Academic Profile
Assistant Professor
About Me →
Research Impact
27+
Publications
Journal and conference publications in cyber security, AI, and software engineering.
16+
Supervisions
PhD and Master student supervision across research and industry-aligned topics.
11+
Research Grants
Funded projects and collaborative research initiatives across academia and industry.
12+
Years Experience
Academic teaching, research leadership, curriculum design, and professional contribution.

ADVANCING CYBER SECURITY & AI

RESEARCH

I am Dr. Faheem Ullah, an Assistant Professor at Zayed University, specializing in Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence, and Software Engineering. My research focuses on developing intelligent systems for cybersecurity analytics, machine learning applications, and secure software architectures. With extensive experience in academia and research, I have contributed to high-impact journals and international conferences.

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS

RECENT RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

Dr. Faheem Ullah has published numerous research papers in leading international journals and conferences in the areas of Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence, and Software Engineering. His research focuses on intelligent cybersecurity analytics, machine learning for security, cloud and distributed systems, and secure software architectures.

Teaching

Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
  • Assistant Professor: Jan 2024 - Present
    • Designed and taught the following courses:
      • Machine Learning
      • Applied Neural Networks and Deep Learning
      • Problem Solving with Data Structures and Algorithms
      • Information Security and Data Privacy
    • Coordinated the development and delivery of Machine Learning course
    • Part of the task force developing Applied AI program for ZU
    • Leading two research projects as PI
    • Supervising 5 final year projects
    • Member of the research committee
    • Member of the recruitment committee
The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Assistant Professor: Mar 2022 - Dec 2023
    • Designed and taught the following courses:
      • Concepts in Cyber Security
      • Secure Software Engineering
      • Cyber Security Industry Projects
      • Cyber Security Research Projects
    • Supervised PhD and Master students
    • Led the R&D of big data cluster at CREST
    • Led CSCRC research project as Co-PI
  • Program Director for Cyber Security: Mar 2022 - Dec 2023
    • Provided academic leadership for Master of Cyber Security Program
    • Ensured courses are aligned with the academic and professional accreditation needs
    • Mentored subject matter experts and course coordinators
    • Conducted student recruitment webinars
  • Casual Lecturer: Mar 2019 - Nov 2019
    • Designed and taught the following courses:
      • Software Architecture
      • Software Requirements Engineering
  • Associate Lecturer: Mar 2017 - Nov 2018
    • Taught and supported the delivery of the following courses:
      • Software Design and Analysis
      • Software Requirements Engineering
      • Software Architecture
GIK Institute of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan
  • Associate Lecturer: Nov 2014 - Sept 2015
    • Designed and conducted lab sessions for the following courses:
      • Circuit Analysis
      • Micro controller and Interfacing
      • Computer Architecture
    • In-charge of activities (e.g., competitions) in Software Engineering Lab
    • Coordinated events of student societies such as ACM and NETRONICS
    • Member of the team responsible for Faculty Self-Assessment Program
Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering (CASE), Pakistan
  • Associate Lecturer: Aug 2013 - Oct 2014
    • Designed and conducted lab sessions for the following courses:
      • Data Structures and Algorithms
      • Programming Techniques
      • Object Oriented Programming
      • Computer Architecture
      • Computer Organization and Assembly Language
      • Digital Logic Design
    • In-charge of activities (e.g., competitions) in Software Engineering Lab
    • Coordinated events of student societies such as ACM and NETRONICS
    • Member of the team responsible for Faculty Self-Assessment Program

Research Experience

The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Aug 2020 - Feb 2022
    • Led the R&D of two industrial projects.
    • The first project was about big data analytics and cloud computing funded by Defense Science and Technology (DSTG), Australia.
    • The second project, supported and funded by Cyber Security Cooperative Research Center (CSCRC) and Cisco, focused on the cyber security of command-and-control systems.
    • Co-supervised 2 PhD students and 10+ Master students
    • Managed a software development team consisting of 3 developers
    • Member of the team responsible for Faculty Self-Assessment Program
  • Research Assistant: Mar 2020 - July 2020
    • Worked on “Big data analytics for Upstream Oil & Gas Sector” research project for Defense Science and Technology (DSTG), Australia.

