Computer Science and Engineering PhD Candidate Awarded for Innovative Solutions to Differential Privacy and Security of Database Systems

16 May 2023

DONG Wei, a final year PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), has been named the winner of the School of Engineering (SENG) PhD Research Excellence Award 2022-23, for the most original and influential research achievements to knowledge in the discipline during his PhD study at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

Wei’s research explores differential privacy (DP) and security, database theory and algorithms, as well as machine learning. Throughout his studies, he addressed several open problems in computer science, defined the notion of down-neighborhood optimality, and designed a suite of algorithms. Wei also successfully created a DP-SQL system that is highly adaptable, making it suitable for a wide variety of database systems and supporting a large class of SQL queries.

Since joining HKUST in 2018 as a recipient of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS), Wei has published nine papers (seven of which as the first author) at prestigious international conferences, such as ACM International Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, among others. His most noteworthy work, titled “R2T: Instance-optimal Truncation for Differentially Private Query Evaluation with Foreign Keys”, earned both the Best Paper Award (sole awardee of the year) and Research Highlight Award at ACM SIGMOD 2022.

During the award ceremony, Wei shared his rewarding experiences and challenges in the engineering research journey at HKUST with current research postgraduate students. Despite encountering setbacks in his initial research projects and facing the pandemic and lockdown, Wei, with perseverance and a positive attitude, made good use of the time and quiet environment to delve deeper into his research. He expressed his sincere gratitude to his PhD advisor, Prof. YI Ke, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, for his academic guidance and unwavering support. He also cherished the friendships he formed at HKUST and the leisure time spent on hiking to enjoy Hong Kong’s natural wonders.

Established in 2011, the SENG PhD Research Excellence Award scheme recognizes the outstanding achievements of our PhD students and recent graduates who have made influential contributions to their discipline during their PhD studies at HKUST. This year, certificates were also presented to the shortlisted finalists Dr. Swapnadeep PODDAR of Electronic and Computer Engineering (ECE), currently a postdoctoral fellow of ECE, and Dr. WU Aoyu of Computer Science and Engineering, currently a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, both 2022 graduates.

The School of Engineering also took this opportunity to express its profound appreciation to the PhD advisors of both the award winner and finalists: Prof. Yi Ke; Prof. FAN Zhiyong, Professor ECE and Chemical and Biological Engineering; and Prof. QU Huamin, Chair Professor of CSE and Director of Interdisciplinary Programs Office. Each advisor received a certificate of appreciation in recognition of their exceptional supervision, guidance and support for their students.

Related link:

Department news (May 9, 2023): PhD Student DONG Wei Received SENG PhD Research Excellence Award 2022-23

Dong Wei (right) received the School of Engineering PhD Research Excellence Award 2022-23 from Prof. Hong K. Lo, Dean of Engineering.

(From left) Prof. Hong K. Lo, Dean of Engineering; Prof. Yi Ke, PhD advisor of award winner Dong Wei; awardee Dong Wei; Prof. Richard So, Associate Dean of Engineering (Research & Graduate Studies); Prof. Li Zhigang, Chair of Engineering Research Committee; and Prof. Zhou Xiaofang, Department Head of Computer Science and Engineering.

Wei introduced his research on differential privacy and security of database systems to the attendees in the sharing session during the ceremony.

Wei (right) expressed his sincere gratitude to his PhD advisor, Prof. Yi Ke, who has not only set a good example to him as a hardworking and passionate researcher, but also provided him with tremendous encouragement and support throughout his research journey.

At the ceremony, Dean of Engineering Prof. Hong K. Lo presented the certificate to finalist Dr. Wu Aoyu, PhD graduate of Computer Science and Engineering, currently a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.

About The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (https://hkust.edu.hk/) is a world-class research intensive university that focuses on science, technology and business as well as humanities and social science. HKUST offers an international campus, and a holistic and interdisciplinary pedagogy to nurture well-rounded graduates with global vision, a strong entrepreneurial spirit and innovative thinking. Over 80% of our research work were rated “Internationally excellent” or “world leading” in the Research Assessment Exercise 2020 of Hong Kong’s University Grants Committee. We were ranked 3rd in Times Higher Education’s Young University Rankings 2022, and our graduates were ranked 23rd worldwide and among the best from universities from Asia in Global Employability University Ranking and Survey 2021.

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