Ph.D. Researcher · Hardware & Software Security · AI-Assisted Security
Securing Computing Systems Across Hardware and Software.
I am a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Arizona, working at the intersection of compiled software security, hardware security, and AI-assisted security automation. My research explores techniques for analyzing, protecting, and strengthening computing systems across hardware and software layers.
01 · About
I am a Ph.D. researcher and Graduate Research Assistant in the PRISM Lab at the University of Arizona, advised by Dr. Soheil Salehi. My work studies how computing systems can be analyzed and protected at several layers — compiled binaries, embedded firmware, and hardware designs — and where AI assistance can make that work more effective.
Before graduate school I worked as a software engineer in industry, including as a Software Engineer II at Cotiviti Nepal. That experience shapes a practical focus: security techniques should work on real software and remain usable by the engineers who build it.
Retrofitting control-flow protection into compiled AArch64 software using binary rewriting and ARM Pointer Authentication.
A research framework that makes hardware vulnerability knowledge accessible through natural-language queries, semantic similarity, and LLM-assisted mitigation suggestions.
Exploring LLM-assisted and agentic approaches to hardware logic obfuscation and intellectual-property protection.
Research on bare-metal firmware security through emulation, rehosting, fuzzing, and vulnerability analysis.
04 · Publications
Lead-authored work in ACM TODAES, IEEE VTS, and IEEE FIE, alongside collaborative research in hardware and embedded security.
Sujan Ghimire, Parsa Mirfasihi, Muhtasim Alam Chowdhury, Veeramani Pugazhenthi, Harish Kumar Dharavath, Farshad Firouzi, Rozhin Yasaei, Pratik Satam, Soheil Salehi
2026 IEEE 44th VLSI Test Symposium (VTS), pp. 1-5, 2026.
Sujan Ghimire, Yu-Zheng Lin, Muntasir Mamun, Muhtasim Alam Chowdhury, Farhad Alemi, Shuyu Cai, Jinduo Guo, Mingyu Zhu, Honghui Li, Banafsheh Saber Latibari, Setareh Rafatirad, Pratik Satam, Soheil Salehi
ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 1-33, 2025.
Sujan Ghimire, Muhtasim Alam Chowdhury, Ryan Tsang, Richard Yarnell, Emma Heckert, Jaeden Carpenter, Yu-Zheng Lin, Muntasir Mamun, Ronald F. DeMara, Setareh Rafatirad, Pratik Satam, Soheil Salehi
2024 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), pp. 1-7, 2024.
Veeramani Pugazhenthi, Md Muhtasim Alam Chowdhury, Sujan Ghimire, Harish Kumar Dharavath, Parsa Mirfasihi, Nader Sehatbakhsh, Pratik Satam, Soheil Salehi
Proceedings of the Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI 2026, pp. 135-140, 2026.
Walked at the University of Arizona commencement after completing my M.S. in Software Engineering, while continuing on in the Ph.D. program.
The Summer 2026 issue of Arizona Engineer, the University of Arizona College of Engineering magazine, covers the VR classroom where undergraduates explore a digital twin of the semiconductor cleanroom. The article includes a photo of me guiding a student on a VR headset.
Recognized as a DAC Young Fellow at the 62nd Design Automation Conference (DAC), held June 22–25, 2025.
Contact
I welcome conversations with researchers, students, and industry teams working on systems security, hardware security, and AI-assisted security analysis.