Xiaolin Xu
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Focus
Hardware security, Machine Learning, AI Security, Energy-efficient Deep Learning, Computer Architecture, Embedded Systems, VLSI
Education
- PhD, Computer Systems Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2016
Research Overview
Hardware security, Machine Learning, AI Security, Energy-efficient Deep Learning, Computer Architecture, Embedded Systems, VLSI
Selected Research Projects
- Secure and Robust Machine Learning in Multi-Tenant Cloud FPGA
- – Principle Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Bolstering UAV Cybersecurity Education through Curriculum Development with Hands-on Laboratory Framework
- – Principle Investigator, National Science Foundation
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- B. Shakya, X. Xu, M. Tehranipoor, D. Forte, CAS-Lock: A Security-Corruptibility Trade-off Resilient Logic Locking Scheme, IACR Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems (TCHES), 1, 2020, 175-202
- S. Best, X. Xu, An All-Digital True Random Number Generator Based on Chaotic Cellular Automata Topology, IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), 2019
- X. Xu, F. Rahman, B. Shakya, A. Vassilev, D. Forte, M. Tehranipoor, Electronics Supply Chain Integrity Enabled by Blockchain, ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES), 31, 2019
- X. Xu, S. Keshavarz, D. Forte, M. Tehranipoor, D.E. Holcomb, Oscillation as a Mechanism for Autonomous Majority Voting in PUFs, IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration Systems (TVLSI), 26(11), 2018, 2431-2442
- X. Xu, B. Shakya, M. Tehranipoor, D. Forte, Novel Bypass Attack and BDD-based Tradeoff Analysis Against all Known Logic Locking Attacks, International Conference on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems (CHES), 2017
Oct 31, 2022
ECE Faculty and PhD Student Receive IEEE/ACM William J. McCalla ICCAD Best Paper Nomination
ECE Assistant Professor Xiaolin Xu and student Tong Zhou, PhD’25, and coauthor Dr. Shaolei Ren from UC Riverside, received the IEEE/ACM William J. McCalla ICCAD Best Paper Nomination, at the 2022 International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (IEEE/ACM ICCAD, San Diego, CA), for their paper titled “ObfuNAS: A Neural Architecture Search-based DNN Obfuscation Approach”.

Jul 18, 2022
Creating Defenses Against Multi-Tenant ML Cloud-FPGA Vulnerabilities
ECE Assistant Professor Xiaolin Xu, in collaboration with Arizona State University, was awarded a $500K NSF grant to design a “Secure and Robust Machine Learning in Multi-Tenant Cloud FPGA.”

Jun 28, 2022
ECE PhD Wins ACM TODAES Rookie Author of the Year Award
Computer engineering student, Shijin Duan, PhD’25, advised by ECE Assistant Professor Xiaolin Xu, is the recipient of the prestigious ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES) Rookie Author of the Year (RAY) Award, for their paper titled “FPGAPRO: A Defense Framework Against Crosstalk-Induced Secret Leakage in FPGA”.
Nov 10, 2020
ECE PhD Students Win 3rd Place at Embedded Security Challenge (ECS) at the CSAW 2020 Conference
ECE PhD students Wenhao Wang, Shijin Duan, and Yukui Luo, advised by Professor Xiaolin Xu, recently participated in the Embedded Security Challenge (ECS) at the CSAW 2020 conference, placing 3rd in the US-Canada region.

Oct 26, 2020
Improving the Cybersecurity of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
ECE Assistant Professor Xiaolin Xu, in collaboration with Houbing Song at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Jiawei Yuan at UMass Dartmouth, was awarded a $500K NSF grant for “Bolstering UAV Cybersecurity Education through Curriculum Development with Hands-on Laboratory Framework”.

Sep 02, 2020
New Faculty Spotlight: Xiaolin Xu
Xiaolin Xu joins the Electrical and Computer Engineering department in August 2020 as an Assistant Professor.