We design and build high-assurance systems infrastructure for the next generation of cloud and edge applications. By high-assurance, we mean infrastructure that provides cryptographically verifiable evidence of application identity, execution, configuration, history, and recovery behavior. Our mission is to move infrastructure security from an ill-defined property to a well-defined, end-to-end, verifiable guarantee by leveraging emerging hardware security features and advanced cryptography.

To that end, we develop the protocols and platforms necessary to secure the chain of custody across the entire computational stack. Our work spans from the integrity of confidential computing platforms and the security of software supply chains, to securely leveraging and scaling heterogeneous accelerators, and securely deploying agentic/autonomous services. We do this by combining techniques in systems building, cryptographic protocol design, and large-scale performance evaluation.

Students who join early will help shape a new research group, working closely with me on ambitious systems security projects and publishing in top security and systems conferences and journals.

• Confidential computing/trusted execution environments (design and applications)
• Software supply chain security
• Secure infrastructure for AI (includes agent sandboxing, secure AI runtimes, etc.)
• Cloud/edge infrastructure security
• Observability/telemetry for security
• Verifiable and tamper-evident system design

Curious and self-motivated students and researchers with different backgrounds and levels of experience are all welcome to apply. Strong applicants will usually have experience in one or more of the following areas: computer security, systems programming, distributed systems, cloud computing, applied cryptography, trusted execution environments, cloud storage systems, computer networking, or large-scale performance evaluation. Applicants with strong engineering portfolios, open-source contributions, research experience, or other substantial independent projects are especially encouraged to reach out. Students and researchers who join the group will have the opportunity to design, build, and evaluate real systems, develop high-quality research artifacts for the scientific community (and broader public), and publish in top security and systems conferences and journals.