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 UC Berkeley (with Dawn Song). I received my Ph.D. and M.A. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University (with Prateek Mittal, 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 focuses on creating scalable, intelligent, secure, and trustworthy systems and technologies to solve real-world security, privacy, and computing challenges. Current topics include:
- LLM for security: threat assessment/prevention/detection/investigation/response, threat intelligence, traffic analysis
- Security for future Internet architectures and designs (P4 switches, eBPF, data-plane defenses)
- LLM safety and governance
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, UC Berkeley
- 01/2019-06/2019: Visiting student researcher, UC Berkeley
- 06/2018-09/2018: Research intern, Microsoft Research Asia
- 06/2017-09/2017: Software engineering intern, Facebook
- 10/2016-12/2016: Research intern, NEC Laboratories America
- 11/2015-01/2016: Research intern, NEC Laboratories America
- 06/2015-09/2015: Research intern, Microsoft Research
Prospective students: I am seeking highly motivated Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers to join my lab. If you’re interested, please email your CV and transcript to penggao.jobs [at] gmail [dot] com. In your message, please include a brief statement explaining your understanding of our research topics and relevant publications. While I may not be able to respond to every message due to the volume of inquiries, I genuinely appreciate your interest.