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DeCenter Seminar: Oct 2 at 4:30pm
by Emily C. Lawrence 30 Sep '24

30 Sep '24

This upcoming Wednesday, October 2nd, at 4:30 PM, the DeCenter Seminar Series continues with [ https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-bonneau-15419920/ | Joseph Bonneau ] , Assistant Professor of Computer Science at New York University and Research Partner at a16z crypto. He will present a seminar titled "Towards Cryptographically Verifiable Randomness." The event will take place in the Friend Center Convocation Room (113). Abstract: Public randomness has many important applications, from games and state lotteries to allocation of visas and public housing or assignment of judges to legal cases. Yet today, most of these applications provide little or no public verifiability. This talk will survey nearly ten years of work by the author on using cryptography to generate publicly verifiable randomness, including the development of verifiable delay functions and modern randomness beacon protocols based on them. It will also discuss the practical challenges in bringing these protocols into common use. Bio: Joseph Bonneau is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at New York University and a Research Partner at a16z crypto. His research focuses on applied cryptography and computer security. He earned BS and MS degrees from Stanford University and completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge, all studying computer science. Prior to joining NYU he was a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy as well as at Stanford and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. We Hope to see you there!

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Kun Woo Cho will present his FPO "Programmable Smart Radio Environments: From Theory to Hardware Implementation" on October 1, 2024 at 3pm in CS 302.
by Gradinfo 26 Sep '24

26 Sep '24

Kun Woo Cho will present his FPO "Programmable Smart Radio Environments: From Theory to Hardware Implementation" on October 1 , 2024 at 3pm in CS 302. Examiner: Prof. Kyle Jamieson (Advisor, CS), Prof. Yasaman Ghasempour (ECE), Prof. Andrew Appel (CS) Reader: Prof. Wyatt Lloyd (CS), Prof. Omid Abari (UCLA), Dr. Ranveer Chandra (MSR) All are welcome to attend. Title: Programmable Smart Radio Environments: From Theory to Hardware Implementation Abstract: Today ’s wireless networks are undergoing a rapid transformation, scaling in traffic vol- ume, spectral efficiency, and radio count as never seen before. This thesis addresses the critical challenges emerging from this evolution in next-generation (NextG) wire- less networks, focusing on realizing three key services: enhanced mobile broadband (Gbps or above), ultra-reliable low latency communication (order of milliseconds), and massive machine type communication (up to one million per squared kilometer). To meet these diverse and demanding requirements, this thesis poses a central question: Can we build a smarter radio environment controlled and learned by soft- ware, configuring itself in real-time to meet different application needs? Current approaches to handle uncontrolled wireless signals are end-to-end. Unfortunately, sending and receiving endpoints are limited in their ability to shape this inherent propagation behavior. For instance, although multiple antennas can shape the beam pattern departing the sender, it cannot control how the resulting signals arrive at the receiver after traversing environmental obstacles. By focusing on changing the envi- ronment itself rather than the communication endpoints, this thesis offers a significant shift in design paradigms for modern wireless networks. First, millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology offers multi-Gbps data rates due to its wide spectral bands. However, the high frequency of mmWave signals makes them vulnerable to blockage by walls, people, and obstacles, significantly limiting their practical applications. This thesis introduces mmWall, a programmable smart surface deployed on buildings to fully control the mmWave radio environment. Com- prising over 4,000 sub-millimeter meta-materials, mmWall can steer signals through the surface or reflect them, bringing outdoor mmWave signals indoors and bypassing obstacles. Also, this thesis proposes Wall-Street, a smart surface installed on vehicles to provide seamless and reliable mmWave connectivity in high-mobility scenarios. Second, satellite networks uses constellations of thousands of satellites to provide low latency communication and global coverage. However, these networks face two significant challenges: outages due to transient blockage, and complications in beam alignment between users and satellites due to the use of different frequency sub-bands in the uplink and downlink directions. Extending the concept of a programmable smart radio to satellite communications, this thesis introduces Wall-E, a dual-band smart surface that mitigates signal blockage and enhances reliability of satellite-to- ground links, and Monolith, a smart surface that boosts inter-satellite link capacity. Third, while these smart surfaces address challenges at the physical layer, we also tackle issues at the link/MAC layer, particularly in massive Internet of Things (IoT) networks. This thesis introduces Cross-Link Channel Prediction (CLCP), a ma- chine learning technique that learns the radio environment and accordingly allocates networking resources to a large number of IoT devices. This AI-driven approach com- plements my programmable surfaces, creating a comprehensive smart radio solution for NextG networks.

