We are always looking for motivated students and researchers to join our lab. If you’re interested, please read the information below and submit your application.
Research Directions
Our lab conducts research at the intersection of security, privacy, machine learning, and human-computer interaction. Current research directions include:
- AI Security: Security and privacy of AI systems, including prompt injection, jailbreak, adversarial attacks, membership inference attacks, backdoor attacks, and AI agent security.
- Data Privacy: Privacy compliance and enforcement (e.g., GDPR), personal information disclosure, location privacy, and user perceptions of data collection in IoT and public WiFi environments.
- System Security: Security of software systems including voice-controlled platforms, IoT ecosystems, authentication protocols, smart home automations, extended reality (XR), and WebAssembly runtime security.
We also welcome students who bring their own strong research ideas in related areas.
Who We Are Looking For
Prospective PhD Students
- We are looking for PhD students with strong research potential and interest in security, privacy, or trustworthy AI.
- If you have submitted an official application to UCLA CS, you do not need to contact us separately — we will review all applications. However, you are welcome to mention our lab in your application.
- If you would like to express interest before the application cycle, feel free to fill out the form below.
Postdoctoral Researchers
- We occasionally have openings for postdocs. If interested, please send your CV and a brief research statement to yuant@ucla.edu.
Research Interns (Visiting Students / Remote Interns)
We actively recruit research interns. Interns are expected to:
- Discuss research ideas regularly with the advisor and PhD students
- Collaborate on implementation, experiments, and paper writing
- Target submissions to top venues in security and AI (e.g., IEEE S&P, USENIX Security, CCS, NDSS, ICLR, NeurIPS)
Preferred qualifications (any of the following):
- Coursework or project experience in AI / deep learning
- Experience in HCI, AR/VR development
- Background in program analysis or penetration testing
- Solid engineering skills or prior research experience
- Undergraduate or Master’s student in CS or related fields
A minimum commitment of three months is recommended.
UCLA Undergraduate / Master’s Students
- The best way to get started is to take relevant courses in security or machine learning, and then reach out to us.
- If you are interested in a capstone or independent study project, please contact us well in advance.
How to Apply
First: Fill out the form below.
Second: Email us.
Please attach your CV and relevant materials (project experience, papers, code links, etc.). Use the following email subject format:
Research Internship Application – [Your Name] – [Degree: Undergrad/Master’s/PhD] – [University]
Send to: yuant@ucla.edu, CC: ucla.secpriv.lab@gmail.com
Due to the volume of applications, we may not be able to respond to every inquiry individually. We appreciate your understanding.