Selected Publications

Journal Articles
  • J13. Hussain Ahmad, Faheem Ullah, and Rehan Jafri.
    ”A survey on immersive cyber situational awareness systems.” Journal of Cybersecurity and Privacy 5, no. 2 (2025): 33. Impact Factor: 4.4
  • J12. Faheem Ullah, Shagun Dhingra, Xiaoyu Xia, and M. Ali Babar.
    ”Evaluation of distributed data processing frameworks in hybrid clouds.” Journal of Network and Computer Applications 224 (2024): 103837. Impact Factor: 6.28
  • J11. Majid Abdulsatar, Hussain Ahmad, Diksha Goel, Faheem Ullah.
    “Towards Deep Learning Enabled Cybersecurity Risk Assessment for Microservice Architectures” Journal of Cluster Computing (2024). Impact Factor: 3.6
  • J10. Raveen Kanishka Jayalath, Hussain Ahmad, Diksha Goel, Muhammad Shuja Syed, Faheem Ullah.
    “Microservice vulnerability analysis: A literature review with empirical insights” IEEE Access (2024). Impact Factor: 3.4
  • J9. Yaser Mansouri, Faheem Ullah, Shagun Dhingra, and M. Ali Babar.
    ”Design and implementation of fragmented clouds for evaluation of distributed databases.” IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing (2023). Impact Factor: 5.0
  • J8. Phu, Anh Tuan, Bo Li, Faheem Ullah, Tanvir Ul Huque, Ranesh Naha, Muhammad Ali Babar, and Hung Nguyen.
    ”Defending SDN against packet injection attacks using deep learning.” Computer Networks 234 (2023): 109935. Impact Factor: 4.8
  • J7. Hussain Ahmad, Isuru Dharmadasa, Faheem Ullah, and M. Ali Babar.
    A Review on C3I Systems’ Security: Vulnerabilities, Attacks, and Countermeasures, ACM Computing Surveys, 2022. Impact Factor: 14.32
  • J6. Yaser Mansouri, Victor Prokhorenko, Faheem Ullah, and M. Ali Babar.
    Resource Utilization of Distributed Databases in Edge-Cloud Environment, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 2022. Impact Factor: 10.23
  • J5. Faheem Ullah, M. Ali Babar, Aldeida Aleti.
    Design and Evaluation of Adaptive System for Big Data Cyber Security Analytics, Journal of Expert Systems with Applications, 2022, Elsevier. Impact Factor: 8.66
  • J4. Faheem Ullah and M. Ali Babar.
    On the Scalability of Big Data Cyber Security Analytics, Journal of Network and Computer Applications (JNCA), 2021, Elsevier. Impact Factor: 6.28
  • J3. Bushra Sabir, Faheem Ullah, M. Ali Babar, and Raj Gaire.
    ”Machine Learning for Detecting Data Exfiltration: A Review.” ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR) 54, no. 3 (2021): 1-47. Impact Factor: 14.32
  • J2. Faheem Ullah and M. Ali Babar.
    Architectural Tactics for Big Data Cybersecurity Analytics: A Review, Journal of Systems and Software (JSS), Volume 151, Pages: 81-118, 2019, Elsevier. Impact Factor: 2.82
  • J1. Faheem Ullah, Matthew Edwards, Rajiv Ramdhany, Ruzanna Chitchyan, M. Ali Babar, and Awais Rashid.
    Data Exfiltration: A Review of External Attack Vectors and Countermeasures, Journal of Network and Computer Applications (JNCA), Volume 101, Pages: 18-54, 2018, Elsevier. Impact Factor: 6.28
Conference Papers
  • C14. Pragya Kaushik, Faheem Ullah, and Muhammad Imran Taj.
    ”Mapping Industry Demands for Digital Forensics: A Study of Penetration Tester Requirements.” In 2025 12th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS), pp. 8-16. IEEE, 2025.
