About Me

Hello to whoever steps on this page :)

I am Weijia, an Assistant professor (Lecturer) in the School of ECS at the University of Southampton. I mainly work on human-centred security and privacy research, often with a focus on ubiquitous computing systems. As a believer that technology is the closest form of magic we can find in the real world, I always feel excited about how computing systems can impact the physical world and how we can utilize this magic to better support people’s lives. I have done loads of security and privacy research on home IoT devices, and I am looking forward to doing more in other ubiquitous computing systems (e.g., AR/VR, smart environment, etc.)

Before joining the University of Southampton, I was a postdoctoral researcher at Dartmouth College, working with Professor David Kotz on the SPLICE project. I obtained my Ph.D. degree of Computer Science at University of Chicago, advised by Professor Blase Ur, and my B.Eng. in Cybersecurity from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2017.

I am looking for prospective Ph.D. students to join me in 2025. I also welcome master students or undergrads who would like to get a taste of what research is like. If my research sounds like something you would love to explore more, feel free to drop me an email.

Employment

• University of Southampton (2024-Present)
  • Lecturer/Assistant professor
• Dartmouth College (2022-2024)
  • Postdoctoral researcher

Education

• University of Chicago (2017-2022)
  • Ph.D. in Computer Science (2022)
  • M.S. in Computer Science (2020)
• Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2013-2017)
  • B.Eng. in Cybersecurity

Service

• PC Member, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland): 2025
• PC Member, ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS): 2024
• PC Member, The Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS): 2024 and 2023.
• Publication Chair, The Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS): 2023 and 2022.
• PC Member, Workshop on Security and Privacy in Standardized IoT (SDIoTSec): 2024
• PC Member, Symposium on Usable Security (USEC) 2023 Program: 2024 and 2023.
• Poster jury, Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS): 2022, 2021.
• Artifact Evaluation Committee (AEC) Member, Usenix Security Symposium: 2022, 2021.
• Shadow PC member, The 41st IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, 2020.
• PC member, “Ubiquitous Privacy: Research and Design for Mobile and IoT Platforms” - The Networked Privacy Workshop at CSCW 2019.
• PC member, The 4th European Workshop on Usable Security: 2020 and 2019.

Awards

• Siebel Scholar, class of 2022 ($35,000)
• Finalist for the 2020 NortonLifeLock Graduate Fellowship
• 2019 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy Student Travel Grant ($1,250).
• 2018 USENIX Security Student Grant ($745).
• 2018 SOUPS Student Grant ($770).