The CS department welcomes Dr. Adam Aviv, who has joined us as an associate professor. Dr. Aviv previously was an assistant professor at the United States Naval Academy. His primary research interests are in computer security, where he has focused on network security, applied cryptography, and usable security and privacy. In particular, Dr. Aviv is interested in human factors in security and how human computer interaction interfaces with computer security with the goal of designing and deploying more secure systems. Dr. Aviv holds a Ph.D. in computer and information science from the University of Pennsylvania.
He is also a National Science Foundation CAREER award winner for his research on mobile authentication. His project, titled “Enhancing Mobile Authentication by Measuring the Authentication Life-Cycle,” is a five-year, $699,998 award. In this project, Dr. Aviv will study how users authenticate on their mobile devices, for example using a PIN or pattern to unlock their smartphones, and the impact of the user authentication choices on security and privacy. The project will also focus on lifecycle events, seeking to understand how users authenticate on their devices over periods of time and how authentication is affected when users encounter new security features or advice.