CAREER: A Unified Analytics Stack for Secure Computation

NSF Award Search · 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT · $680,519 · view on nsf.gov ↗

Abstract

This project introduces a unified software stack for secure computation that integrates cryptographic and hardware-based techniques, each with its own unique strengths, challenges, and performance characteristics. The project’s novelties include (i) software abstractions and intermediate representations that allow reusing functionality across technologies and workloads, (ii) a distributed and fault-tolerant system runtime for secure data analysis pipelines, and (iii) a versatile performance modeling and optimization framework that integrates diverse cost metrics to efficiently deploy secure data pipelines in heterogeneous environments. The project’s broader significance is the potential to enable secure analytics in a scalable fashion; an ability that will have implications on how modern society protects privacy and intellectual property while extracting value from data. The project includes three complementary thrusts that focus on software abstractions, scalable workload distribution, and cost-based optimization. The project designs a unified software architecture for secure analytics that supports diverse technologies (fully homomorphic encryption, secure multiparty computation, trusted execution environments) and workloads (machine learning, relational analytics, time series computations) on top of the same oblivious execution engine. Second, the project develops a novel parallel and distributed system runtime that scales secure computation within and across machines, leveraging heterogeneous resources and ensuring transparent fault tolerance. Finally, the project introduces original cost-based optimization techniques that incorporate performance objectives, threat models, and monetary budgets to enable automated planning of secure data pipelines. The project aims to make privacy-enhancing technologies a core component of the computer science education and to lay the foundation for a new generation of secure computing systems by rethinking the entire analyti

Key facts

NSF award ID
2541869
Awardee
Trustees of Boston University (MA)
SAM.gov UEI
THL6A6JLE1S7
PI
Ioannis Liagouris
Primary program
01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
All programs
SaTC: Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace, CAREER-Faculty Erly Career Dev, Nat Security, Secure Border & Pub Safety
Estimated total
$680,519
Funds obligated
$422,683
Transaction type
Continuing Grant
Period
05/15/2026 → 04/30/2031