Sai Mounika Errapotu

Associate Professor

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Texas at El Paso

Engineering A-309

500 W University Avenue, El Paso, Texas - 79968

Email: serrapotu at utep dot edu

Brief Bio

Sai Mounika Errapotu is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso. She leads the Cyber Physical Systems Privacy and Security Enhanced Computing (CyPSEC) Lab at UTEP, where she focuses on developing application-specific practical security and privacy solutions for both hardware & software problems. Prior to joining UTEP she was a postdoctoral researcher at the AI, Networking Technologies, and Security Lab of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Houston. She received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Houston under the guidance of Prof. Zhu Han and Prof. Miao Pan, in May 2018. Her work on Secure Computing with Privacy Preservation for Cyber Physical Systems received the Best Dissertation Award. She received B.Tech. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India, in 2013.

MAJOR GRANTS AND FUNDING:

- Department of Defense, "SCALE", $689,782 (Role: Co-PI, Focus Area: Trusted Microelectronics) 2024-2026.

- Department of Defense Army Research Laboratory, "Generative Adversarial Networks based Network Intrusion Detection Systems", $782,500 (Role: Technical Lead), 2022-2027.

- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory LDRD grant, "(Differentially Private) Synthetic Data Generation with GANs for Healthcare applications", $140,000, 2023.

- Department of Energy NNSA, "Consortium of Power and Energy Systems", $1,100,000 (UTEP share, total: 3.4 million) (Role: Co-PI), 2021-2023.

- ASEE short grant, "Securing the next generation of in-vehicle networks", (Role: PI), Oct-Nov 2021.

- Department of Defense, "Flexible 5G Testbed for DoD Research Support", $599,975 (Role: Co-PI)

- STARS Award, Equipment Grant, $200,000.

AWARDS

- Invited Guest Speaker NSF CREEDS (Cybersecurity Research Experiences for Educators), 2024.

- Regents Outstanding Teaching Award Finalist (Tenure+Tenure Track Category) University of Texas System, 2023.

- Miguel Izquierdo Teaching Excellence Award 2021, for exemplary teaching contributions and excellence

- University of Texas System Board of Regents, Rising Stars Award for best qualified faculty

- NHERI Summer Institute award for Early Career Faculty, 2019

- Best Dissertation Award ECE, Spring 2018

- NSF iRedefine Fellow 2018

Student Recognitions

- Recognized by graduating class of Fall 2022 as Nicest Professor in the department for commitment and efforts.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

AI for Cybersecurity

- Generative AI

- Applied Cryptography with AI

- AI Trustworthiness and Security

- Sustainment of AI Security Models

Cybersecurity

- Security and Privacy in Wireless Networks

- Trust Modeling and Metrics

- Security and Privacy in various CPS: Smart Grids, Internet of Things, Vehicular Networks, Cognitive Radio Networks

- Optimization and Performance Analysis in Cyber Physical Systems

- Security and Privacy in Cloud and Fog Computing

Information Security and Privacy

- Differentially Private Data Analysis

- Privacy Preserving Data Driven Optimization

- Privacy in Data Analytics and Mobile Crowdsourcing

Hardware Security

- Light-weight Encryption for low power, low computation capability devices

- In memory computing, Trusted Enclaves

- Semiconductors - Physical Assurance and Trust

- Internet-of-Things (IoT): Device Security, Security and Privacy in Interactions, Authentication and Control

Smart Grids

- Security, Stability and Vulnerability Analysis

- Real-time Modeling and Simulation

- Wide Area Monitoring, Privacy and Resiliency in Operation

- Distributed Optimization and Efficiency

- Privacy in Mobile Crowdsourcing applications

Cognitive Radio Networks

- Dynamic Spectrum Sharing

- Spectrum Trading and Network Economics

- Privacy issues in Cognitive Radio Networks

EDUCATION

Jan 2014 - May 2018

University of Houston

- Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering

- Dissertation: "Secure Computing with Privacy

Preservation for Cyber-Physical Systems"

Received Best Dissertation Award

Jun 2009 - May 2013

Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University

- B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engg

Work Experience:

Aug 2019 - Present

University of Texas at El Paso

Assistant Professor

Jun 2018 - July 2019

University of Houston

Post-doctoral Researcher

Research, Teaching and Service Philosophies

My philosophies have been greatly shaped by my experiences from the institutions I attended, people I met, the books I read, the places I traveled, the cultures I learnt, and the communities I served. As I progressed through different phases in my life i.e., from an undergrad to PhD, then to a post-doc and later to an assistant professor, these philosophies have evolved only for better. However, at the core of all these transitions and changes, one thing remains constant “my passion for learning”, to constantly learn and be able to discover & bridge gaps, to constantly learn and be able to create new knowledge for students, to constantly learn and be able to leverage my expertise in rendering service to my institution, my field, and the world I live in!

CyPSEC Lab Latest News!!!

Fall 2026: I am promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure!
Dec 15, 2025: Christopher Mendoza graduates with his Masters Research on "ASCON PKC based Controller Area Network Communication with PQC Resilience Testing and Memory Footprint Analysis"! Congrats Chris!
Sep 17, 2025: Humaira defends her PhD dissertation proposal on "Generative AI-based Network Modeling for Secure Cyber Physical Systems", Congratulations Humaira!
May 16, 2025: Salim defends his PhD dissertation proposal on "AI/ML based Network Security for Cyber Defense", Congratulations Salim!
Mar 5, 2025: Humaira has been selected as 2025 Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Rising Star and was invited to attend the corresponding workshop supported by National Science Foundation! Congratulations Humaira!
Dec 7, 2024: Andrea Vargas completes her Masters project on the integration of machine learning into device classification models to identify cyber anomalies! Congrats on the graduation Andrea!
Oct 2024: Our papers on advanced intrusion detection methods have been accepted for publication in IEEE Future Networks World Forum!
Ismael joins Eaton as Protection and Controls Automation Engineer! Congrats Ismael!
Salim Raza and Humaira Arif passed the PhD Qualifier Examination successfully demonstrating competencies in both thrusts i.e., Electrical and Computer Engineering fundamentals (written) and Research. Congrats Salim! Congrats Humaira!
Dec 18, 2023: Ismael successfully defends his thesis on "Communication Security in Smart Home IoT and SCADA Applications". Congratulations Ismael!!
Dec 7, 2023: Nicholas Lopez successfully defends his thesis on "Addressing Current Security and Privacy Limitations in IoT Applications with Differential Privacy". Congratulations Nicholas!!
Our paper on Mitigating Cyber Vulnerabilities in DNP3 protocol has been accepted to be published in North Atlantic Power Symposium (NAPS) conference 2023!
Our paper on Smart Home IoT protocols, their security and interoperability has been accepted to be published in Cybersecurity in Networking (CSNET) conference 2023!
Ismael Holguin selected to join cybersecurity team at Lawrence Livermore National Lab for summer internship!
Isaac Monroy successfully defends his thesis and joins SpaceX as Automation engineer! Congrats Isaac!
Dr Errapotu was recognized by Fall 2022 graduating class of students!
Ivan Delgado now joins White Sands Missile Range EW as Electronics engineer! Congrats Ivan!

....more

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