UTEP Faculty Profiles

Main Content

Palvi Aggarwal

Assistant Professor
Computer Science

Office Building: Chemistry and Computer Science Building
Office Room: CCSB 3.1014
Phone: (915) 747-6399
Email: paggarwal@utep.edu

Bio

Dr. Palvi Aggarwal is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science department at the University of Texas, El Paso. Prior to that, she was a post-doctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. She earned her Ph.D. in cybersecurity from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, India, and a master’s in Information Security from Thapar University, India.

Awards and Honors

Young Alumni Achiever Award (Academic Excellence) - IIT Mandi, India (03/01/2022-03/31/2022)
Conference Best Paper Award - 2020 Conference on Decision and Game Theory for Security (10/01/2020-10/31/2020)
Conference Paper Award - HICSS 2020: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (01/01/2020-01/31/2020)
Best Teaching Assistant Award, - Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, India (02/01/2017-02/28/2017)

Education

Ph D in Cybersecurity, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi (2018)
MS in Information Security, Thapar University (2014)
B.Eng. in Computer Science, Punjab Technical University (2012)

Publications

Discovering Cognitive Biases in Cyber Attackers' Network Exploitation Activities: A Case Study 15th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE 2024) (in press), Palvi Aggarwal.
What do transfer students have to say? An Analysis of the Experience of Transfer Students through Topic Modeling 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (in press), Claire MacDonald, Palvi Aggarwal.
Evidence of Cognitive Biases in Cyber Attackers from An Empirical Study. 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2024), Palvi Aggarwal, Nowmi S. Rubaiyet .
Does subnetting and port hardening influence human adversarial decisions? An investigation via a HackIT tool. Frontiers in Big Data (2023), Palvi Aggarwal.
A Preliminary Factor Analysis on the Success of Computing Major Transfer Students. 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (2023), Palvi Aggarwal.
Cognitive elements of learning and discriminability in anti-phishing training Computers & Security 127 (2023), Kuldeep Singh, Palvi Aggarwal, Prashanth Rajivan, Cleotilde Gonzalez.
How People Make Decisions Based on Prior Experience: Formulas of Instance-Based Learning Theory (ILBT) Follow from Scale Invariance Proceedings of the 2023 Annual Conference of the North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society NAFIPS'2023, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 31 - June 2, 2023 (2023), Palvi Aggarwal, Martine C. Ceberio, Olga M. Kosheleva, Vladik Y. Kreinovich.
How well does GPT phish people? An investigation involving cognitive biases and feedback 2023 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW) (2023), Megha Sharma, Kuldeep Singh, Palvi Aggarwal, Varun Dutt.
Designing effective masking strategies for cyberdefense through human experimentation and cognitive models Computers \& Security 117 (2022), Palvi Aggarwal, Omkar Thakoor, Shahin Jabbari, Edward A. Cranford, Christian Lebiere, Milind Tambe, Cleotilde Gonzalez.
Diversifying Deception: Game-Theoretic Models for Two-Sided Deception and Initial Human Studies Springer (2022), Mohammad S. Miah, Palvi Aggarwal, Marcus Gutierrez, Omkar Thakoor, Yinuo Du, Oscar Veliz, Kuldeep Singh, Christopher Kiekintveld, Cleotilde Gonzalez.
Influence of probing action costs on adversarial decision-making in a deception game (2022), Harsh Katakwar, Palvi Aggarwal, Zahid Maqbool, Varun Dutt.
Learning about the effects of alert uncertainty in attack and defend decisions via cognitive modeling Human Factors 64 2 (2022), Palvi Aggarwal, Frederic Moisan, Cleotilde Gonzalez, Varun Dutt.
Modeling the effects of network size in a deception game involving honeypots Academic Press (2022), Harsh Katakwar, Shashank Uttrani, Palvi Aggarwal, Varun Dutt.
Truth-Telling in a Sender--Receiver Game: Social Value Orientation and Incentives Symmetry 14 8 (2022), Hanshu Zhang, Frederic Moisan, Palvi Aggarwal, Cleotilde Gonzalez.
Sequential Decisions from Sampling: Inductive Generation of Stopping Decisions Using Instance-Based Learning Theory (2021), Cleotilde Gonzalez, Palvi Aggarwal.
Decoys in Cybersecurity: An Exploratory Study to Test the Effectiveness of 2-sided Deception arXiv e-prints (2021), Palvi Aggarwal, Yinuo Du, Kuldeep Singh, Cleotilde Gonzalez.
A Social Dilemma for Cybersecurity: Sharing information among defenders https://www.dropbox.com/s/n1gaqjteniesnw (2021), Kuldeep Singh, Palvi Aggarwal, Cleotilde Gonzalez.
