Kiwan Maeng is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Engineering, focusing on the intersection of machine learning systems, privacy-preserving techniques, and low-latency computing architectures. His research emphasizes algorithm-system co-design for scalable and secure AI implementations. Research Trends : His recent work explores retrieval-augmented generation systems, low-latency diffusion models, privacy-preserving federated learning, and energy-harvesting intermittent computing frameworks. Publications highlight collaborations across machine learning, cryptography, and hardware-software co-design. Key Projects : He leads a 3-year NSF SaTC grant (2024-2027) addressing privacy-preserving data embedding for untrusted ML services, and contributes to serverless video analytics frameworks (SVDE) and VR streaming optimization (PIRATE). Technical Contributions : His scholarship spans 17 conference contributions and 3 journal articles since 2007, with notable work on memory encryption for edge devices, secure MPC-based inference, and sustainable AI systems. Current research focuses on balancing privacy guarantees with model utility while optimizing for environmental efficiency.
Mustafa A. Mustafa is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Manchester, where he leads the Trusted Digital Systems Cluster as part of the university-wide Centre for Digital Trust and Society. His academic journey spans prestigious institutions including The University of Manchester, where he completed his PhD, and KU Leuven in Belgium, where he served as a post-doctoral research fellow. Dr. Mustafa earned his educational qualifications through an impressive academic path: a B.Sc. in communications from the Technical University of Varna, Bulgaria (2007), an M.Sc. in communications and signal processing from Newcastle University, UK (2010), and a Ph.D. in computer science from The University of Manchester, UK (2015). His doctoral research focused on "Smart Grid Security: Protecting Users' Privacy in Smart Grid Applications," laying the foundation for his subsequent research career. Dr. Mustafa's research expertise centers on information security, data privacy, and applied cryptography with particular focus on smart grid systems, smart city applications, e-health, and IoT. His work addresses critical challenges in securing peer-to-peer electricity trading markets, smart metering infrastructure, electric vehicle charging systems, and health data management. He has developed innovative solutions for keyless car sharing systems, frictionless authentication mechanisms, and privacy-preserving protocols for data collection and distribution. His scholarly contributions demonstrate a consistent trajectory toward increasingly sophisticated privacy-preserving techniques applied across multiple domains. Recent work shows a growing integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches with traditional cryptographic methods, particularly in federated learning systems and large language model verification. His research bridges theoretical cryptography with practical implementations in energy systems and healthcare applications. Dr. Mustafa's scientific achievements have been recognized with several prestigious awards: Winner of the Student Video Competition at IEEE SmartGridComm 2017 for "Secure and Privacy-friendly Local Electricity Trading" Best Paper Award at SECURWARE 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award as Postgraduate Research Student of the Year nominee by the School of Computer Science of The University of Manchester (2015) Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Research Fellowship (2018-2023) As an academic supervisor, Dr. Mustafa has mentored numerous graduate students through their PhD and Master's research, with a particular focus on privacy and security challenges in emerging technologies. His current supervision portfolio includes research on privacy-friendly multi-agent systems for smart grids, security for IoT in e-health, vulnerability detection in IoT cryptography, and bot detection systems. He has secured significant research funding through multiple competitive grants including EnnCore: End-to-End Conceptual Guarding of Neural Architectures (EPSRC, 2020-2024), SCorCH: Secure Code for Capability Hardware (EPSRC, 2019-2023), and SNIPPET: Secure and Privacy-friendly Peer-to-peer Electricity Trading (FWO-SBO project, 2019-2023). Dr. Mustafa leads the Trusted Digital Systems Cluster within the Centre for Digital Trust and Society at The University of Manchester. His research group comprises PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and collaborators working on cutting-edge security and privacy solutions. The team maintains strong international collaborations, particularly with KU Leuven in Belgium, and contributes to standards development as evidenced by Dr. Mustafa's role as an expert in the IEC/SYC/WG 3 "IEC Smart Energy Roadmap."
