Kaushik Madala

University of North Texas Discovery Park
3940 North Elm Street, Room F288, Denton, TX 76207· kaushikmadala@my.unt.edu

I am a Ph.D. candidate at University of North Texas and a functional safety intern at kVA by UL. I am also a UL Certified Autonomy Safety Professional (UL-CASP), and a UL Certified Functional Safety Professional (UL-CFSP) for autonomous vehicles and similar systems.

Education

University of North Texas

PhD in Computer Science and Engineering

GPA: 4.00/4.00

Jan 2016 - Present

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

MS in Computer Science

GPA: 3.63/4.00

August 2014 - Dec 2015

Acharya Nagarjuna University

BTech in Computer Science and Engineering

GPA: 8.95/10.00

August 2010 - Apr 2014

Research Interests

Safety of the intended functionality (SOTIF), machine learning safety, dependability, safety engineering, defect prediction and identification, and requirements engineering.

My research focuses on identifying unknown safety issues for autonomous systems and suggesting solutions to achieve a safe state using model-driven approaches assisted by artificial intelligence techniques. My interests lie in designing systems that are safe but can simultaneously offer other quality attributes (e.g., security, sustainability, usability) to the best degree possible.

Publications

  • K. Madala and H. Do. "Functional Safety Hazards for Machine Learning Components in Autonomous Vehicles." ICPS 2021 (Accepted)
  • K. Madala, H. Do, and C. Avalos-Gonalez. "A Dependency-based Combinatorial Approach for Reducing Effort for Scenario-based Safety Analysis of Autonomous Vehicles" VEHITS 2021 (Accepted)
  • K. Madala, and H. Do. "Resolving Confusion of Unknowns in Autonomous Vehicles: Types and Perspectives." VEHITS 2021 (Accepted)
  • K. Madala, and H. Do. "The Need for Location-based Machine Learning Models for Level 5 Autonomous Vehicles." VEHITS 2021 (Accepted)
  • K. Madala, S. Piparia, E. Blanco, H. Do, and R. C. Bryce. “Model elements identification using neural networks: a comprehensive study.” Requirements Engineering, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-020-00332-2
  • K. Madala, K. Hang, H. Do, and B. Tenbergen. “SACC - A property driven approach to expose undesired behaviors among system’s components.” ISSRE 2020.
  • K. Madala, S. Piparia, H. Do, and R. C. Bryce. “Finding Component State Transition Model Elements using Neural Networks: An Empirical Study.” In 2018 IEEE 26th International Requirements Engineering Conference Workshops (REW). IEEE. 2018
  • K. Madala, D. Gaither, R. Nielsen, and H. Do. “Automated Identification of Component State Transition Model Elements from Requirements.” In 2017 IEEE 25th International Requirements Engineering Conference Workshops (REW), pp. 386-392. IEEE, 2017.
  • K. Madala, H. Do, and D. Aceituna. “Hierarchical Model Exploration for Exposing Off-Nominal Behaviors.” In 14th Workshop on Model-Driven Engineering, Verification and Validation (MoDeVVa) co-located with ACM/IEEE 20th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS 2017). 2017.
  • K. Madala, H. Do, and D. Aceituna. “A combinatorial approach for exposing off-nominal behaviors.” In Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Software Engineering, pp. 910-920. ACM, 2018.
  • D. Aceituna, K. Madala, and H. Do. “Deriving Functional Safety Requirements using Undesired Combination State Templates.” In 2018 IEEE 26th International Requirements Engineering Conference Workshops (REW). IEEE. 2018.
  • K. Madala, H. Do and D. Aceituna. “A Knowledge Acquisition Approach for Off-Nominal Behaviors.” In 2018 IEEE 26th International Requirements Engineering Conference Workshops (REW). IEEE. 2018
  • D. Gaither, K. Madala, H. Do, and B. R. Bryant. “VeriCCM: Improving the Syntax and Semantics of Requirements Models.” In 2019 34th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium On Applied Computing (SAC’19). 2019.
  • K. Madala, H. Do, and D. Aceituna. “Exposing off-nominal behaviors in multi-robot coordination.” RoSE@ICSE 2019: 17-24

    • Research and Professional Experience

    Functional Safety Intern

    kVA by UL

    Supervisor: Gokul Krithivasan

    Activities: Working on machine learning safety analysis, scenario analysis, and assisting senior engineers in functional safety and SOTIF analysis for clients.

    Jun 2019 - Present

    Research Assistant

    University of North Texas

    Supervisor: Dr. Hyunsook Do

    Activities: Collaborated and proposed approaches on reducing human effort and time to identify undesired behaviors in robots.

    Jun 2016 - May 2019

    Teaching Experience

    Teaching Assistant

    University of North Texas

    Instructor: Hyunsook Do

    Course: Senior Design Capstone I

    Co-teaching assistant with Rrezarta Krasniqi, Undergraduate level, 86 students

    Jan 2020 - May 2020

    Teaching Assistant

    University of North Texas

    Instructor: Hyunsook Do

    Course: Software Engineering

    Graduate level, 46 students

    Aug 2020 - Dec 2020

    Teaching Assistant

    University of North Texas

    Instructor: Hyunsook Do

    Course: Software Testing and Empirical Methodologies

    Graduate and Undergraduate level, 21 students

    Jan 2020 - May 2020

    Teaching Assistant

    University of North Texas

    Instructor: Hyunsook Do

    Course: Senior Design Capstone I

    Co-teaching assistant with Aashish Pandey, Undergraduate level, 60 students

    Jan 2020 - May 2020

    Teaching Fellow

    University of North Texas

    Course: Software Engineering

    Undergraduate level, 2 classes with 36 students each

    Aug 2019 - Dec 2019

    Teaching Assistant

    University of North Texas

    Instructor: Ryan Michaels

    Course: Software Engineering

    Undergraduate level, 2 classes with 36 students each

    Jan 2016 - May 2016

    Mentoring

  • Ke Ye Hang (2019 - 2020). Masters project at University of North Texas. Automated model generation and off-nominal behavior analysis using transfer learning. (Accepted to Ph.D. program at University of North Texas)
  • Juan Hernandez, Jeremiah Inyang, Abdulaziz Al-Shehhi, Martin Sanchez, and Muhammed Ansari (2020). Senior design project at University of North Texas. A web-based graphical user interface for safety analysis tool.
  • James Arnold, Jon Kleehammer, Lupe Rivera, Phillip Merritt (2020). Senior design project at University of North Texas. A text annotator for natural language processing.

    • Service

  • PC member of SCAM'2021, NIER track
  • Shadow PC member for MSR 2021
  • Secondary reviewer for International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) 2021, Research Track
  • Secondary reviewer for Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC) 2021, Software Engineering Track
  • Secondary reviewer for Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC) 2020, Software Engineering Track

    • Professional Certifications

  • UL-CFSP Automotive, Underwriter Laboratories certification for function safety professional – Automotive (ISO 26262)
  • UL-CASP, Underwriter Laboratories certification for autonomy safety professional (ISO 21448)

    • Awards

    • Academic Achievement Scholarship 2016-17, 2017-18
    • International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), National Science Foundation (NSF) Student Travel Award (2018, 2019)