Congratulations to Matthew Regehr, a PhD student in computer science, on receiving the University of Waterloo Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute’s (CPI) Graduate Excellence Scholarship. Generously sponsored by BTQ, Regehr will receive $10,000 for earning this prestigious award as a result of impeccable academic achievement and impactful research in the field of cybersecurity and privacy. Since the scholarship’s inception in 2019, CPI consistently receives high-calibre applications, and this year the competition level was the same.

Regehr said he was thrilled to learn the great news. He added, “This [CPI Graduate Excellence] scholarship will support my work on privacy accounting. I am excited to take this opportunity to develop tools and theory to support the adoption of privacy-preserving technology for machine learning. I am grateful to CPI and BTQ for their generous support to further my research.”

Regehr also credits his advisor, Dr. Gautam Kamath, for discovering the CPI scholarship opportunity and supporting his application.

“Matthew is an exceptional privacy researcher, and his mathematical and technical skills serve him well in addressing some of the most challenging and pressing problems in private machine learning and statistics,” said Dr. Kamath, assistant professor at the University’s Cheriton School of Computer Science.

Beyond research, Regehr is also making an impact in the Waterloo community through his volunteer work. For over two years, he lends his time to fix bikes, teach bike maintenance and lead other volunteers at the WUSA Bike Centre on campus.

To date, CPI has granted nine recipients the Graduate Excellence Scholarship with the bulk of financial support stemming from industry partners, some of whom have gone on to win various accolades such as the IBM PhD Fellowship as well as attain Tenure-Track Faculty positions early in their research career. 

For further information on past awardees and details of the program, visit CPI’s scholarship page.