and Distributed System Security Symposium).
2025 — Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral Students, UCF (University-wide recognition).
2024–2027 — ACM Distinguished Speaker, Association for Computing Machinery.
2024 — Best Paper Award, International Workshop on Information Security Engineering (WISE 2024).
2022 — UCF Teaching Incentive Award for Excellence in Teaching.
2022 — UCF Research Incentive Award for Excellence in Research.
2022 — CECS Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award, College of Engineering and Computer Science, UCF.
2022 — Best Paper Award Nominee, IEEE Virtual Reality Conference (IEEE VR 2022).
2021 — Best Extended Abstract Award, IEEE International Conf. on Dependable Sys. and Networks (DSN 2021).
2021 — Best Student Paper Award Nominee, ACM International Conference on Supercomputing (ACM ICS 2021).
2020 — Best Paper Award, IEEE Systems Journal.
2016–2021 — Distinguished Technical Program Committee Member, IEEE IEEE INFOCOM.

Openings

At this time, I am not seeking new doctoral students to join my research group. However, UCF students interested in pursuing the thesis option for their graduate studies, as well as undergraduates looking for research opportunities, are welcome to contact me. I encourage motivated students who wish to gain research experience to reach out and discuss potential projects.

Contact

Building: L3Harris Corporation Engineering Center (HEC)

Room: 207

Address: 4328 Scorpius St, Orlando, FL 32816

Email: david.mohaisen@ucf.edu