First, I am deeply grateful to receive this Doctoral Finishing Fellowship. It is both an honor and a recognition of my work over the past four years at MTU, and it motivates me to complete the final stages of my Ph.D. journey.
I began my Ph.D. in Fall 2021 under the guidance of Dr. Xiaoyong (Brain) Yuan in the Department of Computer Science. Inspired by the rapid development of AI and machine learning, my research focuses on the security and privacy challenges in machine learning systems—particularly in protecting user privacy. During my Ph.D., I have concentrated on privacy risks in collaborative inference, a widely used framework for deploying large neural networks. Our research investigates reconstruction attacks, where adversaries attempt to recover private inputs, such as facial or biometric data. Additionally, we explore privacy concerns in federated learning and aim to improve the efficiency of training models in distributed environments.
Finally, I would like to sincerely thank my advisor, Dr. Yuan, and our department chair, Dr. Wang, for their continuous support throughout my graduate studies. I also extend my appreciation to my committee members and the entire Computer Science Department at MTU. With your guidance, support, and encouragement, I am confident in successfully completing my Ph.D. program.