Dr Bilar's area of interest is information security (specifically network security), which is a fascinating, young field spanning different dimensions such as people, technology, computer science, operations research, law, sociology and economics with plenty of opportunities to advance the discipline. He received his BA in Computer Science from Brown University (1995), his MEng. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University (1997), and his PhD in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College (2003).

At this point, Dr Bilar would like to contribute to three areas:

• Detection and Containment of Information-gain Adversarial Malware
  
  The question is how to detect and classify highly evolved malware.
  
  In light of recent empirical and theoretical findings, Dr Bilar proposes moving beyond techniques premised on Turing Machine models towards iterative games and black-box process modeling within an interactive computational framework. The suggested dynamic approach uses techniques from Interactive Computations, Bayesian statistics, iterative 2-player (possibly n-player) imperfect non zero-sum games, and process query analysis.
• Quantitative Risk Analysis of Networks
  
  The question is how to assess, quantify and manage the risk profile of computer networks.
  
  Dr Bilar's PhD thesis focused on the inherent risk of vulnerabilities present in non-malicious software.Certain aspects need to be refined: First, hapless or malicious insiders - who account for a majority of attacks, losses and can leverage trust relationships - need much more emphasis. Secondly, it should be possible to semi-automatically map the network infrastructure to the business mission/process workflow which it supports (business-process-to-IT-asset mappings) and infer neuralgic points and concomitant loss functions.
• Assurance processes, testing regimes of untrusted hardware: IC malware
  
  The question is how to assess the functionality risk of ASICs and FPGAs produced by a supply chain which cannot fully be trusted.
  
  One needs to determine whether ICs manufactured in untrusted environment can be trusted to perform just operations specified and no more. There is no good solution as of yet - any solution really, at least nothing publicly accessible - to this devilish and pressing national security problem. Dr Bilar's instincts tell him there are some unexpected modern mathematics and 19th century physical principles that are waiting to be used. As Erdos said: A problem worthy of attack proves its worth by fighting back.

Dr Bilar also has a budding interest in quantum computing/malware, and loves cross-displinary investigation on practically any topic. Mail him with an interesting question you want to pursue, and let's see what can be achieved with joint forces.