Portrait of Md Hafizur Rahman

Md Hafizur Rahman

Sakellaris Ph.D. Fellow at the University of Maine
I studyhow AI systems fail
I buildones that are secure and efficient

I study how intelligent systems learn, collaborate, and fail, then design methods that make them more efficient, resilient, and trustworthy.

  • LLM Security
  • Adversarial Robustness
  • Neural Architecture Search
  • Edge AI
  • Multi-Agent LLM Systems
  • PyTorch
  • TensorFlow
  • LangChain
  • LangGraph
  • RAG
  • Python
  • C / C++
Paper acceptedNeurIPS 2026SMASH: speech robustness under bit flips →

518+Citations

17+Peer-reviewed articles

5+Patent applications

$25KCommercialization fund

Published in, reviewer for & affiliated with

NeurIPS
IEEE Access
Scientific Reports
Smart Health (Elsevier)Smart Health
Multimedia Tools and Applications (Springer)Multimedia Tools & Applications
IEEE IoT Journal
Journal of Big Data (Springer Nature), reviewerJournal of Big Data
International Journal of Machine Learning and Cybernetics (Springer Nature), reviewerInt. J. Machine Learning & Cybernetics
Applied Artificial Intelligence (Taylor & Francis), reviewerApplied Artificial Intelligence
University of Maine
SIEGE Research Lab
IEEE
ACM
MIRTA Accelerator
NSF I-CorpsNSF I-Corps
MIRTA 8.0 team Sentrialign: four team members standing together at the University of Maine
SIEGE Lab members beside the lab banner and research posters at the University of Maine Student Symposium
UMaine Student Symposium
Team members listening during a MIRTA accelerator workshop session
MIRTA 8.0 workshop
a little about me

About me

I'm a Ph.D. researcher in Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Maine and a research assistant in the SIEGE Research Lab, working with Dr. Prabuddha Chakraborty.

My work sits where AI security meets efficient machine learning. I probe risks in large language models and multi-agent systems, and I build neural architecture search methods that make AI practical on resource-constrained hardware.

I earned my B.Sc. in Electrical & Electronic Engineering at Islamic University, Bangladesh, and my M.S. in Computer Engineering at UMaine.

My journey
where ideas meet evidence

Featured research

From probing hidden failure modes to designing lighter architectures, these projects are the core of what I work on.

Latest · AI Security

SMASH: Speech Robustness Under Bit Flips

How semantically targeted bit flips in model weights change what automatic speech recognition systems hear, and what that means for robustness.

Accepted at NeurIPS 2026 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems
Neural Architecture SearchIEEE Access · 2025

ILASH: Intelligent Layer Sharing

A predictive architecture search framework for multi-task models. The paper reports up to 16× reductions in energy, CO₂ emissions, and search time against its AutoKeras comparison.

LLM Security · RLHFScientific Reports · 2025

COBRA: Defending RLHF Feedback

A consensus-based reward framework that mitigates malicious human feedback during large language model training. Now in commercialization through MIRTA 8.0.

Generative AI · AutoMLScientific Reports · 2025

LEMONADE: Designing Networks with LLMs

An LLM-driven framework that discovers neural architectures matched to the design objectives a user chooses, from accuracy to energy and latency.

Multi-Agent AI RiskPreprint · 2026

HARP: Harm Amplification in Agent Teams

Measuring how harmful behavior can be amplified as LLM-based agents coordinate and pass information to one another.

writing & research

Publications

Peer-reviewed work across trustworthy AI, neural architecture search, and applied machine learning.

2026

SMASH: Probing Speech Recognition Robustness via Semantically Targeted Bit Flips

Z. Haider, M. H. Rahman, A. Bumin, P. Chakraborty
NeurIPS 2026
↗
2025

Intelligent Layer Sharing (ILASH): A Predictive Neural Architecture Search Framework for Multi-Task Applications

M. H. Rahman, Z. Haider, M. M. Rizvee, S. Shomaji, P. Chakraborty
IEEE Access · IF 4.2
↗
2025

An automated multi parameter neural architecture discovery framework using ChatGPT in the backend

M. H. Rahman, Z. Haider, P. Chakraborty
Scientific Reports · IF 4.9
↗
2025

A framework for mitigating malicious RLHF feedback in LLM training using consensus based reward

