Dr. Upadhyay is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) specializing in the area of Cybersecurity, Blockchain and Smart Contracts, Federated Learning & Artificial Intelligence Security, Metaverse, and Data Cooperatives.

His research involves designing architectures, models, and algorithms with sound theoretical foundations and building prototype systems. Additionally, he is involved in few other projects: Blockchain for Trusted Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, Vagueness Detection and Interpretation Ranking in Legal Contracts using LLMs, Data Cooperatives for Privacy and Security, and Applications for Secured Metaverse. The principal motivation behind his research work is to develop efficient and enabling solutions for real-world issues in emerging and novel technologies concerning uncertainty, trust, privacy, and security.

Check out his publications and explore his CV to uncover the research problems and areas of interest that have been central to his academic and professional journey. This will provide you with valuable insights into his expertise and focus.

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1. Byrd, J.; Upadhyay, K.; Poudel, S.; Sharma, H.; Gu, Y. A Blockchain and IoT-Enabled Framework for Ethical and Secure Coffee Supply Chains. Future Internet 2025, 17, 334. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi17080334.
2. S. Poudel, A. M. Sainju and K. Upadhyay, “Privacy Meets Conservation: Federated Learning’s Revolution in Deforestation Detection,” 2025 IEEE World AI IoT Congress (AIIoT), Seattle, WA, USA, 2025, pp. 0249-0258, doi: 10.1109/AIIoT65859.2025.11105254.
3. Z. Taylor, A. Sharma, K. Upadhyay, “Examining The Threat Landscape of Generative AI: Attack Vectors and Mitigation Strategies for LLMs”, 2025 IEEE 15th Annual Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC), University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.
4. S. Ali, B. Robinson, S. Solomon, S. Poudel, A. Sharma, K. Upadhyay, “Chain Your Loot: Implementing Blockchain Into Gaming Loot Box Markets”, 2025 IEEE 15th Annual Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC), University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.
5. T. Hartman, S. Poudel, J. Upadhya, M.N. Hasan, K. Poudel, K. Upadhyay, “A Big Data Optimization Comparison Using Apache Spark and Apache Airflow”, 2025 IEEE 15th Annual Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC), University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.
6. S. Balaji, R. Dantu, K. Upadhyay and T. McCullough, "Bridging the Legal Divide: Contractual Enforceability and Acceptability in the AI-Driven Automated Conversion of Smart Legal Contracts," 2024 IEEE 6th International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems, and Applications (TPS-ISA), Washington, DC, USA, 2024, pp. 128-137, doi: 10.1109/TPS-ISA62245.2024.00024.
7. J. Upadhya, A. Sainju, K. Upadhyay, S. Poudel, M.N. Hasan, K. Poudel and J. Ranganathan, "VulnFusion: Exploiting Multimodal Representations for Advanced Smart Contract Vulnerability Detection," 2024 6th International Conference on Blockchain Computing and Applications (BCCA), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2024, pp. 505-515, doi: 10.1109/BCCA62388.2024.10844483.
8. J. Upadhya, K. Upadhyay, A. Sainju, S. Poudel, M.N. Hasan, K. Poudel and J. Ranganathan, “QuadraCode AI: Smart Contract Vulnerability Detection with Multimodal Representation,” 2024 33rd International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN), Kailua-Kona, HI, USA, 2024, pp. 1-9, doi: 10.1109/ICCCN61486.2024.10637655.
9. Harshit Kumar and Kritagya Upadhyay, Decentralized Engagement: Blockchain's Lens on Social Media, 6th International Congress on Blockchain and Applications, BLOCKCHAIN'24, 2024, University of Salamanca (Spain).
10. Badruddoja S., Dantu R., Dockendorf M., Salau A. and Upadhyay K. (2024). Revolutionizing Blockchain Consensus: Towards Deliberative and Unanimous Agreement. In Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Security and Cryptography - Volume 1: SECRYPT; ISBN 978-989-758-709-2, SciTePress, pages 786-791. DOI: 10.5220/0012813400003767.
11. Matthew I. Swindall, Kritagya Upadhyay, James H. Brusuelas, Graham West, and John F. Wallin. 2024. Smart Digital Edition Management: A Blockchain Framework for Papyrology. In Proceedings of the 2024 Computers and People Research Conference (SIGMIS-CPR '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 11, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1145/3632634.3655860.
12. Thuan Nhan, Kritagya Upadhyay, and Khem Poudel. 2024. Towards Patient-Centric Healthcare: Leveraging Blockchain for Electronic Health Records. In Proceedings of the 2024 Computers and People Research Conference (SIGMIS-CPR '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 13, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1145/3632634.3655883.
