Siddharth Garg is a

cybersecurity Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, th ...

researcher and associate professor at

New York University Tandon School of Engineering The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...

. He is also a member o
NYU WIRELESS
Garg is known for his research leveraging machine learning to securely manufacture computer chips so they are less prone to hacking. In 2016, he was named one of ''

Popular Science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...

'' magazine's "Brilliant 10."

Education

Garg attended

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. As one of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), it is recognized as an Institute of National Importance and ha ...

where he received his

Bachelor of Technology A Bachelor of Technology (Latin ''Baccalaureus Technologiae'', commonly abbreviated as B.Tech. or BTech; with honours as B.Tech. (Hons.)) is an undergraduate academic degree conferred after the completion of a three to five-year program of stu ...

degree in 2004. He then attended Stanford University for his

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast ...

degree in electrical engineering 2005. For his

doctoral A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' ...

research, he attended

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

, where he received his PhD in 2009. His doctoral advisor was

Diana Marculescu Diana Marculescu is the Department Chair and Motorola Regents Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering #2 at the University of Texas at Austin. She was formerly the David Edward Schramm Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carneg ...

and his dissertation, entitled ''System-level modeling and mitigation of the impact of process variations on digital integrated circuits'', received Carnegie Mellon's

Angel G. Jordan Angel G. Jordan (born as Ángel Jordán Goñi; September 19, 1930 – August 4, 2017) was a Spanish-born American electronics and computer engineer known as the founder of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and co-founder of the Robotics Insti ...

Award for outstanding thesis contribution.

Career

Following Garg's postdoctoral work, he became an assistant professor at

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...

from 2010 to 2014, before moving to

, where he is currently an associate professor. His research interests bridge

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

and

. His research group has investigated how

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

can be exploited by malicious actors. They found that it is possible to embed behavior in artificial intelligence algorithms, for example those used for speech recognition, that can emerge in response to certain signals. Garg and his team showed that they could train an image recognition algorithm to interpret a stop sign as a speed limit signal by placing a post-it note over it. When such behavior is programmed by malicious actors, it's known as a "backdoor." They are working to understand different backdoors in order to develop ways to proactively detect them. Garg has also worked to develop manufacturing protocols for computer chips to make them resistant to hacking attempts.

Awards and honors

* Brilliant 10, ''

'', 2016 *

National Science Foundation CAREER Awards The National Science Foundation CAREER awards, presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF), are in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through research and education, and the integration of these endeavors i ...

, 2015

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garg, Siddharth Data scientists New York University faculty Academic staff of the University of Waterloo Carnegie Mellon University alumni IIT Madras alumni 1980s births Stanford University alumni Indian LGBT scientists Living people