Engineering doctoral student studying cyberattack prevention methods
Logan Reichling was named Graduate Student Engineer of the Month
As a top graduating student in his undergraduate class, Logan Reichling came to the University of Cincinnati to further his education through the direct-PhD program in computer science. His initial connection to UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science was through his current adviser, Boyang Wang, in an undergraduate research program. Since arriving at CEAS, Reichling has been honored with several awards, including being named Graduate Student Engineer of the Month.
Why did you choose UC?
Logan Reichling is pursuing a doctoral degree in computer science through the direct PhD program. Photo/Provided
I chose UC for my PhD program after meeting my current PhD adviser, Dr. Boyang Wang, during a summer research experience as a junior in my undergraduate program. The research focus was in hardware security, where I worked on automatic methods to detect and correct fault injection vulnerabilities for C source code.
The research project was pretty successful during the 10-week summer program. I ended up presenting our published work at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Big Data Computing, Applications and Technologies conference in 2022. I wasn't originally planning on going to graduate school, but the positive experience with my adviser and the research brought me to UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. I am also originally from Cincinnati, so it made the choice much easier.
Why did you choose your field of study?
I have been interested in computers for as long as I can remember because I think they are pretty cool. I've been working on projects related to computing and technology for most of my life. My undergraduate degree is in computer science, and I am pursuing my PhD in computer science and engineering.
Briefly describe your research work. What problems do you hope to solve?
I am working in a few areas related to hardware security, specifically regarding side channel attacks, fault injection attacks and pre-silicon analysis.
These are interesting topics for a variety of reasons. And they are pretty cool. Side-channel attacks are able to glean secret information from unassuming data sources including power draw and electromagnetic emissions and have been recently amplified by deep learning techniques. Unprotected encryption algorithms can easily leak their secret keys through side channels. Fault injection attacks disrupt the logical flow of programs, allowing for unexpected attacks to the code. It can bypass operation system validation, security pins, and can also break encryption. Pre-silicon analysis encompasses these two attacks and more, however it is trickier in practice as there is no physical chip to perform the attacks on (hence the name, 'pre-silicon').
It is ideal to understand the susceptibility of a chip before it is actually produced, as it is often too late afterward due to long lines in silicon manufacturing. There is plenty of work in these areas as there will always be better attacks and stronger defenses. I feel that as more developers understand software vulnerabilities, hardware vulnerabilities will be exploited more and more by attackers, giving more motivation towards continued hardware security research.
What are some of the most impactful experiences during your time at UC?
Some of my most impactful experiences during my time at UC involve my mentoring in the research lab and during my teaching assistant work.
I have assisted and guided undergraduate students through various projects during the semester and worked closely with summer research undergraduate students who are in the same position I was just a few years ago. I have also enjoyed my TA positions for various technical classes, including Digital Design, Cyber Defense Overview, and Security Vulnerability Assessment
This work keeps me refreshed with the base knowledge while also learning how to best present new technical concepts. I have also given multiple volunteer presentations regarding my research to new graduate student seminars and judged senior undergraduate capstone projects.
What are a few of your accomplishments of which you are most proud?
I am fairly proud of the beginning two years of my PhD program. While I have mostly focused on completing my required graduate coursework (currently with a 4.0), I have made progress in several research projects with one publication getting presented this May at IEEE’s International Symposium on Hardware Oriented Security and Trust 2025. This will be my second publication so far in hardware security. My adviser and I also worked on a book chapter (on deep learning-based side-channel attacks) last summer which will be published in an upcoming textbook on hardware security and trust. After I finish out my final graduate classes, I look forward to working on my research projects full time. I've also been awarded several scholarships including travel grants to conferences, the Robert J. Herbold Fellowship, the NSF CyberCorps SFS, and most recently Graduate Engineer of the Month due to my strong progress so far. I look forward to continuing this momentum.
When do you expect to graduate? What are your plans after earning your degree?
I am finishing my second year of my five-year direct computer science and engineering PhD program. After the end of this year, I will be done with all of my classes and will focus wholly on research. According to my federal cybersecurity scholarship, I must work for the federal government, lab, federally funded private research lab, or continue in academia after my graduation. This summer I have an internship at MITRE, and I have previously interviewed with national labs. I would be interested in working in any of them after I earn my degree, I have no strong inclination towards a particular path at this early point.
Do you have any other hobbies or involvements you'd like to share?
In my free time, some of my recent hobbies include robotics, CAD, and 3D printing. I also enjoy running.
Featured image at top: Logan Reichling is studying cyberattack prevention methods. Photo/Christian Wiediger/Unsplash
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