Cecilia Boschini is a Researcher affiliated with the Institute for Theoretische Informatik (Theoretical Computer Science) at ETH Zürich. Her work focuses on advanced cryptographic systems, particularly in post-quantum cryptography, lattice-based protocols, and privacy-preserving technologies. She contributes to developing secure digital signature schemes, threshold cryptography, and efficient cryptographic algorithms resistant to quantum computing threats. Her research bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in cybersecurity and distributed systems. Key contributions include innovations in fail-stop signatures, two-round threshold signatures (Ringtail), and lattice-based multi-signature systems (MuSig-L). Boschini’s work emphasizes balancing security with efficiency, often addressing challenges in mobile device security and memory encryption. She has published extensively in top-tier venues, with a focus on cryptographic protocols that enhance privacy and data integrity without compromising usability.
Professor David Thomas holds the position of Professor in Computer Engineering at the University of Southampton's Electronics and Computer Science Department. His research focuses on the intersection of software and hardware, particularly leveraging FPGAs for novel digital architectures and event-driven computing. He has a notable academic trajectory, having previously served as a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London before joining Southampton in 2021. Dr. Thomas is actively involved in supervising PhD students and contributes to interdisciplinary research projects funded by the EPSRC, such as the SONNETS initiative exploring scalable event-triggered systems. Education: BSc in Computer Science (Imperial College London), PhD in Digital Architectures (Imperial College London). Postdoctoral roles included Research Associate and Research Fellow at Imperial's Department of Computing. Research Interests: Event-driven computing, FPGA-based systems, high-level synthesis, and high-performance computing. His work emphasizes practical implementations of theoretical models, such as custom processors and application-specific accelerators. Current projects include optimizing random number generation for FPGAs and exploring meta-programming techniques for hardware design. Advising and Grants: Supervises multiple PhD students in areas like neuromorphic computing and algorithm optimization. Active in securing funding for distributed system architectures and FPGA-based solutions. Labs/Teams: Member of the Cyber Physical Systems research group. Collaborates with interdisciplinary teams on projects like POETS (Partially Ordered Event-Triggered Systems) for large-scale parallel computing.
Elette Boyle is an Associate Professor at the Efi Arazi School of Computer Science, Reichman University (IDC Herzliya), Israel. She serves as the Director of the FACT Research Center and is a Senior Scientist at NTT Research. Additionally, she heads the RRIS International Program. Her academic career spans prestigious institutions including MIT, Technion, and Cornell. Dr. Boyle received her Ph.D. in Mathematics from MIT under the guidance of Shafi Goldwasser and Yael Tauman Kalai. Following her doctorate, she completed postdoctoral research at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology (2013-2015) hosted by Yuval Ishai, and a short-term postdoc at Cornell University (Summer 2013) hosted by Rafael Pass. She completed her undergraduate studies in mathematics at Caltech. Her research focuses on the theoretical foundations of computer security and cryptography, with particular expertise in secure multiparty computation, function secret sharing, distributed point functions, and memory checking protocols. Her work bridges theoretical computer science with practical cryptographic applications, developing protocols that balance security guarantees with computational efficiency. Dr. Boyle's research has significantly advanced the field of cryptography, particularly in understanding the fundamental limits and possibilities of secure computation protocols. Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong focus on the theoretical foundations of secure computation, with particular emphasis on understanding computational and communication complexity limits. Her work spans multiple dimensions of cryptography including foundational protocols, complexity analysis, and practical implementations. A recurring theme in her research is developing efficient cryptographic primitives that minimize communication overhead while maintaining strong security guarantees. Her contributions to function secret sharing, distributed point functions, and pseudorandom correlation generators have been particularly influential in the field. Dr. Boyle has advised several graduate students including Pierre Meyer (Ph.D., co-advised with Geoffroy Couteau), Matan Hamilis (Ph.D.), and D'or Banon (MSc., co-advised with Ran Cohen). Her research has been supported by various grants enabling her to lead significant projects in cryptography and secure computation. As Director of the FACT Research Center, she leads a team focused on foundational aspects of computer science and cryptography. Her center collaborates with researchers worldwide and serves as a hub for advancing cryptographic research in Israel and internationally.
