Please join us for a UW Data Science Seminar on Wednesday, October 15th from 4:30 to 5:20 p.m. PT. The seminar will feature Dongfang Zhao, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Washington with affiliations at the UW Tacoma School of Engineering & Technology, the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and the eScience Institute.
The seminar will be held in the Physics/Astronomy Auditorium (PAA), Room A118 – campus map.
“Enhancing Performance in Database Encryption and Recent Developments in Vector Databases“
Abstract: The confidentiality of outsourced data, particularly in domains like financial services and healthcare, remains a critical concern for applications deployed in public cloud environments. Traditional cryptographic methods, such as AES, offer data protection but severely limit database functionalities, reducing them to mere storage solutions without the ability to execute queries on encrypted data. Homomorphic Encryption (HE) emerges as a promising solution, enabling computations directly on ciphertexts. However, the high computational overhead of HE, especially for data-intensive tasks, poses a significant performance challenge. In this talk, I will discuss cutting-edge optimizations aimed at minimizing this performance burden in outsourced databases. I will focus on a radix-based parallel caching technique designed to accelerate encryption processes while maintaining the security guarantees of existing HE schemes. This method optimizes performance by parallelizing the caching of selected radix ciphertexts. If time allows, I will also cover recent advances in vector databases, particularly their growing role in retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems and large-language models (LLMs).
Bio: Dongfang Zhao is a tenure-track assistant professor of computer science at the University of Washington (UW), with affiliations at the UW Tacoma School of Engineering & Technology, the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and the eScience Institute. His research spans across databases, cryptography, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence. Before joining UW, he was a faculty member at UC Davis and worked for multiple government and industry labs such as Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and IBM Almaden Research Center. Prior to moving to the U.S., he studied electrical engineering, computer science, and mathematical statistics at KU Leuven, Belgium.
The 2024-2025 seminars will be held in person, and are free and open to the public.