- Email:
- ankit@iu.edu
- Department:
- Operations and Decision Technologies (ODT)
- Campus:
- IU, IU Bloomington
- Major:
- Information Systems
Bio
Dr. Ankit Shah is an Assistant Professor of Operations and Decision Technologies at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University (IU). He is serving as the Deputy Director of Cybersecurity for Kelley’s Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Before coming to IU, Dr. Shah was a faculty member at the University of South Florida (USF), where he also directed its Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory for Secure and Efficient Systems and was a member of its Institute for Artificial Intelligence + X (AI+X). Previously, he was a researcher in the field of Reinforcement Learning at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the Center for Secure Information Systems in Virginia. With over nine years of industry experience in the Information Technology and Security sector, he has held diverse roles, bringing both technical expertise and executive experience.
Dr. Shah’s research focuses on enhancing organizational cybersecurity by advancing threat detection and mitigation technologies, optimizing human resource management strategies, and refining operational processes to improve overall security resilience. He develops advanced business technologies by integrating machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), and artificial intelligence (AI) to strengthen cybersecurity systems (AI/ML in Cybersecurity). His work also investigates the resilience and robustness of AI-enabled defense systems, employing deep reinforcement learning and generative AI/ML/DL methodologies for rigorous red team evaluations (Security of AI-enabled Systems). His mission is to advance the field of cybersecurity by generating critical knowledge in these key areas, essential for protecting organizations against both known and emerging threats. His research is sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and industry partners. Dr. Shah's work has been published in top security journals, including IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security, ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology, and IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, among others. He is a senior member of IEEE and INFORMS, lifetime member of AAAI, and a member of AIS and ACM, among others. Academic fun fact: Dr. Shah's Erdős number is 3 and Dijkstra number is 4.
Dr. Shah has served in various capacities for technical conferences and associations. He has been elected to serve as a Board Member for the INFORMS Military and Security Society (MAS) for the 2025-2028 term and the Organizing Committee Chair for the upcoming 2027 INFORMS Conference on Security. He has served as an Organizing Committee Member for the Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Cyber Security (AICS) at the AAAI 2023-2026 conferences and for the 2024 INFORMS Conference on Security. He was also the Workshop Chair for the IEEE Conference on Dependable and Secure Computing (IEEE DSC) 2023, as well as the Cybersecurity Cluster Chair for the INFORMS Annual Meetings in 2020 and 2022. His expertise has led to invitations for numerous technical talks and seminars from government organizations, industry partners, and technical associations.
Research Interests
Dr. Shah’s research interests lie at the intersection of Information Systems, Computer Science, and AI-driven cybersecurity, with a focus on AI-enabled cyber defense, multi-agent AI systems, and safe, secure, and reliable AI. Methodologically, his work draws on hierarchical and deep reinforcement learning, adversarial machine learning, and combinatorial optimization to develop adaptive and resilient security systems for enterprise and mission-critical environments.
Teaching and Research Awards
- 2023 Outstanding Research Achievement Award recipient from USF Research and Innovation
- 2022 Outstanding Research Achievement Award recipient from USF Research and Innovation
- 2021-2022 Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award recipient from USF Provost Office
- 2022 Outstanding Teaching Award recipient from USF College of Engineering’s Academy of Distinguished Engineering Educators
Professional Activities
- Organizing Committee Chair, INFORMS Conference on Security, 2027
- Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, 2025 - Present
- Council Member, INFORMS Military and Security Society (MAS), 2025-2028
- Organizing Committee Member, Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Cyber Security (AICS), AAAI 2025, Philadelphia, PA, 2025
- Organizing Committee Member, Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Cyber Security (AICS), AAAI 2024, Vancouver, BC, 2024
- Program Committee Member, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-24), Jeju, 2024
- Organizing Committee Member, INFORMS Conference on Security, Arlington, VA, 2024
- Workshop Chair, IEEE Conference on Dependable and Secure Computing, Tampa, FL, 2023
- Chair, Cybersecurity Analytics Session, Military and Security Society, INFORMS Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, 2023
- Chair, Cybersecurity Cluster, INFORMS Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, 2022
- Co-Chair, AI for Cybersecurity Session, INFORMS Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, 2022
- Program Committee Member, International Conference on Secure Knowledge Management, 2021-2023
- Program Committee Member, ACM KDD Workshop on Artificial Intelligence-enabled Cybersecurity Analytics, 2021-2023
- Chair, Data Analytics and Simulation Session, INFORMS Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA, 2021
- Co-Chair, Simulation and Reinforcement Learning Session, INFORMS Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA, 2021
- Publication Chair, IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics, San Antonio, TX, 2021
- Chair, Committee’s Choice Cybersecurity Cluster, INFORMS Annual Meeting, 2020
- Program Committee Member, IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics, 2020-2023
- Program Committee Member, IEEE ICDM Workshop on Deep Learning for Cyber Threat Intelligence, 2020
- Invited Panelist, AAAI 2019 Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Cybersecurity, Honolulu, HI, 2019
- Session Chair, Security Analytics, INFORMS Optimization Conference, Denver, CO, 2018