Congratulations to Vasisht Duddu and Rasoul Akhavan Mahdavi, the 2024 winners of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Excellence Graduate Scholarships. Generously sponsored by MasterCard and BTQ, each of these graduate students will receive $10,000 for attaining this prestigious award. We had many high calibre applicants for this year’s scholarships, the competition was the highest level it has been since the inception of this award in 2019.
Vasisht Duddu expressed the following upon receiving this award:
“My research examines how different machine learning defenses interact with various risks, emphasizing the need to consider unintended risks beyond those the defense was designed to address. I also work ensuring accountability in machine learning pipelines for regulatory compliance to establish trust in machine learning systems.
I am grateful to the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute for recognizing my work and reinforcing my belief in its relevance to both academia and industry. This award will provide financial support as I work to design machine learning systems that positively impact society while minimizing associated harms.”