Basic Information

UF Research Foundation Professor (2016-present), CISE Department, University of Florida

Associate Director (2018-present), Nelms Institute for the Connected World

Full Professor (2015-present), CISE Department, University of Florida

Associate Chair for Research (2015-2018), CISE Department, University of Florida

Associate Professor (2011-2015), CISE Department, University of Florida

Assistant Professor (2006-2011), CISE Department, University of Florida


Areas of Specialization: Trustworthy AI; Blockchain; Security and Privacy; Big Graph Mining, Complex Network Analysis; Approximation Algorithms; Quantum Computing; Optimization


Contact Information:

Mailing Address: CSE Building, Room E301, University of Florida, P.O. Box 116120, Gainesville, Florida 32611-6120

Office: Room 550, CSE Building

Fax: 352-392-1220, attn: My T. Thai

Email: mythai@cise.ufl.edu

Announcements

Postdoc positions are available for 2019-21. Pls email me your CV and Research Statement if interested.
Please email me if you'd like to chair the CSoNet 2019 and beyond.

Recent Awards And Honors

2023 AAAI Distinguished Paper Award

2021 Fellow of IEEE

2021 Fellow of AAIA

2018 UF IoT Term Professorship Award

2018 IEEE/ACM ASONAM Best Paper Runner Up Award

2017 IEEE ICDM Best Papers Award

2017 IEEE ICDCS Best Paper Award Candidate

2016 UF Research Foundation Professorship Award

2014 IEEE MSN Best Paper Award

2011 Provost's Excellence Award for Assistant Professors at the University of Florida

2010 NSF CAREER Award

2009 Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Young Investigator Award

Recent Professional Activities

Editor in Chief:

IET Blockchain Journal, 2020-present (Founder)

Journal Of Combinatorial Optimization, 2019 - present

Book Series Editor:

Springer Briefs in Optimization, 2010-present

Steering Committee Chair:

Int Conf on Computational Social Networks (CSoNet)

Int IEEE INFOCOM Workshop on Inter-Dependent Networks (WIDN)

Int ACM SIGMETRICS Workshop on Critical Infrastructure Network Security (CINS)

General Chair:

ICDM 2022 (IEEE Int Conference on Data Mining)

MSN 2014 (IEEE Int Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Networks)

WASA 2014 (International Conference on Wireless Algorithms, Systems, and Applications)

CCNet 2011 (IEEE Globecom Workshop on Complex Communication Networks)

TPC Chair:

ICBC 2022 (IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency)

BigData 2021 (IEEE International Conference on Big Data) Vice Chair in Big Data Learning and Analytics

ICDCS 2019 (IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems) Track Chair: Social Networks and Crowdsourcing

CINS 2018 (ACM SIGMETRICS International Workshop on Critical Infrastructure Network Security)

MASS 2018 (IEEE Conf on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Systems) Track Chair: Algorithms and Theory

COCOON 2016 (International Computing and Combinatorics Conference)

WIDN 2015 (IEEE INFOCOM Workshop on Inter-Dependent Networks)

DySON 2014 (IEEE INFOCOM Workshop on Dynamic Social Networks)

CSoNet 2013 (International Workshop on Computational Social Networks)

ISSPIT 2012 (IEEE International Symposium on Signal Processing and Information Technology)

IWCMC 2012, Mobile Computing Symposium (IEEE International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference)

SIMPLEX 2011 (Workshop on Simplifying Complex Networks for Practitioners)

COCOON 2010 (International Computing and Combinatorics Conference)

CCNet 2010 (IEEE Globecom Workshop on Complex Communication Networks)

DIS 2011 (International Conference on the Dynamics of Information Systems)

Selected Talks

"Federated Learning: A False Sense of Security?", IEEE Int Conf on Bigdata Security, 2023. Plenary Keynote

"Provable Guarantees on Privacy in the Age of Adversarial Learning", 17th Int Conf on Ubiquitous Security, 2021. Plenary Keynote

"Nonlinear Explainability for Blackbox AI" Women in Data Science (WiDS), 2021. Distinguished Speaker

"AI in Addiction Science: Potential and Challenges", NIDA/NSF workshop on Computer and Addiction Science, 2021. Plenary Keynote

"Making Blackbox Models Explainable", Int Conf on Wireless Algorithms, Systems, and Applications (WASA), 2021. Plenary Keynote

”Information Diffusion on Social Networks: From the Traditional Setting to the Future Blockchain-Based”, IEEE/ACM ASONAM, Aug 2018, Spain. Tutorial Talk

"Blockchain: Promising Future and Current Challenges", Lancaster University, May 2018, UK. Invited Talk

