Vahab Pournaghshband
Associate Professor
Computer Science Department
University of San Francisco
Harney Science Center 409
vahab.p@usfca.edu

About

I am an Associate Professor of Computer Science at University of San Francisco. My research interests include Computer Security, Computer Networks, Computer Science Education. I received my Ph.D. from the Computer Science Department at UCLA, where I was a member of Laboratory for Advanced Systems Research. I received my MSc in Computer Science and BSc in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley.

Prior to USF, I was an Assistant Professor at California State University, Northridge, and an Adjunct Lecturer at UCLA. In the past, I worked at Symantec, Inc. (on reputation-based security, which was later acquired by Broadcom Inc.), PostPath Inc., (which was later acquired by Cisco Systems, Inc.), and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

I am the Director of Networks and Security Laboratory (Nets Lab) at University of San Francisco. I am the recipient of the Fulbright US Scholar Award and I was a Visiting Professor of Computer Science and Security at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences in Austria in Spring 2022. I've given lectures and research talks or held workshops in over 50 countries.

Recent News

05.13.2024 Our paper “Middlebox Detection: Evasion and Effectiveness” was accepted to IEEE BlackSeaCom 2024.
01.11.2024 Our paper “End-to-End Detection of Middlebox Interference” was accepted to IEEE NOMS 2024.
01.02.2024 Our paper “Entailing Security Mindset in Foundational CS Courses: An Interactive Approach” was accepted to IEEE EDUNINE 2024.

You can also find me on Github, Google Scholar, and LinkedIn.

Students

Alumni

  • Alma (Arghavan) Abbasi, MS
  • Stephanie Grasso, BS
  • Jason Liang, BS
  • Manali Patil, MS (Now Software Engineer at ZenOptics)
  • Rozita Teymourzadeh, MS (Now Senior Software and Electronic Engineer at Azbil)
  • Shuangjiao Hu, MS (Now Site Reliability Engineer at WePay)
  • Linjing Shao, MS
  • Juqiang Li, MS (Now Software Engineer at Apple)
  • Paul Kirth, MS (Now PhD Candidate at University of California, Irvine)
  • Sina Hesari, MS (Now Software Engineer at Rockwell Collins)
  • Eric Vance, MS (Now Software Systems Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
  • Ilia Benson, MS (Now Software System Engineer III at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
  • Adam Clark, MS (Now Senior Software Engineer at Float.com)
  • Aren Boghozian, BS (Now Software Engineer at Crane Aerospace & Electronics)
  • Mahdi Rahimi, (Now PhD Student at University of Arizona)
  • Behnam Pournasr, BS (Now DevOps Engineer at Farmers Insurance)
  • Mario Garcia, BS
  • Matin Fouladinejad, BS (Now Software Engineering Manager at Amazon Games)
  • Dam Ju Kim, BS (Now Software Engineer at Google)
  • David Meyer, BS (Now Senior Software Engineer Tech Lead at AppFolio)
  • Robert Chang, BS (Now Product Manager at Google)