Gokila Dorai

Assistant Professor

Gokila Dorai

Assistant Professor

Academic Appointment(s)

Administration
Department of Computer & Cyber Sciences

School of Computer and Cyber Sciences
Department of Computer & Cyber Sciences

Administration
Department of The Graduate School

Bio

Assistant Professor in the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Augusta University. Dr. Dorai received a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Florida State University. Her research topics are digital forensics for mobile and IoT devices using targeted data extraction, machine learning techniques and AI.

Education

  • Ph.D., Computer Science Florida State University, 2019

  • MS, Computer Science Florida State University, 2016

  • BE, Computer Science. Anna University, 2007

Awards & Honors

  • Featured Alumni, Florida State University - Alumni Spotlight. Florida State University, 2025

  • Distinguished Service Award Augusta University, School of Computer & Cyber Sciences, 2024

  • AURI Emerging Scientist Award for the year 2022 Augusta University, 2022

  • Golden Pen Award 2021 Augusta University, 2021

  • Recognized by the Center for Advancement of Teaching Florida State University, 2019

Courses Taught Most Recent Academic Year

  • CYBR 4400

    Digital Forensics
  • CSCI 8940

    Dissertation Research
  • CSCI 4540

    Digital Forensics and ML
  • CSCI 6540

    Digital Forensics and ML

Scholarship

Selected Recent Publications

  • FIRE: Fog-Based Intrusion Detection Framework for Real-Time Security in IoT Environments, 2025
    Conference Proceeding
  • Mapping the Research Landscape - An Exploratory Analysis of AI Applications in Digital Forensics, 2025
    Conference Proceeding
  • Secure Cross-Chain Provenance for Digital Forensics Collaboration, 2024
    Conference Proceeding
  • From seaweed to security: harnessing alginate to challenge iot fingerprint authentication, 2024
    Conference Proceeding
  • ForensiBlock: A Provenance-Driven Blockchain Framework for Data Forensics and Auditability, 2023
    Conference Proceeding

Research Interests

Dr. Dorai’s areas of research are digital/mobile/IoT forensics. She has been working on developing a targeted data extraction model aimed at faster and efficient evidence retrieval using machine learning and computer vision. She is also interested in developing software prototypes to aid criminal investigations in support of law enforcement and other practitioners.

Research Awards and Grants:
1. Received the NSA’s Cybersecurity Research Innovation Grant for the project titled "Cyber Attack Detection Using Metadata Analysis and Edge-Based Real-Time Machine Learning on Sensor Data".
Additional details: Dr. Gokila Dorai is the PI and Dr. Gagan Agrawal is the Co-PI on the $494,999.51 award from the National Security Agency. The award is made within the NSA’s Cybersecurity Research Innovation program for institutions that are designated as National Centers of Academic Excellence (NCAE).

2. Received the NSF's Research Grant Award for the project titled "A Socio-Technical Framework for Handling Digital Evidence with Security and Privacy Assurance".
Additional details: Dr. Gokila Dorai is the PI and Drs. Hoda Maleki and Gagan Agrawal are Co-PIs on the new $569,500.00 award. The award is made possible through the National Science Foundation’s Designing Accountable Software Systems (DASS) program. The project includes a social sciences component on which the PIs are collaborating with Dr. Thomas Kadri, the University of Georgia School of Law faculty. Dr. Kadri will be funded $180,000.00 award by NSF separately.

Department Service

  • Director for Access, Success & Belonging 2023 - Present

    Role: Other
  • Lightning Talk Series Organizing Committee member 2021 - 2024

    Role: Committee Member
  • Distinguished Speaker Series Host 2021 - 2023

    Role: Committee Member
  • Upsilon Pi Epsilon AU Chapter Co-advisor at Dept. of Computer & Cyber Sciences 2021 - 2023

    Role: Faculty Mentor
  • CSRankings.org Augusta University (AU) faculty listing 2021 - 2023

    Role: Committee Member

University Service

  • Faculty Advisory Committee, Center for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (CURS), Augusta University. 2024 - 2025

    Role: Committee Member
  • Leadership Council, Serving on the Community Engagement Leadership Council (CELC), Augusta University 2023 - 2025

    Role: Committee Member
  • Lead Faculty Founder & Advisor, Computer & Cyber Graduate Student Organization (CCGSO), School of Computer & Cyber Sciences, Augusta University. 2023 - 2025

    Role: Faculty Advisor
  • CERTS 2022 - Student Poster Presentations 2022 - 2022

    Role: Faculty Advisor
  • CURS Annual Student Research - Poster Presentation 2021 - 2021

    Role: Faculty Mentor

Professional Service

  • DFRWS Conference - Demo & Poster Chair 2024 - 2026

    Role: Program Organizer
  • Forensic Science International: Digital Investigations 2021 - 2023

    Role: Reviewer, Journal Article
  • ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law 2022 - 2022

    Role: Committee Member
  • Microservices 2022 Conference, Paris 2022 - 2022

    Role: Task Force Chair