"Mining in Online Social Networks: Dynamic Sampling and Adaptive Learning", Int. Conf. on Machine Learning, Optimization, and Big Data (MOD), Sept 2017, Italy. Plenary Keynote

"Cyber Attacks in Online Social Networks through Social Bots", the AFRL Mathematical Modeling and Optimization Institute (MMOI), Aug 2017. Plenary Keynote

"Viral Marketing: From the Approximation to the Exact on Billion-scale Networks", Int. Conf. on Network-Based Information Systems (NBiS), Sept 2016, Czech. Plenary Keynote

"Group Testing and Its Application in Biological Screening", Int. Conf. on Computational Biomedicine (CBM), 2016. Plenary Keynote

”Viral Marketing: A Road to Billion-scale Networks”, Int. Conf. on Combinatorial Optimization and Application (COCOA), Dec 2015, Houston, TX. Plenary Keynote

"Security in Smart Grids: Interdependency and Vulnerability", Smart Grid Security Workshop, May 2014, Korea. Plenary Keynote

”Cybersecurity in Internet-of-Things”, Korea University, May 2014.

"Big Data in Social Networks", Int. Conf. on Computer Information Systems and Industrial Management Applications (CISIM), 2014, Vietnam. Plenary Keynote.

"Interdependent Networks Analysis", Learning and Intelligent Optimization Conference (LION 8), Feb 2014, USA. Tutorial Talk.

"Cybersecurity in Smart Grids", National Security Research Institute, Nov 2013, Korea. Invited Talk

"Dynamic Community Structure Analysis in Complex Networks", Int Conference on the Dynamics of Information Systems, Feb 2013. USA. Plenary Keynote

"How the Power-law Distribution Impacts on the Complex Network Vulnerability", Int Workshop on Complex Networks, Mar 2012, USA. Invited Speaker.

"The Optimal Use of Social Networks to Manipulate Information", University of Texas – Dallas, Department of Computer Science, Sep 2011. USA. Department Colloquium talk

Current Students

Nhat Hoang (Ph.D., joined since Fall 2023)

Hoang Ngo (Ph.D., joined since Summer 2022)

Tre' R. Jeter (Ph.D., joined since Fall 2021)

Former Students

Minh Vu (Ph.D., December 2023). Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

Raed Alharbi (Ph.D., August 2023). Saudi Electronic University

Truc Nguyen (Ph.D., May 2023). National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Lan Nguyen (Ph.D., May 2021). Meta

J. David Smith (Ph.D., August 2020). Doseform

Tianyi Pan (Ph.D., August 2019). Google

Xiang Li (Ph.D., August 2018). Santa Clara University

Alan Kuhnle (Ph.D., August 2018). Texas A&M University

Huiling Zhang (Ph.D., August 2018). Google

Md Abdul Alim (Ph.D., Dec 2016). Optym

Huiyuan Zhang (Ph.D., July 2016). Amazon

Subhankar Mishra (Ph.D., July 2016). Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee

Dzung T. Nguyen (Ph.D., July 2013). Microsoft

Nam Nguyen (Ph.D., March 2013). Towson University

Yilin Shen (Ph.D., March 2013). Samsung Research

Thang N. Dinh (Ph.D., March 2013). Virginia Commonwealth University

Bo Li (Ph.D., Summer 2012, co-advice with Ye Xia). Microsoft

Ying Xuan (Ph.D., Fall 2011). IBM Research

Ravi Tiwari (Ph.D., June 2010). eBay

Incheol Shin (Ph.D., May 2010). Mokpo National University, Korea

Yu-Song Syu (M.S., June 2012)

Ning Zhang (M.S., 2008). NEC Labs

Research Interests

My research interests span on the optimization and algorithmic mathematics underpinnings of billion-scale data mining, machine learning, and cybersecurity with applications to blockchains, healthcare, social media, and critical networking infrastructure. More information can be found at my lab: Adaptive Learning and Optimization.

Funded Research Projects

NSF 2021-2025, SCH: Trustworthy and Explainable AI for Neurodegenerative Diseases, (Lead PI: Thai, collaborate with E. Xing, R. Fang, and A. Ramirez-Zamora)

NSF 2021-2023, SaTC: Trustworthy and Privacy-preserving Federated Learning, (Lead PI: Thai, collaborate with T. N. Dinh)

NSF 2020-2023, SaTC: When Adversarial Learning Meets Differential Privacy: Theoretical Foundation and Applications, (UF PI: Thai, collaborate with H. Phan)

FC2 2020-2021, Multi-Layer and Systematic Analytics for Securing the Internet-of-Things, (UF PI: Thai, collaborate with A. Mohaisen)

NSF 2020-2023, FAI: Towards a Computational Foundation for Fair Network Learning, (collaborate with HH Tong and R Maciejewski)

NSF 2019-2022, III: Stream-based Active Mining at Scale: Non-Linear Non-Submodular Maximization, (Lead PI: Thai, collaborate with DZ Du)

CTMT 2020-2021, DeepTrust: Building Competency-aware AI Systems with Human-Centric Communication, (coPI, collaborate with S. Chan-Olmsted)

UFII 2019-2021, Active Mining and Data Integrity at Scale: A Blockchain-based Approach (sole PI).

