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Hi! I’m a 2nd-year software engineering Ph.D. student at University of California, Irvine (UCI)’s Informatics Department. I am advised by Dr. Joshua Garcia.

My research interests include:

• Software Security - threat modeling, secure software development, open-source software
• CS Education - software engineering & security education, AI in education
• AI & Security - AI red teaming

Highlighted accomplishments/work:

• Summer-Fall 2024: Security Research Engineer Intern @ Samsung Research America, Knox Security
• Summer 2024: A Deep Dive Into How Open-Source Project Maintainers Review and Resolve Bug Bounty Reports accepted at IEEE Security & Privacy ‘25 (as a second author)
• Summer 2024: Codesafe: Scenario-Driven Software Engineering and Security Education Platform is 1 of 6 proposals selected for the Catalyst Award ($50,000) for the DARPA + Tools Competition ‘24 Building an Adaptive and Competitive Workforce Competition (first author)
  • See here for the article featured in UCI ICS Communications.

Here’s my CV.

I actively compete with Cyber@UCI’s Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) team as the corporate subteam lead for the ‘24-‘25 season. We compete in Western Regional CCDC (WRCCDC). Accomplishments include:

• 1st place at WRCCDC ‘25 Qualifiers –> Advancement to WRCCDC ‘25 Regionals
• 4th place at National CCDC ‘24 Nationals
• 2nd place at WRCCDC ‘24 Regionals, 1st place at National CCDC ‘24 Wildcard
• 3rd place in WRCCDC ‘24 Qualifiers

I may not always be available for collaboration, but please don’t hesitate to reach out if any of my work is of interest or if you would just like to work together. Please also feel free to reach out if you have any questions or just want to chat!

This site was last updated Feb. 13, 2025. If you’d like more up-to-date information on my profile, please contact skngo1@uci.edu.