PROMOTION RECOMMENDATION
The University of Michigan-Dearborn
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Birhanu Eshete, assistant professor of computer and information science, Department of Computer
and Information Science, College of Engineering and Computer Science, is recommended for
promotion to associate professor of computer and information science, with tenure, Department of
Computer and Information Science, College of Engineering and Computer Science.
Academic Degrees:
Ph.D. 2013 Computer Science, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
M.S. 2007 Computer Science, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
B.S. 2003 Computer Science, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Professional Record:
2018-present Assistant Professor, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI
2014-2018 Post-doctoral Researcher, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
2009-2013 Research Assistant, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy
2006-2006 Main Research Engineer, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
2004-2006 Junior Programmer, Ethiopian Telecom, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Summary of Evaluation:
Teaching: Professor Eshete is rated excellent in teaching. He is an excellent and dedicated educator
who has demonstrated a strong passion in education. He taught various cybersecurity courses and
core computer and information science (CIS) courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He
delivered high quality courses and received very good teaching evaluations from students. Outside
the classroom, he founded and continues to mentor the UM-Dearborn BlueBytes Cybersecurity Club,
which is a big success in preparing undergraduate cybersecurity majors to face on-the-job challenges
while on campus. His K-12 focused outreach activities were very impressive because they leverage
Professor Eshete’s expertise to inspire the next generation of cybersecurity professionals with early
exposure to cutting-edge research with important societal impact. In addition, Professor Eshete is
enthusiastic about curriculum development. Besides developing two new timely courses on
trustworthy artificial intelligence, as the chair of the Master of Science (MS) in cybersecurity and
information assurance (CIA) program committee, he is instrumental in continuously revamping the
curriculum to align with the current development of the field. He also has a very impressive
mentoring record, supervising students at all levels.
Research:
Professor Eshete is rated excellent in research. He is an outstanding researcher conducting
impactful research in cybersecurity. He has won high respect from his peers in the field. He
consistently published high quality papers in top conferences including Usenix Security
Symposia, Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Computer and Communications
Security, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Symposium on Security and
Privacy (S&P), Internet Society Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, Association
for Computing Machinery (ACM) Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium, Annual Computer
Security Applications Conference, IEEE/International Federation for Information Processing
Approved by the Regents
May 16, 2024
Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, and ACM World Wide Web Conference in the
field. As mentioned by the prominent external reviewers, top conferences in computer science are
highly selective, and papers that appear in them are widely read and typically highly impactful. Being
able to publish consistently in such top conferences is the best indicator of successful researchers that
are helping define their fields. Furthermore, Professor Eshete won the 2018 Usenix Security
Distinguished Paper Award, was a featured speaker at the well-known Usenix Enigma Conference,
and published a paper in the highly reputable Science Magazine, as well as featured in multiple
media outlets. He secured three highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) grants for his
research. Most notably, he received the prestigious NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program
(CAREER) award. He founded a research lab where he supervised a group of Ph.D., M.S., and
Bachelor of Science students and actively published papers with them. His Ford Faculty Summer
Sabbatical award and a United States patent showcase the relevance of his research to industries.
Recent and Significant Publications:
Amich, A., Eshete, B., Yegneswaran, V., Hoang, N.P. “DeResistor: Toward Detection-Resistant
Probing for Evasion of Internet Censorship.” In Proc. of 32nd Usenix Security Symp. (SEC’23).
Amich, A., Eshete, B. “EG-Booster: Explanation-Guided Booster for ML Evasion Attacks.” In Proc.
of 12th ACM Conf. on Data and Appl. Security and Privacy (ACM CODASPY 22). h-index: NA.
Eshete, B. “Making Machine Learning Trustworthy.” Science, Vol. 373, Issue. 6556, pp. 743-744,
American Assoc. for the Advance. of Sci. (AAAS), 2021.