Serge Fehr is a Senior Researcher in the Cryptology Group at CWI (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica) in Amsterdam and a part-time Professor at the Mathematical Institute of Leiden University. His research focuses on foundational aspects of cryptology, including post-quantum cryptography, information-theoretic security, zero-knowledge proofs, and secure multiparty computation. He participates in AMSec (Amsterdam Cyber Security Center) and leads work packages in the NWO-funded HAPKIDO consortium. Education: M.Sc. in Mathematics from ETH Zürich (1998) Ph.D. in Cryptography from ETH Zürich and University of Aarhus (2003) Postdoc at Macquarie University (2003-2004) Research Interests: Post-quantum cryptographic primitives (e.g., digital signatures, lattice-based schemes) Quantum-resistant protocols (e.g., non-resignable signatures, Fiat-Shamir transforms) Foundational security proofs in the quantum random oracle model (QROM) Secure multiparty computation and privacy-preserving healthcare systems Key Activities: Editorial Board Member: Journal of Cryptology , IEEE Transactions on Information Theory Program Committee Co-Chair: EUROCRYPT 2025 Steering Committee Member: Beyond IID Information Theory, QCrypt Co-organizer: Symposium Series on Post-Quantum Cryptography Grants/Awards: NWO Cybersecurity consortium grant (HAPKIDO - 2021) NWO Veni Grant (2005) NWO Open & Free Competition Grants (2008, 2013) Students/Advising: Supervised or served on committees for over 15 Ph.D. students, including work on post-quantum signatures, MPC applications, and lattice-based cryptography. Labs/Teams: Active in CWI’s Cryptology Group and Leiden’s Mathematical Institute, collaborating with industry partners (e.g., KPN, Microsoft) in cybersecurity initiatives.
Sri AravindaKrishnan Thyagarajan is a Lecturer at The University of Sydney's School of Computer Science, specializing in cryptography. He focuses on enhancing security and fairness in distributed systems, blockchains, and multi-party computations with applications in post-quantum cryptography. His work spans top-tier conferences like ACM CCS and IEEE SP. Education: B.Tech, Computer Science & Engineering, National Institute of Technology Trichy, India (2011–2015) M.Sc., Computer Science, Saarland University, Germany (2015–2016) Ph.D., Applied Cryptography, Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany (2016–2021) Research Interests: Cryptography (classical and post-quantum), blockchain security, cryptocurrencies, fairness in multi-party computations, privacy-preserving protocols, and decentralized systems. Recent Articles: Focus on cryptographic protocols for blockchains, threshold cryptography, verifiable randomness, and secure atomic swaps. Recent work includes advancements in post-quantum signatures, distributed randomness generation, and privacy-preserving payment systems. Awards: Nominated for GI Dissertationspreis 2021 Advising & Grants: Advising Ankit Kapoor. Active in program committees for CCS, IEEE SP, and FC. Currently Program Chair for Crypto Valley Conference 2025. Labs/Teams: Part of the Sydney Blockchain Centre and cybersecurity cluster at the University of Sydney. Collaborates globally with institutions like NTT Research, Carnegie Mellon University, and Bocconi University.
Qiongxiu Li is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in the Cyber Security group at Aalborg University's Copenhagen campus, part of the Technical Faculty of IT and Design. Her research focuses on cybersecurity, distributed optimization, privacy/security, and federated learning. She has authored/co-authored 38 papers in top-tier venues including IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, ICLR, and EUSIPCO. Education: PhD in Privacy and Security from Aalborg University (2018-2021). Notable achievements include winning the EUSIPCO 2020 3MT Contest and co-delivering a tutorial on privacy-preserving distributed optimization at EUSIPCO 2024. She actively reviews for conferences like NeurIPS, ICLR, and journals such as TPAMI and TIFS. Research Themes: Privacy-preserving distributed algorithms, federated learning security, differential privacy, and adversarial machine learning. Recent Trends: Focus on securing AI systems (e.g., LLM vulnerabilities, federated clustering privacy), quantization for privacy, and theoretical bounds in decentralized learning. Awards: 2020 EUSIPCO 3MT Winner (outstanding finalist in EURASIP's annual doctoral research competition). Grants/Projects: Co-PI of the AI:SECURITY project (2025-2029) addressing AI security threats like phishing and malicious actors. Labs/Teams: Leads the Cyber Security group at Aalborg's Copenhagen campus, focusing on theoretical and applied research in secure distributed systems.
