Cybersecurity · Formal Methods · Cyber-Physical Systems

SaraAbbaspour

Senior Lecturer & Researcher in Cybersecurity

I study how rigorous modeling, verification, and AI-assisted analysis can make cyber-physical and industrial systems more secure, dependable, and trustworthy.

Explore my research Google Scholar

Mälardalen University
Västerås, Sweden

Profile

About

Engineering confidence in connected, intelligent systems.

I am a Senior Lecturer and researcher at Mälardalen University. My work spans cybersecurity, cyber-physical systems, formal methods, runtime verification, threat modeling, and AI-assisted security engineering.

Across academic research, graduate supervision, teaching, and industry-facing case studies, I focus on methods that make security evidence clearer and system behavior more dependable in practice.

2013

Research at MDU since

PhDComputer Science & Engineering

ABB Volvo CE Industry case-study experience

Research

Research focus

From system models to trustworthy execution.

Cybersecurity for cyber-physical systems

Security analysis and assurance for systems where software decisions interact with industrial processes and the physical world.

CPSIndustrial securityAssurance

Threat modeling & security-oriented models

Structured approaches to identify attack scenarios, represent security-relevant data flows, and support early security reasoning.

STRIDEDFDAttack models

Runtime verification & monitoring

Detecting unsafe or adversarial behavior during execution, including work on concurrency bugs, runtime monitors, and Tiny Twins.

Runtime assuranceMonitoring

AI-assisted security engineering

Investigating how language models and AI can support security analysis while preserving traceability, expert oversight, and justified confidence.

LLMsTrustworthy AIValidation

Journey

Experience & education

A career connecting software engineering, research, and education.

2025—present

Senior Lecturer

Mälardalen University · Sweden

Teaching, research leadership, supervision, and cybersecurity curriculum development.

2020—present

Researcher, security-relevant cyber-physical systems

Mälardalen University · Sweden

Formal methods, security modeling, runtime verification, and industry-facing research.

2018—2020

Postdoctoral Researcher

Mälardalen University · Sweden

Safety- and security-relevant cyber-physical systems.

2016—2018

PhD, Computer Science and Engineering

Mälardalen University · Sweden

Thesis: Concurrency Bugs: Characterization, Debugging and Runtime Verification.

2008—2011

Master of Software Engineering

University of Malaya · Malaysia

Bachelor of Software Engineering

Iran

Recent work

Publications

Recent publications.

View full record

2026

A Hierarchical Framework for Safety in Orchestrated Systems-of-Systems

SAFECOMP 2026

Transforming Cybersecurity Research: AI as our Research Assistant in Academia

ACDSA 2026

IEEE 2024

Enhancing Cybersecurity through Comprehensive Investigation of Data Flow-Based Attack Scenarios

Journal of Cybersecurity and Privacy

MDPI 2024

CRYSTAL framework: Cybersecurity assurance for cyber-physical systems

Journal of Logical and Algebraic Methods in Programming

Elsevier 2024

Tiny Twins for detecting cyber-attacks at runtime using concise Rebeca time transition system

Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing

Elsevier

Leadership

Projects & funding

Research shaped through collaboration.

Principal Investigator · 2024

STEP-PS

Secure and Trustworthy Execution Platforms — Pre-Study for Smart Rooms.

TSS pre-study

Principal Investigator · 2024

Research on Collaboration

Approaches and theoretical frameworks for research collaboration in CSE.

RoC grant

Co-applicant · 2020

ARC

Augmented Reality and Cybersecurity.

Knowledge Foundation

KKS grant

Industry collaboration

Applied security research

Research case studies involving ABB and Volvo Construction Equipment.

ABB

Volvo CE

Academic–industrial collaboration

Teaching

Teaching & supervision

Helping students reason about security, not just react to it.

Fundamentals of Industrial Cybersecurity

Methods and Tools for Industrial Cybersecurity

Graduate supervision in modeling and CPS security

Master’s and Bachelor’s thesis supervision

Contact

Interested in secure and trustworthy systems?

I welcome conversations about research collaboration, academic exchange, supervision, and interdisciplinary work in cybersecurity.

Sara.Abbaspour@mdu.se MDU profile