13. S. Talapuru, R. Dantu, K. Upadhyay, S. Badruddoja, S. Zaman, “The Dark Side of the Metaverse: Why is it Falling Short of Expectations?,” 2023 Fifth IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems and Applications (TPS-ISA), Atlanta, GA, USA, 2023.
14. S. Zaman, R. Dantu, S. Badruddoja, S. Talapuru, K. Upadhyay, “Seamless Asset Exchange in Interconnected Metaverses: Unraveling On-Chain Atomic Swap,” 2023 Fifth IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems and Applications (TPS-ISA), Atlanta, GA, USA, 2023.
15. S. Zaman, R. Dantu, S. Badruddoja, S. Talapuru, K. Upadhyay, “Layerwise Interoperability in Metaverse: Key to Next-Generation Electronic Commerce,” IEEE International Conference on Metaverse Computing, Networking and Applications (IEEE MetaCom 2023), 2023.
16. K. Upadhyay, R. Dantu, Y. He, S. Badruddoja and A. Salau, "Auditing Metaverse Requires Multimodal Deep Learning," 2022 IEEE 4th International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems, and Applications (TPS-ISA), Atlanta, GA, USA, 2022, pp. 39-46, doi: 10.1109/TPS-ISA56441.2022.00015.
17. A. Salau, R. Dantu, K. Upadhyay, S. Badruddoja, “Data Cooperatives for Trusted News Sharing in Social Media,” EAI BlockTEA 2022 - 2nd EAI International Conference on Blockchain Technology and Emerging Applications.
18. S. Badruddoja, R. Dantu, Y. He, A. Salau, K. Upadhyay, “Scalable Smart Contracts for Linear Regression Algorithm,” EAI BlockTEA 2022 - 2nd EAI International Conference on Blockchain Technology and Emerging Applications.
19. A. Salau, R. Dantu, K. Morozov, S. Badruddoja and K. Upadhyay, "Making Blockchain Validators Honest," 2022 Fourth International Conference on Blockchain Computing and Applications (BCCA), 2022, pp. 267-273, doi: 10.1109/BCCA55292.2022.9921952.
20. S. Badruddoja, R. Dantu, Y. He, M. Thompson, A. Salau and K. Upadhyay, "Trusted AI with Blockchain to Empower Metaverse," 2022 Fourth International Conference on Blockchain Computing and Applications (BCCA), 2022, pp. 237-244, doi: 10.1109/BCCA55292.2022.9922027.
21. S. Badruddoja, R. Dantu, Y. He, M. Thompson, A. Salau and K. Upadhyay, “Smarter Contracts to Predict using Deep-Learning Algorithms,” 2022 Fourth International Conference on Blockchain Computing and Applications (BCCA), 2022, pp. 280-288, doi: 10.1109/BCCA55292.2022.9922240.
22. S. Badruddoja, R. Dantu, Y. He, M. Thompson, A. Salau and K. Upadhyay, "Making Smart Contracts Predict and Scale," 2022 Fourth International Conference on Blockchain Computing and Applications (BCCA), 2022, pp. 127-134, doi: 10.1109/BCCA55292.2022.9922480.
23. Salau, A., Dantu, R., Morozov, K., Upadhyay, K., & Badruddoja, S. (2022). Multi-Tier Reputation for Data Cooperatives. In The 3rd International Conference on Mathematical Research for Blockchain Economy.
24. Salau, A.; Dantu, R.; Morozov, K.; Upadhyay, K. and Badruddoja, S. (2022). Towards a Threat Model and Security Analysis for Data Cooperatives. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Security and Cryptography - SECRYPT, ISBN 978-989-758-590-6; ISSN 2184-7711, pages 707-713. DOI: 10.5220/0011328700003283.
25. K. Upadhyay, R. Dantu, Y. He, A. Salau and S. Badruddoja, “Paradigm Shift from Paper Contracts to Smart Contracts,” 2021 Third IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems and Applications (TPS-ISA), 2021, pp. 261-268, doi: 10.1109/TPSISA52974.2021.00029.
26. K. Upadhyay, R. Dantu, Y. He, S. Badruddoja and A. Salau, “Can't Understand SLAs? Use the Smart Contract,” 2021 Third IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems and Applications (TPS-ISA), 2021, pp. 129-136, doi: 10.1109/TPSISA52974.2021.00015.
27. K. Upadhyay, R. Dantu, Y. He, A. Salau and S. Badruddoja, “Make Consumers Happy by Defuzzifying the Service Level Agreements,” 2021 Third IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems and Applications (TPS-ISA), 2021, pp. 98-105, doi: 10.1109/TPSISA52974.2021.00011.
28. S. Badruddoja, R. Dantu, Y. He, K. Upadhayay and M. Thompson, "Making Smart Contracts Smarter," 2021 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC), 2021, pp. 1-3, doi: 10.1109/ICBC51069.2021.9461148.
29. A. Salau, R. Dantu and K. Upadhyay, "Data Cooperatives for Neighborhood Watch," 2021 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC), 2021, pp. 1-9, doi: 10.1109/ICBC51069.2021.9461056.
30. K. Upadhyay, R. Dantu, Z. Zaccagni and S. Badruddoja, "Is Your Legal Contract Ambiguous? Convert to a Smart Legal Contract," 2020 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain (Blockchain), 2020, pp. 273-280, doi: 10.1109/Blockchain50366.2020.00041.
31. S. Badruddoja, R. Dantu, L. Widick, Z. Zaccagni and K. Upadhyay, "Integrating DOTS With Blockchain Can Secure Massive IoT Sensors," 2020 IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops (IPDPSW), 2020, pp. 937-946, doi: 10.1109/IPDPSW50202.2020.00156.

