Md Rayhanul Masud
PhD in Computer Science, University of California, Riverside.
Machine learning, software engineering, and cybersecurity for open-source ecosystems.
About Me
I recently completed my Ph.D. in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), where I was fortunate to be advised by Prof. Michalis Faloutsos. My PhD research sits at the intersection of machine learning, software engineering, and cybersecurity, where I built ML-driven systems that make open-source communities safer and more transparent by analyzing developer behavior, code similarity, and how software evolves.
Across my Ph.D. I designed systems for repository search (MetaSim, RepoScope), cross-platform identity linkage (GeekMAN), and malware ecosystem analysis (MAGNET), with publications at venues including WWW, ICSME, ASONAM, and SNAM. Before my Ph.D., I spent two years as a software engineer building production systems, which shapes how I approach machine learning today.
I earned my B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
My current research interests span machine learning, large language models, reinforcement learning, alignment, post-training, and model evaluation. I am currently seeking postdoctoral and ML/AI industry positions where rigorous, production-minded work drives real-world impact.
Recent News
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Jul 2026Our paper, "Reward Engineering for Software Tasks: A Survey of Reinforcement Learning Approaches," was accepted to EMNLP 2026 (Findings).
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Jul 2026Our paper, "MAGNET: A software-engineering view of the malware ecosystem on the GitHub network," was accepted to ASONAM 2026.
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Jun 2026Completed my Ph.D. and graduated from UC Riverside.
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Jan 2026Received the Dissertation Completion Fellowship from UC Riverside.
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May 2025Passed my dissertation proposal exam.
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Nov 2024Presented "MetaSim" at the CRESP Industry Day at UCR.
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Oct 2024Presented our paper, "MetaSim," at ICSME 2024.
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Aug 2024Our paper, "MetaSim: A search engine for finding similar GitHub repositories," was accepted to ICSME 2024.
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Jul 2024Our paper, "Disambiguating usernames across platforms: the GeekMAN approach," was accepted to Social Network Analysis and Mining (SNAM).
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May 2024Presented our work, "Who is Creating Malware Repositories on GitHub and Why?," at The Web Conference (WWW) 2024.
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Mar 2024Our paper, "Who is Creating Malware Repositories on GitHub and Why?," was accepted to The Web Conference (WWW) 2024.
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Nov 2023Presented our paper "GeekMAN: Geek-oriented username Matching Across online Networks" at ASONAM 2023.
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Jul 2023Presented our poster on "Educational but Malicious Repositories" at KDD 2023.
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Sep 2021Started my Ph.D. at UC Riverside.