Science on Tap

A monthly lecture series at UMD that explores the latest discoveries in science and technology in a relaxed atmosphere with food and drink

"Fragile Privacy: Living with smart things in the age of AI"

Nirupam Roy
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
University of Maryland

Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Doors open at 6 p.m.
Lecture begins at 6:30 p.m.

Ledo Pizza
4509 Knox Rd.
College Park, MD 20740

Paid parking is available in the attached city garage, which guests can enter on Yale Avenue. Guests may enter the event venue via the Ledo entrance on the corner of Knox Road and Yale Avenue.

Food and beverages will be available for purchase at the event. 

If you have any questions about attending this event, including disability accommodations, please contact Rena Surana-Nirula at rena@umd.edu or 301-405-6563.

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About the Talk
Everything around us, from a mighty smartphone to a humble vacuum cleaner, can nibble on our private information and make it available to all. In this talk, the presenter will sample his decade-long exploration of security/privacy vulnerabilities of smart devices. It will present an array of uncommon scenarios and techniques that can enable smart devices to spy on users. It will include inaudible voice commands that can whisper to your smart speakers and a robot vacuum cleaner that keeps an ear open to listen to your private conversation. The presenter will also talk about possibilities and real cases of identity hijacking with DeepFakes. The presenter will also outline a technical battle to tame unruly smart devices and a set of good practices to protect ourselves.

About the Speaker
Nirupam Roy is an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Maryland. His research interests are in ambient computing, security/privacy and embedded artificial intelligence (AI). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2018, and his doctoral thesis was selected for the CSL Ph.D. thesis award. Roy also received outstanding thesis awards from both his undergraduate and master's institutes. He has earned an exemplary reputation for impactful research in the broad area of wireless and mobile systems. He has published in leading conferences on mobile computing and embedded systems (MobiSys), networking (SIGCOMM, NSDI, ICNP), sensing and communication (SenSys), and security (NDSS). His work resulted in four patented techniques (US9608848 B2, US9730029 B2, US10628484 B2, US11264047 B2) and inspired startups in acoustic perception and security. He received several recognitions for his work, including best paper awards (2022, 2017), best demo and poster awards (2021, 2020, 2013) and honorable mentions in the ACM SIGMOBILE research highlights (2017, 2023). He received the NSF CAREER award in 2023. Several of his research projects captured media attention for their relevance to the general audience and are featured in prominent news media, including the MIT Technology Review, Forbes Magazine, The Telegraph, and The New York Times. At UMD, he directs the iCoSMoS lab which has been supported by NSF, Meta Research, Maryland Transportation Institute, USG and Saab, Inc.