DRACO Design of Resilient Architectures for Computing

Team

The DRACO Laboratory in UCF’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering develops resilient computing architectures through research in side-channel security, hardware Trojan detection, AI-driven design automation, post-quantum cryptographic primitives, secure swarm coordination, and emerging paradigms such as encrypted processing and memristive computing.

Our team includes undergraduates through postdoctoral scholars — all gaining hands-on experience with the tools and challenges they’ll face in careers at companies like AMD, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and beyond. Interested? See our open opportunities or reach out.

Lab PI

member portrait Mike Borowczak Principal Investigator

Alumni Mentors

member portrait Alicia Thoney Master's Alumni AMD
Former AMD Scholar
member portrait Cory Brynds Master's Alumni AMD
Former AMD Scholar

PhD Student Researchers

member portrait Christina Till Pursuing Ph.D.
member portrait Franco Mezzarapa Pursuing Ph.D.
member portrait Lona Van Der Linden Pursuing Ph.D.
member portrait sri ram nimmala Pursuing Ph.D.

Masters Student Researchers

member portrait Cade Chretien Pursuing M.S.
member portrait Daniel De Armas Pursuing M.S.
member portrait Daniel Odi Pursuing M.S.
member portrait Francisco Soriano Pursuing M.S.
Former AMD Scholar
member portrait Gabriel Martin Pursuing M.S.
AMD Scholar
member portrait Jarred Long Pursuing M.S.
member portrait Jordan Merkel Pursuing M.S.
Former AMD Scholar
member portrait Katelin Shaffer Pursuing M.S.
member portrait Kyle Cahalan Pursuing M.S.
member portrait Lakshmi Ramanathan Pursuing M.S.
member portrait Leo Melson Pursuing M.S.
member portrait Matias Segura Pursuing M.S.
member portrait Michael Castiglia Pursuing M.S.
Former AMD Scholar
member portrait Nina Tran Pursuing M.S.
member portrait Robert Lee Pursuing M.S.
member portrait Sarayu Panditi Pursuing M.S.

Undergraduate Students

member portrait Aidan Bowman Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Aidan Gannon Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Alexei Solonari Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Antonio Espinoza Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Benjamin Pierre Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Danielle Van Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Donald Doyle Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Dylan Wilkins Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Elias Narramore Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Eren Durham Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Evan Eichholz Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Jaden Yun Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Katherine Doyle Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Kathlyn Buckley Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Lina Rahama Pursuing B.S.
NG Scholar
member portrait Matthew Wilbanks Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Nicholas McNeill Pursuing B.S.
NG Scholar
member portrait Nick Nimroozi Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Nickie Sethi Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Nicole BaezEspinosa Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Rebecca Smith Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Ryan Eng Pursuing B.S.
AMD Scholar
member portrait Samantha Semmel Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Sebastian Candelaria Pursuing B.S.
AMD Scholar
member portrait Sebastian Garayua Caraballo Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Tiago Rocha Lima Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Yousef Awad Pursuing B.S.
member portrait Yuliia Plysiuk Pursuing B.S.

Alumni

Every degree our alumni earned while with the lab, with the major, the year it was awarded, any sponsor or scholar designation they held, and where they went first. Sort by any column (shift-click to sort by several), narrow the list with the filters, or switch back to the portrait cards.

Sorted by Click a column to sort · Shift-click to add a level
Headshot
Alyssa Pinnock Computer Engineering B.S. 2026 UCF —
Aryan Tulsi Computer Engineering B.S. 2026 — —
Brendan Rodriguez Computer Engineering B.S. 2026 UCF —
Daniel Gomez Computer Engineering B.S. 2026 UCF —
Daniel Gonzalez Computer Engineering B.S. 2026 UCF —
Destiny Ellenwood Computer Engineering B.S. 2026 UCF Raytheon
Franco Mezzarapa Computer Engineering B.S. 2026 UCF, Leidos —
Jerrod Eanes Computer Engineering B.S. 2026 UCF —
Jordan Merkel Computer Engineering B.S. 2026 AMD Scholar —
Joshua Joseph Computer Engineering B.S. 2026 Northrop Grumman Scholar Snowcap
Leo Melson Computer Engineering B.S. 2026 AMD —
Robert Lee Computer Engineering B.S. 2026 UCF —
Ashley Hanzelka Computer Engineering B.S. 2025 UCF —
Davi Dantas Electrical Engineering B.S. 2025 — BAE Systems
Michael Castiglia Computer Engineering B.S. 2025 AMD Scholar AMD
Raul Graterol Computer Engineering B.S. 2025 Northrop Grumman Scholar Chalice AI
Riley Newport Computer Engineering B.S. 2025 UCF —
Aaron Lingerfelt — B.S. 2024 Northrop Grumman Scholar Northrop Grumman
Alicia Thoney Computer Science B.S. 2024 AMD Scholar, Arctic Wolf Networks AMD
Lana Perkins — B.S. 2024 AMD Scholar L3Harris
Malia Rojas — B.S. 2024 UCF Lockheed Martin
Luckner Ablard — B.S. 2024 UCF Collins Aerospace
Marcus Simmonds Computer Science B.S. 2024 UCF, IBM, GEM Fellowship —
Sheridan Sloan — B.S. 2024 UCF Lockheed Martin
Victoria Moreno Computer Engineering B.S. 2024 UCF Bloomberg
Yvan Pierre — B.S. 2024 UCF Honeywell
Alicia Thoney Computer Engineering M.S. 2026 AMD Scholar, Arctic Wolf Networks AMD
Calvin VanWormer Computer Engineering M.S. 2026 UCF, Leidos —
Cory Brynds Computer Engineering M.S. 2026 AMD Scholar AMD
Marcus Simmonds Computer Engineering M.S. 2026 UCF, IBM, GEM Fellowship —
Sagar Srujan Somepalli Computer Science M.S. 2026 UCF —
Jarett Artman — M.S. 2025 UCF —
Jenna Goodrich — M.S. 2025 UCF —
Victoria Moreno Computer Engineering M.S. 2025 UCF Bloomberg

Funding and Support

Our research, tools, and student training are made possible through partnerships with federal, state, and corporate entities. These collaborations advance critical security research while giving partners early access to emerging talent, novel IP, and applied results. Interested in what a partnership looks like? Contact Dr. Mike.

Sponsors

A special thank you to our current sponsors — click on the profiles below to see the projects and researchers these entities have sponsored.

member portrait AMD Sponsor
member portrait Arctic Wolf Networks Sponsor
member portrait GEM Fellowship Sponsor
member portrait IBM Sponsor
member portrait Leidos Sponsor
member portrait Northrop Grumman Sponsor
member portrait UCF Sponsor

The work shown throughout our website has been sponsored by many agencies and organizations — learn more about them by visiting their web presence.

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