Yupeng Zhang

Yupeng Zhang is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with an affiliate appointment in Computer Science. His research focuses on cybersecurity and applied cryptography, particularly zero-knowledge proofs, secure multiparty computations, and their applications in blockchain and machine learning.

• Education:
  • Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland (2018)
  • M.Phil., Information Engineering, Chinese University of Hong Kong (2013)
  • Bachelor of Engineering, Information Engineering, Chinese University of Hong Kong (2011)
• Research Highlights:
  • Developed scalable zero-knowledge proof systems for blockchain and machine learning
  • Created verifiable computation frameworks for SQL and RAM
  • Advancing privacy-preserving ML and cross-chain blockchain bridges
• Grants:
  • NSF CAREER award
  • Air Force Research Lab
  • DARPA
  • Google Research Scholar Award
  • Facebook Research Award
  • Latticex Foundation
• Teaching:
  • CS 461/ECE 422: Computer Security I
  • CS 591 SP: Security and Privacy
  • ECE 407/CS 407: Cryptography
  • ECE 598 YPZ: Advanced Topics in Applied Cryptography
  • Co-taught MOOC on Zero-Knowledge Proofs (Spring 2023)
• Professional Service:
  • Program Vice Co-Chair, USENIX Security 2024
  • Program Committee, Crypto 2025, S&P 2025
  • Reviewer for major journals and conferences