  • C13. Luca Canala, Muhammad Uzair, Faheem Ullah, Babar Shah.
    Enhancing Mobile AI: Feature-Based Knowledge Distillation for Efficient Image Classification. 19th International Conference on Information Technology and Applications (ICITA 2025)
  • C12. Shouq Alseiari, Hoor Alkatheeri, Faheem Ullah, Muhammad Imran Taj.
    From Air toWater: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Tackle UAE’s Water Scarcity, Student Research Conference on Applied Computing, UAE, 2025.
  • C11. Faheem Ullah, Liwei Wang, Uswa Fatima, and Muhammad Imran Taj.
    ”Data Breaches: What Happened over the Last 20 Years?.” International Conference on Data Science, Technology and Applications (DATA)(2025).
  • C10. Samuel Beahan, Faheem Ullah, Lachlan Chalmers, Uswa Fatima, Mojtaba Shahin.
    “CharacterizingVulnerabilities in Microservices: Source, Age and Severity”, International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA), Odense Denmark, 2025.
  • C9. Tyllis, Nikolas, Faheem Ullah, and Muhammad Uzair.
    ”An Exploratory Study of Vulnerabilities in Big Data Systems.” In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData), pp. 1360-1367. IEEE, 2023.
  • C8. Dharmadasa, Isuru, and Faheem Ullah.
    ”Co-Tuning of Cloud Infrastructure and Distributed Data Processing Platforms.” In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData), pp. 207-214. IEEE, 2023.
  • C7. Faheem Ullah, and Muhammad Ali Babar.
    ”Guidance Models for Designing Big Data Cyber Security Analytics Systems.” In European Conference on Software Architecture, pp. 70-80. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2023.
  • C6. Rana Aurangzaib, Waheed Iqbal, Muhammad Abdullah, Faisal Bukhari, Faheem Ullah, Abdelkarim Earradi.
    Scalable Containerized Pipeline for Real-time Big Data Analytics. International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science (CloudCom), Perth, Australia.
  • C5. Xuanyu Duan, Mengmeng Ge, Triet HM Le, Faheem Ullah, Shang Gao, Xuequan Lu, M Ali Babar.
    Automated Security Assessment for the Internet of Things. International Symposium on Dependable Computing (PRDC), Perth, Australia
  • C4. Faheem Ullah and M. Ali Babar.
    Quantifying the Impact of Design Strategies for Big Data Cyber Security Analytics Systems: An Empirical Investigation, In Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing, Applications and Technologies (PDCAT), Gold Coast, Australia, 2019
  • C3. Faheem Ullah and M. Ali Babar.
    QuickAdapt: ScalableAdaptation for Big Data Cyber Security Analytics, In Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (ICECCS), Guangzhou, China, 2019
  • C2. Faheem Ullah and M. Ali Babar.
    An Architecture-driven Adaptation Approach for Big Data Cyber Security Analytics, In Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA), Hamburg, Germany, 2019
  • C1. Faheem Ullah, Adam Johannes Raft, Mojtaba Shahin, Mansooreh Zahedi, and M. Ali Babar.
    Security Support in Continuous Deployment Pipeline, In Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering (ENASE), Pages: 57-68, Porto, Portugal, 2017
PhD Thesis
  • T1. Faheem Ullah.
    Towards Quality-centric Design and Evaluation of Big Data Cyber Security Analytics Systems, PhD Thesis, The University of Adelaide, Australia, June 2020.

