DisAPP Laboratory
The DisAPP Lab at Texas Tech University focuses on research at the intersection of security, privacy, and distributed intelligence. Our work spans a range of application domains, including healthcare, smart grids, critical infrastructure, and other networked systems. We actively collaborate with research groups both within Texas Tech and at other institutions. Our long-term vision is to advance research and education in secure and responsible AI, ultimately establishing a center of excellence in West Texas that attracts students, faculty, and investment.
Research interests
Federated Learning (FL)
FL security and privacy issues and solutions
Compatible FL (Hierarchical FL, Blockchain-based FL)
reputation-based FL
Large Language Models' security
jailbreak and prompt injection attacks
Efficient Federated LLM systems
Attacks surface in Federated LLM
Distributed System (not much here)
Blockchain-based AI
Blockchain security issues and secure smart contracts
Web3 application (not research but probably projects)
News*
[July 2025] Our paper on XAI-guided inversion attacks has been accepted for publication in the IEEE AIBThings 2025.
[ July 2025] Our paper on Hierarchical Federated Learning for Smart Grids was presented at the IEEE SmartNets 2025 conference.
[June 2025] Congratulations to Rukayat Olapojoe, who has been selected as a Trailblazers in Engineering Fellow by Purdue University. She will be joining other late-stage PhD student candidates and postdocs in a three-day, fully funded workshop to prepare her for a future faculty position in engineering.
[April 2025] Our paper on GradualDiff-Fed, a Federated Learning Specialized Framework for Large Language Models, has been presented at the IEEE ICMI 2025 conference.
[February 2025] Our paper on model inversion attacks in smart grids has been presented at the IEEE SaTC 2025 conference.
[January/February 2025] Dr. Salman has been the program chair of the IEEE Conference on Secure and Trustworthy Cyber Infrastructure for IoT and Microelectronics (SaTC) 2025.
*This list was compiled in summer 2025, based on news that began in early 2025.