Goktug Ekinci

I am a third-year Ph.D. student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, working with Dr. Gokhan Kul on Cybersecurity and AI. My current research focuses on building security systems where no single party can unilaterally forge a valid transaction. Every entry is mathematically tied to authenticated structures.

I have a deep interest in offensive security and believe that understanding how attacks work is the foundation of building resilient defenses. Given the rise of vibe coding and AI-generated software, I think that security expertise has never been more relevant.

I did my undergraduate at Middle East Technical University. I always knew I wanted to be a researcher, the whole point of becoming an engineer was to contribute, create, and change lives. That drive brought me here: I packed my life into two 23 kg suitcases at 23 and flew to the United States. The airlines lost them on arrival. I stayed anyway.

“We can change the world.” That was our motto through undergrad. It still is.