Yuntao Liu

Institute of Systems Research · University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 · (301) 405-2431 · ytliu@umd.edu

I am an Assistant Research Scientist with the Institute of Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park. I obtained my PhD from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park in 2020, where I also serve as a part-time instructor. My research interest is hardware security, including logic obfuscation, hardware Trojans, side-channel attacks and defenses, hardware-oriented security of machine learning, etc.

Google Scholar

Education

University of Maryland, College Park

Doctor of Phylosophy
Electrical and Computer Engineering
GPA: 3.78
August 2020

Zhejiang University

Bachelor of Science, Honors
Electrical and Computer Engineering

GPA: 3.62

May 2014

Research

Assistant Research Scientist

University of Maryland, College Park, MD

Supporting Government-Funded Research Programs

  • DARPA Automated Implementation of Secure Silicon (AISS)
  • DARPA Structured Array Hardware for Automatically Realized Applications (SAHARA)
  • NSWC Crane State-of-the-Art Heterogeneous Integration Prototype (SHIP)
  • AFRL Locked Electronics for Assured Design (LEAD)

    • Advising and Proposal Development

  • Submitted 3 proposals as co-PI.
  • Mentored 10 PhD and MS students for research.

    • Research Contributions

  • Investigated combined logical and physical attack on logic obfuscation.
  • Proposed novel evaluation metrics for hardware security.
  • Proposed logic obfuscation based Trojans.

    • August 2020 - Present

    Graduate Research Assistant

    University of Maryland, College Park, MD

    Security in Machine Learning

  • Identified the threats of malicious backdoors in neural networks, a.k.a. neural Trojans, and proposed countermeasures.
  • Studied reverse-engineering attacks on deep neural networks via hardware side-channels and proposed an effective countermeasure that achieved exponential attack complexity and lower overhead than conventional techniques.
  • Publication [c4, c6, c7]. Python, TensorFlow, Caffe, MATLAB, lib-SVM

    • Hardware intellectual property protection via obfuscation

  • Mathematically proved the trade-off between SAT attack resiliency and error impact for all logic locking schemes.
  • Proposed Strong Anti-SAT (SAS) which magnifies low hardware-level error to high application-level error and maintains exponential SAT attack resiliency.
  • Publication [j2, c2, c5, c7]. C++, Cadence RTL Compiler

    • Security in emerging IC technologies

  • Proposed a novel double patterning lithography algorithm to improve IC supply chain security.
  • Modeled the behavior of physical unclonable functions (PUF) and proposed an attack based on convex optimization to predict the behavior of PUFs. Achieved >99% prediction accuracy with very few PUF queries.
  • Publication [b2, j1, c1, c3]. MATLAB, CVX

    • January 2016 - August 2020

    Publication

    Book Chapter

    [b3] Neural Trojans

    Yuntao Liu, Ankit Mondal, Abhishek Chakraborty, Michael Zuzak, Nina Jacobsen, Daniel Xing, and Ankur Srivastava

    Encyclopedia of Cryptography, Security and Privacy, Springer, 2021

    [b2] Reverse Engineering-Based Hardware Trojan Detection

    Chongxi Bao, Yang Xie, Yuntao Liu, and Ankur Srivastava

    The Hardwar Trojan War, Springer, 2018

    [b1] Security in Emerging Fabrication Technologies

    Yuntao Liu, Yang Xie, and Ankur Srivastava

    Security Opportunities in Nano Devices and Emerging Technologies, CRC Press, 2017

    Journal

    [j6] Security-Aware Resource Binding to Enhance Logic Obfuscation

    Michael Zuzak, Yuntao Liu, and Ankur Srivastava

    IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD) (2023)

    [j5] Robust and attack resilient logic locking with a high application-level impact

    Yuntao Liu, Michael Zuzak, Yang Xie, Abhishek Chakraborty, Ankur Srivastava

    ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems (JETC) 17.3.37 (2021): 1-22.

    [j4] Trace logic locking: Improving the parametric space of logic locking

    Michael Zuzak, Yuntao Liu, and Ankur Srivastava

    IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD) 40.8 (2020): 1531-1544.

    [j3] Evaluating the security of delay-locked circuits

    Abhishek Chakraborty, Yuntao Liu, and Ankur Srivastava

    IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TVLSI) 40.4 (2020): 608-619

    [j2] Keynote: a disquisition on logic locking

    Abhishek Chakraborty, Nithyashankari Gummidipoondi Jayasankaran, Yuntao Liu, Jeyavijayan Rajendran, Ozgur Sinanoglu, Ankur Srivastava, Yang Xie, Muhammad Yasin, Michael Zuzak

    IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD) 39.10 (2020): 1952-1972.

    [j1] A Combined Optimization-Theoretic and Side-Channel Approach for Attacking Strong Physical Unclonable Functions

    Yuntao Liu, Yang Xie, Chongxi Bao, and Ankur Srivastava.

    IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration Systems (TVLSI) 26.1 (2018): 73-81.

