Hi, I’m Palak! I study the real world implications of the various ways privacy and security are defined and guaranteed today.
ABOUT ME
I’m a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Theoretical Computer Science at Boston University. My research uses the lenses of cryptography and differential privacy to design privacy-respecting systems and understand the downstream effects of those technologies on the individuals they intend to protect.
Since I primarily address sociotechnical problems, my research endeavours are often interdisciplinary; for example, my colleagues and I have been awarded a grant from the Boston University Center for Anti-Racist Research to study the downstream effects of differential privacy in the census on marginalised communities.
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
Feb ’23
I had the wonderful opportunity to be a mentor at Tech for Change‘s Civic Tech Hackathon .
The student groups had thought-provoking ideas and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting other mentors with similar interests and widely varying expertise!
Nov ’22
I gave a lightning talk at 2nd ACM Symposium on Computer Science and Law. [talk link]
The talk is on joint work with Ero Balsa and Helen Nissenbaum at Cornell Tech.
Oct ’22
Thank you to the organisers of the 4th Learning Theory Alliance Mentorship Workshop for making a big effort to enhance accessibility for researchers from diverse backgrounds.
It’s heartening to see the growing commitment to inclusivity in research.
Sep ’22
I took part in the 4th Annual Contextual Integrity Symposium. A huge thank you to the organisers for making it possible!
Sep ’22
My good friend Satchit Sivakumar and I are excited to be organizing the Algorithms and Theory seminar at Boston University this year.
The seminar talks are open to both in-person and virtual attendance. For more information check out our website.
Aug ’22
My paper, “Universally Composable End-to-End Secure Messaging” was accepted to CRYPTO 2022! [paper link][talk link]
Jul ’22
I gave an invited talk on my paper ‘The Price of Differential Privacy under Continual Observation‘ at TPDP 2022. [paper link][talk link]
Joint with my good friend Satchit Sivakumar.
May ’22
I attended my first in person conference as a PhD student!
I’m incredibly grateful to have had a chance to attend Eurocrypt ’22 and TPMPC ’22 this summer.
PUBLICATIONS
2022
CRYPTO ’22
Universally Composable End-to-End Secure Messaging
[paper link][talk link]
Ran Canetti, Palak Jain, Marika Swanberg, Mayank Varia.
TPDP ’22
The Price of Differential Privacy under Continual Observation
[paper link][talk link]
Palak Jain, Sofya Raskhodnikova, Satchit Sivakumar, Adam Smith.
TALKS
2022
Nov ’22
Lightning talk at the 2nd ACM Symposium on Computer Science and Law. [talk link]
The talk is on joint work with Ero Balsa and Helen Nissenbaum at Cornell Tech.
Aug ’22
CRYPTO 2022 talk on my paper “Universally Composable End-to-End Secure Messaging” [paper link][talk link]
Jul ’22
TPDP 2022 invited talk on my paper ‘The Price of Differential Privacy under Continual Observation‘ . [paper link][talk link]
Joint with my good friend Satchit Sivakumar.
Palak Jain 