Staff Profile
I am a Senior Lecturer in Cybersecurity at the School of Computing (the research group AMBER), 缅北禁地. Prior to joining 缅北禁地 in 2022, I was an Associate Professor (docent) at the Department of Computer Science and Media Technology, Linnaeus University, Sweden (2014-2023), a Research Associate at the group, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden (2012-2014) and a visiting researcher at Braunschweig University of Technology, Germany (2011). I received my PhD (2012) and MSc from Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, and my BSc from Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
My ongoing research spans developing and applying formal methods to analyse security and design secure (software) systems. I have recently followed two lines of research:
- language-based security to develop scalable tools and techniques to ensure and enforce security in software applications,
- designing self-protecting systems using various techniques such as security games, threat modelling, and formal verification.
Granted Projects
- (SecuriTy SummaRies for SecUre SofTwarE Development, In collaboration with University of Liverpool, Google, OCamlPro), Sep 2023-Aug 2026, Project Lead, Principal Investigator, EPSRC, £919,000.
- (Provably Secure Self-protecting Systems), Jan 2017- Dec 2019, Project Lead, Principal Investigator, Knowledge Foundations (KKs), 3.145 MSEK (~325,000 Euro).
- (Self-Adaptive Actors - Safety Assurance), 2016-2018, Co-Investigator, The Icelandic Research Fund, 315,000 Euro.
Other Research Projects
– PROSPER (Provably Secure Execution Platforms for Embedded Systems), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, April 2012-May 2014, Researcher.
– ruleIT, NTH (Niedersächsische Technische Hochschule) Focused Research School for IT Ecosystems, Braunschweig, Nov 2010-May 2011, Researcher.
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Articles
- Skandylas C, Khakpour N. . Future Generation Computer Systems 2021, 115, 421-437.
- Khakpour N. . Computers & Security 2021, 108, 102349.
- Caporuscio M, Flammini F, Khakpour N, Singh P, Thornadtsson J. . Future Generation Computer Systems 2020, 111, 681-697.
- Skandylas C, Khakpour N, Andersson J. . ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems 2020, 15(4), 13.
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Book Chapters
- Gunawardhana RS, Khakpour N. . In: Edward A. Lee; Mohammad Reza Mousavi; Carolyn Talcott, ed. Rebeca for Actor Analysis in Action: Essays Dedicated to Marjan Sirjani on the Occasion of Her 60th Birthday. Cham: Springer, 2025, pp.390-405.
- Talcott C, Ananieva S, Bae K, Combemale B, Heinrich R, Hills M, Khakpour N, Reussner R, Rumpe B, Scandurra P, Vangheluwe H, Duran F, Zschaler S. . In: Robert Heinrich and Francisco Duran and Carolyn L. Talcott and Steffen Zschaler, ed. Composing Model-Based Analysis Tools. Cham: Springer, 2021, pp.9-37.
- Talcott C, Ananieva S, Bae K, Combemale B, Heinrich R, Hills M, Khakpour N, Reussner R, Rumpe B, Scandurra P, Vangheluwe H, Duran F, Zschaler S. . In: Robert Heinrich and Francisco Duran and Carolyn L. Talcott and Steffen Zschaler, ed. Composing Model-Based Analysis Tools. Cham: Springer, 2021, pp.45-70.
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Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)
- Khakpour N, Skandylas C. . In: 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE '24). 2024, Sacramento, CA, USA: IEEE/ACM.
- Berthier N, Khakpour N. . In: 24th International Conference on Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation (VMCAI 2023). 2023, Boston, US: Springer.
- Skandylas C, Khakpour N, Camara J. . In: 22nd IEEE International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability and Security. 2022, Guangzhou, China: IEEE.
- Skandylas C, Zhou L, Khakpour N, Roe S. . In: IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Engineering and Cybersecurity of Critical Systems (EnCyCriS@ICSE). 2021, Madrid, Spain: IEEE.
- Zeller S, Khakpour N, Weyns D, Deogun D. . In: 15th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Software Engineering for Adaptive and Self-Managing Systems. 2020, Seoul, Republic of Korea: ACM.
- Skandylas C, Khakpour N, Andersson J. . In: IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing and Self-Organizing Systems (ACSOS 2020). 2020, Washington, DC, USA: IEEE.
- Khakpour N, Skandylas C, Nariman GS, Weyns D. . In: 14th International Symposium on Software Engineering for Adaptive and Self-Managing Systems (SEAMS '19). 2019, Montreal, QC, Canada: IEEE Press.
- Khakpour N, Kleijn J, Sirjani M. . In: 8th International Conference on Fundamentals of Software Engineering (FSEN 2019). 2019, Tehran, Iran: Springer.
- Khakpour N, Skandylas C. . In: 23rd European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS 2018). 2018, Barcelona, Spain: Springer.