Organizers and Industry Advisers

Dr. Wong received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA. He is a Full Professor of Computer Science, Director of International Outreach, and Founding Director of the Advanced Research Center for Software Testing and Quality Assurance at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). The Center was a major university site of the NSF I/UCRC-funded Security and Software Engineering Research Center (S²ERC). Dr. Wong also serves as a Guest Researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Prior to joining UTD, he was a Senior Research Scientist and Project Manager at Telcordia Technologies (formerly Bellcore), where he led projects in dependable telecommunications software development.

Professor Wong is the recipient of the 2014 IEEE Reliability Society Engineer of the Year. His research focuses on helping practitioners improve software quality while reducing production cost. In particular, he is working on software testing, debugging, risk analysis/metrics, safety, and reliability. He has extensive experience developing real-life industry applications from his research results. He has published more than 200 papers and co-edited three books.

Professor Wong received the Most Influential Paper Award from ICST (IEEE International Conference on Software Testing) and JSS (Journal of Systems and Software) in 2020. He was the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Reliability for two consecutive terms from 2016 to 2022. He has also been a Senior Associated Editor of Elsevier’s Journal of Systems and Software (JSS) since January 2016. In addition, he has served as a guest editor for many international journals. Professor Wong is the Founding Steering Committee Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability, and Security (QRS) and the IEEE International Conference on Dependable Systems and Their Applications (DSA).

Professor Wong has served as the PI of this REU Site since 2009, with six consecutive NSF awards (CCF-0851848, CNS-1156977, CNS-1461149, CNS-1757828, CNS-2050869, and CNS-2349347). The Site’s research initially focused on verification and validation for software safety, expanded to include software reliability in 2018, and further broadened in 2024 to address software dependability encompassing security, safety, and reliability. The most recently submitted REU proposal further extends this research by investigating how emerging AI and large language model (LLM) technologies can both enhance and introduce new challenges to software security, safety, and reliability.

Home page: https://profiles.utdallas.edu/ewong

Dr. Xinda Wang is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from George Mason University in 2023, where she was honored with the Outstanding Dissertation Award.

Dr. Wang’s research interests lie broadly in software and systems security. Her research investigates real-world security challenges through large-scale empirical studies and develops AI-enhanced techniques for vulnerability detection, software patch management, network anomaly detection, and container attack-surface reduction. Her work has been published in premier cybersecurity venues, including IEEE S&P, USENIX Security, ACSAC, DSN, ESORICS, AsiaCCS, IEEE TIFS, and IEEE TDSC. She led the development of PatchDB, a widely used dataset for software vulnerability and security patch analysis, which has been chosen by the NSF as 1 of only 10 datasets integrated into the NAIRR Pilot to advance AI literacy, education, and innovation. Her research and educational efforts have been recognized and supported by multiple NSF awards, including the prestigious NSF CAREER Award (2026). She is also a recipient of an IEEE CNS Best Paper Nomination (2020), the Top Winning Award of the IEEE SERVICES Hackathon (2020), and a Grace Hopper Celebration Faculty Scholarship (2023).

Dr. Wang actively contributes to the research community through professional service. She has served on the organizing committees of ACM CCS and ESORICS and as co-chair of the Data4SoftSec workshop co-located with IEEE S&P. She has also served on the technical program committees of leading conferences, including IEEE S&P, ACM CCS, and USENIX Security, and is a member of the editorial board of Discrete Mathematics, Algorithms and Applications (DMAA).

Home page: https://xindawang.org/

Dr. Rick Kuhn is a computer scientist and affiliate faculty member at Virginia Tech, as well as a guest researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Washington Academy of Sciences. Dr. Kuhn co-developed the role-based access control (RBAC) model, which remains the dominant access control paradigm in use today. His current research focuses on combinatorial methods for assured autonomy (csrc.nist.gov/acts). He has authored three books and published more than 200 conference and journal papers in the areas of cybersecurity, software failure, and software verification and testing.

Before joining Virginia Tech, Dr. Kuhn served as Program Manager for the Committee on Applications and Technology of the President’s Information Infrastructure Task Force and as Manager of the Software Quality Group at NIST. He also worked as a software developer at NCR Corporation and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He earned an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an MBA from William & Mary.

