Student Information
Graduate Student
Computer Science
Ira A Fulton Engineering
Long Bio
I am a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Dr. Jedidiah R. Crandall (https://jedcrandall.github.io/) at the Biodesign Center for Biocomputing, Security, and Society.
My research focuses on identifying and fixing vulnerabilities in Android apps (that come) from the app vendor and the network infrastructure. The goal of my Ph.D. is to outline these vulnerabilities and work with app vendors toward fixing them to improve Internet freedom for at-risk populations under authoritarian regimes.
Before joining Dr. Crandall’s research group, my research was corporate-centered threats. I spent a little over three years under the mentorship of Dr. Adam Doupé, where I worked on developing and building frameworks for improving security for Software-Defined Networks (SDN).
Research Interests
Internet Freedom, Network Systems Security, Android Systems Security, Network Protocols, Millimeter Wave Communications.
Publications
Habib, Sana, et al. "Mitigating Threats Emerging from the Interaction between SDN Apps and SDN (Configuration) Datastore." Proceedings of the 2022 on Cloud Computing Security Workshop. 2022.
Habib, Sana, et al. "Millimeter wave cell search for initial access: Analysis, design, and implementation." 2017 13th International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC). IEEE, 2017.
Habib, Sana, et al. "The past, present, and future of transport-layer multipath." Journal of Network and Computer Applications 75 (2016): 236-258.
Honors / Awards
Information Controls Fellowship (Jan 2024).
Nominated for the 2023 Google PhD Fellowship Program (Sept 2022).
GPSA Outstanding Research Award (Apr 2022).
Fulbright Scholarship (Aug 2017 – May 2022).
Cyber Security Fellowship (Aug 2019 – Dec 2020).
Congratulatory Letters from ASU President (Michael M. Crow) (Aug 2019) and The White House (Aug 2017).
Research Award by National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan (Nov 2016).
Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) Scholarship (Oct 2014).
Student Travel Grant for Poster Presentation by Korean Women in Science and Engineering (KWSE) (Aug 2014).
UNESCO Travel Grant (Nov 2013).
Patent Filling Grant of USD 6,000 (Nov 2012), Application US13/676,705, by Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan.
Service
Served as a student volunteer for 7+ years (2007 to 2014, in parts) for International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists (INWES), and attended the regional symposiums held in Seoul, South Korea (2014); Nairobi, Kenya (2013); Busan, South Korean (2009); Wroclaw, Poland (2007).
Industry Positions
I worked as a Register Transfer Level (RTL) Developer and Research Associate at Center for Advanced Research in Engineering (CARE) Islamabad, Pakistan from Dec 2011 to Sep 2014 (https://carepvtltd.com/).
During this period, I collaborated with multiple teams including Digital Signal Processing team, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) team, and Radio Frequency team on Software Defined Radio; implemented algorithms on FPGA using Verilog; tested/verified the design using exhaustive test benches and automated checks including ChipScope Pro; maintained internal technical documents, coordinated among teams, wrote two patents, and coordinated with patent agents.