Hi, I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
My research focuses on data security, privacy, and AI governance, covering topics including secure and private data access and processing, AI content provenance, AI service auditing, and more. My research typically involves analyzing threat models, designing algorithms, and implementing systems for concrete security and privacy problems. My research contributions have been adopted in real systems by major industry partners.
Hiring
I am currently looking for PhD students and research interns to join my group at HKUST.
I am looking for students who are interested in related topics including cryptography, privacy-preserving computation, security and privacy in machine learning, etc. Please feel free to reach out to me via email.
Prospective students: Please do not send an AI-generated summary of my papers; it does not help your email get read. To increase your chance, tell me what is special about you and share some unique thought or idea of your own.
ICPC Team
I am currently the coach of HKUST's ICPC team. We are looking for students who are interested in ICPC to join our team. Please send me an email if you are interested.
Education
I obtained my PhD degree from the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, where I was very grateful to have Giulia Fanti and Elaine Shi as my advisors. I received my B.S. in Computer Science from Peking University.
Major Awarded Grants
2026. Towards Practical Secure Server-Client Computation: A Private Retrieval-Centered Perspective. Early Career Scheme (ECS), Research Grants Council, Hong Kong. Role: Principal Investigator.
Publications
Preprints
Published Papers
Theses
Students
Current:
- Yijia Fang (PhD student, since 2026)
- Yue Zhang (PhD student, since 2026)
Presentations/Talks
Teaching
- COMP2711 (L3): Discrete Mathematical Tools for Computer Science, Fall 2026
- Teaching Assistant, CMU 18734/17731: Foundation of Privacy, Fall 2024
- Teaching Assistant, CMU 15893: Special Topics in Cryptography (PIR, ORAM, ZK), Spring 2024
Services
- Program Committee: CCS 2026, Eurocrypt 2027
- Reviewer: ToN 2025, TIFS 2025, USENIX Security 2025, Journal of Cryptology 2024, Crypto 2024, Eurocrypt 2024, etc.
Others
- If you have difficulty pronouncing my name, it is similar to "Ming-Shwin Joel" :)