Milajerdi, S. M., Eshete, B., Gjomemo, R., Venkatakrishnan, V.N. “Poirot: Aligning Attack Behavior
with Kernel Audit Records for Cyber Threat Hunting.” In Proc. of 26th ACM Conf. on Comp.
and Comm. Sec. (ACM CCS’19).
Milajerdi, S. M., Gjomemo, R., Eshete, B., Sekar, R., Venkatakrishnan, V.N. “HOLMES: Real-time
APT Detection through Correlation of Suspicious Information Flows.” In Proc. of 40th IEEE
Symp. on Sec. and Priv. (IEEE S&P’19).
Service: Professor Eshete is rated excellent in service. He is very active in both university and
professional communities. At the university, he served on committees at all levels (department,
college, and campus), including the time-consuming campus Dearborn Discovery Core
Subcommittee and faculty senate. Due to Professor Eshete’s passion and experience for organizing
student activities such as cybersecurity competitions, student team coaching, and Ph.D. student
research seminars, he served as the chair of the student organizations, alumni, and outreach
committee in the department. Professor Eshete’s expertise in cybersecurity, led him to serve as the
chair for the MS in the CIA program. These services showcase his leadership and dedication at the
university. In the professional community, he served as a co-chair of diversity, equity, and inclusion
for a top conference (IEEE S&P 2022) as well as program committee members for highly reputable
conferences in his field. He also actively reviewed papers for top journals and conferences. These
professional services demonstrate that he has won a high reputation in his field.
External Reviewers:
Reviewer A: “His record reflects an excellent researcher, working on important problems, with a
consistent track record of impactful results published in high impact venues ... Prof. Eshete has
regularly been invited to serve on the technical program committees of excellent conferences, which
is a testament to his high standing in the field.”
Reviewer B: “Professor Eshete has established a strong research program and trajectory that is
supported by highly competitive external grants, including the prestigious NSF CAREER award …
The high impact of his scholarly work is evident in his outstanding publication record. He
consistently publishes in top-tier security and privacy venues … I firmly believe Professor Eshetes’
[sic] highly impactful research has created a foundation for next-generation techniques and tools in
trustworthy ML, cybercrime analysis, and cyber threat intelligence.”
Reviewer C: “From my perspective, he stands out as one of the foremost researchers in the field of
computer security … I have every confidence that his contributions are far superior to those of
researchers and professors with comparable training and education. He has already made
fundamental contributions to our field and will continue to do so.”
Reviewer D: “He is constantly publishing his works in top conferences and journals such as Usenix
Security, ACM CCS, NDSS, IEEE S&P etc … I am also very much impressed by Professor Eshete’s
funding record ... Especially, getting the competitive NSF CAREER award is a great
accomplishment.”
Reviewer E: “From his publication record and citations, it is clear that Professor Eshete is
conducting high-quality and high-impact research in these fields. I do appreciate the level of
productivity and the quality of his work … I would conclude that Professor Eshete has built a very
productive, independent, and sustainable research program, which will lead to his future success as a
tenured faculty.”
Reviewer F: “By traditional measures of scholarly activity – publications – Professor Eshete has an
excellent record, including multiple publications in the top venues in our field … Professor Eshete’s
professional service has been stellar. His impactful works earn him the invitations to participate in
the technical program committees of highly competitive security conferences.”
Reviewer G: “Professor Eshete’s publication record demonstrates solid and sustained research
output at these prestigious venues … I am confident that Professor Eshete’s current and future
research efforts will continue to generate highly visible technical results and broader impacts.”
Summary of Recommendation: Professor Eshete’s accomplishments in all the areas of research,
teaching, and service are truly excellent. We are very pleased to recommend, with strong support of
the College of Engineering and Computer Science Executive Committee, Birhanu Eshete for
promotion to associate professor of computer and information science, with tenure, Department of
Computer and Information Science, College of Engineering and Computer Science.
___________________________ ___________________________
Ghassan Kridli, Dean Domenico Grasso, Chancellor
College of Engineering and Computer Science University of Michigan-Dearborn
May 2024
