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Professor Hossein Saiedian's Ph.D. and M.S. Graduates

Graduate advising legacy: 6 Ph.D. graduates and 112 M.S. graduates.

🎓 Ph.D. Graduates

Throughout my academic career, I have had the privilege of advising an exceptional group of doctoral students whose research has advanced software engineering, software architecture, cybersecurity, web engineering, data science, and computing education. Their accomplishments include university-wide dissertation awards, national and international recognitions, distinguished academic appointments, and significant leadership roles in industry.

Blake Bryant ⭐ Dissertation Defended with Honors

Dr. Bryant's doctoral research explored secure communication protocols for complex latency-sensitive systems. His work combined theoretical innovation with practical impact, resulting in a dissertation recognized with Honors and nominated for the prestigious Moore Award.

  • Passed Qualifying Examination (2019)
  • Passed Comprehensive Examination (2021)
  • Successfully defended dissertation with Honors (May 2023)
  • Dissertation nominated for the Moore Award
  • Currently Professor of IT and Military Liaison at the University of Kansas

Li Cheng

Dr. Cheng conducted pioneering work on model-based approaches for the analysis and testing of dynamic multi-tier web applications. His research addressed critical challenges associated with increasingly sophisticated enterprise-scale web systems.

  • Passed Qualifying and Comprehensive Examinations (2007)
  • Successfully completed Ph.D. (2012)
  • Currently with the DoD Biotechnology High Performance Computing Program and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation

Dan Hein 🏆 Moore Award Winner

Dr. Hein's research significantly advanced software vulnerability assessment through innovative approaches for predicting and prioritizing software security weaknesses. His dissertation was recognized as the department's finest doctoral research and received the Moore Award.

  • Passed Comprehensive Examination (2013)
  • Successfully defended dissertation with Honors (2017)
  • Recipient of the Moore Award for Best Dissertation (2018)
  • Currently Technical Security Lead at Garmin
  • Member of Garmin's Executive Cybersecurity Board

David Janzen ⭐ Dissertation Defended with Honors

Dr. Janzen's dissertation on Test-Driven Development became one of the department's most recognized doctoral projects, earning national distinction and helping shape modern understanding of agile software development and software quality practices.

  • Passed Qualifying and Comprehensive Examinations (2005)
  • Completed Ph.D. with Honors (2006)
  • Moore Award Finalist
  • Dissertation was recognized by the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Awards and ranked third among the dissertations recognized that year, behind only Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  • Research was also ranked third nationally by ACM SIGPLAN in 2005.
  • ACM Award Plaques: ACM Dissertation Award Plaques
  • Currently President of Tabor College
  • Former tenured Full Professor at California Polytechnic State University

Sergey Morozov 🏆 Moore Award Winner

Dr. Morozov's work addressed large-scale recommendation systems and data analytics, producing innovative solutions for deriving accurate recommendations from very large and sparse datasets.

  • Passed Qualifying and Comprehensive Examinations (2008)
  • Successfully defended dissertation with Honors (2011)
  • Recipient of the Moore Award for Best Dissertation (2012)
  • Recipient of the Young Scholar/Researcher Award at ITI 2010
  • Currently Chief Data Scientist at Cyber2Media

Jungwoo Ryoo

Dr. Ryoo's doctoral research contributed to software architecture description and management. His subsequent career has been marked by exceptional academic leadership, scholarly accomplishment, and service to higher education.

  • Completed Qualifying and Comprehensive Examinations (2003)
  • Successfully defended dissertation (2005)
  • Currently Chancellor of Penn State DuBois
  • Former Division Head and Full Professor at Penn State Altoona
  • Former Software Architecture and Security Consultant at Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute

🌟 Alumni Distinction and Leadership

  • Jungwoo Ryoo — Chancellor, Penn State DuBois
  • David Janzen — President, Tabor College
  • Blake Bryant — Associate Professor and Director, KU Edwards Campus
  • Dan Hein — Technical Security Lead, Garmin
  • Sergey Morozov — Chief Data Scientist, Cyber2Media

🎓 M.S. Graduates

Over the years, I have been privileged to advise a large number of master's students at both the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska. Their subsequent careers span software engineering, cybersecurity, information technology, data science, government, industry, and academia. Some of these students are now in advanced, senior technical and managerial positions at Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Garmin, and Pacific Union.