Decoys in Cybersecurity: An Exploratory Study to Test the Effectiveness of 2-sided Deception arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.11037 (2021), Palvi Aggarwal, Yinuo Du, Kuldeep Singh, Cleotilde Gonzalez.
Evaluating Adaptive Deception Strategies for Cyber Defense with Human Adversaries Game Theory and Machine Learning for Cyber Security (2021), Palvi Aggarwal, Marcus Gutierrez, Christopher Kiekintveld, Bo\vsansk\`y, Branislav, Cleotilde Gonzalez.
Modeling phishing susceptibility as decisions from experience. 19 (2021), EA Cranford, Kuldeep Singh, Palvi Aggarwal, C Lebiere, C Gonzalez.
Towards a Cognitive Theory of Cyber Deception Cognitive Science 45 7 (2021), Edward A. Cranford, Cleotilde Gonzalez, Palvi Aggarwal, Milind Tambe, Sarah Cooney, Christian Lebiere.
What makes phishing emails hard for humans to detect? 64 1 (2021), Kuldeep Singh, Palvi Aggarwal, Prashanth Rajivan, Cleotilde Gonzalez.
An exploratory study of a masking strategy of cyberdeception using cybervan Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting 64 1 (2020), Palvi Aggarwal, Omkar Thakoor, Aditya Mate, Milind Tambe, Edward A. Cranford, Christian Lebiere, Cleotilde Gonzalez.
What Attackers Know and What They Have to Lose: Framing Effects on Cyber-attacker Decision Making Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting 64 1 (2020), Edward A. Cranford, Cleotilde Gonzalez, Palvi Aggarwal, Milind Tambe, Christian Lebiere.
Computational cognitive modeling and validation of Dp140 induced alteration of working memory in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Scientific Reports (Nature Publisher Group) 10 1 (2020), Tyagi Rahul, Aggarwal Palvi, Mohanty Manju, Dutt Varun, Anand Akshay.
Computational cognitive modeling and validation of Dp140 induced alteration of working memory in Duchenne muscular dystrophy Scientific reports 10 1 (2020), Rahul Tyagi, Palvi Aggarwal, Manju Mohanty, Varun Dutt, Akshay Anand.
Cyber Security: Effects of Penalizing Defenders in Cyber-Security Games via Experimentation and Computational Modeling Frontiers in psychology 11 (2020), Zahid Maqbool, Palvi Aggarwal, VS Pammi, Varun Dutt.
Design of Dynamic and Personalized Deception: A Research Framework and New Insights Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 53 (2020), Cleotilde Gonzalez, Palvi Aggarwal, Christian Lebiere, Edward Cranford.
Exploiting Bounded Rationality in Risk-based Cyber Camouflage Games International Conference on Decision and Game Theory for Security (2020), Omkar Thakoor, Shahin Jabbari, Palvi Aggarwal, Cleotilde Gonzalez, Milind Tambe, Phebe Vayanos.
HackIt: a real-time simulation tool for studying real-world cyberattacks in the laboratory Springer, Cham (2020), Palvi Aggarwal, Cleotilde Gonzalez, Varun Dutt.
Influence of network size on adversarial decisions in a deception game involving honeypots Frontiers in psychology 11 (2020), Harsh Katakwar, Palvi Aggarwal, Zahid Maqbool, Varun Dutt.
Learning About the Effects of Alert Uncertainty in Attack and Defend Decisions via Cognitive Modeling Human Factors (2020), Palvi Aggarwal, Frederic Moisan, Cleotilde Gonzalez, Varun Dutt.
The role of information about opponent’s actions and intrusion-detection alerts on cyber decisions in cyber security games Cyber Security: A Peer-Reviewed Journal 3 4 (2020), Palvi Aggarwal, Varun Dutt.
Toward Personalized Deceptive Signaling for Cyber Defense Using Cognitive Models Topics in Cognitive Science 12 3 (2020), Edward A. Cranford, Cleotilde Gonzalez, Palvi Aggarwal, Sarah Cooney, Milind Tambe, Christian Lebiere.
What makes phishing emails hard for humans to detect? Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting 64 1 (2020), Kuldeep Singh, Palvi Aggarwal, Prashanth Rajivan, Cleotilde Gonzalez.
Adaptive cyber deception: Cognitively informed signaling for cyber defense Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2020), Edward Cranford, Cleotilde Gonzalez, Palvi Aggarwal, Sarah Cooney, Milind Tambe, Christian Lebiere.
Hackit: a human-in-the-loop simulation tool for realistic cyber deception experiments (2019), Palvi Aggarwal, Aksh Gautam, Vaibhav Agarwal, Cleotilde Gonzalez, Varun Dutt.
Modeling Cognitive Dynamics in End-User Response to Phishing Emails (2019), Edward A. Cranford, Christian Lebiere, Prashanth Rajivan, Palvi Aggarwal, Cleotilde Gonzalez.
Training to detect phishing emails: Effects of the frequency of experienced phishing emails 63 1 (2019), Kuldeep Singh, Palvi Aggarwal, Prashanth Rajivan, Cleotilde Gonzalez.
Training to Detect Phishing Emails: Effects of the Frequency of Experienced Phishing Emails 63 1 (2019), Kuldeep Singh, Palvi Aggarwal, Prashanth Rajivan, Cleotilde Gonzalez.