Dr. Yun Lu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Victoria (UVic), affiliated with the Faculty of Engineering & Computer Science. Their research focuses on differential privacy variants, secure multiparty computation, rational cryptography, and blockchain security under rational attackers. Lu received their PhD from the University of Edinburgh, supervised by Professor Vassilis Zikas, and holds BSc/MSc degrees from UCLA. They advise PhD students in differential privacy and related areas, including Mahboubeh Bahari, Yanchen Fan, Tyler Makaro, and former student Tiger Wu. Their work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications, emphasizing privacy-preserving technologies and secure cryptographic protocols. Lu teaches courses such as Cryptography (CS 429/529) and Topics on Data Privacy (CS 588A), and has led educational sessions at the Berkeley Math Circle for high school students. Education: PhD (University of Edinburgh), MSc/BSc (UCLA) Research Trends: 2023-2025 focus on differential privacy frameworks, blockchain security, and adversarial model analysis Awards: None explicitly listed
Rongxing Lu is an Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science, University of New Brunswick (UNB), Canada, since August 2016. Previously, he held positions at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore (2012–2016) and the University of Waterloo, Canada (PhD in 2012). His research focuses on applied cryptography, privacy enhancing technologies, and IoT-big data security. He has over 7,500 citations and received prestigious awards like the Governor General’s Gold Medal (2012) and the IEEE ComSoc Asia Pacific Outstanding Young Researcher Award (2013). He is an IEEE senior member and serves on editorial boards of journals like IEEE Network. **Education**: PhD in Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo (2012), awarded Governor General’s Gold Medal Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Waterloo (2012–2013) **Research Interests**: Developing cryptographic protocols for IoT and big data systems Privacy-preserving techniques for distributed systems Secure communication in 5G/6G networks and vehicular systems **Awards and Recognition**: Recipient of multiple best paper awards in IEEE conferences 2016–2017 Excellence in Teaching Award at UNB **Editorial and Leadership Roles**: Symposium co-chair at IEEE Globecom’16 Secretary of IEEE ComSoc CIS-TC Organized special issues on fog computing security (Elsevier) and big data security (IEEE IoT Journal) **Key Contributions**: Pioneered privacy-aware data reporting schemes for vehicular networks Designed lightweight IoT authentication protocols Advanced secure machine learning frameworks with privacy guarantees
Vinod Vaikuntanathan is the Ford Foundation Professor of Engineering in the MIT EECS department and a principal investigator at MIT CSAIL. He holds a BTech from IIT Madras (2003), and SM/PhD degrees from MIT (2005/2009). His research focuses on cryptography, particularly fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), lattice-based cryptography, and quantum-resistant systems. He co-founded Duality Technologies as Chief Cryptographer. **Education:** BTech in Computer Science (2003), Indian Institute of Technology Madras SM in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (2005), MIT PhD in Computer Science (2009), MIT **Research Interests:** His work spans FHE (enabling computations on encrypted data), lattice-based cryptography (post-quantum security), and intersections with quantum computing, machine learning, and privacy. He explores applications in secure computation, algorithm design, and cryptographic protocols. **Awards:** Recipient of the Gödel Prize (2022), Simons Investigator (2023), and MacVicar Faculty Fellow (2024). His work on FHE and lattice algorithms has earned widespread acclaim in cryptography and theoretical computer science. **Teaching & Mentorship:** Advanced cryptography courses at MIT (e.g., 6.5630, 6.876J) Advised PhD students (e.g., Sergey Gorbunov, Tianren Liu) and postdocs (e.g., Nir Bitansky, Mark Zhandry) now leading positions in academia and industry **Collaborations:** Organizer of the Charles River Crypto Day and MIT Cryptography Seminar Principal investigator on grants from NSF, DARPA, and Microsoft
Douglas Stebila is an Associate Professor in the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo, Faculty of Mathematics. His research focuses on cryptographic protocols, with an emphasis on post-quantum cryptography, TLS protocol security, and key exchange mechanisms. He has contributed to the design and analysis of cryptographic systems resilient to quantum computing threats, including work on hybrid key exchange methods and post-quantum TLS implementations. Stebila is involved in standards projects such as the Open Quantum Safe initiative, aiming to transition existing infrastructure to quantum-resistant algorithms. His recent work addresses security models for cryptographic protocols, including formal verification of key establishment schemes and analysis of real-world protocols like Signal and TLS. His research spans theoretical cryptography, applied protocol analysis, and implementation security. Key contributions include studies on obfuscated key exchange, verifiable decapsulation of post-quantum KEMs, and optimization of TLS handshake efficiency (e.g., TurboTLS). He also explores challenges in cryptographic protocol design, such as preventing double authentication and ensuring resistance against side-channel attacks. His work frequently bridges academic research with practical applications, emphasizing the transition of cryptographic innovations into real-world systems. Stebila collaborates with industry and academic partners on projects like the Open Quantum Safe initiative, which develops libraries for post-quantum cryptography integration. His publications often address security analyses of emerging protocols and their vulnerability to both classical and quantum adversaries. He has co-authored conference proceedings for major venues like CRYPTO and SAC, and contributed to standards documentation for protocols such as TLS and SSH.
