The University of Waterloo’s Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute (CPI) hosted its inaugural Graduate Student Conference that connected master’s and PhD students across the province to showcase innovative research while gaining valuable feedback from fellow academics, faculty, and industry professionals.
In partnership with Waterloo’s Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs, the event was held on March 27 in the University’s Faculty of Engineering lecture hall and drew over 100 attendees throughout the day including students from Toronto Metropolitan University, York University, Ontario Tech University (Oshawa), Carleton University (Ottawa), and Concordia University (Montreal).
“It is a first-of-a-kind event bringing together cybersecurity and privacy grad students, and industry, from this region,” said Dr. N. Asokan, CPI’s executive director. An out-of-the-box concept originating from CPI’s 2024 interim executive director, Dr. Anindya Sen.
Fostering a vibrant academic environment where students conducting interdisciplinary research that intersect cybersecurity and privacy topics can share their findings, in addition to networking with peers and companies interested in research collaborations and/or hiring talent, was CPI’s realized vision of the conference. Dr. Diogo Barradas, CPI’s associate director and what some might call lead director behind the scenes of the event, was at the helm of the program committee that reviewed dozens of paper submissions which allowed for a packed, highly insightful and engaging agenda along with 40 poster displays.
“Submitting a poster also meant that the student had a chance to present their research via a spotlight talk to attendees. We [CPI] felt it was not only important to provide the forum for students to exchange ideas, but also the platform and opportunity to address all attendees at once, ” said the Cheriton School of Computer Science professor.
All of the presentations as well as posters were judged and eligible for cash awards made possible by the generous event industry sponsors. Congratulations, again, to the following recipients:
The day consisted of the following five sessions: Security and Privacy in Data Science, Human & Societal Aspects of Security and Privacy, Cryptography and Quantum-Safe Communication, Network Security and, Software, Hardware, and Systems Security.
Every presentation was intriguing and sparked discussion. For example, Shanza’s paper Toward Stronger Digital Privacy and Security: Culturally-Informed Solutions to Shared Device Use by Immigrant Families in Canada seemed to pique many people’s interest as her pilot study found that there was a high surveillance concern among women; meaning there were instances where parents kept track of women’s accounts to spy and monitor their private chats. Topics on the use of synthetic data in health care, among others, also led to buzzing conversations.
Kyndryl research shows 70% of large Canadian organizations do not feel they are ready to handle cyberattack-related risks. In his keynote address, Sachio Iwamoto (Director, Principal Architect, Kyndryl Research), shared IT is the best line of defense to mitigate risks, yet most are in earlier stages of their tech modernization journey. Therefore, the continuous growth and alignment between business and technology, much of which originates from researchers in academia, is crucial.
Save the date for CPI's Annual Cybersecurity and Privacy Conference, October 28, 2025!
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