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Joomy Korkut will present his FPO "Foreign Function Verification Through Metaprogramming" on October 9th, 2024 at 3pm in
by Gradinfo 25 Sep '24

25 Sep '24

Joomy Korkut will present his FPO "Foreign Function Verification Through Metaprogramming" on October 9th, 2024 at 3pm in Friend 202. Committee members: Examiners: Andrew Appel (adviser), Aarti Gupta, David Walker Readers: Zakary Kincaid and Matthieu Sozeau (INRIA Nantes) All are welcome to attend. Abstract: CertiCoq is a compiler from Coq to C that is verified in Coq. Thanks to CertiCoq’s mechanically checked proof of compiler correctness, users can be sure that programs they write and verify in Coq’s rich type system output the same results when compiled to C (and to machine language, via the CompCert verified compiler). However, in practice, large programs are rarely written in a single language; additional languages are used for better performance or for capabilities that the primary language lacks. In particular, because Coq lacks user-defined primitive types, mutation, and input/output actions, CertiCoq-compiled code must interact with another language to have those capabilities. Specifically, Coq code must be able to call C code and C code must be able to inspect and generate Coq values and call Coq code. But what happens to the correctness proofs when these two languages interact? A foreign C function has to be memory-safe, return the expected result, and have the expected side effect (or no effect). A specification that expresses these requirements must combine plain Coq, for the functional parts, and a program logic for C (such as the Verified Software Toolchain [VST]), for the verification of C functions. While VST is embedded in Coq, its specification language is quite different. Bridging this gap by connecting plain Coq and VST theorems in both directions requires a system of techniques and methods, many of which are made feasible by using metaprogramming as a general methodological approach. In this dissertation, I describe these techniques and methods. VST proofs about C foreign functions do not directly translate to proofs about Coq primitives. To bridge this gap, I propose a method of relating foreign functions and types to their functional models, allowing users to write proofs in plain Coq. I also provide examples of Coq programs with primitive types, mutation, and I/O actions, along with their correctness proofs, and demonstrate VeriFFI, the verified foreign function interface for CertiCoq.

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Invitation: Natural and Artificial Minds Launch Event: Thurs, Sept 26, 4pm
by Emily C. Lawrence 20 Sep '24

20 Sep '24

You are invited to the launch event for [ https://ai.princeton.edu/nam | Natural and Artificial Minds ] (NAM), a new AI Lab research initiative reenvisioning theory-driven cognitive science research in the age of artificial intelligence. [ https://ai.princeton.edu/nam-launch | Natural and Artificial Minds (NAM) Launch Event ] Date: Thursday, September 26, 4-6pm Location: Maeder Hall at Andlinger Center, 86 Olden Street [ https://forms.gle/bAMBy4PWEY8w3g61A | Registration ] The program opens with remarks by NAM co-directors Sarah-Jane Leslie and Tania Lombrozo. Two distinguished keynote lectures will follow: “Natural and Artificial Minds: Are they as Smart as We think?” by James L. (Jay) McClelland , and “ Empowerment as Causal Learning: Causal Learning as Empowerment ” by Alison Gopnik. The event will conclude with a reception. We look forward to seeing you on September 26 th ! Best regards, Sarah-Jane and Tania Sarah-Jane Leslie Class of 1943 Professor of Philosophy Tania Lombrozo Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Psychology

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CSML Lunchtime Faculty Series: Sept 24 at 12:30pm
by Emily C. Lawrence 19 Sep '24

19 Sep '24

Center for Statistics and Machine Learning Faculty Lunchtime Seminars Featuring CSML Affiliated Faculty Members Speaker: Peter Henderson, Princeton University Title: AI Safety, Governance, and Evaluation When Models Can be Customized Day: September 24, 2024 Place CSML, Bendheim House, 26 Prospect Ave, Room 103 Time: 12:30-1:30 PM Lunch available from12:15 with RSVP to csml(a)princeton.edu Host: Peter Ramadge, CSML Director, Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor of Engineering Event info: [ https://csml.princeton.edu/events/ai-safety-governance-and-evaluation-when-… | https://csml.princeton.edu/events/ai-safety-governance-and-evaluation-when-… ] Abstract: New regulatory requirements would have AI model developers assure that models cannot induce harms even when downstream users can modify the model in different ways. This talk will examine these regulatory regimes, the challenges of such pre-deployment evaluation requirements, and potential paths forward for addressing safety concerns.

