Yasser Shoukry

About

Yasser Shoukry is a prominent researcher whose work sits at the intersection of cyber-physical systems security, formal methods, and autonomous robotics. His research spans three interconnected domains: securing embedded sensing systems, satisfiability-based reasoning for hybrid systems, and formal verification and motion planning for autonomous robots. Shoukry's early landmark contribution, PyCRA (2015, 141 citations), introduced physical challenge-response authentication to protect embedded sensors from integrity attacks—a novel departure from conventional cryptographic approaches that left the sensors themselves vulnerable. This work laid important groundwork for resilient cyber-physical systems. Complementing this, his development of Satisfiability Modulo Convex (SMC) programming (2017–2018, 49 and 42 citations) provided a powerful framework for reasoning about the hybrid discrete-continuous dynamics inherent in cyber-physical systems, enabling tractable verification and multi-robot motion planning under linear temporal logic specifications. His 2019 paper on formal verification of neural network-controlled autonomous systems (137 citations) stands as a significant achievement, addressing the critical challenge of safety assurance in AI-driven robots navigating complex environments. More recently, his neurosymbolic motion planning work (2024) reflects an evolving vision that bridges learning and symbolic reasoning. Across his career, Shoukry has consistently advanced the science of building systems that are simultaneously intelligent, verifiable, and resilient.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   PyCRA

   141 citations · 2015
2. 2
   Formal verification of neural network controlled autonomous systems

   137 citations · 2019
3. 3
   SMC: Satisfiability Modulo Convex Programming

   49 citations · 2018
4. 4
   Linear temporal logic motion planning for teams of underactuated robots using satisfiability modulo convex programming

   48 citations · 2017
5. 5
   SMC

   42 citations · 2017
6. 6
   Scalable lazy SMT-based motion planning

   32 citations · 2016
7. 7
   Special Session: Embedded Software for Robotics: Challenges and Future Directions

   15 citations · 2018
8. 8
   Neurosymbolic Motion and Task Planning for Linear Temporal Logic Tasks

   10 citations · 2024
9. 9
   DoS-Resilient Multi-Robot Temporal Logic Motion Planning

   8 citations · 2019
10. 10
    Attack Resilience and Recovery using Physical Challenge Response\n Authentication for Active Sensors Under Integrity Attacks

    7 citations · 2016

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links