Presentations

Designing effective masking strategies for cyberdefense through human experimentation and cognitive models (2022), Volume Genoa, Italy, Palvi Aggarwal.
Supply Chain Cyber Defense (2021), Palvi Aggarwal.
Behavioral Cyber Deception: Human Experimentation and Cognitive Modeling Approach for Developing Adaptive and Personalized Defense (2021), Volume Tempe, AZ, Palvi Aggarwal.
The Art of Cyber Deception: Moving Towards Dynamic and Personalized Defense (2021), Volume Pittsburgh, PA, Palvi Aggarwal.
Transforming Cybersecurity from a Disabler to an Enabler (2020), Volume Pittsburgh, PA, Palvi Aggarwal.
An Exploratory Study of a Masking Strategy of Cyber Deception Using CyberVAN (2020), Volume Pittsburgh, PA, Palvi Aggarwal.
The Art of Cyber Deception: Moving Towards Dynamic and Personalized Defense (2020), Volume India, Palvi Aggarwal.
The Role of Deception in Attack Decisions Using Cyber-Security Scenarios (2019), Volume Pittsburgh, PA, Palvi Aggarwal, .

Grants

PsyCCDef: Psychologically-inspired Cognitive Cyber Defenses
Exploiting Cognitive Biases to Disrupt Attacker’s Decision Making

Current/Future Courses

Term	Course	Section	Syllabus
Spring 2025	CS 6294 - Doctoral Research	26232
Spring 2025	CS 6394 - Doctoral Research	23017
Spring 2025	CS 6694 - Doctoral Research	21766
Spring 2025	CS 5399 - Master's Thesis	27844
Spring 2025	CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science	25634
Spring 2025	CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci	24059
Spring 2025	RSRC 4033 - Undergraduate Research	22555
Fall 2024	CS 5352 - Computer Security	13670	Syllabus
Fall 2024	CS 6352 - Computer Security	14615	Syllabus
Fall 2024	CS 6194 - Doctoral Research	15213
Fall 2024	CS 6294 - Doctoral Research	13958
Fall 2024	CS 6394 - Doctoral Research	10741
Fall 2024	CS 6694 - Doctoral Research	12830
Fall 2024	CS 5398 - Master's Thesis	17641
Fall 2024	RSRC 4033 - Undergraduate Research	11763

Past Courses

Select Term:

