Ariel Hamlin

Education

• PhD in Computer Science, Northeastern University
• BS in Computer Science and Civil Engineering, Tufts University

Biography

Ariel Hamlin is an assistant teaching professor at the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, based in Boston.

Driven by the ubiquity and vulnerability of cloud-based data storage, Hamlin is passionate about protecting that data, and seeks to build servers that can host a private database without learning about its contents or the queries made upon it. They feel that it is necessary to balance security and privacy with this sort of system functionality, especially as users move more and more of their data — including sensitive medical and financial data — from personal computers to cloud providers.

At Khoury College, they are a member of the Algorithms and Theory group, and they teach the “Theory of Computation” and “Discrete Structures” courses. Hamlin’s teaching journey began with their mentors at Tufts, who motivated them to pursue a doctorate rather than entering industry. Now Hamlin wants to pass on that mentorship and help students realize that computer scientists come in many forms, and that they are not alone.

Before joining Khoury College in 2023, Hamlin was a member of the technical staff at MIT’s Lincoln Lab, where they researched advanced cryptography, including multi-party computation for AI and zero-knowledge evaluation. Outside of academia, they enjoy skiing, playing Dungeons & Dragons, and spending time with their very demanding cat.

Recent publications