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Guidelines for Final ReportWritten on 10.01.25 by Sajin Sasy Deadline: The final reports are due on 21 Feb, 2025. Submission Format: Please use the USENIX two-column paper format for your final report submission. Final reports are expected to be between 5 - 8 pages long (excluding references) in the USENIX format. While the page range is broad, we do not… Read more Deadline: The final reports are due on 21 Feb, 2025. Submission Format: Please use the USENIX two-column paper format for your final report submission. Final reports are expected to be between 5 - 8 pages long (excluding references) in the USENIX format. While the page range is broad, we do not grade on length. Please keep in mind quality over quantity. Below is a template for what your final report should look like: (M) Abstract (100 - 250 words) M denotes sections that should absolutely be a part of everyone's report. This should give you a high-level overview of what your final report should look like, and establish some *must-be-part-of-every-final-report* sections. That said, there is no one recipe or template for an excellent final report. Consequently how you choose to order and present your report in the end is completely up to you. (But do make sure the (M) sections are addressed even if under a different name) We will continue to hold office hours until 19th Feb, 2025. So feel free to reach out and schedule meetings with us if you want to discuss anything about your research or report. We will also allow for an early submission of your final reports. If you submit them before the 10th February, 2025; we will review them and provide feedback to help you improve the quality of your final submission. We strongly encourage you to take advantage of this. |
New Developments in PETS
If you want to register for the seminar, you should do so via the central seminar assignment system.
Everyday more and more of our interactions move to the digital realm. Digitization brings forth incredible convenience. On the flip side, however, it also makes us vulnerable to privacy intrusions. For instance, data breaches and consequent loss of ones private information are commonplace today; similarly, mass surveillance of populations have never been easier.
Over the duration of this course, students will read, learn, and conduct hands-on research on cutting-edge privacy-preserving solutions for a variety of topics. Examples of topics include building blocks for privacy-friendly systems such as (i) techniques to retrieve a file from a server(s) without the server learning which file was retrieved, (ii) computing statistics over users' data without making users' data vulnerable to data breaches, and (iii) communication systems that protect sensitive metadata of conversations (such as who is communicating with whom, when, etc.). As well as topics that use existing building blocks to solve real-world problems in a privacy-friendly way such as: (i) accountability in humanitarian aid distribution; (ii) collaboration systems for journalists; and (iii) systems for personalized health.
Organization
- Each student will choose a topic. Topics will have a curated set of papers introducing them to an interesting direction in PETs.
- Students will propose a research direction they want to explore in their topic and present their proposal.
- Finally, students present their progress on their research at the end of the semester, and submit a short research paper on the research conducted during the course of the seminar.
All students are expected to attend presentations.
Important Dates
Seminars will take place on Wednesday's between 10am and 12am.
The tentative (in person) schedule is (subject to slight change):
- Oct 23rd -- Kickoff
- Oct 30th, Nov 06th -- Intro Lectures
- > Dec 11th -- Midterm presentation <
Dec 18th -- Midterm presentation- Jan 29th, Feb 5th -- Final presentations