Guang Gong

Dr. Guang Gong is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo and a former University Research Chair. She is an IEEE Fellow with a distinguished research portfolio spanning multiple domains, including cryptography, security, and wireless communications.

Her research focuses on the design and implementation of lightweight cryptographic systems, cryptography and cryptanalysis, as well as the security and privacy of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, blockchain-based IoT security, and privacy-preserving machine learning. Dr. Gong also explores security in cloud and network environments, ad-hoc networks, RFID systems, wireless security, multimedia security, and physical layer security.

Additionally, her work extends to signal design for wireless communications, including Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM), and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems.

In 2005, Dr. Gong, in collaboration with former Ph.D. student Yassir Nawaz, proposed the WG stream cipher family, known for its unique randomness properties that distinguish it from other ciphers. More recently, she and Professor Mark Aagaard have implemented lightweight instances of this cipher (WG-5, WG-7, WG-8) in hardware to secure RFID systems and embedded devices. In February 2019, Dr. Gong’s team submitted four lightweight cryptographic schemes—ACE, SPOC, SPIX, and WAGE—to the NIST Lightweight Cryptography (LWC) competition.

Dr. Gong’s pioneering work continues to shape the fields of cryptography, security, and wireless communications.

• Pseudorandom sequence generation, Implementation of lightweight cryptographic systems, Lightweight cryptography, cryptography and cryptanalysis, Security algorithms and protocols, Security and privacy of IoT, blockchain, and cyber physical systems, Privacy preserving machine learning, Wireless communications\/networking, Cross layer and physical layer security

• 1992, Post-doctorate Electrical Engineering, Fondazione Ugo Bordani, Italy

• 1990, Doctorate Electrical Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China

• 1985, Master's Applied Mathematics, Northwest Telecommunication Eng. Inst., China

• 1981, Bachelor's Mathematics, Xiachang Normal College, China

• 2023: George Boole International Prize

• 2016: Research Excellence Award, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo

• 2006: Outstanding Performance Award, University of Waterloo

• 2004: Marsland Faculty Fellowship Award, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo

• 2004: Guest Professor, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC)

• 2001: Premier's Research Excellence Award, Ontario, Canada

• 1994: Distinguished Professorship Award, National Education Commission, China

• 1991: Outstanding Doctorate Faculty Award, Sichuan Province, China

• 1991: Fondazione Ugo Bordoni Postdoctoral Fellowship, Italy

• 1984: Best Research Paper Award, Chinese Institute of Electronics, China

• Fellow, IEEE

• ECE 409 - Cryptography and System Security
  • Taught in 2023, 2024, 2025
• ECE 414 - Communication Systems 2
  • Taught in 2025
• ECE 458 - Computer Security
  • Taught in 2020, 2022
• ECE 614 - Communications Over Fading Dispersive Channels
  • Taught in 2025
• ECE 628 - Computer Network Security
  • Taught in 2023, 2024, 2025
• ECE 716 - Communication Security
  • Taught in 2020, 2022

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.