NSF 2018-2021, NeST: Lightweight Adaptive Algorithms for Network Optimization at Scale towards Emerging Services, (Lead PI: Thai, collaborate with ZL Zhang)

FC2 2018-2019, Thwarting APTs in IoT, (UF PI: Thai, collaborate with A. Mohaisen)

FC2 2017-2018, Resilient Smart Grid Control for Load Switching Cyber Attacks, (UF PI: Thai, collaborate with Z. Miao)

NSRI 2016-2017, Identification of Critical Monitoring Nodes in SCADA Network, (sole PI)

FC2 2016-2017, Nonlinear Model-Based Cyber Attack-Resilient Smart Grid Control, (UF PI: Thai, collaborate with Z. Miao)

NSF 2015-2019, EARS: Collaborative Research: Laying the Foundations of Social Network-Aware Cellular Device-to-Device Communications, (UF PI: Thai, collaborate with W. Saad and Z. Han)

NSF 2014-2019, Collaborative Research: RIPS Type 2: Vulnerability Assessment and Resilient Design of Interdependent Infrastructures, (Lead PI: Thai, co-PI: V. Boginski, Y. Yin, C. McCarty, A. Sarwat)

NSF 2014-2017, CCF: Modeling and Dynamic Analyzing for Multiplex Social Networks, (sole PI)

DTRA 2014-2019, Interdependent Network Responses to WMD: Dynamics Modeling, Impact Analysis, and Adaptive Control Techniques, (PI: Thai, co-PI: D. Wu)

NSRI 2014-2015, Efficient Protection Schemes towards Load-Redistribution Attacks, (sole PI)

DTRA 2010-2015, Mathematical Approaches to WMD Defense and Vulnerability Assessments on Dynamic Networks (co-PI with C. Smith and P. Pardalos)

DTRA 2009-2014, YIP: C-WMD: Models, Complexity, and Algorithms in Complex Dynamic Evolving Networks (sole PI)

NSF 2010-2015, CAREER: Optimization Models and Approximation Algorithms for Network Vulnerability and Adaptability (sole PI)

ETRI 2013-2014, Efficient DPI Methods in SCADA Smart Grid System (sole PI)

NSF 2010-2015, Sequencing Gators: Building a Genome Science Curriculum at the University of Florida and Beyond (co-PI with E. Triplett, V. Crecy, and T. Kahveci)

NSF 2008-2010, A New Approach for Identifying DoS Attackers Based on Group Testing Techniques (sole PI)

Recent Courses

2019-2020

Spring 2020: CIS6930: Blockchain: Optimization and Applications

2018-2019

Spring 2019: COT5442: Approximation Algorithms

2017-2018

Fall 2017: COT5442: Approximation Algorithms

2016-2017

Fall 2016: CIS6930: Internet of Things

2015-2016

Fall 2015: CIS4930/6930: Social Network Computing

2014-2015

Fall 2014: On Sabbatical

Spring 2015: COT5442: Approximation Algorithms

2013-2014

Fall 2013: On leave

Spring 2014: On Sabbatical

2012-2013

Fall 2012: CIS6930: Recent Advances in Social Networks Computing

Spring 2013: COT5442: Approximation Algorithms

2011-2012

Fall 2011: COT5442: Approximation Algorithms

Spring 2012: CAP 5515: Computational Molecular Biology

2010-2011

Fall 2010: CIS 6930: Optimization in Adaptive Complex Systems and Social Networks

Spring 2011: COT5405: Analysis of Algorithms

Summer 2011: COT5405: Analysis of Algorithms (Online only)

2009-2010

Fall 2009: CIS 6930: PCPs and Inapproximability

Spring 2010: COT 3100: Applications of Discrete Structures (often known as Discrete Mathematics)

2008-2009

Fall 2008: CIS 6930: Approximation Algorithms

Spring 2009: CAP 5515: Computational Molecular Biology

2007-2008

Fall 2007: CIS 6930: Approximation Algorithms

Spring 2008: TBA

2006-2007

Fall 2006: CIS 6930: Approximation Algorithms

Spring 2007: CAP 5515: Computational Molecular Biology

Publications

(The first author is either one of my students at the time or myself, except those marked with *)

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