About

I am a first-year PhD candidate in Computer Science at Trinity College Dublin and a Pre-Doctoral Researcher at IBM Research. My research sits at the intersection of AI and software security, with a focus on the security of LLM-generated code, static analysis, abstract interpretation, and LLM-based vulnerability detection.

Prior to my PhD, I completed an MSc in Data Analytics (First Class Honours) at the National College of Ireland, where my thesis examined enhancing leukemia diagnosis with synthetic data and explainable deep learning. I obtained my BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Curtin University.

I contribute to the Horizon Europe SecQDevOps project, which addresses security in the development pipeline of quantum software. I am supervised by Dr. Giulio Zizzo at IBM Research and Prof. John Kelleher at Trinity College Dublin.

Code Generation Security

My primary focus is on the security of LLM-generated code — how AI-assisted development workflows can inadvertently introduce vulnerabilities, and how we can detect and mitigate this. I am evaluating static analysis tools (SAST) against synthetic benchmarks and real-world CVE datasets to understand where current tooling falls short.

Abstract Interpretation and LLM-Based Vulnerability Detection

Beyond classical SAST, I am exploring how abstract interpretation and large language models can be combined for more principled vulnerability detection — improving precision and recall while providing formal grounding for the analysis.

Quantum Software Security

As part of the SecQDevOps Horizon Europe project, I am investigating security challenges specific to quantum software development pipelines — an emerging area where security tooling and best practices are still largely undefined.