Heather Zheng

Heather Zheng is the Neubauer Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago, co-directing the SAND Lab (Security, Algorithms, Networking and Data) with Prof. Ben Y. Zhao. She holds IEEE (2015) and ACM (2023) Fellowships, and was recognized as MIT TR35 (2005) for cognitive radio research. Her work bridges mobile/IoT security, adversarial ML, and generative AI ethics. Zheng earned her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Maryland in 1999, with prior roles at Bell-Labs, Microsoft Research Asia, and UCSB.

Education:

• PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park (1999)

Research Focus: Explores cutting-edge challenges in:

• Security implications of mobile/IoT sensors (e.g., bracelet-of-silence countermeasures)
• Adversarial machine learning defense mechanisms (e.g., Blacklight attack detection)
• Generative AI governance (Glaze, NightShade copyright tools)

Awards:

• ACM Fellow (2023)
• IEEE Fellow (2015)
• World Technology Network Fellow

Labs & Collaborations: Leads SAND Lab focusing on security, ML, and networked systems. Active in UChicago's Systems Group exploring cloud/edge computing architectures.