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Mayank Varia

Associate Professor
Computing & Data Sciences
Boston University
lastname (at) bu.edu


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About • Teaching • Advising
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About Me

My research interests span theoretical and applied cryptography and its applications throughout and beyond computing & data sciences. In my research, I often:

I work as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences (CDS) at Boston University. I serve as director of the CDS Hub for Civic Tech Impact, co-director of BU’s Center for Reliable Information Systems & Cyber Security (RISCS), member of the BU Security Group, and member of the Cyber Security, Law, and Society Alliance. I am also an affiliate of BU’s Computer Science department. My office is located on the 13th floor of BU’s new jenga building.

I received a PhD in Mathematics from MIT in 2010, and a BSE from Duke University in 2005.

News

Applying to work with me

Boston University has vibrant communities in cybersecurity, data science, and theoretical computer science. It is recognized as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense and Research. If you want to work with me on teaching or research, then please follow these instructions.

If you are a current BU student and want to serve as a teaching assistant: please submit a TF/TA Application (for graduate students) or a CA Application (for undergraduate students). Do not email me about teaching assistantship positions; I will only review these application forms.

If you want to work on a research project under my mentorship and you:

Teaching

I have taught several courses at Boston University. Some have been co-taught with my colleagues: Azer Bestavros, Ran Canetti, Gabe Kaptchuk, Andrei Lapets, and Andy Sellars.

Advising

I am fortunate to work with an excellent group of graduate and undergraduate students.

Current advisees

PhD students

Alums

Visiting faculty

Postdoctoral scholar

PhD alums

MS alums

Selected undergraduate alums

I have co-authored papers with undergraduate students that have been published at CANS 2016, CSF 2017, FC 2017, SecDev 2019, SOUPS 2019, STAST 2019, ACNS 2021, USENIX Security 2023, SIGMOD 2024, and the Journal of Young Investigators.

Media

Articles

I have written a few technology policy articles that are publicly available.

Additionally, others have written news articles and/or interviewed me about my research.

Videos

Here are a few of my invited conference and seminar talks, which are available to watch on YouTube.

Service

Public service

Conference and workshop organization

Program committees

Research

Below, I describe some major themes of my research and provide links to selected peer-reviewed publications. You can find a list of all of my publications at DBLP and Google Scholar.

Data Analysis for Social Good

I deploy privacy-respecting systems in practice, with a focus on empowerment and ease of use.

Secure Computing & Search

I develop cryptographic systems that allow people to collaboratively perform relational and time-series analysis of protected data.

Applied Cryptography

I design cryptographic protocols that are tailored to the functionality, security, and performance requirements of specific scenarios.

Cryptography & Society, Law, and Policy

I examine the social impact of cryptography and the design of cryptosystems that achieve certain legal and policy objectives.

Cryptographic & Distributed Algorithms

I study foundational crypto algorithms, including distributed algorithms that allow parties to reach consensus over an asynchronous network.

Formal Analysis of Cryptosystems

I construct formal, composable proofs of security for cryptographic protocols and real-world systems.

Privacy & Inference

I find information theoretic bounds on data reconstruction attacks, and characterize the tradeoffs between privacy and utility.

Program Obfuscation

My PhD thesis provides concrete methods to obfuscate computer programs in a provably secure, virtual black-box manner while preserving their functionality.

Grant Awards

I am grateful for the research support provided by the following organizations.


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