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Ziyang Xu will present his FPO "A Fast and Extensible Memory Profiling Framework" on September 27, 2024 at 10am in Friend 125.
by Nicki Mahler 16 Sep '24

16 Sep '24

Ziyang Xu will present his FPO "A Fast and Extensible Memory Profiling Framework" on September 27, 2024 at 10am in Friend 125. The members of his committee are as follows: Examiners: David August (adviser), Aarti Gupta, Amit Levy Readers: Zachary Kincaid and Simone Campanoni (Northwestern University) Abstract: Recent advancements in automatic parallelization offer a promising way to fully leverage modern processors, yet these techniques remain underutilized. To understand this gap, this dissertation presents a field study of the computational usage and needs. The study reveals that although many researchers have access to abundant parallel resources, they often lack the necessary tools or expertise to utilize them effectively, highlighting the need for practical, user-friendly, and efficient solutions. This dissertation explores the practicality of memory profiling, a critical technique for automatic parallelization. Memory profiling captures programs' dynamic memory behavior, assisting in debugging, tuning, and enabling advanced compiler optimizations. Building practical memory profilers often requires extensive compiler expertise, adeptness in program optimization, and significant implementation efforts, leaving a gap in the availability of fast and efficient profilers. To bridge this gap, this dissertation presents PROMPT, a pioneering framework for streamlined development of fast memory profilers. With it, developers only need to specify profiling events and define the core profiling logic, bypassing the complexities of custom instrumentation and intricate memory profiling components and optimizations. By integrating dynamic binary instrumentation alongside LLVM-IR and source instrumentation, PROMPT ensures comprehensive memory access coverage while reducing reliance on binary instrumentation. Two state-of-the-art memory profilers were ported to PROMPT with all features preserved. By focusing on the core profiling logic, the code was reduced by more than 65% and the profiling speed was improved by 5.3x and 7.1x respectively. To further underscore PROMPT's impact, a tailored memory profiling workflow was constructed for a sophisticated compiler optimization client. In just 570 lines of code, this redesigned workflow satisfies the client's memory profiling needs while achieving more than 90% reduction in profiling time and improved robustness compared to the original profilers.

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Reminder: PPH seminar TODAY @ 12 pm, Guillermo Sapiro
by Emily C. Lawrence 12 Sep '24

12 Sep '24

Please join the Princeton Precision Health (PPH) Initiative for a seminar on Friday, September 13, at 12:00 pm, at 252 Nassau Street: Guillermo Sapiro, PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Princeton University A Wearable-Based Biomarker of Aging and Its Association With Disease and Behavior Biomarkers of aging play a vital role in understanding human longevity and have the potential to inform clinical decisions and new interventions. Existing measures of biological age are typically based on blood, saliva, vital signs, or clinical imaging. Wearables, however, can make convenient, frequent, and inexpensive measurements throughout daily life, scaled to an entire population. We propose PPGAge, a biomarker that is non-invasively, passively, and longitudinally measurable by photoplethysmography (PPG) collected from a consumer wearable. With data from the Apple Heart & Movement Study (n=213,593 participants and over 149 million participant-days), we develop a statistical model of healthy aging and study its association with disease and behavior. PPGAge predicts chronological age with mean absolute error (MAE) of 2.43 years (95% CI 2.33--2.53) in a healthy cohort and 3.18 years (95% CI 3.16--3.19) in a general cohort. Among participants with a PPGAge gap (i.e., the deviation between predicted age and chronological age) larger than 6 years, diagnosis rates of heart disease, heart failure, and diabetes are 1.5--5 times the age- and sex-adjusted average. PPGAge is also associated with behavior, including smoking, exercise, and sleep. In longitudinal analyses, PPGAge exhibits a sharp increase during pregnancy and around the time of certain types of cardiac events. With additional evidence, PPGAge may be a useful surrogate for healthy aging in the study of human longevity and the treatment of age-related conditions. Joint work with A. Miller, J. Futoma, S. Abbaspourazad, C. Heinze-Deml, S. Emrani, and I. Shapiro. Lunch will be provided. Please note that getting to the seminar space currently requires that you climb a set of stairs. If an accommodation is needed, please contact PPH in advance at: [ mailto:princetonPPH@princeton.edu | princetonPPH(a)princeton.edu ]