Z. Haider, M. H. Rahman, V. Devabhaktuni, S. Moeykens, P. Chakraborty
Scientific Reports · IF 4.9
↗
2025

TRIM: AI Guided Random Number Generation for Resource-Constrained IoT Systems

T. Suha, M. H. Rahman, A. E. Rice, C. Smith, R. A. Awad, P. Chakraborty
IEEE Access · IF 4.2
↗
2024

In-situ particle analysis with heterogeneous background: a machine learning approach

A. I. Alam, M. H. Rahman, A. Zia, N. Lowry, P. Chakraborty, M. R. Hassan, B. Khoda
Scientific Reports · IF 4.9
↗
2023

Real-time face mask position recognition system based on MobileNet model

M. H. Rahman, M. K. A. Jannat, M. S. Islam, G. Grossi, S. Bursic, M. Aktaruzzaman
Smart Health, Elsevier · IF 3.4
↗
2022

RATNet: A deep learning model for Bengali handwritten characters recognition

M. S. Islam, M. M. Rahman, M. H. Rahman, M. W. Rivolta, M. Aktaruzzaman
Multimedia Tools & Applications, Springer · IF 3.6
↗
2021

CSI-IANet: An Inception Attention Network for Human-Human Interaction Recognition Based on CSI Signal

M. H. Kabir, M. H. Rahman, W. Shin
IEEE Access · IF 4.2
↗
from ideas to inventions

Patent applications

Five applications across architecture search, safe model training, and the security of AI systems.

milestones along the way

Awards & talks

Honors & fellowships

2026 – 2027

George P. Sakellaris '69 & Caterina Papoulias-Sakellaris Graduate Fellowship

University of Maine, College of Engineering

Jan – May 2026 · Co-Investigator

MIRTA 8.0 Commercialization Accelerator Award, $25,000

Customer discovery to commercialize the COBRA invention.

2023

Travel Grant, Bangladesh Sweden Trust Fund

Ministry of Finance, Bangladesh

2017 & 2018

University Merit Scholarships

Islamic University, Bangladesh

Posters & presentations

Apr 17, 2026

LEMONADE: Large Language Models for Task-Specific Neural Network Design

University of Maine Student Symposium

Apr 17, 2026

ILASH: Predictive Neural Architecture Search for Efficient Multi-Task Layer Sharing

University of Maine Student Symposium

Dec 4–5, 2025

Automated Multi-Parameter Neural Architecture Discovery Using ChatGPT in the Backend

Warren B. Nelms Annual IoT Conference, University of Florida

Mar 21, 2025

ILASH: A Predictive NAS Framework for Multi-Task Applications

WHiSPerS Workshop, University of New Hampshire

the feed

On Social

I share research updates, paper announcements, and behind-the-scenes moments from conferences and the lab on LinkedIn.

always learning, always building

Journey & toolkit

Experience & education

2023 – Present

Graduate Research Assistant, SIEGE Lab

University of Maine. Neural architecture search (ILASH) and AI security: malicious RLHF feedback, multi-agent harm amplification, and bit-flip attacks.

2023 – Present

Ph.D., Electrical & Computer Engineering

University of Maine, Orono

2026

Graduate Certificate, Data Science & Engineering

University of Maine, Orono

2023 – 2025

M.S., Computer Engineering

University of Maine, Orono

2016 – 2022

B.Sc., Electrical & Electronic Engineering

Islamic University, Bangladesh

Tools of the trade

Machine learning & AI

PyTorchTensorFlowKerasGNNsLangChainLangGraphRAGMCP

Languages & systems

PythonC / C++MATLABPandasMatplotlibSeabornDebian

Edge & hardware

NVIDIA Jetson NanoRaspberry PiESP32ESP8266ArduinoChipWhisperer

Academic service

  • Peer reviewer. 50 manuscript reviews: IEEE Access (41), IEEE IoT Journal (4), and four other journals.
  • Research judge. UMaine Student Symposium, 2024–2026.
  • Member. IEEE and ACM.

Good research starts with a conversation.

Interested in trustworthy AI, agentic AI security, or a research collaboration? I'd love to hear from you.

Email me ↗