Computer Science Welcomes New Faculty Fall 2025

Boise State University Computer Science is excited to welcome four new faculty poised to boost teaching and research in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

About the new faculty:

About the New Faculty

Sindhu Reddy Kalathur Gopal

Sindhu’s research explores security vulnerabilities in wearable and smart computing devices to uncover potential data leaks and security threats. Her research also focuses on designing robust and user-friendly authentication systems with an emphasis on behavioral biometrics – brain signals and hand movements. She has served the security community as a member of the USENIX Security Artifact Evaluation Committee and a reviewer for conferences such as IEEE FG, IEEeE VR, and IEEE IJCB.

In addition to her academic accomplishments, Sindhu brings over nine years of industry experience in backend software development and database management (with expertise in Java, Python, and SQL).

Max Taylor

Dr. Max Taylor brings expertise in applying formal methods to secure cyber-physical systems and improve software dependability. Prior to joining Boise State, he was a Formal Methods Researcher at Idaho National Laboratory, where he led projects on secure messaging protocols and industrial control system security, including development of the DATUM framework based on refined multiparty session types. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from The Ohio State University in 2024, where he received the Eleanor Quinlan Award for outstanding graduate student teaching and his department’s research award.

Dr. Taylor’s research focuses on enhancing the dependability and security of critical systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles, industrial control systems, and deep learning infrastructure. His work has been published in top-tier venues including OOPSLA, ASE, DSN, and NASA Formal Methods, with notable contributions in static analysis, model checking, and formal verification. He also gained industry experience through internships at Google, Cloudflare, and Cerebras, working on large-scale distributed systems and machine learning infrastructure. Passionate about teaching, he has instructed courses in programming languages, software engineering, and operating systems. At Boise State, his research group will develop practical formal methods tools to improve the security and dependability of next-generation cyber-physical systems.

Yu Zhang

Yu Zhang joins Boise State University in July 2025 as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Kentucky in 2023. Yu Zhang brings extensive industry experience to his academic role. Prior to joining Boise State, he worked as a Machine Learning Engineer at Bastian Solutions, a Toyota Automation Logistics company. In the summer of 2022, he did research at Siemens, focusing on self-supervised learning. His research centers on building efficient and domain-adaptive computer vision systems by developing state-of-the-art models for various vision and robotics tasks. He also integrates AI with interdisciplinary sciences, including medical imaging, remote sensing, ecology, and astrophysics.

Xinyi Zhou

PhD in Computer and Information Science and Engineering from Syracuse University.

Dr. Xinyi Zhou is an incoming Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Boise State University. She is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. She earned her Ph.D. in Computer and Information Science and Engineering from Syracuse University. Her research interests span machine learning and data science, with a focus on trustworthy, multimodal, and human-centered AI. Her work has been published in journals such as ACM Computing Surveys and conferences including WWW, CHI, CIKM, WSDM, and ICWSM. She received two Rising Star awards in 2024: one in EECS from MIT, and another in Data Science from UCSD, UChicago, and Stanford. For more details, please visit