Urs Hengartner

Urs Hengartner is an Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science, University of Waterloo. His research focuses on information privacy, computer and network security with emphasis on smartphones, IoT, and machine learning-based authentication systems. He holds a Ph.D. (2005) and M.Sc. (2003) from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Diploma from ETH Zürich (1997).

His work spans

• Adaptive security attacks on ML systems
• Implicit user authentication frameworks
• Privacy-preserving technologies for location and genomic data
• Secure authentication systems resilient to voice/spoofing attacks

Recent publication trends show a strong focus on adversarial attack detection (e.g., watermarking evasion, diffusion model attacks) and context-aware authentication systems. His frameworks like MRAAC and SHRIMPS address multi-stage authentication challenges in mobile ecosystems.

Key contributions include frameworks for evaluating multi-user authentication systems (SHRIMPS), risk-aware access control (MRAAC), and novel defense strategies against collaborative robot traffic fingerprinting. His work bridges security mechanisms with user-centric design principles.