2026
  • Kreshner, Joel (2026)
  • Williams, Harlan (2026)
2024
  • Guerrero, Adam (May 2024)
  • Harbison, Teddy (May 2024)
  • Mustafa, Syed (December 2024)
2023
  • Bates, Chris (May 2023)
  • Ezeddin, Reem (May 2023)
  • Momolu, Christopher (May 2023)
  • Osman, Nihal (December 2023)
2022
  • Christopher, Brayson (May 2022)
  • Dasgupta, Aparna (May 2022)
  • Doray, Mohamed (May 2022)
  • Griffin, Dominic (December 2022)
  • Hansen, Niels Austin (May 2022)
  • Horan, Cecelia (May 2022)
  • Hussain, Zarina (December 2022)
  • Keith, Cynthia (May 2022)
  • Lenfestey, Johnathan (December 2022)
  • Samin, Amna (December 2022)
  • Schunk, Tyler (2022)
  • Shubham, Saini (May 2022)
2021
  • Gopal, Poorna (December 2021)
  • Kilkenny, Taylor (May 2021)
  • Kuhnke, Annika (December 2021)
  • Lianda, Eric (May 2021)
  • Medipalli, Sri Lakshmi (December 2021)
  • Pai, Pallavi (May 2021)
  • Pothuri, Aravind (December 2021)
  • Province, Mark (December 2021)
2020
  • Bhattacharjya, Sairath (May 2020) ⭐ Honors
  • Gurwell, Michael (May 2020)
  • Jain, Noopur (December 2020)
  • Peterson, Danielle (December 2020)
  • Powell, Josh (May 2020)
  • Schurder, Tess (May 2020)
2019
  • Adewale, Favour (May 2019)
  • Ault, Bryan (December 2019)
  • Booth, Jennifer (May 2019)
  • Demessie, Getahun (May 2019)
  • Samyn, Scott (May 2019)
  • Some, Arnaud (May 2019)
2018
  • Gentile, Jimmy (December 2018)
  • Kane, Thomas (December 2018)
  • Morankar, Priyanka (December 2018)
  • Sheng, Robert (May 2018)
  • Srivastava, Apoorva (May 2018)
2017
  • Chatman, Michael E. (May 2017)
  • Ronning, Daniel Cody (May 2017)
  • Underwood, Ben (December 2017)
2016
  • Bryant, Blake (May 2016) ⭐ Honors
  • Harmon, Michael (May 2016)
  • Karry, Latha (December 2016)
  • Kiefer, Ryan (May 2016)
  • Padmanabhan, Bharath (May 2016)
2015
  • Allen, Michael (May 2015)
  • Daniel, Scott Alan (December 2015)
  • Houston, Kevin (May 2015)
  • Kang, Myung USBWall (August 2015) ⭐ Honors
  • Labitoko, Komi Akounda (May 2015)
  • Ramamirtham, Siva Iswarya (December 2015)
  • Seenappa, Chandrika (December 2015)
2014
  • Haridasyam, Kalyani (May 2014)
  • Khadikar, Prachi (December 2014)
  • Majdi, Mohammad (Fall 2014)
  • Moley, Frank (May 2014)
2013
  • Kaufmann, Brad (December 2013)
  • McConville, James (December 2013)
  • Tetmeyer, Annette (May 2013) ⭐ Honors
2012
  • Chesser, Carl (May 2012) ⭐ Honors
  • Elghzali, Sameh (May 2012)
  • Li, Ji (May 2012)
  • Liu, Mindy (May 2012)
  • Madden, Damian (May 2012)
  • Mehta, Sangeeta (January 2012)
  • Mohseni, Sara (May 2012)
  • Wasko, Brian (May 2012)
2011
  • Gravlin, Tim (May 2011)
2010
  • Cohgan, Clinton (July 2010)
  • Cradit, Jason (December 2010)
  • Dandekar, Amit (May 2010)
  • Hohman, Jamie (May 2010)
  • Horvath, Ryan (December 2010)
  • Kaufman, Jennifer (May 2010)
  • Mazumdar, Pratima (May 2010)
  • Patel, Purvi (December 2010)
2009
  • Haenchen, Steven (December 2009)
  • Hughes, Brian (December 2009)
  • Wishnie, Gabe (December 2009)
2008
  • Gourdon, Kumar (May 2008)
  • Kannenberg, Andrew (December 2008) ⭐ Honors
  • Rzepnicki, Witold (May 2008)
  • Tahmasebi, Hamid (December 2008)
2007
  • Bean, Eric (January 2007)
  • Higgins, Kevin (December 2007)
  • Morozov, Sergey (December 2007)
  • Saidin, Amrullah (May 2007)
  • Stockmeyer, Mark (December 2007) ⭐ Honors
2006
  • Bombarider, Kellen (December 2006)
  • Mulky, Shawn (May 2006)
  • Richey, Manuel (December 2006) ⭐ Honors
2004
  • Vincar, Hinko (December 2004) ⭐ Honors • 🏆 Moore Best Thesis Award
2003
  • Anan, Mohammad (December 2003)
  • Bachtel, Derrick (May 2003)
  • Bequette, Michael (December 2003)
  • Chambers, Jake (May 2003) ⭐ Honors
  • Quint, Joe (December 2003)
2002
  • Hubener, Donny (May 2002)
  • Naeem, Muhammad (December 2002)
  • O'Hara, James (May 2002)
  • Reinke, John (December 2002)
  • Zari, Mazen (December 2002)
2001
  • Chanubal, Sujit (June 2001, University of Nebraska)
  • Habib, Ahsan (May 2001)
  • Nimmagadda, Sridhar (May 2001)
  • Schmit, Christopher (December 2001)
  • Thomas, Steve (December 2001)
  • Yu, Kevin (Xiongfei) (December 2001)
2000
  • Balakrishnan, Vidhya (August 2000, University of Nebraska)
  • Natarajan, Jeya (December 2000, University of Nebraska)
  • O'Connell, Emilie (May 2000, University of Nebraska)
  • Zhang, Chi (December 2000, University of Nebraska)
1999
  • McArthur, Kevin (August 1999, University of Nebraska)
1996
  • Chennupati, Kalyanli (December 1996, University of Nebraska)
1995
  • Kuzara, Richard (May 1995, University of Nebraska)
1994
  • Bridges, Michael (July 1994, University of Nebraska)
1993
  • Palumbo, Robert (April 1993, University of Nebraska)
The accomplishments of these graduates represent one of the most rewarding aspects of my academic career. It has been a privilege to work with so many talented students and to watch them succeed in academia, industry, government, and entrepreneurship.

Graduate advising legacy: 6 Ph.D. graduates and 112 M.S. graduates.