Welcome
Computer security and networks
I am a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Wake Forest University, where I teach and lead research in computer security and networks.
These pages cover what I am teaching, what my students and I are working on, and where the published work has appeared. If any of it is of interest, drop by my office in Alumni Hall 207.
Teaching
Fall 2026
CSC 321
Database Management Systems
A course that develops databases from first principles and carries those principles into the systems engineers actually build. It begins with the relational model and its formal underpinnings, moves through schema design and SQL, opens up how a database management system works inside — storage, indexing, query processing, transactions — and closes with the distributed, analytical, and AI-era systems that dominate current practice.
SQLite serves as a zero-setup on-ramp; PostgreSQL anchors the semester project. Schedule, assignments, and materials are on canvas.wfu.edu.
CSC 191
AI and Language Models in Practice
An interdisciplinary introduction to solving real-world problems using modern language models. Moving beyond a basic survey of the technology, the course focuses on building technical judgment, establishing an accurate mental model of model behaviors, and defining what these systems can and cannot do.
Students learn the practical craft of designing, testing, and implementing reliable systems and user interactions powered by generative AI. Schedule, assignments, and materials are on canvas.wfu.edu.
Also taught
- CSC 112 — Fundamentals of Computer Science
- CSC 191/192 — Special topics, including threat hunting and the Internet of Things
- CSC 201 — Data Structures
- CSC 241 — Computer Systems
- CSC 250 — Computer Systems I
- CSC 343/643 — IP Protocols
- CSC 348/648 — Computer Security
- CSC 790 — Computer Security Seminar
Research
What I work on
Much of the recent work is about measurement: what a cyber threat intelligence feed actually contains once you account for overlap with every other feed and for how fast indicators decay, how to quantify the risk carried by a network or an entire sector, and what detection looks like under a fixed compute budget. A longer-running thread uses evolutionary methods and deliberate diversity to design secure, resilient system configurations. Earlier work covered firewall and policy optimization, failure prediction, and network pricing.
Wake Forest students interested in research are welcome to come talk with me — recent theses and projects are listed alongside the areas themselves.
Contact
Get in touch
- fulp@wfu.edu
- Office
- 207 Alumni Hall
- Post
- Department of Computer Science
Box 7311, Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC 27109