Shuya Feng
Assistant Professor in Computer Science
Biography
I'm an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB). My research lies at the intersection of privacy, security, and machine learning, with a particular focus on developing privacy-preserving technologies for real-world applications. I'm especially interested in differential privacy mechanisms for streaming data and distributed machine learning systems.
I earned my Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Connecticut, where I was advised by Dr. Yuan Hong. Before that, I received my M.S. and B.S. in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology and Harbin Institute of Technology, respectively.
🎓 I'm recruiting PhD students!
I am recruiting Ph.D. students to join my team! If you're passionate about privacy-preserving technologies, differential privacy, or machine learning security, feel free to reach out to me at fengs [AT] uab [DOT] edu.
I am recruiting Ph.D. students to join my team! If you're passionate about privacy-preserving technologies, differential privacy, or machine learning security, feel free to reach out to me at fengs [AT] uab [DOT] edu.
Interests
- Security and Privacy
- Data Privacy & Differential Privacy
- Responsible AI
- ML Privacy & Security
- LLM Privacy & Security
- Usable Security
Education
🎓 Ph.D. Computer Science & Engineering, 2025
University of Connecticut
🎓 M.S. Computer Science, 2017
Illinois Institute of Technology
🎓 B.S. Computer Science, 2015
Harbin Institute of Technology
News
[Aug. 2025]
Position
Started as Assistant Professor at University of Alabama Birmingham!
[Nov. 2024]
Talk
Guest Lecture at CSE5173 Deep Learning, University of Cincinnati.
[July 2024]
Award
Received Conference Participation Award by The Graduate School UConn.
[May 2024]
Award
Received The Marion and Frederick Buckman Engineering Fellowship.
[May 2024]
Internship
Completed Research Intern position at Amazon, NYC.
[Apr. 2024]
Award
Received Travel Conferenceship by IEEE S&P.
Conference Papers
Harmonizing Differential Privacy Mechanisms in Federated Learning: Ensuring Boosted Accuracy and Convergence
(CODASPY 2025)
This work addresses privacy challenges in federated learning by harmonizing differential privacy mechanisms to ensure both privacy protection and model accuracy convergence.
Delay-allowed Differentially Private Data Stream Release
(NDSS 2025)
Novel approach to differentially private data stream release that allows controlled delays to improve privacy-utility trade-offs in streaming applications.
RankFlow: A Multi-Role Collaborative Reranking Workflow Utilizing Large Language Models
(WWW 2025)
Multi-role collaborative framework for reranking using large language models to improve information retrieval and ranking performance.
DPI: Ensuring Strict Differential Privacy for Infinite Data Streaming
(IEEE S&P 2025)
Addresses the challenge of ensuring differential privacy in infinite data streams with strict privacy guarantees. [Acceptance Rate: 14.9%, *Equal Contribution]
Enhanced body composition estimation from 3d body scans
(BIOINFORMATICS 2024)
Novel method for estimating body composition from 3D body scans using advanced computational techniques.
Towards Accurate and Stronger Local Differential Privacy for Federated Learning with Staircase Randomized Response
(CODASPY 2024)
Improved local differential privacy mechanisms for federated learning with enhanced accuracy and stronger privacy guarantees. [Acceptance Rate: 34/160=21.25%]
A Model-Agnostic Approach to Differentially Private Topic Mining
(ACM KDD 2022)
Framework for privacy-preserving topic mining that works across different ML models. [Acceptance Rate: 254/1695=14.99%, *Equal Contribution]
Security Analysis of Block Withholding Attacks in Blockchain
(IEEE ICC 2021)
Analysis of security vulnerabilities in blockchain mining protocols and mitigation strategies for block withholding attacks.
Teaching
CS334/534 Networking
University of Alabama Birmingham
Aug 2025 - Dec 2025 • Instructor
CSE4400 Computer Security
University of Connecticut
Jan 2023 - May 2023 • Teaching Assistant
CSE1010 Introduction to Computing for Engineers
University of Connecticut
Aug 2022 - Dec 2022 • Teaching Assistant
CS425 Database Organization
Illinois Institute of Technology
Jan 2022 - May 2022 • Teaching Assistant
CS528 Data Privacy and Security
Illinois Institute of Technology
Aug 2021 - Dec 2021 • Teaching Assistant
Contact
📧
fengs@uab.edu
🏢
Department of Computer Science
University of Alabama Birmingham
University of Alabama Birmingham