DRACO Design of Resilient Architectures for Computing
Securing Systems.
From Silicon to Swarms.
The DRACO (Design of Resilient Architectures for Computing) Lab at UCF partners with federal agencies and industry leaders to advance the security of computing systems — from side-channel-resistant architectures and AI-driven hardware Trojan detection to post-quantum cryptographic primitives and secure swarm coordination. Our students become the engineers who build what's next.
100+ Publications
12+ Researchers
13 Active Projects
11 Partners

Highlights

Our Research

Our Research

We develop automated methods to design, attack, and harden electronic devices and computing systems — spanning side-channel analysis, hardware Trojan detection, cryptographic primitive design, and secure autonomous coordination. With 100+ publications and students as co-authors on nearly every paper, our research directly builds the workforce that industry and government need.

Our Projects

Our Projects

Our portfolio of projects — backed by agencies like NSF, NSA, and DOE and companies like AMD and Northrop Grumman — translates directly into tools, IP, and trained talent. Much of our work is open source; some remains embargoed when required by sponsors.

Undergraduate and graduate students work side-by-side on real deliverables across hardware security, side-channel analysis, swarm intelligence, and cryptographic design. Our alumni hold positions at AMD, Lockheed Martin, L3Harris, Collins Aerospace, BAE Systems, and more.

Meet the Team

Meet the Team

Researchers, mentors, and future industry leaders — meet the people behind the work and see where they go next.