We are excited to share that Nadia Niknami, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer and Information Science, has accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the Department of Computing Sciences at Villanova University, beginning Fall 2025.
Niknami is expected to complete her Ph.D. in May, under the guidance of Dr. Jie Wu. With over 15 years of experience in cybersecurity research and teaching, her work focuses on advancing intrusion detection systems (IDSs) and network security, especially within Software-Defined Networks (SDNs). Her dissertation introduces a suite of intelligent and scalable frameworks (leveraging machine learning, deep reinforcement learning, and transformer-based models) to address critical challenges in dynamic network environments. Her research has demonstrated strong scalability and detection accuracy across a range of real-world scenarios.
Niknami has received multiple honors for her excellence in both research and teaching at CIS, including the prestigious Scott Hibbs Future of Computing Award. At Villanova, she looks forward to mentoring students, collaborating with colleagues, and continuing to develop impactful cybersecurity solutions.
Please join us in congratulating Niknami on this outstanding achievement and wishing her continued success in the next chapter of her academic career!