📅 Course Calendar

Weekly topics and readings for CS 6501.


Week 1 - Introduction to LLM Security and Threat Landscape

Jan 13
LectureIntroduction to LLM Security and Threat Landscape
Readings TBD
Jan 15
LectureThreat Landscape Overview
Readings TBD

Week 2 - Adversarial Prompt Attacks (Prompt Injection & Jailbreaking)

Jan 20
LecturePrompt Injection Attacks
Readings TBD
Jan 22
LectureJailbreaking Techniques
Readings TBD

Week 3 - Advanced Prompt-Based Attacks and Evasion Techniques

Jan 27
LectureAdvanced Prompt Engineering Attacks
Readings TBD
Jan 29
LectureEvasion and Obfuscation Methods
Readings TBD

Week 4 - Data Poisoning and Training-Time Attacks

Feb 3
LectureData Poisoning Attacks
Readings TBD
Feb 5
LectureTraining-Time Attack Vectors
Readings TBD

Week 5 - Privacy Attacks (Model Inversion & Membership Inference)

Feb 10
LectureModel Inversion Attacks
Readings TBD
Feb 12
LectureMembership Inference Attacks
Readings TBD

Week 6 - Model Extraction and Intellectual Property Theft

Feb 17
LectureModel Extraction Techniques
Readings TBD
Feb 19
LectureIP Protection and Watermarking
Readings TBD

Week 7 - Red Teaming and Threat Modeling for LLMs

Feb 24
LectureRed Teaming Methodologies
Readings TBD
Feb 26
LectureThreat Modeling for LLMs
Readings TBD

Week 8 - Secure Fine-Tuning and RLHF

Mar 10
LectureSecure Fine-Tuning Techniques
Readings TBD
Mar 12
LectureRLHF and Safety Alignment
Readings TBD

Week 9 - Defenses and Mitigations for LLMs

Mar 17
LectureDefense Mechanisms
Readings TBD
Mar 19
LectureMitigation Strategies
Readings TBD

Week 10 - Robust Architectures and Safety Alignment Techniques

Mar 24
LectureRobust Model Architectures
Readings TBD
Mar 26
LectureAdvanced Safety Alignment Methods
Readings TBD

Week 11 - Evaluation and Benchmarking of LLM Security

Mar 31
LectureSecurity Evaluation Metrics
Readings TBD
Apr 2
LectureBenchmarking LLM Security
Readings TBD

Week 12 - Security Challenges in LLM-Based Systems

Apr 7
LectureSecurity in LLM Agents and Tools
Readings TBD
Apr 9
LectureMulti-Modal Model Security
Readings TBD

Week 13 - Supply Chain Security and Deployment Best Practices

Apr 14
LectureSupply Chain Vulnerabilities
Readings TBD
Apr 16
LectureSecure Deployment Practices
Readings TBD

Week 14 - Emerging Threats and Future Research Directions

Apr 21
LectureEmerging Attack Vectors
Readings TBD
Apr 23
LectureFuture Research and Open Problems
Readings TBD

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CS 6501 - Security of AI Systems | University of Virginia | Spring 2026