Heather Zheng

Over the past 20 years, Heather Zheng’s work has covered significant ground in wireless networking, mobile systems, network measurements and security. Most recently, she has focused her research on two broad areas: mobile/IoT sensing and its implications on security and privacy (what does the increasing ubiquity of sensors for both wireless RF and audio mean for personal privacy and security), and security & privacy of deep learning systems (how can we design and train deep neural networks to improve security for computer systems while remaining robust against a wide range of powerful adversarial attacks).

She was selected as one of MIT Technology Review’s top innovators under the age of 35 in recognition of her work on cognitive radios, which was also recognized by the same publication as one of the 10 most important emerging technologies of that time. She is a fellow of the World Technology Network and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Prof. Zheng is also the co-director of the SAND Lab (Systems, Algorithms, Networking and Data) at UChicago.