    Conference

    [c16] Red Teaming Methodology for Design Obfuscation

    Yuntao Liu, Abir Akib, Zelin Lu, Qian Xu, Ankur Srivastava, Gang Qu, David Kehlet, and Nij Dorairaj

    2023 Government Microcircuit Applications and Critical Technology Conference (GOMAC Tech)

    [c15] Low Power Logic Obfuscation Through System Level Clock Gating

    Daniel Xing, Yuntao Liu, and Ankur Srivastava

    2023 IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED)

    [c14] TimingCamouflage+ Decamouflaged

    Priya Mittu, Yuntao Liu, and Ankur Srivastava

    2023 Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI (GLSVLSI)

    [c13] A Survey on Side-Channel-based Reverse Engineering Attacks on Deep Neural Networks

    Yuntao Liu, Michael Zuzak, Daniel Xing, Isaac McDaniel, Priya Mittu, Olsan Ozbay, Abir Akib, and Ankur Srivastava

    2022 IEEE 4th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Circuits and Systems (AICAS)

    [c12] A Combined Logical and Physical Attack on Logic Obfuscation

    Michael Zuzak, Yuntao Liu, Isaac McDaniel, and Ankur Srivastava

    2022 41st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD)

    [c11] Independent Verification and Validation of Security-Aware EDA Tools and IP

    Benjamin Tan, Siddharth Garg, Ramesh Karri, Yuntao Liu, Michael Zuzak, Abhisek Chakraborty, Ankur Srivastava, Omid Aramoon, Qian Xu, Gang Qu, Adam Porter, Jeno Szep, Warren Savage

    2021 58th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC)

    [c10] A Resource Binding Approach to Logic Obfuscation (Best Paper Nominee)

    Michael Zuzak, Yuntao Liu, and Ankur Srivastava.

    2021 58th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC)

    [c9] GANRED: GAN-based Reverse Engineering of DNNs via Cache Side-Channel (Best Paper Award)

    Yuntao Liu and Ankur Srivastava.

    Proceedings of the 2020 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Cloud Computing Security Workshop

    [c8] Strong Anti-SAT: secure and effective logic locking

    Yuntao Liu, Michael Zuzak, Yang Xie, Abhishek Chakraborty, and Ankur Srivastava.

    2020 IEEE International Symposium on Quality Electronics Design (ISQED)

    [c7] A survey on neural Trojans

    Yuntao Liu, Ankit Mondal, Abhishek Chakraborty, Michael Zuzak, Nina Jacobsen, Daniel Xing, and Ankur Srivastava.

    2020 IEEE International Symposium on Quality Electronics Design (ISQED)

    [c6] Mitigating reverse engineering attacks on deep neural networks

    Yuntao Liu, Dana Dachman-Soled, and Ankur Srivastava.

    2019 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI (ISVLSI)

    [c5] TimingSAT: timing profile embedded SAT attack

    Abhishek Charkraborty, Yuntao Liu, and Ankur Srivastava.

    Computer Aided Design (ICCAD), 2018 IEEE/ACM International Conference on

    [c4] Neural Trojans

    Yuntao Liu, Yang Xie, and Ankur Srivastava.

    Computer Design (ICCD), 2017 IEEE International Conference on

    [c3] Introducing TFUE: The trusted foundry and untrusted employee model in IC supply chain security

    Yuntao Liu, Chongxi Bao, Yang Xie, and Ankur Srivastava.

    Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), 2017 IEEE International Symposium on

    [c2] 2.5 D/3D integration technologies for circuit obfuscation

    Yang Xie, Chongxi Bao, Yuntao Liu, and Ankur Srivastava.

    Microprocessor and SOC Test and Verification (MTV), 2016 17th International Workshop on

    [c1] An Optimization-Theoretic Approach for Attacking Physical Unclonable Functions

    Yuntao Liu, Yang Xie, Chongxi Bao, and Ankur Srivastava

    Computer Aided Design (ICCAD), 2016 IEEE/ACM International Conference on

    Teaching

    Courses I Taught as the Instructor

    Course Title Level Semester 
    ENEE304  Introduction to Micro and Nano Electronics Undergraduate Fall 2023 
    MSML612  Deep Learning Graduate Summer 2023 
    MSML612  Introduction to Optimization Graduate Spring 2023 
    ENEE457  Computer Systems Security Undergraduate Spring 2023,2024 

    Courses I Taught as the Teaching Assistant

    Course Title Level Semester 
    ENEE640  Digital CMOS VLSI Design Graduate Spring 2019 
    ENEE303  Analog Electronic Circuits Undergraduate Fall 2015 
    ENEE307  Analog Electronic Circuits Lab Undergraduate Spring 2015 
    ENEE245  Digital Electronic Circuits Lab Undergraduate Fall 2014 

    Skills

    Programming Languages & Tools
    Workflow
    • EDA Tools: Cadence IC, PSPICE, etc.
    • HDL: Verilog
    • Deep Learning: Caffe, TensorFlow
    • Mathematical modeling: MATLAB

    Awards & Grants

    • Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship - Graduate School, University of Maryland, College Park - 2020
    • Student Travel Grant for the International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD) - ICCD 2017
    • Goldhaber Student Travel Grant - the Graduate School, University of Maryland, College Park - 2017
    • Distinguished Teaching Assistant - ECE Dept., University of Maryland, College Park - 2015 & 2016
    • Teaching Assistant Training and Development (TATD) Fellow - ECE Dept., University of Maryland, College Park - 2016
    • Outstanding Graguate - Zhejiang University - 2014
    • Oulin First-Class Scholarship - Oulin Group and Zhejiang University - 2013
    • Second-Class Scholarship of Research and Innovation - Zhejiang University - 2013
    • Honorable Mention - Mathematical Contest in Modeling - the Consortium of Mathematics and its Applications - 2013