Term	Course	Section	Syllabus
Spring 2025	CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science	25634
Spring 2025	CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci	24059
Spring 2024	CS 4351 - Computer Security	25027	Syllabus
Spring 2024	CS 5352 - Computer Security	21126	Syllabus
Spring 2024	CS 6294 - Doctoral Research	27884
Spring 2024	CS 6694 - Doctoral Research	21974
Spring 2024	CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science	23951
Spring 2024	CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci	24669
Fall 2023	CS 5352 - Computer Security	14438	Syllabus
Fall 2023	CS 6352 - Computer Security	15691	Syllabus
Fall 2023	CS 6394 - Doctoral Research	10873
Fall 2023	CS 6694 - Doctoral Research	13310
Spring 2023	CS 6694 - Doctoral Research	22156
Spring 2023	CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science	24457	Syllabus
Spring 2023	CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci	25466	Syllabus
Spring 2023	RSRC 4033 - Undergraduate Research	23161
Fall 2022	CS 5352 - Computer Security	18683
Fall 2022	CS 6352 - Computer Security	20525
Fall 2022	RSRC 4033 - Undergraduate Research	13861
Summer 2022	RSRC 4033 - Undergraduate Research	32434
Spring 2022	CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science	26428
Spring 2022	CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci	28069
Spring 2022	RSRC 4033 - Undergraduate Research	24602
Fall 2021	CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science	19950
Fall 2021	CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci	19949

Course Evaluations

Term	Course	Section	Evaluation
Spring 2024	CS 4351 - Computer Security	25027	Evaluation
Spring 2024	CS 5352 - Computer Security	21126	Evaluation
Spring 2024	CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science	23951	Evaluation
Spring 2024	CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci	24669	Evaluation
Fall 2023	CS 5352 - Computer Security	14438	Evaluation
Fall 2023	CS 6352 - Computer Security	15691	Evaluation
Spring 2023	CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science	24457	Evaluation
Spring 2023	CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci	25466	Evaluation
Fall 2022	CS 5352 - Computer Security	18683	Evaluation
Fall 2022	CS 6352 - Computer Security	20525	Evaluation
Spring 2022	CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science	26428	Evaluation
Spring 2022	CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci	28069	Evaluation
Fall 2021	CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci	19949	Evaluation

Bio

Awards and Honors

Young Alumni Achiever Award (Academic Excellence) - IIT Mandi, India (03/01/2022-03/31/2022)
Conference Best Paper Award - 2020 Conference on Decision and Game Theory for Security (10/01/2020-10/31/2020)
Conference Paper Award - HICSS 2020: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (01/01/2020-01/31/2020)
Best Teaching Assistant Award, - Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, India (02/01/2017-02/28/2017)

Ph D in Cybersecurity, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi (2018)
MS in Information Security, Thapar University (2014)
B.Eng. in Computer Science, Punjab Technical University (2012)

Publications

Discovering Cognitive Biases in Cyber Attackers' Network Exploitation Activities: A Case Study 15th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE 2024) (in press), Palvi Aggarwal.
What do transfer students have to say? An Analysis of the Experience of Transfer Students through Topic Modeling 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (in press), Claire MacDonald, Palvi Aggarwal.
Evidence of Cognitive Biases in Cyber Attackers from An Empirical Study. 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2024), Palvi Aggarwal, Nowmi S. Rubaiyet .
Does subnetting and port hardening influence human adversarial decisions? An investigation via a HackIT tool. Frontiers in Big Data (2023), Palvi Aggarwal.
A Preliminary Factor Analysis on the Success of Computing Major Transfer Students. 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (2023), Palvi Aggarwal.

Presentations

Designing effective masking strategies for cyberdefense through human experimentation and cognitive models (2022), Volume Genoa, Italy, Palvi Aggarwal.
Supply Chain Cyber Defense (2021), Palvi Aggarwal.
Behavioral Cyber Deception: Human Experimentation and Cognitive Modeling Approach for Developing Adaptive and Personalized Defense (2021), Volume Tempe, AZ, Palvi Aggarwal.
The Art of Cyber Deception: Moving Towards Dynamic and Personalized Defense (2021), Volume Pittsburgh, PA, Palvi Aggarwal.
Transforming Cybersecurity from a Disabler to an Enabler (2020), Volume Pittsburgh, PA, Palvi Aggarwal.

