Biography
I am a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department, University of British Columbia. I am part of the Systopia Lab (UBC’s Systems Group) and the UBC Security & Privacy Group. My research focuses on building more observable and transparent systems. I work on topics such as Digital Provenance, Auditing, Accountability, Intrusion Detection, and Systems Optimization. I recently received a Killam Connection award to create a new interdisciplinary course on Accountable Computer Systems, sitting at the intersection of Law, Sociology, and Computer Science. I am a member of the Green College’s (UBC) Common Room.
I obtained my PhD under the supervision of Prof. Jean Bacon in 2016 at the University of Cambridge (Jesus College). Before I joined UBC, I held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Harvard’s Center for Research on Computation and Society, a Research Associate position in the Digital Technology Group at the University of Cambridge, and a Research Fellowship position at St Edmund’s College (University of Cambridge). I worked at the frontier of Law and Computer Science as part of the Microsoft Cloud Computing Research Centre. Finally, I worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bristol.
- Digital Provenance
- Operating Systems
- Distributed Systems
- Data Protection and Privacy
- Intrusion Detection
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PhD in Computer Science, 2016
University of Cambridge
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MPhil in Advanced Computer Science, 2012
University of Cambridge
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Diplôme d'Ingénieur (apprenticeship), 2011
Institut Supérieur d'Electronique de Paris
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Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie (apprenticeship), 2008
Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers
Experience
Joining my lab
Contacting me
If you are planning to apply, please, do so through the UBC system, if you select me as a potential supervisor in the online form, I will review your application. I cannot process applications sent via e-mail and I will not review application packages sent by e-mail. I do not process applications before the closing deadline (December 15th). Further, note that Systopia receive several hundred applications every year, and it takes a non-trivial amount of time to review them carefully. We aim (but cannot guarantee) for all applicants to hear back from us by mid-April. I will not discuss admission outside of the departmental admission process.
Outside of this, please feel free to contact me if you have specific research connections / questions.
I am looking for PhD (or PhD Track) and MSc students with strong OS and/or Security skills to work on a broad range of systems and security projects. Please, look through my recent publications before contacting me. Make sure you explicitly list me in your application.
I will particularly focus on students interested in provenance-based intrusion detection and ready to start in September 2024.
Margo Seltzer and I are looking for an MSc/PhD student (fully funded) interested in working on provenance in the context of reproducibility in scientific experiments. Please apply to the UBC CS department before December 15th.
Make sure you explicitly list us in your application.
I am looking to work with students from all background (first generation students, and students from underrepresented and marginalized groups are encouraged to apply). Please, visit the prospective applicant page on UBC website and on the CS website. You can also find information about: financial support, application fee waivers, minimum requirements for admission into graduate studies, and minimum English proficiency requirements. You may also look at this page which describes my expectations when working with graduate students. Finally, you should have a look at UBC cost calculator.
Note: The Master of Science in Computer Science at UBC is a research degree. Students are expected to conduct research, submit papers for publication, and eventually write a thesis. You can find more information on the university website. While applications are not reviewed with the same expectations as those of PhD applicants, you should clearly demonstrate you have an interest and the capacity to conduct research.
A few facts
- You must apply online.
- Do check the application deadline on UBC’s website.
- The department starts processing applications in January for the next academic year.
- Students are admitted by the department, not by individual faculty members.
- Master and PhD applications are reviewed by the same committee. The PhD track is ideal for candidates who ultimately want to do a PhD, but do not feel ready yet.
- Even if you are well fitted for my group, I cannot guarantee admission.
Before applying
- Have a look at my publications.
- Identify matching interests.
- Understand that I will not supervise students outside of my area of expertise.
- Find a set of papers which aligns with your interests.
- Read the abstracts.
- Read at least one paper in full.
What to address in your statement of intent?
- Check the guidelines on the department website
- An SoI must address the three following points: 1) show you know what is research, 2) describe the research you have done, and 3) discuss what research you would like to do.
- The SoI is not about your life story.
- The relationship between a student and their advisor is an extremely important one and it will hopefully last for years.
- The commonality of interest should be clear from your statement.
- Listing half a dozen potential advisors from very different areas is most probably detrimental to your application.
- On the other hand, co-supervision is common and can be very positive.
- Therefore, link clearly potential advisors to your experience and your aspirations.
- Everything else being equal, an applicant that understands and shows why they should be working with a specific advisor are more likely to be successful.
- This is my personal opinion and may not be universally true.
If you get an offer letter
- Do not hesistate to get in touch to discuss specific details.
- Funding amounts on the offer letter is a guaranteed minimum, do contact me to discuss the actual amount.
- Apply for graduate accomodation as early as possible. Check the information online.
Selected Publications
Recent Publications
Recent & Upcoming Talks
Teaching
| UBC | ||
|---|---|---|
| CPSC 538S: Accountable Computer Systems | 2023-2024 | Winter 2 (January) |
| CPSC 436A: Operating Systems Design and Implementation | 2023-2024 | Winter 1 (September) |
| CPSC 538P: Topic in Computer Systems: Systems Security | 2022-2023 | Winter 2 (January) |
| CPSC 436A: Operating Systems Design and Implementation | 2022-2023 | Winter 1 (September) |
| Bristol | ||
|---|---|---|
| COMS20012: Computer Systems B (Operating Systems & Security) | 2020-2021 | TB2 (January) |
| COMSM0050: Systems and Software Security | 2020-2021 | TB1 (September) |
| COMSM1500: Systems Security | 2019-2020 | TB1 (September) |
| COMSM1500: Systems Security | 2018-2019 | TB1 (September) |
Service
Program Committee
- USENIX Security 2024
- ACM CCS 2022, 2023
- ACM SOSP 2023
- ACM SoCC 2023
- ACM EuroSys 2020, 2023, 2025
- IEEE EuroS&P 2023
- ACM/IFIP Middleware 2023
- ACM REP 2023
- IEEE IC2E 2021, 2022
- ACM M4IoT 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
- USENIX TaPP 2017, 2019
- IEEE CLAW 2016, 2017, 2018
Reviewer/External
Organization
Graduate & Thesis Students
Current Students
- Soo Yee Lim (PhD student, UBC)
- Xuechun Cao (PhD Track student, UBC)
- Jonas Tai (PhD Track Student, UBC) co-supervised with Mathias Lécuyer
- Nichole Boufford (MSc student, UBC)
- Jinyuan Liang (MSc student, UBC)
- Haley Li (MSc student, UBC) co-supervised with Mathias Lécuyer
- Tanya Prasad (MSc student, UBC)
Visiting Students
- Wellison Raul Mariz Santos (Visiting PhD Student, UFPE)
Past students (position held after graduation)
- Mayank Tiwary (MSc student, UBC) co-supervised with Ivan Beschastnikh, Senior Member of Technical Staff, Salesforce.
- Bogdan Stelea (MEng, Bristol), 2021, Software Engineer, Amazon.
- Josh Turner (MEng, Bristol), 2021, Software Engineer, Amiosec.
- Chetankumar Mistry (MEng, Bristol), 2020, Software Engineer, ARM.
- Xiaoxiao Wu (MSc, Bristol), 2020, Consultant, Deloitte.
- Yangyang Teng (MSc, Bristol), 2019, Data Analyst, Bloomberg.
- Ziying Shao (BSc, Bristol), 2019, UG Researcher, Beijing Institute of Big Data Research.
Contact
- tfjmp@cs.ubc.ca
- Office 301, 2366 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4
- DM Me