Raluca Ada Popa
   Ph.D. Candidate

   Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

   32 Vassar St., 32-G982

   Cambridge, MA 02139

   

   Email: raluca AT csail DOT mit DOT edu



 

I am a third year Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I also earned my Masters of Engineering in Computer Science and my Bachelors in Computer Science and in Mathematics from MIT.

I am interested in systems security and cryptography. In particular, I like to build secure systems that have solid cryptographic foundations.

My research advisor is Professor Nickolai Zeldovich, and I am also lucky to work with: Professor Hari Balakrishnan (in systems) as well as Professor Shafi Goldwasser, Dr. Yael Kalai, and Professor Vinod Vaikuntanathan (in cryptography). During undergraduate, I also enjoyed working with and learning from Professor Barbara Liskov and Professor Ronald L. Rivest for two years.


Research

I am interested in systems security and, in particular, I love the combination of systems and cryptography. I enjoy building secure systems with solid cryptographic foundations.

Much of my recent research is focused on enabling systems (with their computations) to run on encrypted data. Here is why: there are many confidentiality attacks an untrusted component could undergo, and designing solutions for each attack is impossible; but having the untrusted component manipulate only encrypted data promises a cleaner end-to-end solution to these various problems.

Below is a description of my projects so far (both from graduate and undergraduate years).

Recent and ongoing projects:

Past projects:



Publications




Talks


Mentoring & Teaching

I have enjoyed mentoring and working with younger students. I was happy to be the mentor of Catherine M.S. Redfield for two years, 2010-2012: one year, she was an undergraduate researcher with us, and the following year she earned her Master's degree with us. I am equally happy to mentor Frank H. Li during his undergraduate work with us, 2011-present. I also mentored other students for semester-long projects.

I am a teaching assistant for 6.857 Computer and Network Security for Spring 2013, and I am teaching a weekly recitation.

In the past, I have tutored students for the Office of Minority Education at MIT, during 2007-2009.

 


Activities


I started the CSAIL Security seminar, meant to bridge systems and cryptography at MIT by bringing together researchers from both areas (and other areas of security) at MIT and institutions around. The seminar has been going strong for two years.


Awards

Graduate School:

- 2011 Google Ph.D. Fellowship for Secure Cloud Computing

- 2010 Charles and Jennifer Johnson award for best CS Masters of Engineering thesis

- 2010 Morris Joseph Levin Award for best MasterWorks presentation

- 2009 MIT Jacobs Presidential Fellowship for graduate studies

Senior Year at MIT:

- 2009 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Award for research, the Female Winner, Nationwide

- 2009 MIT CSAIL Pogosyants Award for Undergraduate Research

Junior Year at MIT:

-  2008 Google Anita Borg Scholarship, Winner

- 2008 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Award, Runner Up, Female Award (Fall 2007)

Sophomore Year at MIT:

- Letter of Recognition for 6.002 ("Circuits and Electronics") (Fall 2006) - top student in the class (~ 200 students)

- Best Game Award and George C. Newton Outstanding Undergraduate Laboratory Project Prize, Third Place - for the final project in 6.170 ("Laboratory in Software Engineering") (Spring 2007)

 

- Letter of Recognition for 6.004 ("Computation Structures") (Fall 2006)

Freshman Year at Caltech

- Caltech Upper Class Merit Award, Carnation Scholarship

- CRA - Women Distributed Mentor Project Award for Summer Research

High school ("Gheorghe Lazar" National College) in Sibiu, Romania

- Graduating as Valedictorian

  


Academic Courses

 

Here is a list of only the relevant science classes I took (humanities and other unrelated classes are not included).


