Applied Privacy Engineering and Science (APES) Lab
The Applied Privacy Engineering and Science (APES) Lab at Old Dominion University conducts innovative research into practical aspects of digital privacy and computer security. Recent topics the APES Lab has studied include trusted hardware, LLM security, and homomorphic encryption.
Sadly, the APES Lab does not conduct research on apes or any other cute animals – I am happy to change that, if any collaborators are interested.
Members
- Bikash Thapa
- PhD student at ODU, Fall 2025 - present
- Aaron Killinbeck
- Undergraduate student at ODU, Summer 2025 - present
- Alekhya Mengani
- MS student at ODU, Spring 2025 - Summer 2025
Affiliated Researchers and Mentees
- Hao Du
- MS student at Hokkaido University, Summer 2025 - present
Excellence in Cryptography and Privacy Award
The Excellence in Cryptography and Privacy Award is awarded by the APES Lab to ODU undergraduate or non-doctoral graduate students who demonstrate outstanding achievement in cryptography, privacy, or closely related areas. The award is competitive, with one award being granted per semester. Any or all of strong performance in courses, research excellence, or service to academic units, the University, or any other institution may be criteria for the award.
The winners of the Award are:
- Ben Jenkins, Spring 2025
- Ben Jenkins is a MS student in ODU’s Department of Computer Science, from which he also graduated with a BS in 2019. He is concurrently employed as a software engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center, where he develops and maintains flight simulators. His professional interests include EVTOL aircraft and their associated autonomous flight systems. In his free time, he enjoys running and studying kanji, hopes to take all 5 JLPT exams, and dreams of running the Tokyo Marathon.