Back to
Dr Hammond Pearce

Dr Hammond Pearce

Senior Lecturer
Engineering
Computer Science and Engineering

(Personal academic website)

Dr. Hammond Pearce (he/him) is a Lecturer (a.k.a. Assistant Professor) at UNSW Sydney's School of Computer Science and Engineering.

His main research focus is in cybersecurity of embedded and cyber-physical systems (CPS), including in additive manufacturing and in industrial informatics, and also examines the implications of machine learning (ML) on design and applications in this space. He is particularly interested in how AI might be leveraged for new design strategies, including automated code writing and bug repair. As part of this work he won the inaugural Efabless AI-Generated Open-Source Silicon Design Challenge, and previously won the IEEE S&P Distinguished Paper award.

He received the B.E. (Hons) degree in Computer Systems Engineering in 2014 and the Ph.D. in Computer Systems Engineering in 2020 both from the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. In 2019 he took part in the NASA International Internship Programme and worked at NASA Ames in California, and he has also worked in several industry positions, including as a full-stack web developer and as an electronics contractor working on Li-ion battery management systems.

He teaches COMP3601 Design Project A, where students are introduced to complex FPGA development via the development of a large group project.
E-mail
hammond.pearce@unsw.edu.au
Location
K17-217E
  • Journal articles | 2024
    Ahmad B; Thakur S; Tan B; Karri R; Pearce H, 2024, 'On Hardware Security Bug Code Fixes By Prompting Large Language Models', IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TIFS.2024.3374558
    Journal articles | 2024
    Baird A; Panda A; Pearce H; Pinisetty S; Roop P, 2024, 'Scalable Security Enforcement for Cyber Physical Systems', IEEE Access, 12, pp. 14385 - 14410, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3357714
    Journal articles | 2024
    Thakur S; Ahmad B; Pearce H; Tan B; Dolan-Gavitt B; Karri R; Garg S, 2024, 'VeriGen: A Large Language Model for Verilog Code Generation', ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems, 29, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3643681
    Journal articles | 2023
    Krishnamurthy P; Surabhi VR; Pearce H; Karri R; Khorrami F, 2023, 'Multi-Modal Side Channel Data Driven Golden-Free Detection of Software and Firmware Trojans', IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, 20, pp. 4664 - 4677, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TDSC.2022.3231632
    Journal articles | 2023
    Pearce H; Karri R; Tan B, 2023, 'High-Level Approaches to Hardware Security: A Tutorial', ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, 22, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3577200
    Journal articles | 2023
    Pearce H; Roop P, 2023, 'Decoding ChatGPT's 'impact' on the future of healthcare', Cancer Research, Statistics, and Treatment, 6, pp. 91 - 93, http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/crst.crst_84_23
    Journal articles | 2022
    Mac G; Mandal M; Rastogi A; Gailani G; Pearce H; Gupta N, 2022, 'Application of micro-computed tomography for authentication of 3D printed composite parts', Additive Manufacturing Letters, 3, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addlet.2022.100104
    Journal articles | 2022
    Pearce H; Surabhi VR; Krishnamurthy P; Trujillo J; Karri R; Khorrami F, 2022, 'Detecting Hardware Trojans in PCBs Using Side Channel Loopbacks', IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 30, pp. 926 - 937, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TVLSI.2022.3171174
    Journal articles | 2022
    Pearce H; Yanamandra K; Gupta N; Karri R, 2022, 'FLAW3D: A Trojan-Based Cyber Attack on the Physical Outcomes of Additive Manufacturing', IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 27, pp. 5361 - 5370, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TMECH.2022.3179713
    Journal articles | 2022
    Srivastava H; Pearce H; Mac G; Gupta N, 2022, 'Determination of Fiber Content in 3D Printed Composite Parts Using Image Analysis', IEEE Embedded Systems Letters, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LES.2022.3140417
    Journal articles | 2021
    Beckwith C; Naicker HS; Mehta S; Udupa VR; Nim NT; Gadre V; Pearce H; Mac G; Gupta N, 2021, 'Needle in a Haystack: Detecting Subtle Malicious Edits to Additive Manufacturing G-code Files', IEEE Embedded Systems Letters, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LES.2021.3129108
    Journal articles | 2021
    Mac G; Pearce H; Karri R; Gupta N, 2021, 'Uncertainty quantification in dimensions dataset of additive manufactured NIST standard test artifact', Data in Brief, 38, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2021.107286
    Journal articles | 2021
    Pearce H; Yang X; Katzef M; Strøm TB; Roop PS, 2021, 'Designing Neural Networks for Real-Time Systems', IEEE Embedded Systems Letters, 13, pp. 94 - 97, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LES.2020.3009910
    Journal articles | 2020
    Pearce H; Pinisetty S; Roop PS; Kuo MMY; Ukil A, 2020, 'Smart I/O Modules for Mitigating Cyber-Physical Attacks on Industrial Control Systems', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 16, pp. 4659 - 4669, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TII.2019.2945520
  • Preprints | 2024
    Blocklove J; Garg S; Karri R; Pearce H, 2024, Evaluating LLMs for Hardware Design and Test, , http://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2405.02326
    Preprints | 2024
    Blocklove J; Raz M; Roy PB; Pearce H; Krishnamurthy P; Khorrami F; Karri R, 2024, OffRAMPS: An FPGA-based Intermediary for Analysis and Modification of Additive Manufacturing Control Systems, , http://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2404.15446
    Preprints | 2024
    Qiu S; Tan B; Pearce H, 2024, Explaining EDA synthesis errors with LLMs, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2404.07235v1
    Conference Papers | 2024
    Taylor A; Vassar A; Renzella J; Pearce H, 2024, 'dcc - Help: Transforming the Role of the Compiler by Generating Context-Aware Error Explanations with Large Language Models', in SIGCSE 2024 - Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pp. 1314 - 1320, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3626252.3630822
    Preprints | 2023
    Ahmad B; Tan B; Karri R; Pearce H, 2023, FLAG: Finding Line Anomalies (in code) with Generative AI, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2306.12643v1
    Preprints | 2023
    Ahmad B; Thakur S; Tan B; Karri R; Pearce H, 2023, Fixing Hardware Security Bugs with Large Language Models, , http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TIFS.2024.3374558
    Conference Papers | 2023
    Blocklove J; Garg S; Karri R; Pearce H, 2023, 'Chip-Chat: Challenges and Opportunities in Conversational Hardware Design', in 2023 ACM/IEEE 5th Workshop on Machine Learning for CAD, MLCAD 2023, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MLCAD58807.2023.10299874
    Preprints | 2023
    Blocklove J; Garg S; Karri R; Pearce H, 2023, Chip-Chat: Challenges and Opportunities in Conversational Hardware Design, , http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MLCAD58807.2023.10299874
    Conference Papers | 2023
    Chowdhury AB; Thakur S; Pearce H; Karri R; Garg S, 2023, 'Invited Paper: Towards the Imagenets of ML4EDA', in IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design, Digest of Technical Papers, ICCAD, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICCAD57390.2023.10323663
    Preprints | 2023
    Chowdhury AB; Thakur S; Pearce H; Karri R; Garg S, 2023, Towards the Imagenets of ML4EDA, , http://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2310.10560
    Preprints | 2023
    Kande R; Pearce H; Tan B; Dolan-Gavitt B; Thakur S; Karri R; Rajendran J, 2023, LLM-assisted Generation of Hardware Assertions, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2306.14027v1
    Conference Papers | 2023
    Krishnamurthy P; Pearce H; Surabhi VR; Trujillo J; Karri R; Khorrami F, 2023, 'An Integrated Testbed for Trojans in Printed Circuit Boards with Fuzzing Capabilities', in Proceedings - 2023 IEEE 29th International Symposium on On-Line Testing and Robust System Design, IOLTS 2023, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IOLTS59296.2023.10224878
    Conference Papers | 2023
    Nair M; Sadhukhan R; Pearce H; Mukhopadhyay D; Karri R, 2023, 'Netlist Whisperer: AI and NLP Fight Circuit Leakage!', in ASHES 2023 - Proceedings of the 2023 Workshop on Attacks and Solutions in Hardware Security, pp. 83 - 92, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3605769.3623989
    Conference Papers | 2023
    Pearce H; Tan B; Ahmad B; Karri R; Dolan-Gavitt B, 2023, 'Examining Zero-Shot Vulnerability Repair with Large Language Models', in Proceedings - IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, pp. 2339 - 2356, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179324
    Conference Papers | 2023
    Pearce H; Tan B; Ahmad B; Karri R; Dolan-Gavitt B, 2023, 'Examining Zero-Shot Vulnerability Repair with Large Language Models', in Proceedings - IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, pp. 2339 - 2356, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179420