Marc Perna is a Senior Technical Fellow and Software Chief Technologist at Raytheon. He currently serves as the Chief Architect for a multi-billion-dollar business area responsible for designing, developing, delivering and operating software-centric products, solutions and services. In this role, he is responsible for driving architecture strategy, maintaining and communicating approved technology standards, overseeing architecture governance, developing software technology roadmaps, and looking for technology insertion opportunities to support the business.

In his over 25 years in the aerospace and defense industry, Mr. Perna has led the development and deployment of multiple large-scale software systems. He serves as the principal investigator for several internal research and development projects related to software development and artificial intelligence.

Mr. Perna earned a Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Arkansas.  He holds multiple Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI) certifications and is an Open Group Master Certified Solutions Architect. He serves on the RTX Corporate Architecture board and on the Industry Advisory Working Group for a US Government organization.

Until January 2020, Dr. Mike Siok was a Software Systems Engineer with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company (LM Aero) in Fort Worth, Texas for more than 30 years. He was responsible for researching computer performance and software assurance, planning avionics systems development, and conducting software process and product analyses for aircraft avionics programs. Dr. Siok led the in-house effort to put into place the standard engineering practice for software safety and reliability. He also consulted with various aircraft program engineering staff at the LM Aero Fort Worth plant and with Lockheed Martin corporation engineering staff on matters of software safety and reliability. In addition, Dr. Siok delivered software safety and reliability courseware for practicing software engineers. Currently, he is an Adjunct Faculty in Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Dr. Siok received his D.Eng. and M.S. in Engineering Management from Southern Methodist University (SMU), and a Bachelor's of Engineering Technology, Electronics, (with a double major in Music) from Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota. He is a senior member of the IEEE, a registered Texas Professional Engineer, and an INCOSE Expert Systems Engineering Professional (ESEP).

Dr. Thomas Hill, who became an EDS, an HP company, Fellow in 1991, was Director of EDS' Fellows and Distinguished Engineering Programs. The Fellows organization is responsible for corporate technical thought leadership and for creating innovative revenue-producing service offerings and tools for EDS' strategic targets, clients and EDS itself. Currently, Dr. Hill is a co-Founder of the Fellows Consulting Group in Dallas, Texas, which provides quality, productivity, and innovation services for industry clients to deliver their products at cost-effective ways.

In addition to fulfilling his professional obligations, Dr. Hill is a member of the ACM and the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). He currently serves on the engineering boards of Texas Christian University and the University of Texas at Dallas, as well as volunteers as a mentor for the University of Dallas' MBA program. He has a BS and MBA in Information Technology, Microsoft certifications, and an open group architecture certification. Dr. Hill has written numerous articles and publications. He holds four active patents and has five patents pending.

Rishi Madhok is the CEO and Co-founder of TerraByte AI, where he leads the development of AI foundation models and mission software for Earth intelligence. TerraByte builds AI systems that fuse multi-modal Earth observation data, including optical, synthetic aperture radar, hyperspectral, and thermal imagery, to provide decision-ready insights for analysts, scientists, planners, and operators. His work focuses on building robust and reliable AI-enabled software systems that can operate across diverse sensing modalities and deployment environments, from large-scale historical imagery archives to real-time data collected in orbit.

Prior to TerraByte AI, Mr. Madhok led geospatial AI initiatives at Microsoft Planetary Computer, where he developed foundation models for Earth observation, and previously worked on perception systems for autonomous vehicles at Uber ATG. He holds a Master’s degree in Computer Vision from Carnegie Mellon University and has authored more than 15 papers and patents, with work appearing at leading AI venues including NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, and CVPR.

Ponchai Reainthong serves as Director of User Experience at ARGO Data, bringing over 25 years of expertise in product design, research, and development across Fortune 500 companies and diverse industries. As a design executive and strategic leader, he specializes in advising, building, and scaling high-performing multidisciplinary teams that create innovative solutions in the financial services and healthcare sectors.

A graduate of the Art Institute with a bachelor's degree in computer science, he spent his time throughout his career as a perpetual learner, evolving, mentoring, and growing. He demonstrates excellence by driving custom solutions, design system development, human-computer interaction, and strategic problem-solving across various sectors including government, telecommunications, healthcare, fintech, and B2B/B2C markets. Prior to joining ARGO Data, he was the Associate Director of UX/UI for nearly 15 years with IHS Markit, which eventually merged with S&P Global, a historic $140 billion merger finalized in 2022.

