Biography
Dr. Sugunaraj earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2026 from the University of North Dakota. His research advances data-driven machine-learning solutions to secure the bulk power grid, building on prior work in automotive and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) security. His publications can be seen in IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, IEEE NAPS (conference), IEEE Sensors, IEEE Access, and MDPI.
He has taught and mentored undergraduate and graduate students from courses in the M.S. in Cyber Security and B.S. in Cyber Security programs at the University of North Dakota. He serves as a journal and conference manuscript reviewer for the following publishers: IEEE, MDPI, Elsevier, Oxford Academic, and Frontiers.
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CSCI 587 – Ethical Hacking (Graduate).
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CSCI 487 – Penetration Testing (Graduate).
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EE 740/675 – Intrusion Detection Algorithms (Graduate).
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EE 611/672 – Emerging Threats and Defenses (Graduate).
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CSCI 290 – Cyber Security and Information Assurance (Undergraduate).
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Electrical Engineering - May 2026, University of North Dakota (UND).
- Master of Science (M.S.) in Electrical Engineering - Dec 2021, University of North Dakota (UND).
- Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) in Computer Engineering (Honors) - April 2018, University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD).
Outside my research interests, I read for leisure (e.g., literature such as narrative non-fiction), game on PC when I can, and strength/weight train. I'm also a culinary enthusiast, and encourage conversations around social/gender psychology, culture, and travel.
For those of you who'd like to converse with me in other languages (for fun - I'm not fluent yet!), I'm currently learning Italian and Norwegian.
Securing the electric grid, DERMS, anomaly detection, AI in cybersecurity, doctoral research, interdisciplinary research, or why machine learning models behave differently outside the lab.
I find people fascinating and I encourage less formal interactions I'm outside the classroom!
See the full list on my Scholar profile. These are a few selected publications:
- N. Sugunaraj et al., “Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) Cybersecurity Scenarios, Trends, and Potential Technologies: A Review,” IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 2025.
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N. Sugunaraj and P. Ranganathan, “An Autoencoder-based Solution to Detect Denial of Service Attack Variants,” in 2025 57th North American Power Symposium (NAPS), 2025, pp. 1–9.
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N. Sugunaraj and P. Ranganathan, “Applications for autoencoders in power systems,” in 2024 56th North American Power Symposium (NAPS), 2024, pp. 1–7.
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Z. El Mrabet, N. Sugunaraj, P. Ranganathan, and S. Abhyankar, “Random forest regressor-based approach for detecting fault location and duration in power systems,” Sensors, vol. 22, no. 2, p. 458, 2022.
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Z. El-Rewini, K. Sadatsharan, N. Sugunaraj, D. F. Selvaraj, S. J. Plathottam, and P. Ranganathan, “Cybersecurity attacks in vehicular sensors,” IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 20, no. 22, pp. 13752–13767, 2020.
- Published Research in Top-tier Journal - https://blogs.und.edu/cem/2025/02/und-student-led-cybersecurity-research-to-protect-modern-energy-earns-spotlight-in-top-tier-journal/
- Finalist at the 2021 3MT Competition - https://und.edu/academics/graduate-school/academic-career-support/3mt.html
- UND participates at the 2023 CyberForce Competition - https://blogs.und.edu/cem/2023/11/und-cyberhawks-soar-in-the-national-cybersecurity-showdown/
- Invited Speaker at the 2022 CARS Symposium - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bDCbx7GwAs&list=PLMSdYxFiRnkODnlqQHHu2ISaWk6eZQixf&index=14
- C2SR Research Published in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (COMST) - https://engineering.und.edu/research/cyber-security/activities-and-news.html
- 1st Place Poster Award at 2023 CARS Conference- https://engineering.und.edu/research/cyber-security/symposium/2022-cars-highlights.html