Md Tariqul Islam 'Pavel', PhD

Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity
Department of Information Systems
University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)

mailmtislam [at] umbc.edu

apartmentITE 417, UMBC, 1000 Hilltop Cir, Baltimore, MD 21250

schoolGoogle Scholar

I am an Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity in the Department of Information Systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). I joined UMBC in Fall 2025 after serving as an Assistant Professor of Trustworthy Cyberspace at Syracuse University iSchool. My academic journey started in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where I earned my B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Dhaka. I later pursued graduate studies at the University of Kentucky, completing my M.S. in 2016 and my Ph.D. in 2020. My research explores the security and privacy of distributed computing systems, with a particular focus on blockchain, cloud, edge, and vehicular networks. I enjoy designing algorithms, protocols, and frameworks that not only advance theory but also address real-world challenges faced by industry and society. Beyond research, I am passionate about teaching and mentoring. I strive to help students bridge classroom learning with real-world problems in cybersecurity and distributed systems, preparing them to think critically and innovate in an ever-evolving digital world.

| Research Interests

Distributed Systems (cloud, blockchain, vehicular networks)
AI for Security
Security in AI
Software Security

| Education

Ph.D., Computer Science, University of Kentucky, USA (2016)
M.S., Computer Science, University of Kentucky, USA (2016)
B.S., Computer Science, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh (2008)

| News and Updates

[April 2025] Our new paper on Hidden Contradictions in Blockchain and Cryptocurrency has been accepted at FAccT 2025.
[March 2025] Two new paper on Smart Contract Upgrade and Cross-Chain Smart Contract Execution has been accepted at ICBC 2025.
[March 2025] Our paper on Secure and Efficient Smart Contract Migration has been accepted at FSE 2025 in the Ideas, Visions, and Reflections track.
[December 2024] 4 new papers on secure smart contract upgrades, blockchain authentication, and collaborative proof-of-work have been accepted at TrustCom 2024, CCNC 2025, and CCWC 2025.
[August 2024] Welcome Tahrim Hossain to our SPADES Lab as the newest PhD student, excited for the collaborations ahead!
[August 2024] Two of our works related to securing PoS and impact of contention in blockchain has been accepted at GLOBECOM 2024.
[June 2024] Our work on maximizing blockchain performance using dependency manager and parallel processing has been accepted at BLOCKCHAIN 2024.
[January 2024] Our work on enhancing cloud data storage auditing using an improved B-tree has been accepted at ICC 2024
[January 2024] Our work-in-progress paper titled 'MRL-PoS: A Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning based Proof of Stake Consensus Algorithm for Blockchain' got the best paper award at IEEE CCWC 2024
[December 2023] Our work on a multi-agent reinforcement learning-based proof of stake consensus algorithm for blockchain has been accepted at CCWC 2024.
[October 2023] Our paper on a fault-tolerant and storage-efficient cloud solution (FASTEN) balancing replication and deduplication, has been accepted at CCNC 2024. Also our work on ConChain, a contention-free and attack-resilient blockchain scheme, has been accepted as a poster at CCNC 2024.
[August 2023] Our work on a secure and efficient auditing framework supporting data integrity and file version control in the cloud has been accepted at GLOBECOM 2023
[June 2023] Our work of application failure characteristics and user behaviors using Google Cluster Workload Traces has been accepted at FiCloud 2023.

| Media Coverage

ELBLOG.PL featured Pavel’s work on “Quarks: Revolutionizing Digital Communication Security” (March 2024)
NN (The People’s Network) highlighted his research in “Discord Data Breach Exposes 760,000 Users: Blockchain Messaging as Future Security Hope” (March 2024)
TechXplore covered Pavel’s contribution in “A decentralized, blockchain-based messaging network for safer communications” (August 2023)

| Selected Awards & Honors

Best Paper Awards: IEEE CSCloud 2022, IEEE CCWC 2024
Teaching Awards:
- Dean’s Award, Outstanding Teaching Assistant (University of Kentucky, 2018)
- Provost’s Award Finalist, Outstanding Teaching Assistant (University of Kentucky, 2019 & 2020)
- Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Excellence in Teaching Award (nominated, 2020)
- Computer Science Dept. Outstanding TA (University of Kentucky, 2018 and 2019)
Academic Excellence Honors:
- Provost’s Award for Academic Excellence, B.S. (University of Dhaka, 2008)
- National Merit List, Higher‑Secondary School Exam (Ministry of Education, Bangladesh, 2000)
- Prime Minister’s Gold Medal for Academic Excellence, Secondary School Exam (Ministry of Education, Bangladesh, 1998)