penggao

Peng Gao

Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Virginia Tech

Office: Gilbert Place 4104
E-mail: penggao [at] vt [dot] edu
Follow @penggaotweets

Publications | Lab | Teaching | Awards | Services

About Me

I am an assistant professor of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher in Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley (with Prof. Dawn Song). I received my Ph.D. and M.A. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University (with Prof. Prateek Mittal, Prof. Sanjeev R. Kulkarni). I received my B.Eng. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

I am broadly interested in security and privacy, systems and networking, and AI. My research mainly focuses on creating scalable, intelligent, secure, and trustworthy systems and technologies to solve real-world security and privacy challenges. The following are some topics that my lab currently focuses on:

Cyber attack (e.g., APTs) prevention, detection, investigation, and response and recovery; cyber threat intelligence
Security for future network architectures and designs (e.g., software-defined network security using P4 switches); zero trust architecture
AI for security (e.g., LLMs for security); trustworthy AI (e.g., ML robustness/privacy/explainability)

In addition, I have recently become interested in AI for science (chemistry in particular), such as molecule representation learning, molecular property prediction, and molecular design. We have some ongoing projects on these topics.

Postdoctoral associate position available: My colleague, Prof. Bo Ji, and I are seeking a talented individual to fill a postdoctoral associate position at Virginia Tech’s Computer Science Deparment. The successful candidate will collaborate with us on cutting-edge research in programmable switch (P4)-enabled network security, zero-trust architecture, and cyber threat protection. This role promises a competitive salary, comprehensive health insurance, and many other benefits such as support for attending academic conferences. The postdoctoral associate will have the unique opportunity to work alongside brilliant Ph.D. students from both of our groups, fostering a collaborative and innovative research environment. Candidates who are interested in this position are encouraged to contact us.

Prospective students: I am recruiting 3 self-motivated Ph.D. students, 1 postdoc, and multiple undergraduate/Master's students to join my lab, working on exciting projects in system/network security, LLMs for security, or AI for science. If you are interested in working with me, please send me an email at penggao.jobs [at] gmail [dot] com with your CV and transcript.

Education & Experience

2013-2019: Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Princeton University
2013-2015: M.A. in Electrical Engineering, Princeton University
2009-2013: B.Eng. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
01/2012-05/2012: Exchange student at the University of Hong Kong

06/2019-04/2021: Postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley
01/2019-06/2019: Visiting student researcher at the University of California, Berkeley
06/2018-09/2018: Research intern at Microsoft Research Asia, Beijing
06/2017-09/2017: Software engineering intern at Facebook, Menlo Park
10/2016-12/2016: Research intern at NEC Laboratories America, Princeton
11/2015-01/2016: Research intern at NEC Laboratories America, Princeton
06/2015-09/2015: Research intern at Microsoft Research, Redmond

