My name is Bocheng Chen and I'm a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Mississippi. I study computer security, with a focus on risks in AI-based systems. My research aim to identify and mitigate realistic security vulnerabilities in LLM-based chatbot systems to ensure their secure operation.

[Prospective PhD Students and Interns] My research group, the Secured AI Systems (SAIS) Lab, plans to recruit three Ph.D. students in Spring and Fall 2026, with support available through one Fellowship, one RA, and one TA position. Students interested in AI for Security are encouraged to apply. Interested applicants may contact me at cbchen7[at]gmail[dot]com with a CV and transcript, using the email subject line: [26Fall/26Spring-PhDApplication-Name].

[Industry Opportunity] Students are encouraged to take summer internships in industry labs, and will be connected with opportunities at Amazon and Qualcomm.

My research aims to address the following question: What is the worst-case behavior when chatbots are widely deployed in real-world settings, and can we design secure chatbot systems given that current large language models, due to their probabilistic nature, cannot reliably enforce security policies?

I am extremely fortunate to collaborate closely with Guangliang Liu at Michigan State University and Dr. Zoe Xi Chen at Nanyang Technological University on Pragmatics and Computational Linguistics.