Events Calendar

CS Colloquium: Sam Malek (George Mason University) - Automated Analysis and Testing of Mobile Software

Speaker: Sam Malek , George Mason University

Talk Title: Automated Analysis and Testing of Mobile Software

Series: CS Colloquium

Abstract: App markets have fundamentally changed the way software is delivered to consumers, especially in the mobile domain. By providing a medium for reaching a large consumer base at a nominal cost, app markets have made it possible for small entrepreneurs to compete against prominent software companies. At the same time, since many of the entrepreneurs do not have the resources to employ proper software engineering practices, many apps provisioned on the markets are riddled with defects that not only inconvenience the users, but also easily exploited by attackers for nefarious purposes. In this talk, I first outline the architectural root cause of some of the security vulnerabilities found in Android. Afterwards, I describe a combination of static and dynamic program analysis techniques aimed at detecting such issues. Experimental evaluation of the tools realizing these techniques using real-world apps has been promising, resulting in their adoption for use by government and industrial collaborators. Finally, I conclude the talk with an outline of future research directions.

Biography: Sam Malek is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at George Mason University. His general research interests are in the field of software engineering, and to date his focus has spanned the areas of software architecture, autonomic computing, software security, and software analysis and testing. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the Computer Science Department at the University of Southern California and his B.S. degree in Information and Computer Science from the University of California Irvine. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award, GMU Emerging Researcher/Scholar/Creator award, and GMU Computer Science Department Outstanding Faculty Research Award. Malek is also a member of the DARPA’s Computer Science Study Group. He is currently serving on the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering and the Springer Journal of Computing.

Host: Neno Medvidovic

Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Assistant to CS chair