Lab News

06/2024: Paper Our paper "vFix: Facilitating Software Maintenance of Smart Contracts via Automatically Fixing Vulnerabilities" was accepted to ICSME 2024.
05/2024: Service Dr. Peng Gao will serve on the Technical Program Committee of NDSS 2025.
05/2024: Service Dr. Peng Gao will serve on the Technical Program Committee of LAMPS 2024.
05/2024: Conference Ph.D. student Osama Bajaber attended the 45th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P).
05/2024: Job Ph.D. student Jianan Nie will do a summer internship at Microsoft Research Asia AI4Science team. Way to go, Jianan!
04/2024: Award VT undergraduate student Sriram Narlapati received the 2024 Fincantieri Scholarship to undertake a summer internship in our lab. Congratulations to Sriram!
04/2024: Award Ph.D. student Osama Bajaber received the highly-competitive IEEE S&P 2024 Student Travel Grant. Only two VT students were selected. Congratulations to Osama!
04/2024: Service Dr. Peng Gao will serve on the Technical Program Committee of PETS 2025.
04/2024: Service Dr. Peng Gao will serve on the Technical Program Committee of IEEE S&P 2025.
04/2024: Award Ph.D. students Yutong Cheng and Osama Bajaber received the 2024 CCI SWVA Cyber Innovation Scholarship. Congratulations to Yutong and Osama!
03/2024: Funding Dr. Peng Gao received the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) support for the 2024 Multicultural Academic Opportunities Program (MAOP) Summer Research Internship program (Sole PI).
03/2024: Funding Dr. Peng Gao received the 2024 Virginia Tech Proof-of-Concept Grant (PI).
03/2024: Service Ph.D. student Osama Bajaber will serve on the Poster Program Committee of IEEE S&P 2024. Congratulations to Osama!
03/2024: Paper Our paper "P4Control: Line-Rate Cross-Host Attack Prevention via In-Network Information Flow Control Enabled by Programmable Switches and eBPF" was accepted to IEEE S&P (Oakland) 2024.
03/2024: Paper Our paper "An Analysis of Recent Advances in Deepfake Image Detection in an Evolving Threat Landscape" was accepted to IEEE S&P (Oakland) 2024.
03/2024: Service Dr. Peng Gao will co-organize the 1st DMV Security Workshop.
02/2024: Service Dr. Peng Gao will serve on the Technical Program Committee of ACSAC 2024.
01/2024: Service Dr. Peng Gao will serve on the Technical Program Committee of DLSP 2024.
12/2023: Conference Ph.D. student Jianan Nie attended the 37th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS).
12/2023: Service Dr. Peng Gao will serve on the Technical Program Committee of ACM CCS 2024.
10/2023: Service Ph.D. student Osama Bajaber will serve on the Program Committee of ICICS 2024. Congratulations to Osama!
08/2023: Funding Dr. Peng Gao received the 2023 Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) Cybersecurity Research Award (Co-PI).
08/2023: Service Dr. Peng Gao will serve on the Technical Program Committee of Euro S&P 2024.
08/2023: Funding Dr. Peng Gao received the 2023 Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) Innovation: Ideation to Commercialization Award (PI).
07/2023: Award Ph.D. student Osama Bajaber received the 2023 Bitshares Fellowship. Congratulations to Osama!
06/2023: Paper Our paper "PrivMon: A Stream-Based System for Real-Time Privacy Attack Detection for Machine Learning Models" was accepted to RAID 2023.
06/2023: Service Ph.D. student Osama Bajaber will serve on the Artifact Evaluation Committee of NDSS 2024. Congratulations to Osama!
05/2023: Conference Ph.D. students Osama Bajaber and Jianan Nie attended the 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P).
05/2023: Funding Dr. Peng Gao received the 2023 Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) Research Engagement Award (PI).
04/2023: Award Ph.D. student Jianan Nie received the highly-competitive IEEE S&P 2023 Student Travel Grant. Only two VT students were selected. Congratulations to Jianan!
03/2023: Service Ph.D. student Osama Bajaber will serve on the Poster Program Committee of IEEE S&P 2023. Congratulations to Osama!
03/2023: Award Ph.D. students Osama Bajaber and Jianan Nie received the 2023 CCI SWVA Cyber Innovation Scholarship. Congratulations to Osama and Jianan!
02/2023: Funding Dr. Peng Gao received the 2023 4-VA Collaborative Research Award for Pre-Tenure Faculty (Sole PI).
12/2022: Service Dr. Peng Gao will serve on the Technical Program Committee of ACM CCS 2023.
11/2022: Conference Ph.D. student Osama Bajaber attended the 30th IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP).
10/2022: Award Ph.D. student Osama Bajaber received the IEEE ICNP 2022 Travel Grant. Congratulations to Osama!
08/2022: Funding Dr. Peng Gao received the 2022 Amazon - Virginia Tech Initiative Faculty Research Award (PI).
08/2022: Conference Ph.D. student Osama Bajaber attended the 31st USENIX Security Symposium.
01/2022: Paper Our paper "A Knowledge Base Question Answering System for Cyber Threat Knowledge Acquisition" was accepted to ICDE 2022 Demonstrations Track.
12/2021: Funding Dr. Peng Gao received the 2021-22 VT New Faculty Mentoring Grant (Sole PI).
11/2021: Funding Dr. Peng Gao received the 2021 4-VA Collaborative Research Award (PI).
10/2021: Funding Dr. Peng Gao received the 2021 Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) Cybersecurity Research Collaboration Award (PI).
10/2021: Funding Dr. Peng Gao received the 2021 Cisco Research Award (Sole PI).
10/2021: Paper Our paper "PrivGuard: Privacy Regulation Compliance Made Easier" was accepted to USENIX Security 2022.
08/2021: Paper Our paper "Back-Propagating System Dependency Impact for Attack Investigation" was accepted to USENIX Security 2022.
07/2021: Funding Dr. Peng Gao received the 2021 Google Cloud Research Credits Award (Sole PI).
05/2021: Paper Our paper "Make Web3.0 Connected" was accepted to IEEE TDSC.