Weiping Pei

Weiping Pei is an Assistant Professor in the School of Cyber Studies at The University of Tulsa, specializing in security and privacy, crowdsourcing, machine learning, and human-computer interaction. Her work bridges technical security mechanisms with human behavioral aspects to develop practical privacy-preserving systems.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Colorado School of Mines (2022)
• M.Eng. in Software Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University (2017)
• B.Eng. in Microelectronics, Sun Yat-sen University (2015)

Dr. Pei's research centers on three interconnected pillars: secure and privacy-preserving crowdsourcing (with focus on receipt transcription systems and third-party privacy), robust machine learning (particularly adversarial attacks against vulnerability detection and content-preserving text manipulation), and usable security (including GDPR policy analysis and online grooming detection). Her approach uniquely integrates human behavioral modeling with cryptographic and machine learning techniques to address real-world security gaps in crowd-powered systems.

Analysis of her 2023-2025 publications reveals a strategic shift toward AI-driven security solutions, particularly using LLMs for behavioral analysis in digital forensics and adversarial machine learning for vulnerability assessment. Her work consistently targets high-impact venues like IEEE S&P and ACM CCS, demonstrating both theoretical rigor and practical applicability in privacy policy compliance and crowdworker security.

Scientific Awards:

• NSF CAREER Award (2025) for foundational cybersecurity research
• NSF SaTC 2.0 RES Award (2025) for privacy-preserving technologies
• NSF CRII Grant recipient (2023)
• Distinguished Rath Award nominee for societal-impact PhD thesis (2022)
• Outstanding CS Ph.D. Student Award at Mines (2021)
• Grace Hopper Celebration Scholarship (2018)

Dr. Pei actively mentors four students across degree levels while leading multiple NSF-funded projects totaling $1.3+ million. Her research group develops tools for privacy policy analysis (PolicyChecker), adversarial vulnerability testing (AdVul), and online safety monitoring. She teaches core cybersecurity courses including Data Security and Cryptography, with future work focusing on AI security foundations through her NSF CAREER grant.