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• QuadraCode AI and VulnFusion: Deep Learning Multimodal Representations for Advanced Smart Contract Vulnerability Detection. 2025 Tech Vision Conference, Jones College of Business, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA.
• Blockchain, Smart Contracts and Applications. 2024 First ACM Chapter Meeting, Department of Computer Science, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA.
• Paradigm Shift from Vague Legal Contracts to Blockchain-based Smart Contracts. 2023 CAE in Cybersecurity Symposium, Seattle, WA, USA.
• Auditing Metaverse Requires Multimodal Deep Learning. The 4th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems, and Applications, Atlanta, GA, USA.
• Data Cooperatives for Trusted News Sharing in Social Media. EAI BlockTEA 2022 - 2nd EAI International Conference on Blockchain Technology and Emerging Applications, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Paradigm Shift from Paper Contracts to Smart Contracts. The 3rd IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems, and Applications, Atlanta, GA, USA.
• Can’t Understand SLAs? Use the Smart Contract. The 3rd IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems, and Applications, Atlanta, GA, USA.
• Make Consumers Happy by Defuzzifying the Service Level Agreements. The 3rd IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems, and Applications, Atlanta, GA, USA.
• Is Your Legal Contract Ambiguous? Convert to a Smart Legal Contract. The 3rd IEEE International Conference on Blockchain (Blockchain 2020), Rhodes Island, Greece.

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• Senior Personnel (NSF NRT–QISE–AI Award) – $2M, NRT–QISE–AI: Middle Tennessee Interdisciplinary Graduate Research and Training in Quantum Information and AI (2025–2030)
  PI: Wandi Ding; Co-PIs: Abdul-Qayyum Khaliq, Jing Kong, Joshua Phillips, Hanna Terletska
  Senior Personnel: Kritagya Upadhyay and Donglin Wang
  Awarded by National Science Foundation – NSF Research Traineeship (NRT).
• Principal Investigator (PI), MTSU Data Science Institute Seed Grant - $5,000, Awarded by Middle Tennessee State University, 2024.
• Best Research Paper Award, Awarded at 2023 Fifth IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems and Applications (TPS-ISA).
• Best Poster Award, Hot Topics in the Science of Security (HotSoS) 2023, Awarded by National Security Agency (NSA), 2023.
• Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award, Awarded by Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of North Texas, 2023.
• Best Research Paper Award, Awarded at Fourth International Conference on Blockchain Computing & Applications, 2022.
• Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award Nomination, Nominated by Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of North Texas, 2022.
• NSA Innovation Award, Awarded by the Center for Academic Excellence and Research (CAE-R), 2021.
• Tuition Benefit Program Award, Awarded by University of North Texas, 2018-2023.
• College of Engineering Department Award, Awarded by College of Engineering, University of North Texas, 2018-2023.

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