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PPH seminar on Friday @ 12 pm, Guillermo Sapiro
by Emily C. Lawrence 09 Sep '24

09 Sep '24

Please join the Princeton Precision Health (PPH) Initiative for a seminar on Friday, September 13, at 12:00 pm, at 252 Nassau Street: Guillermo Sapiro, PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Princeton University A Wearable-Based Biomarker of Aging and Its Association With Disease and Behavior Biomarkers of aging play a vital role in understanding human longevity and have the potential to inform clinical decisions and new interventions. Existing measures of biological age are typically based on blood, saliva, vital signs, or clinical imaging. Wearables, however, can make convenient, frequent, and inexpensive measurements throughout daily life, scaled to an entire population. We propose PPGAge, a biomarker that is non-invasively, passively, and longitudinally measurable by photoplethysmography (PPG) collected from a consumer wearable. With data from the Apple Heart & Movement Study (n=213,593 participants and over 149 million participant-days), we develop a statistical model of healthy aging and study its association with disease and behavior. PPGAge predicts chronological age with mean absolute error (MAE) of 2.43 years (95% CI 2.33--2.53) in a healthy cohort and 3.18 years (95% CI 3.16--3.19) in a general cohort. Among participants with a PPGAge gap (i.e., the deviation between predicted age and chronological age) larger than 6 years, diagnosis rates of heart disease, heart failure, and diabetes are 1.5--5 times the age- and sex-adjusted average. PPGAge is also associated with behavior, including smoking, exercise, and sleep. In longitudinal analyses, PPGAge exhibits a sharp increase during pregnancy and around the time of certain types of cardiac events. With additional evidence, PPGAge may be a useful surrogate for healthy aging in the study of human longevity and the treatment of age-related conditions. Joint work with A. Miller, J. Futoma, S. Abbaspourazad, C. Heinze-Deml, S. Emrani, and I. Shapiro. Lunch will be provided. Please note that getting to the seminar space currently requires that you climb a set of stairs. If an accommodation is needed, please contact PPH in advance at: [ mailto:princetonPPH@princeton.edu | princetonPPH(a)princeton.edu ]

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DeCenter: upcoming events
by Emily C. Lawrence 05 Sep '24

05 Sep '24

The DeCenter hopes you had a great summer and is excited to welcome you back to campus with some exciting announcements. We are excited to announce our first two events of the year. Our first on-campus seminar of the year will be given by Aviv Zohar, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Princeton University Sabbatical Visitor. His talk, titled "Speculative Denial-of-Service Attacks in Ethereum," will take place on September 18th, 2024, at 4:30 PM in the Friend Center Convocation Room (113). We are also excited to announce the inaugural Princeton University DeCenter Alumni Mixer. This alumni-only event will take place on October 17th from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at the Arlo NoMad Hotel rooftop in NYC and will feature a short talk from the DeCenter faculty directors. The event is free to alums, but space is limited, so please register through the provided Eventbrite link to secure your spot. [ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1002571938657?aff=oddtdtcreator | https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1002571938657?aff=oddtdtcreator ]

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Yue Tan will present her FPO "FAASTEN: An Architecture and implementation for securing cloud applications" on September 5, 2024 at 11am in CS 302.
by Gradinfo 15 Aug '24

15 Aug '24

Yue Tan will present her FPO "FAASTEN: An Architecture and implementation for securing cloud applications" on September 5, 2024 at 11am in CS 302. The members of her committee are as follows: Amit Levy (advisor), Maria Apostolaki, Wyatt Lloyd Readers: Mae Milano and Marcus Peinado (Microsoft Research) All are welcome to attend. The FPO abstract follows below: Modern web applications have evolved into intricate networks of micro-applications, posing challenges in ensuring the security of user data confidentiality and integrity. In the current discretionary security paradigm, developers must enforce policies for every microapplication and all data paths that can arise at run-time. A promising alternative paradigm, decentralized information flow control (DIFC), suggests that the underlying system should enforce policies by tracking information flows. As the cloud has become a standard operating system for developing web applications, this paper proposes the first DIFC design for the cloud. We present Faasten, an architecture and implementation for securing cloud applications. Faasten includes a DIFC model and a FaaS-inspired system interface that implements the DIFC model. We provide a detailed interface security analysis and showcase how three representative cloud applications benefit from Faasten. We also show that Faasten introduces negligible latencies in controlling information flows and policy storage costs.

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