Khandakar Ashrafi Akbar 🍵
Khandakar Ashrafi Akbar

Ph.D. Candidate (Expected Date of Graduation - August, 2025)

About Me

Khandakar Ashrafi Akbar is a researcher and academic specializing in cybersecurity and machine learning, currently pursuing a Ph.D. at The University of Texas at Dallas. Her research centers on usable security, improving AI performance across both general and specialized domains, and exploring the nuanced factors that shape decision-making in Generative AI systems. With a strong foundation in interdisciplinary collaboration, Ashrafi integrates theory and practice to design socially responsible, cost-effective security solutions. Her work spans threat detection, ontology development, and the application of LLMs in transportation, reflecting a commitment to innovation, accessibility, and real-world impact.

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Interests
  • Data Mining
  • Nuances in Natural Language Processing
  • Context Awareness
  • Usable Security
  • Adversarial Machine Learning
  • Human-Factors in Computing
Education
  • Ph.D. in Computer Science

    The University of Texas at Dallas

  • M.Sc in Computer Science

    The University of Texas at Dallas

  • B.Sc in Computer Science and Engineering

    Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

📚 My Research
Khandakar Ashrafi Akbar’s research focuses on leveraging artificial general intelligence (AGI) and machine learning to address security and privacy challenges across diverse domains. By developing accessible and automated technologies, such as recommendation systems for software patches and system-level defense mechanisms, her work aims to make cutting-edge solutions attainable for all stakeholders, including government and socially responsible vendors. Her research emphasizes green computing, usability, and scalability, contributing to the broader goal of optimizing AGI for real-world applications and promoting “Accessible by All Security” for individuals and organizations.
Featured Publications
Recent Publications
(2025). Enhancing Security Insights with KnowGen-RAG: Combining Knowledge Graphs, LLMs, and Multimodal Interpretability. IWSPA ‘25.
(2025). Streamlining Research Complexities for AI Agents: Charting Pathways to Innovative Idea Generation. ACDSA 2025.
(2024). LLM-Sentry: A Model-Agnostic Human-in-the-Loop Framework for Securing Large Language Models. IEEE TPS ISA.
(2024). Data Security & Privacy Regulation in the U.S.: A 50-State Legislative Survey. TRB 2025.
(2024). Retrieval Augmented Generation-Based Large Language Models for Bridging Transportation Cybersecurity Legal Knowledge Gaps. TRB 2025.
Recent & Upcoming Talks
Recent News

Attended CODASPY 2025

Got a paper accepted at the co-located IWSPA workshop!

Attended TRB 2025

Attended TRB 2025 and presented our papers at Washington, D.C.!

Got two papers accepted at TRB 2025 and are further forwarded to TRR

Two of our papers titled “Retrieval Augmented Generation-Based Large Language Models for Bridging Transportation Cybersecurity Legal Knowledge Gaps” and “Data Security & Privacy Regulation in the U.S.; A 50-State Legislative Survey” got acceptance at TRB 2025 and are further forwarded to TRR

Attended TraCR 2024 Conference

Got one poster paper titled “Bridging Legal Knowledge Gaps in Cybersecurity for Connected and Automated Transportation Systems with Large Language Models” accepted and attended TraCR 2024 conference

My elder brother got married!

Congratulations to my brother, Shovan, and my sister-in-law, Tisha, on starting their life together!

Got a paper accepted at ICISS 2023!

Got a paper accepted titled “The Design and Application of a Unified Ontology for Cyber Security” at the 19th International Conference on Information and Systems Security