Graduate student honored for technical accomplishments in computing

An Auburn University graduate student has been honored by the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) for her outstanding accomplishments in computing.

Hairuo Xu, a doctoral student in computer science and software engineering, received an honorable mention in the 2020 NCWIT Collegiate Award competition. The award “recognizes technical contributions to projects that demonstrate a high level of innovation and potential impact,” according to NCWIT.

Xu was recognized for her work on a project titled “Toward the Verifiability Problem in Distributed Machine Learning: Attack Models and Detection Algorithms.” Her research examined security issues that have often been overlooked in distributed machine learning systems. Xu developed several threat and detection models, including the Random Noise Attack, the Gradient Ascent Attack and the Gaussian and Cosine Similarity Detection models, to evaluate the verification effectiveness of distributed machine learning systems.

Xu is advised by Tao Shu, associate professor of computer science and software engineering.

The NCWIT Collegiate Award celebrates the work of college students across the nation who self-identify as women, genderqueer or non-binary.

Xu discusses the technical aspects of her research in the video below.