Industry Experience

  • Project Manager
    The University of Adelaide, Australia (2016–2017)
    Managed a university-funded project to develop SuperSort, a mobile application designed to educate students about proper waste disposal.
  • Software Developer
    TECNEX, Pakistan (2013)
    Worked on a hospital management system project, focusing on bug fixing and improving system reliability.
Awards & Honors
  • Most Cited Paper Award
    Journal of Systems and Software
    Architectural Tactics for Big Data Cyber Security Analytics (2022)
  • Best Paper Award Nominee
    ENASE Conference
    Security Support in Continuous Deployment Pipeline (2017)
  • Bronze Medalist
    Faculty of Computer Engineering, GIK Institute
    3rd Position in BS Computer Engineering (2013)
  • Dean's Honor for Academic Excellence
    GIK Institute
    Academic distinction for outstanding performance (2011–2013)
  • Gold Medalist
    Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education Peshawar
    1st Position among 62,000 students (2009)
  • Gold Medalist
    Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education Mardan
    1st Position among 57,000 students (2007)
Research Grants & Funded Projects
  • Year 2025
    Research Intensive Fund, Zayed University
    The Dual Edge of AI - Security Implications of Integrating AI in Mobile Applications
    Duration: 2026 - 2027
    Principle Investigator: Faheem Ullah
    Grant Amount: AUD 248,000
  • Year 2025
    Ministry of Education, Saudi Arabia
    Revolutionizing Urban Planning in Saudi Arabia with AI: From NEOM to the Red Sea
    Duration: 2025 - 2026
    Co-Investigator: Faheem Ullah
    Grant Amount: SAR 50,000
  • Year 2024
    Start Up Grant, Zayed University
    Dynamic Risk Assessment for IoT-based Smart Cities
    Duration: 2024 - 2025
    Principle Investigator: Faheem Ullah
    Grant Amount: AED 30,000
  • Year 2024
    Short Term Grant, Zayed University
    Machine Learning for Detecting Data Exfiltration Attacks
    Duration: 2024 - 2025
    Principle Investigator: Faheem Ullah
    Grant Amount: AED 10,000
  • Year 2022
    Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre, Australia
    SCReed – Sharing Cyber Security Data for Australian Research
    Duration: 2022 - 2024
    Co-Investigator: Faheem Ullah
    Grant Amount: AUD 540,000
  • Year 2022
    Adelaide Summer Research Scholarship
    Big Data Analytics for Climate Change Analysis
    Duration: Nov 2022 - Feb 2023
    Principle Investigator: Faheem Ullah
    Grant Amount: AUD 2,400
  • Year 2022
    Adelaide Summer Research Scholarship
    Securing of Big Data Systems
    Duration: Nov 2022 - Feb 2023
    Principle Investigator: Faheem Ullah
    Grant Amount: AUD 1,200
  • Year 2021
    Faculty of Sciences, Engineering, and Technology (The University of Adelaide)
    Machine Learning for Detecting Data Exfiltration Attacks
    Duration: Nov 2021 - Feb 2022
    Principle Supervisor: Faheem Ullah
    Grant Amount: AUD 1,200
  • Year 2021
    Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre, Australia
    Automated Security Assessment for the Internet of Things
    Duration: Nov 2021 - Feb 2022
    Principle Supervisor: Faheem Ullah
    Grant Amount: AUD 7,200
  • Year 2021
    Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre & Faculty of SET (University of Adelaide)
    Protecting SDN against Packet Injection Attacks
    Duration: Nov 2021 - Feb 2022
    Principle Supervisor: Faheem Ullah
    Grant Amount: AUD 4,800
  • Year 2021
    Adelaide Graduate School (The University of Adelaide)
    User Behavioural Analytics for Healthcare Security
    Duration: 2021 - 2024
    Project Designer: Faheem Ullah
    Grant Amount: 1 PhD ScholarshipAUD 27,000/year
Student Supervision
PhD Students
  • Yongzheng Xie (2020 - 2024)
    Topic: AI-based Failure Detection and Root Cause Analysis
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Hussain Ahmad (2021 - 2022)
    Topic: Engineering Secure ML based Cybersecurity Systems
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
Master Students
  • Mohideen Abdul Jan (2023 - Sept 2023)
    Topic: Machine Learning for Detecting Data Exfiltration Attacks
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Kaiyun Yu (Oct 2022 - May 2023)
    Topic: Comparative Security Analysis of Microservice and Monolithic Architectures
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Che-Fu (Oct 2022 - May 2023)
    Topic: Security Analysis of Microservice Architecture based on Stack Overflow Posts
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Jianwei He (May 2022 - Dec 2022)
    Topic: Identifying Security Issues Based on Mobile App Reviews
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Yuen Yuen (May 2022 - Dec 2022)
    Topic: Identifying Security Issues Based on Mobile App Reviews
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Xiaohan Ye (May 2022 - Dec 2022)
    Topic: Topic: What Expertise Security Professionals Need
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • YuxiWu (May 2022 - Dec 2022)
    Topic: Machine Learning Skills for Cyber Security Professionals
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Imaduddin Mohammed (Feb 2021 - Oct 2021)
    Topic: Energy-aware Task-offloading for Big Data Platforms in Edge-Cloud Environment
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • The Trung Le (Feb 2021 - Oct 2021)
    Topic: The Impact of Node Failure and Node Addition on the Performance of Big Data Platforms
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Shagun Dhingra (Sept 2020 - May 2021)
    Topic: Performance Evaluation of Hadoop, Spark, and Flink in Hybrid Clouds
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Atukoralage Kusala Rajakaruna (Sept 2020 - May 2021)
    Topic: Co-tuning of Cloud and Big Data System
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Sharon Khate Damaso (Sept 2020 - May 2021)
    Topic: Co-tuning of Cloud and Big Data System
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Trung Ky Moc (Feb 2020 - Oct 2020)
    Topic: IoT Edge Processing for Smart Parking System
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Anying Xiang (Feb 2019 - Oct 2019)
    Topic: Scalable and Reliable Big Data Cyber Security Analytics with Spark
    Affiliation: The University of Adelaide, Australia
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