Graduate school:

- 6.897 ("Cloud Computing"), A, Prof. Hari Balakrishnan
- 6.889 ("New Developments in Cryptography"), A, Prof. Shafi Goldwasser
- 6.S898 ("The Evolution of a Proof"), A, Prof. Shafi Goldwasser

- 6.845 ("Quantum Complexity Theory"), A+, Prof. Scott Aaronson

- 6.867 ("Machine Learning"), A, Prof. Tommi Jaakkola


GPA: 5.0/5.0


Senior year at MIT:

 

Spring 2009:

 

- 6.857 ("Computer and Networks Security"), A+, Prof. Ronald L. Rivest

- 6.989 ("Network Coding"), A, Prof. Muriel Medard

- 8.282 ("Introduction to Astronomy"), A+, Prof. Max Tegmark

- 18.443 ("Statistics for Applications"), A, Prof. R. M. Dudley 

 

Fall 2008:

 

- 6.854 ("Advanced Algorithms"), A+, Prof. Michel X. Goemans

- 6.830 ("Database Systems"), A, Prof. Samuel Madden

- 6.UAP ("Thesis"), A+, Prof. Hari Balakrishnan

 

Junior year at MIT:

 

Spring 2008:

 

- 6.829 (Graduate Level,  "Computer Networks"), A, Prof. Hari Balakrishnan

- 6.875 (Graduate Level, "Cryptography and Cryptanalysis"), A, Prof. Silvio Micali

- 6.003 ("Signals and Processing"), A, Prof. Qing Hu

- 6.UAT ("Preparation for Undergraduate Advanced Project"- presentations class), A+, Prof. Tony Eng

 

Fall 2007:

 

- 6.824 (Graduate level, "Distributed Systems"), A, Prof. Frans Kaashoek

- 6.828 (Graduate level, "Operating System Engineering"),  A, Prof. Robert Morris

- 18.821 ("Project Laboratory in Mathematics"), A, Prof. David Vogan

 

Sophomore year at MIT:

 

Spring 2007:
- 6.170 ("Laboratory in Software Engineering"), A+, Best Game Award, Prof. Saman Amarasinghe, Prof. Michael D. Ernst
- 18.440 ("Probability and Random Variables"), A+,  Prof. Shan-Yuan Ho

- 6.033 ("Computer Systems Engineering"), A, Prof. M. Frans Kaashoek, Prof. Barbara Liskov

Fall 2006:
- 6.002 (Circuits and Electronics), A+, Finished 1st in class, Prof. Jesus A. del Alamo
- 6.004 (Computation Structures), A, Awarded letter of recognition, Prof. Srini Devadas and Prof. Steve Ward
- 6.034 (Artificial Intelligence), A, Prof. Patrick H. Winston
- 18.03 (Differential Equations), A+, Prof. Alar Toomre

 

GPA: 5.0/5.0

Freshman at Caltech:


Spring 2006:
- Cs38 (Introduction to Algorithms), A
- Ma1c Analytical Track (Calculus of one and several variables and linear algebra), A+
- Ph1c Practical Track (Classical Mechanics and Electromagnetism), A+
- Cs11 (Computer Language Shop), Pass

Winter 2006 *):
- Cs21 (Decidability and Tractability), A+
- Ma1b Analytical Track (Calculus of one and several variables and linear algebra), A, finished 1st in class
- Ph1b Practical Track (Classical Mechanics and Electromagnetism), A+, 1st in class
- Cs2 (Introduction to Programming Methods), A+

Fall 2005 *):
- Cs1 (Introduction to Computation), finished 1st in class, among over 100 students
- Ph1a (Classical mechanics and electromagnetism), 1st in class, among 200 students
- Ma/Cs6a (Introduction to discrete mathematics), A+
- Ma1a (Calculus of one and several variables and linear algebra), A+
 

GPA: 4.1 / 4.0


*) These are shadow grades from Freshman Progress Reports, as freshmen officially receive only P/F grades for their first two terms at Caltech.
 


A bit about me

I am originally from Sibiu, a medieval town in the southern part of Transylvania in Romania somewhere close to Dracula's legendary castle. I enjoy long runs in nature or by Charles river.