PsyCCDef: Psychologically-inspired Cognitive Cyber Defenses
Exploiting Cognitive Biases to Disrupt Attacker’s Decision Making

Current/Future Courses

Term

Spring 2025

Course

CS 6294 - Doctoral Research

Section

26232

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2025

Course

CS 6394 - Doctoral Research

Section

23017

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2025

Course

CS 6694 - Doctoral Research

Section

21766

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2025

Course

CS 5399 - Master's Thesis

Section

27844

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2025

Course

CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science

Section

25634

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2025

Course

CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci

Section

24059

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2025

Course

RSRC 4033 - Undergraduate Research

Section

22555

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2024

Course

CS 5352 - Computer Security

Section

13670

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2024

Course

CS 6352 - Computer Security

Section

14615

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2024

Course

CS 6194 - Doctoral Research

Section

15213

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2024

Course

CS 6294 - Doctoral Research

Section

13958

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2024

Course

CS 6394 - Doctoral Research

Section

10741

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2024

Course

CS 6694 - Doctoral Research

Section

12830

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2024

Course

CS 5398 - Master's Thesis

Section

17641

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2024

Course

RSRC 4033 - Undergraduate Research

Section

11763

Syllabus

Past Courses

Select Term:

Term

Spring 2025

Course

CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science

Section

25634

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2025

Course

CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci

Section

24059

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2024

Course

CS 4351 - Computer Security

Section

25027

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2024

Course

CS 5352 - Computer Security

Section

21126

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2024

Course

CS 6294 - Doctoral Research

Section

27884

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2024

Course

CS 6694 - Doctoral Research

Section

21974

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2024

Course

CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science

Section

23951

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2024

Course

CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci

Section

24669

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2023

Course

CS 5352 - Computer Security

Section

14438

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2023

Course

CS 6352 - Computer Security

Section

15691

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2023

Course

CS 6394 - Doctoral Research

Section

10873

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2023

Course

CS 6694 - Doctoral Research

Section

13310

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2023

Course

CS 6694 - Doctoral Research

Section

22156

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2023

Course

CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science

Section

24457

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2023

Course

CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci

Section

25466

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2023

Course

RSRC 4033 - Undergraduate Research

Section

23161

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2022

Course

CS 5352 - Computer Security

Section

18683

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2022

Course

CS 6352 - Computer Security

Section

20525

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2022

Course

RSRC 4033 - Undergraduate Research

Section

13861

Syllabus

Term

Summer 2022

Course

RSRC 4033 - Undergraduate Research

Section

32434

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2022

Course

CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science

Section

26428

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2022

Course

CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci

Section

28069

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2022

Course

RSRC 4033 - Undergraduate Research

Section

24602

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2021

Course

CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science

Section

19950

Syllabus

Term

Fall 2021

Course

CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci

Section

19949

Syllabus

Term

Spring 2024

Course

CS 4351 - Computer Security

Section

25027

Evaluation

Term

Spring 2024

Course

CS 5352 - Computer Security

Section

21126

Evaluation

Term

Spring 2024

Course

CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science

Section

23951

Evaluation

Term

Spring 2024

Course

CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci

Section

24669

Evaluation

Term

Fall 2023

Course

CS 5352 - Computer Security

Section

14438

Evaluation

Term

Fall 2023

Course

CS 6352 - Computer Security

Section

15691

Evaluation

Term

Spring 2023

Course

CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science

Section

24457

Evaluation

Term

Spring 2023

Course

CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci

Section

25466

Evaluation

Term

Fall 2022

Course

CS 5352 - Computer Security

Section

18683

Evaluation

Term

Fall 2022

Course

CS 6352 - Computer Security

Section

20525

Evaluation

Term

Spring 2022

Course

CS 5390 - Special Topic Computer Science

Section

26428

Evaluation

Term

Spring 2022

Course

CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci

Section

28069

Evaluation

Term

Fall 2021

Course

CS 4390 - Special Topics in Computer Sci

Section

19949

Evaluation

FACULTY PROFILES

Quick Links

Palvi Aggarwal

FACULTY PROFILES

Palvi Aggarwal

Bio

Education

Scholarly and Creative Activity

Grants

Courses

Course Evaluations