PORTFOLIO

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Email: ahsanm5@vcu.edu
Tel No.: (+1)-804-591-6460
Github: mahsan321
Google Scholar link

RESEARCH INTEREST

• Cyber-Physical System
• Cybersecurity
• Artificial Intelligence
• Additive Manufacturing
• Industry 4.0
• Internet of Things

Awards

• US Cyber Command Cyber Recon 2025, Best category Defender Award.
• US Cyber Command Cyber Recon 2024, Best category Guardian award.
• US Cyber Command Cyber Recon 2024, Commander’s award for outstanding research.
• 4-star challenge coin, Got recognized by General Timothy D. Haugh, commander of the United States Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency.
• People’s Choice Award 2024, MegaHack@VCU
• Dean’s Honor Certificate (5 semesters), UET Lahore.
• B.Sc. Electrical Engineering with honors.

EXPERIENCE

Security and Forensics Engineering (SAFE) LAB, VCU, Richmond, USA

Position: Graduate Assistant
Aug 2021 - Current

Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS), UET, Lahore, Pakistan

Position: Team Lead
Oct 2014 - July 2021

PUBLICATIONS

• Muhammad Haris Rais, Muhammad Ahsan, Irfan Ahmed, "PrintSafe - A near real-time anomaly detection framework for fused filament fabrication printing using printing environment estimation", (Under-Review)
• Muhammad Ahsan, Eunice Pak, Kate Jackson, Muhammad Haris Rais, Barry Najarro-Blancas, Nastassja Lewinski, Irfan Ahmed, "BioSaFe: Bioprinting Security Framework for Detecting Sabotage Attacks on Printability and Cell Viability", ACSAC, 2024, Hawaii.
• Muhammad Ahsan, Muhammad Haris Rais, Irfan Ahmed, "Sok: Side channel monitoring for additive manufacturing-bridging cybersecurity and quality assurance communities", ACSAC, 2024, Hawaii.
• Muhammad Ahsan, Irfan Ahmed, "WattShield: A Power Side-Channel Framework for Detecting Malicious Firmware in Fused Filament Fabrication ", HOST, 2025, CA.
• Muhammad Ahsan, Barry Najarro-Blancas, Johanna Tsala Ebode, Nastassja Lewinski, Irfan Ahmed, "3D Bioprinter Firmware Attacks: Categorization, Implementation, and Impacts ", HOST, 2025, CA.
• Muhammad Haris Rais, Muhammad Ahsan, Irfan Ahmed, "SOK: 3D Printer Firmware Attacks on Fused Filament Fabrication", WOOT, 2024, PA.
• Bilal Imran, Muhammad Ahsan, Ali Hammad Akbar, Ghalib A. Shah, "D4GW: DTLS for gateway multiplexed application to secure MQTT(SN)-based pub/sub architecture", Elsevier IoT hournal
• Muhammad Rais, Muhammad Ahsan, Vaibhav Sharma, Radhika Barua, Robert Prins and Irfan Ahmed, “Low-Magnitude Infill Structure Manipulation Attacks on Fused Filament Fabrication Printers”, International Conference on Critical Infrastructure Protection. Springer, Cham, 2022.
• Muhammad Ahsan, Bilal Afzal, Bilal Imran, Asim Tanwir, Ali Hammad Akbar and Galib. A. Shah. "OneM2M Architecture Based Secure MQTT Binding in Mbed OS", SSIoT 2019 - IEEE Euro S&P Workshop on Software Security for Internet of Things.
• Bilal Imran, Bilal Afzal, Dr. Ali Hammad Akbar, Muhammad Ahsan, Dr. Ghalib A. Shah. "MISA: Minimalist Implementation of oneM2M Security Architecture for Constrained IoT Devices", IEEE Globecom 2019.
• Muhammad Ahsan, Naseer Ahmad, Waqas Badar. "Simulation of Solar angles for maximizing Efficiency of Solar Thermal Collectors", 3rd International Conference on Energy Conservation and Efficiency (ICECE), 2019.

PROJECTS

OneM2M Framework:

• Implementation of Horizontal Layer OneM2M Standard Framework for M2M and IoTs Sensor Nodes on MbedOS running over Nucleo STM32 L476rg boards.
• MQTT client/broker model implementation on Raspbian Jessie OS running over Raspberry Pi 3 Gateway design for IoT Applications which supports multiple service functionalities including:
  • Registration
  • Security Association and Establishment (SAE)
  • Data Management and Repository (DMR)
  • Access Control Policies (ACPs)
  • Subscription and Notification
  • Secure MQTT/MQTT-SN Binding
• Transport Layer Protocol DTLS/UDP and TLS/TCP implementation.
• Serialization/de-serialization of JSON request/response packets.
• DTLS Support for MQTT-SN Multi-threaded Gateway Application.

Other Projects:

• Firewall rules Analyzing, Writing and Testing for SCADA/IoT Protocols.
• Use of different tools for Scanning, Sniffing, Spoofing, MITM and other Attack Vectors generation.
• Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) reproduction for generation of different attacks on network to test Firewall rules.
• Automation of Paddy Dryer for Rice Mill industry and UET Water Tanks.
• Simulation and Modeling of Solar angles for Tracking Surface in MATLAB.
• PLC SCADA control for Dual Axis Solar Tracking System.
• Design and Development of Motor Test Bench for PCSIR Laboratories.
• Short Course Instructor for Programmable Logic Controller (PLC).
• Development of Energy Efficiency Advisory course in collaboration with sequa gGmbH – GiZ.

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

• ICOSST’16, ICOSST’17, ICOSST’18 and ICOSST’19 Event Organizer.
• ICECE’17 and ICECE’18 Event Organizer.
• Reviewer Services: IEEE IoT Journal, FSI Digital Investigation, Computers & Security, ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems