Ali Khodabakhsh successfully completed his PhD trial lecture and thesis defense at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology on Friday, the 18th of June 2021, and will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Security and Communication Technology.
The title of his thesis is “Automated Authentication of Audiovisual Contents: A Biometric Approach” and the given topic for his trial lecture was “Active and Proactive methods for Face Synthesis forensics”.
We are no longer strangers to the phenomenon of Deepfakes and the immense risks it poses to societies. To counter the threat, it is of utmost importance to develop technical tools which facilitate content authentication and hinder the spread of fake content in the media. In this thesis, studies have been undertaken to assess the threat surface and identify subjective vulnerabilities that require immediate attention. Accordingly, effective detection mechanisms have been proposed for the alleviation of the discovered vulnerabilities. In addition, the efficacy of the state-of-the-art detection techniques has been evaluated and solutions have been proposed for the problem of generalizability which is the largest impediment to the deployment of these solutions.
The following committee has been appointed to evaluate his thesis, trial lecture and defense:
- First external opponent: Professor Hazim Ekenel, Department of Computer Engineering, Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Istanbul, Turkey.
- Second external opponent: Professor Siwei Lyu, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, USA.
- Internal member and committee administrator: Associate Professor Katrien De Moor, Department of Information Security and Communication Technology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.
Ali Khodabakhsh carried out his PhD work at the Department of Information Security and Communication Technology, Gjøvik, NTNU.
His main supervisor was Professor Christoph Busch, IIK, NTNU and co-supervisor Professor Raghavendra Ramachandra, IIK, NTNU.
Congratulations!
