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 focuses on creating scalable, intelligent, secure, and trustworthy systems to solve real-world security and privacy challenges. The following are some topics that my lab currently focuses on:
- Advanced cyber threat protection for computing systems (e.g., attack detection and investigation, threat hunting), cyber threat intelligence
- Software-defined programmable network security (e.g., P4 switch, SDN, NextG)
- AI for cybersecurity (e.g., LLMs for cybersecurity), trustworthy AI (e.g., ML robustness/privacy/explainability)
Prospective students: We are seeking 1-2 Ph.D. students to join our lab in Fall 2024, with a focus on network/system security or LLMs+security. If you are interested, please apply through here and mention my name in the application system and your SOP. Feel free to email me at penggao.jobs [at] gmail [dot] com with your CV and transcript to introduce yourself. Please note that it is important to submit your complete application first before we can formally review it and proceed to contact you for an interview.
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
- 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: [Funding] Dr. Peng Gao received the 2023 Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) Research Engagement Award (PI).
- 04/2023: [Award] Ph.D. student Zhengjie Ji received the 2023 Bitshares Fellowship. Congratulations to Zhengjie!
- 04/2023: [Award] Ph.D. student Jianan Nie received the IEEE S&P 2023 Student Travel Grant. 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, Zhengjie Ji, and Jianan Nie received the 2023 CCI SWVA Cyber Innovation Scholarship. Congratulations to Osama, Zhengjie, 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.
- 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).
- 06/2022: [Award] Visiting student Xinyu Yang received the 2022 Black Hat USA Student Scholarship. Congratulations to Xinyu!
- 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.