Leonid Reyzin is a Professor and Associate Chair of Academics at Boston University, specializing in cryptography. His research focuses on enabling secure computation, communication, and collaboration in untrusted environments, with contributions to biometric security, cryptographic protocols, and privacy-preserving technologies. He earned his Ph.D. from MIT and has advised on industry standards and received prestigious awards including the NSF CAREER Award and Boston University’s Neu Family Award for Excellence in Teaching. His work spans cryptographic primitives such as fuzzy extractors, verifiable random functions, and proofs of space, addressing challenges like secure key derivation from noisy data and blockchain security. He has collaborated on standards like RFC 9381 and contributed to cryptographic tools for distributed systems and privacy-enhancing technologies. Reyzin’s research emphasizes practical applications, including secure authentication systems, cryptographic protocols for blockchain and distributed ledgers, and mitigating threats like side-channel attacks. His recent work explores advancements in proofs of space, memory-hard functions, and asynchronous authenticated data structures, reflecting a balance between theoretical rigor and real-world applicability. Awards: NSF CAREER Award, Neu Family Award for Excellence in Teaching Key Contributions: Fuzzy extractors, VRFs, cryptographic standards development, blockchain security frameworks Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, MIT
Gabe Kaptchuk is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD), focusing on cryptography, privacy, and their social implications. He is affiliated with UMD's MC² (Maryland Cybersecurity Center) and UMIACS (Institute for Advanced Computer Studies). Previously, he was research faculty at Boston University and earned his PhD from Johns Hopkins University under advisors Avi Rubin and Matt Green. Research Interests: Kaptchuk's work bridges theoretical cryptography and social applications, emphasizing secure multiparty computation (MPC), zero-knowledge proofs, and steganography. He also explores the intersection of cryptography with law, policy, and human-centered design. Notable projects include Meteor (secure steganography using generative models) and Pulsar (MPC for dynamic participants). Teaching: Courses include Governing Algorithms (UMD) and Law and Algorithms (BU), focusing on algorithmic governance, privacy, and legal implications of technology. He has taught computer security and networks at Johns Hopkins and BU. Grants & Funding: Recent NSF awards include Collaborative Research: ReDDDoT Phase 2 (2024) for participatory privacy protections in AI training data. Active in deploying MPC for social good, such as analyses for Boston Women’s Workforce Council. Labs/Teams: Collaborates with researchers at Georgetown, Columbia, and institutions like the Wikimedia Foundation. Co-authors include Rachel Cummings, Elissa Redmiles, and Matthew Green on privacy and usability topics.
Ron Steinfeld is an Associate Professor at the Cybersecurity Lab of the Faculty of Information Technology , Monash University . His research focuses on lattice-based cryptography , post-quantum cryptographic protocols , and privacy-preserving technologies . He has contributed to advancements in secure multiparty computation , digital signatures , and blockchain confidentiality . Key areas: Lattice-Based Cryptography, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Blockchain Security Recent work trends: Quantum-safe protocols, Efficient sampling algorithms, Scalable blockchain solutions Scientific Awards : BEST PAPER AWARD (ASIACRYPT 2015) He has served on program committees for major conferences including CRYPTO , EUROCRYPT , and ASIACRYPT . Ron is a member of the Discrete Mathematics Research Group and has collaborated with institutions like Macquarie University in the past.