    Preprints | 2023
    Roy PB; Bhargava M; Chang C-Y; Hui E; Gupta N; Karri R; Pearce H, 2023, A survey of Digital Manufacturing Hardware and Software Trojans, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.10336v1
    Conference Papers | 2023
    Sandoval G; Pearce H; Nys T; Karri R; Garg S; Dolan-Gavitt B, 2023, 'Lost at C: A User Study on the Security Implications of Large Language Model Code Assistants', in 32nd USENIX Security Symposium, USENIX Security 2023, pp. 2205 - 2222
    Preprints | 2023
    Taylor A; Vassar A; Renzella J; Pearce H, 2023, Dcc --help: Generating Context-Aware Compiler Error Explanations with Large Language Models, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2308.11873v2
    Conference Papers | 2023
    Thakur S; Ahmad B; Fan Z; Pearce H; Tan B; Karri R; Dolan-Gavitt B; Garg S, 2023, 'Benchmarking Large Language Models for Automated Verilog RTL Code Generation', in Proceedings -Design, Automation and Test in Europe, DATE, http://dx.doi.org/10.23919/DATE56975.2023.10137086
    Preprints | 2023
    Thakur S; Ahmad B; Pearce H; Tan B; Dolan-Gavitt B; Karri R; Garg S, 2023, VeriGen: A Large Language Model for Verilog Code Generation, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2308.00708v1
    Preprints | 2023
    Thakur S; Blocklove J; Pearce H; Tan B; Garg S; Karri R, 2023, AutoChip: Automating HDL Generation Using LLM Feedback, , http://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2311.04887
    Preprints | 2023
    Udeshi M; Krishnamurthy P; Pearce H; Karri R; Khorrami F, 2023, REMaQE -- Reverse Engineering Math Equations from Executables, , http://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2305.06902
    Preprints | 2023
    Ullah S; Han M; Pujar S; Pearce H; Coskun A; Stringhini G, 2023, Can Large Language Models Identify And Reason About Security Vulnerabilities? Not Yet, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2312.12575v1
    Preprints | 2023
    Veldanda AK; Grob F; Thakur S; Pearce H; Tan B; Karri R; Garg S, 2023, Are Emily and Greg Still More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? Investigating Algorithmic Hiring Bias in the Era of ChatGPT, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2310.05135v1
    Preprints | 2022
    Ahmad B; Liu W-K; Collini L; Pearce H; Fung JM; Valamehr J; Bidmeshki M; Sapiecha P; Brown S; Chakrabarty K; Karri R; Tan B, 2022, Don't CWEAT It: Toward CWE Analysis Techniques in Early Stages of Hardware Design, , http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3508352.3549369
    Conference Papers | 2022
    Ahmad B; Liu WK; Collini L; Pearce H; Fung JM; Valamehr J; Bidmeshki M; Sapiecha P; Brown S; Chakrabarty K; Karri R; Tan B, 2022, 'Don t CWEAT it: Toward CWE analysis techniques in early stages of hardware design', in IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design, Digest of Technical Papers, ICCAD, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3508352.3549369
    Conference Papers | 2022
    Baird A; Pearce H; Pinisetty S; Roop P, 2022, 'Runtime Interchange of Enforcers for Adaptive Attacks: A Security Analysis Framework for Drones', in 2022 20th ACM-IEEE International Conference on Formal Methods and Models for System Design, MEMOCODE 2022, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MEMOCODE57689.2022.9954593
    Conference Papers | 2022
    Pearce H; Ahmad B; Tan B; Dolan-Gavitt B; Karri R, 2022, 'Asleep at the Keyboard? Assessing the Security of GitHub Copilot's Code Contributions', in Proceedings - IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, pp. 754 - 768, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/SP46214.2022.9833571
    Preprints | 2022
    Pearce H; Karri R; Tan B, 2022, High-Level Approaches to Hardware Security: A Tutorial, , http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3577200
    Preprints | 2022
    Pearce H; Tan B; Krishnamurthy P; Khorrami F; Karri R; Dolan-Gavitt B, 2022, Pop Quiz! Can a Large Language Model Help With Reverse Engineering?, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2202.01142v1
    Other | 2022
    Pinisetty S; Allen N; Pearce H; Trew M; Singh Gaur M; Roop P, 2022, Formal Methods for the Security of Medical Devices1, Wiley, , http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781119743187.ch3
    Preprints | 2022
    Sandoval G; Pearce H; Nys T; Karri R; Garg S; Dolan-Gavitt B, 2022, Lost at C: A User Study on the Security Implications of Large Language Model Code Assistants, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2208.09727v4