Ponchai combines technical expertise with design thinking principles to drive measurable strategic and tactical approaches that bridge gaps, solve complex problems, and uncover opportunities aligned with broader organizational goals. As an advisor, he focuses on mentoring undergraduate students to develop the essential skills needed for success in today's technology landscape, particularly in areas where user experience, technical expertise, and business strategy intersections.

Mark Bentsen leads AI adoption and quality assurance, drawing on 20 years of experience in industry and academia. At Secure IVAI, which he co-founded, he guides companies in responsible AI implementation, building on his success integrating generative AI and leading large engineering teams at FedEx and with a finance and healthcare solutions company.

He shapes academic AI research through university partnerships while advancing AI literacy through conference presentations and corporate training. He holds the CTAL (Full) certification from the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

During his 40-year professional career, Dr. Dennis Frailey has been employed simultaneously in both academia and industry. During the 1970's, he was one of the Computer Science faculty members at Southern Methodist University (SMU), where he organized and taught most of the courses in the CS curriculum. Later on, he worked at Texas Instruments and then the Raytheon Company, where he was elevated to the position of Principal Fellow and became Raytheon's software safety "expert" for the Texas region. Dr. Frailey continues his role as an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science and Engeineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he teaches courses in quality engineering and software measurement.

Dr. Frailey served as a council member, regional representative, and vice president of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in the 1980's, president of the Dallas Fort Worth Association for Software Engineering Excellence in the 1990's, and member of the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors as well as a member of the Society's Educational Activities Board and Professional Activities Board. He is an ACM Fellow, ACM distinguished lecturer (for over 20 years), and recipient of the ACM SIGCSE lifetime achievement award in Computer Science Education in 2008.

Mr. Lou Gullo has over 35 years of experience in system, hardware, and software reliability, maintainability, testability, prognostics, safety, security, and fault management for the military, space, telecom, and commercial electronics industries. He was awarded a US Patent in January 2004 for Reliability Assessment Program. He is also an editor/author of three books.

Mr. Lou Gullo is the Vice President of Technical Activities and the Chair of the Standards Committee of IEEE Reliability Society.

Mr. Lon Chase was a Senior Principle Systems Engineer in the Space and Airborne Systems division at the Raytheon Company. Although he retired in 2020 after more than 30 years of working experience in industry, he is still actively engaged in many professional activities.

Currently, Mr. Chase is the Vice Chair of the Reliability Society (RS) Dallas Chapter. The society consists of a volunteer group of professionals engaged in assuring reliability in the engineering disciplines of software, hardware, and human factors. The objective is to assure that a system will perform its intended function for the required duration within a given environment, including the ability to test and support it throughout its total life cycle.

Zizhao Chen is a Ph.D. student in Software Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas, working under the supervision of W. Eric Wong. His research focuses on software testing, with particular interests in test case generation, combinatorial testing, and the application of large language models (LLMs) to improve testing effectiveness and automation.

His recent work explores how LLMs can assist in generating test cases and supporting software quality assurance tasks, as well as evaluating their reliability and limitations in real-world testing scenarios. Zizhao Chen has contributed to multiple research efforts on LLM-based testing frameworks, mutation testing, and fault localization.

In addition to research, he is actively involved in software engineering education and industry collaboration, including organizing and supporting software testing competitions and project-based courses. He also served as a mentor for the REU program. He participated in group discussions, co-reviewed all deliverables, and provided constructive feedback to help students improve the quality of their work.

Chih-Wei Hsu is a Ph.D. student in Software Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas, advised by W. Eric Wong. His research focuses on software testing, with an emphasis on test generation, combinatorial testing, and the use of large language models to support software quality assurance.

His recent work explores how large language models can assist in software testing, particularly in generating test cases and supporting testing workflows. He is also interested in understanding the strengths and limitations of these approaches in practical settings. His broader research interests include software testing, test generation, and LLM-based support for software quality assurance.

Beyond his research, he also contributes to software engineering education. His experience includes helping organize the Software Testing Contest, supporting instruction in software testing and software project courses, and mentoring undergraduate students in the REU program by participating in group discussions, co-reviewing deliverables, and providing constructive feedback to help improve the quality of their work.