I'm a PhD candidate in computer science at Brown University. I work on privacy and applied cryptography, advised by Seny Kamara. Broadly, my work focuses on designing usable cryptographic solutions. I also work with Elissa Redmiles and others on research that investigates image-based sexual abuse. My work is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

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selected work

Toward Safer Intimate Futures: Recommendations for Tech Platforms to Reduce Image Based Sexual Abuse
Lucy Qin, Vaughn Hamilton, Yigit Aydinalp, Marin Scarlett, Sharon Wang, Elissa M. Redmiles
European Sex Workers Rights Alliance Report. 2023.

Synq: Public Policy Analytics over Encrypted Data.
Zachary Espiritu, Marilyn George, Seny Kamara, Lucy Qin*
To Appear at IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy. 2024.

Attached to “The Algorithm”: Making Sense of Algorithmic Precarity on Instagram.
Yim Register, Lucy Qin, Amanda Baughan, Emma S. Spiro
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2023.

Outside Looking In: Approaches to Content Moderation in End-to-End Encrypted Systems.
Seny Kamara, Mallory Knodel, Emma Llansó, Greg Nojeim, Lucy Qin*, Dhanaraj Thakur, Caitlin Vogus
Center for Democracy and Technology Report. 2021.

A Decentralized and Encrypted National Gun Registry. [Wired, Conference Video, Seminar Video]
Seny Kamara, Tarik Moataz, Andrew Park, Lucy Qin*
IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy. 2021.

From Usability to Secure Computing and Back Again. [Video, Slides]
Lucy Qin, Andrei Lapets, Frederick Jansen, Peter Flockhart, Kinan Dak Albab, Ira Globus-Harris, Shannon Roberts, Mayank Varia.
USENIX Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy (SOUPS). 2019.

Callisto: A Cryptographic Approach to Detecting Serial Perpetrators of Sexual Misconduct.
Anjana Rajan, Lucy Qin, David W. Archer, Dan Boneh, Tancrède Lepoint, Mayank Varia.
ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies. 2018.

Accessible Privacy-Preserving Web-Based Data Analysis for Assessing and Addressing Economic Inequalities.
Andrei Lapets, Frederick Jansen, Kinan Dak Albab, Rawane Issa, Lucy Qin, Mayank Varia, Azer Bestavros
ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies. 2018.

* Names listed alphabetically.
Additional publications available here.

teaching

CSCI 1952V: Algorithms for the People
Co-Instructor. Brown Computer Science. Fall 2021.

Hiding in Plain Sight: An Introduction to the Art of Cryptography
Instructor. Brown Pre-College. Summer 2021 & 2022.

talks

Where Do Threat Models Come From? Challenging Implicit Assumptions.
Joint Talk with Leah Namisa Rosenbloom and Kris Shrishak
Workshop on Hot Topics in Privacy Enhancing Technologies (HotPETs). 2023.

Deploying MPC for Social Good. [Video, Slides]
Real World Crypto. 2019.

other

Callisto
Cryptography Board Member.

Community-Driven Cryptography
Co-Organizer.

while you're here

Check out the exciting work my labmates are doing!

Kweku Kwegyir-Aggrey. Machine Learning Theory and Fairness.

Leah Namisa Rosenbloom. Cryptography for Grassroots Organizing.

Victor Youdom Kemmoe. Cryptography and Distributed Computing.