    Preprints | 2022
    Thakur S; Ahmad B; Fan Z; Pearce H; Tan B; Karri R; Dolan-Gavitt B; Garg S, 2022, Benchmarking Large Language Models for Automated Verilog RTL Code Generation, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.11140v1
    Preprints | 2021
    Beckwith C; Naicker HS; Mehta S; Udupa VR; Nim NT; Gadre V; Pearce H; Mac G; Gupta N, 2021, Needle in a Haystack: Detecting Subtle Malicious Edits to Additive Manufacturing G-code Files, , http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LES.2021.3129108
    Preprints | 2021
    Pearce H; Ahmad B; Tan B; Dolan-Gavitt B; Karri R, 2021, Asleep at the Keyboard? Assessing the Security of GitHub Copilot's Code Contributions, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2108.09293v3
    Preprints | 2021
    Pearce H; Tan B; Ahmad B; Karri R; Dolan-Gavitt B, 2021, Examining Zero-Shot Vulnerability Repair with Large Language Models, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2112.02125v3
    Preprints | 2021
    Pearce H; Yanamandra K; Gupta N; Karri R, 2021, FLAW3D: A Trojan-based Cyber Attack on the Physical Outcomes of Additive Manufacturing, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2104.09562v1
    Preprints | 2021
    Pearce H; Yang X; Pinisetty S; Roop PS, 2021, Runtime Interchange for Adaptive Re-use of Intelligent Cyber-Physical System Controllers, , http://arxiv.org/abs/2110.01974v1
    Conference Papers | 2020
    Pearce H; Tan B; Karri R, 2020, 'Dave: Deriving automatically verilog from English', in MLCAD 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 ACM/IEEE Workshop on Machine Learning for CAD, pp. 27 - 32, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3380446.3430634
    Preprints | 2020
    Pearce H; Tan B; Karri R, 2020, DAVE: Deriving Automatically Verilog from English, , http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3380446.3430634
    Preprints | 2020
    Pearce H; Yang X; Roop PS; Katzef M; Strøm TB, 2020, Designing Neural Networks for Real-Time Systems, , http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LES.2020.3009910
    Conference Papers | 2020
    Yang X; Roop P; Pearce H; Ro JW, 2020, 'A compositional approach using Keras for neural networks in real-time systems', in Proceedings of the 2020 Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition, DATE 2020, pp. 1109 - 1114, http://dx.doi.org/10.23919/DATE48585.2020.9116371
    Conference Papers | 2019
    Pearce H; Kuo MMY; Roop PS; Pinisetty S, 2019, 'Securing implantable medical devices with runtime enforcement hardware', in MEMOCODE 2019 - 17th ACM-IEEE International Conference on Formal Methods and Models for System Design, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3359986.3361200
    Conference Papers | 2019
    Pearce H; Roop P, 2019, 'Synthesizing IEC 61499 function blocks to hardware', in ICEIC 2019 - International Conference on Electronics, Information, and Communication, http://dx.doi.org/10.23919/ELINFOCOM.2019.8706345
    Conference Papers | 2018
    Pearce H; Roop P; Biglari-Abhari M; Schoeberl M, 2018, 'Faster function blocks for precision timed industrial automation', in Proceedings - 2018 IEEE 21st International Symposium on Real-Time Computing, ISORC 2018, pp. 67 - 74, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ISORC.2018.00017
    Conference Papers | 2018
    Roop PS; Pearce H; Monadjem K, 2018, 'Synchronous neural networks for cyber-physical systems', in 2018 16th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Formal Methods and Models for System Design, MEMOCODE 2018, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MEMCOD.2018.8556931
    Conference Papers | 2017
    Allen N; Pearce H; Roop P; Von Hanxleden R, 2017, 'A model driven approach for cardiac pacemaker design using a PRET processor', in Proceedings - 2017 IEEE 20th International Symposium on Real-Time Distributed Computing, ISORC 2017, pp. 168 - 175, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ISORC.2017.5
    Conference Papers | 2017
    Pearce HA; Kuo MMY; Allen N; Roop PS; Malik A, 2017, 'Simulation of cyber-physical systems using IEC61499', in MEMOCODE 2017 - 15th ACM-IEEE International Conference on Formal Methods and Models for System Design, pp. 136 - 145, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3127041.3127052
    Conference Papers | 2016
    Pearce HA; Kuo MMY; Roop PS; Biglari-Abhari M, 2016, 'RunSync: A predictable runtime for precision timed automation systems', in Proceedings - 2016 IEEE 19th International Symposium on Real-Time Distributed Computing, ISORC 2016, pp. 116 - 123, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ISORC.2016.25