The University of Waterloo Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute (CPI) in partnership with Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA) is proud to announce the second CPI Graduate Student Conference, a platform dedicated to showcasing innovative research and ideas from graduate students across the country conducting interdisciplinary research that intersect cybersecurity and privacy topics. This full-day conference aims to foster a vibrant academic environment where students can share their findings, gain valuable feedback, and network with peers, faculty, and industry professionals.
When: Monday, March 30, 2026 | Where: Enterprise Theatre, East Campus 5 (Room EC5-1111), 305 Phillip St., Waterloo, ON | Breakfast and registration: 8 a.m.
Event registration deadline: March 10, 2026
Thank you to our generous sponsors!
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Complete the form below to register for CPI's 2026 Graduate Student Conference
Agenda (full program)
8 a.m. Registration & breakfast
9 a.m. Welcome address: Dr. Jochen Koenemann (Faculty of Mathematics) and Dr. Diogo Barradas (CPI)
9:15 a.m. Keynote speaker
10 a.m. Session 1: AI security
- Safety-Aware Gated Editing (SAGE): Refusal-Orthogonal Activation Editing for Safe Low-Resource Adaptation – Nayeema Nonta, Sirisha (University of Waterloo)
- Locket: Robust Feature-Locking Technique for Language Models – Tony He, N. Asokan (University of Waterloo)
- Evaluation of Synthetic Time-Series Data: Assessing Temporal Correlation and Clinical Meaningfulness in 12-Leads ECG – Yixin Li, Helen Chen (University of Waterloo)
10:45 a.m. Networking break
11:15 a.m. Session 2: Safety-critical systems
- Resolving Availability and Run-Time Integrity Conflicts in Real-Time Embedded Systems – Adam Caulfield, N.Asokan (University of Waterloo)
- Black Box Testing with Generative Language Models – Cameron Hadfield, Noura Khajehnouri, Sebastian Fischmeister (University of Waterloo)
- Trust-Based Defence Framework for Smart City MQTT-Based Environments with Rogue Users – Ronny Blostein, Natalija Vlajic (York University)
12:00 p.m. Poster session and lunch
1:30 p.m. Session 3: Human-computer interaction and regulation
- Privacy Notice Design for Humanoid Social Robots in the Home: Socio-technical Implications of a Child-Centered Co-design Study – JaeEun Jen Shin, Lean Zhang-Kennedy, Yue Hu (University of Waterloo)
- Framework For Human-Centric Privacy Preserving Explainable AI –Sonal Allana, Rozita Dara (University of Guelph)
- Labour Unions and Collective Agreements as Regulatory Mechanisms in Workplace Surveillance - Danielle Thompson, Adam Molnar (University of Waterloo)
2:15 a.m. Networking break
2:45 p.m. Session 4: Privacy and access control
- PIRakeet: Key Transparency with Private Queries Using RangePIR – Vecna Vecna, Ian Goldberg (University of Waterloo)
- Cloak: Heuristic ORAM Optimization Through Fixed Temporal Distribution – Onur Eren Arpaci, Sujaya Maiyya, Florian Kerschbaum (University of Waterloo)
- ARGUS: Grounded Semantic and Functionality-Awa Validation of Access Control in Android – Seemal Tausif, Yousra Aafer (University of Waterloo)
3:30 p.m. Awards ceremony
4 p.m. Closing remarks: Dr. Adam Molnar (CPI)