Electrical and Computer Engineering

Hardware Security Lab

Research at the K-State Hardware Security Lab primarily focuses on developing automated methods to ensure the security and trustworthiness of hardware and cyber systems. Our lab has contributed several key solutions that have been widely acknowledged and referenced by the emerging scientific community in trusted hardware. We concentrate on formal methods, generative AI, and side-channel measurements.

Labicon

Our current work encompasses hardware and software security co-verification, large language model-based hardware security evaluation, and hardware-based runtime security checks. We apply our solutions in various scenarios, including micro-architecture level hardware, Internet of Things (IoT) systems, smart infrastructure, and the semiconductor industry. Additionally, we are exploring new applications for our research outcomes, such as antimicrobial peptides and proteins, agriculture, and combating financial exploitation.

 

Photo of Xiaolong Guo

Xiaolong Guo

Assistant Professor

Director of KSU Hardware Security Lab
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Kansas State University

Email: guoxiaolong@ksu.edu

 

Short Bio

Prior to joining the faculty at Kansas State University, Guo received his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from University of Florida (UF) in 2019.

His research interests center on applying formal methods and generative AI to detect hardware and cybersecurity issues. Specifically, his current work encompasses the following areas:

  • Hardware Security, Side-channel Measurements, Microarchitectural Level Security, Hardware and Software Co-Security Verification
  • Formal Verification, Program Analysis

  • Domain-Specific Applications of Large Language Models (LLMs)

Academic Highlights
  • REI Award from Kansas NSF EPSCoR, 2024
  • Faculty Early Career Development, or CAREER, Award from the National Science Foundation, 2024.
  • First Awards from Kansas NSF EPSCoR, 2023
  • Best Paper Nominate in 26th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC), 2021.
  • Best Paper Award in IEEE Asian Hardware Oriented Security and Trust Symposium (AsianHOST), 2020.
  • Best Paper Award in Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition (DATE), 2019.
Funded Research Projects
  1. National Science Foundation (NSF), ``CICI: UCSS: Safeguarding AI in Bioinformatics: Enhancing Cybersecurity in Biological Data Infrastructure,'' $560K, 2024-2026, Lead Principal Investigator
  2. REI Award from Kansas NSF EPSCoR Arise Program, "Guarding the Gatekeepers: Ensuring the Safety of IoT Sensors in Essential Infrastructure'' $50K, 2024-2025, Principal Investigator
  3. National Science Foundation (NSF), ``CAREER: When Learning Meets Reasoning: Mitigating Security Risks with Large Language Models and Causality Inference,'' $500K, 2024-2029, Principal Investigator
  4. First Awards from Kansas NSF EPSCoR Arise Program, "LLM4KSS: Large-language Models for Kansas Science'' $70K, 2023-2024, Principal Investigator
  5. National Science Foundation (NSF), "Collaborative Research: FMitF: TrackI: Property-specific Hardware-oriented Formal Verification Modules for Embedded Systems ,'' 750K, 2020-2024, Principle Investigator in Kansas State University
  6. National Science Foundation (NSF), 'Collaborative Research: PPoSS: Planning: S3-IoT: Design and Deployment of Scalable, Secure, and Smart Mission-Critical IoT Systems ,'' $250K, 2020-2022, Principle Investigator in Kansas State University