[Colloq] Hiring Visit: Daniel Golovin

[Patricia Freeman]

Daniel Golovin will be joining us TODAY for a Hiring Visit.
His Talk will take place in 366 WVH at 10:00am.

CCIS Colloquium Spring 2008

Uniquely Represented Data Structures with Applications to Privacy

Speaker: Daniel Golovin

Date: Thursday, April 17, 2008

Talk: 10:00 a.m.- 11:00 a.m., 366 WVH

Abstract

A uniquely represented data structure has a unique physical state to encode each logical state of its abstract data type. In this talk I will discuss new efficient uniquely represented versions of popular data structures (including hash tables, binary search trees, and queues), how these data structures work, and how they can be used to improve the security and privacy of real-world applications.

As an example application, consider a typical system with some internal data structures. If the memory representations of those internal data structures are inspected, they may leave significant clues to the past use of the system. For example, a data structure with lazy deletions might retain an object that the user believes was deleted long ago; this is problematic in environments requiring high security or strict privacy guarantees. Uniquely represented data structures eliminate such problems entirely by storing exactly the information specified by an abstract data type, and nothing more.

Brief Biography

Daniel Golovin is a Ph.D. candidate at Carnegie Mellon University under the supervision of Guy Blelloch. His research interests include approximation and online algorithms, using novel data structures to improve privacy, and provably good ways of dealing with uncertainty. He received his B.S. from Cornell University in 2003 and his M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University in 2006.