Title of the Invited Talk:  Can We Trust AI‑Based Intrusion Detection? An Explainable AI Evaluation Perspective

Short Bio: Mustafa Abdallah is an interdisciplinary cybersecurity and AI researcher whose work bridges game theory, human decision-making, explainable artificial intelligence, and the security of cyber-physical and Internet-of-Things systems. He earned his Ph.D. from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. He is currently a tenure-track assistant professor in the School of Applied and Creative Computing at Purdue University in Indianapolis. Before joining Purdue, he served as faculty at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Since joining Purdue in 2024, he has led multiple research thrusts at the intersection of proactive security, human behavior, and AI-driven intrusion detection. He also pioneered meta-learning–based forecasting and automated model selection methods. His research efforts have produced more than 30 peer-reviewed journal and 24 conference publications in top venues. Dr. Abdallah has mentored more than 20 graduate and undergraduate researchers, advised Ph.D. and M.S. students across Purdue and IUPUI, and collaborated with industry partners such as Adobe, Cummins, and Elevance Health. His research community leadership includes serving as a reviewer for NSF, a program committee member for ACM and IEEE cybersecurity venues, a reviewer and guest editor for multiple academic journals, and a member of multiple Purdue research institutes. Collectively, his work contributes to building trustworthy, interpretable, and human-aligned AI systems that enhance security and resilience in critical infrastructure and cyber-physical ecosystems.