Kui
(Quinn) Ren

Assistant Professor

Ubiquitous Security & PrivaCy Research Laboratory (UbiSeC Lab)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Illinois Institute of Technology

Address: 3301 S Dearborn St, SH 319, Chicago, IL 60616

Phone: 312-567-3481   Fax: 312-567-8976
Email: kren (-^-) ece-*-iit-*-edu






News: 


Research

My research interests lie in the general areas of Cloud Computing, Wireless networking, Smart Grid, and Cyber Physical systems with the focus on Security and Privacy related aspects. Currently, my research is supported by National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, Air Force Research Lab, and Amazon Web Services. According to Google Scholar, the citations of my publications are over 1,600 times, and my h-Index is 21 as of April 2012. For more details, please visit UbiSeC lab.


     Selected Publications in 2011 & 2012: (a more complete list):
  • K-Indistinguishable Traffic Padding in Web Applications, PETS'12, with W-M. Liu, L. Wang, P. Cheng, and M. Debbabi.
  • Quantitative Analysis of Load Redistribution Attack in Electric Grid, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, with Y. Yuan, and Z. Li.
  • When Cloud Meets eBay: Towards Effective Pricing for Cloud Computing, IEEE INFOCOM'12, with Q. Wang and X. Meng.
  • Achieving Usable and Privacy-assured Similarity Search over Outsourced Cloud Data, IEEE INFOCOM'12, with C. Wang , S. Yu, and K. Mahendra Raje Urs.
  • Joint UFH and Power Control for Effective Wireless Anti-Jamming Communication, IEEE INFOCOM'12, with K. Xu and Q. Wang.
  • Locating Malicious Nodes for Data Aggregation in Wireless Networks, IEEE INFOCOM'12, Mini-Conference, with X. Xu, Q. Wang, J. Cao, P.-J. Wan, and Y. Chen.
  • Security Challenges for the Public Cloud, IEEE Internet Computing, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 69-73, Jan/Feb, 2012, with C. Wang and Q. Wang. (Invited Paper)
  • Privacy-preserving Public Auditing for Secure Cloud Storage, IEEE Transactions on Computers, with C. Wang, S. Chow, Q. Wang, and W. Lou.
  • Enabling Secure and Efficient Ranked Keyword Search over Outsourced Cloud Data, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, with C. Wang, N. Cao, and W. Lou.
  • Anti-jamming Communication in Cognitive Radio Networks with Unknown Channel Statistics, IEEE ICNP'11, with Q. Wang and P. Ning. (Best Paper Award)
  • Cooperative Secret Key Generation from Phase Estimation in Narrowband Fading Channels, IEEE JSAC, Special Issue on Cooperative Networking: Challenges and Applications, with Q. Wang and K. Xu.
  • Towards Optimal Adaptive UFH-based Anti-jamming Wireless Communication, IEEE JSAC, Special Issue on Game Theory in Wireless Communications, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 16-30, Jan, 2012, with Q. Wang, P. Xu, and X.-Y. Li.
  • Towards Optimal Electric Demand Management for Internet Data Centers, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 183-192, 2012, with J. Li, Z. Li, and X. Liu.
  • Harnessing the Cloud for Securely Solving Large-scale Systems of Linear Equations, IEEE ICDCS'11, with C. Wang J. Wang, and K. Mahendra Raje Urs.
  • Privacy-perserving Query over Encrypted Graph-Structured Data in Cloud Computing, IEEE ICDCS'11, with N. Cao, Z. Yang, C. Wang, and W. Lou.
  • Modeling Load Redistribution Attacks in Power System, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 382-390, June, 2011, with Y. Yuan and Z. Li.
  • Secret Key Generation Exploiting Channel Characteristics in Wireless Communication, IEEE Wireless Communications, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 6-12, 2011, with H. Su and Q. Wang.
  • Secure and Practical Outsourcing of Linear Programming in Cloud Computing, IEEE INFOCOM'11, with C. Wang and J. Wang.
  • Delay-Bounded Adaptive UFH-based Anti-jamming Wireless Communication, IEEE INFOCOM'11, with Q. Wang, P. Xu, and X.-Y. Li.
  • Fast and Scalable Secret Key Generation Exploiting Channel Phase Randomness in Wireless Networks, IEEE INFOCOM'11, with Q. Wang, H. Su, and K. Kim.
  • Privacy-Preserving Multi-keyword Ranked Search over Encrypted Cloud Data, IEEE INFOCOM'11, with N. Cao, C. Wang, M. Li, and W. Lou.


     Funded Research Projects:
  • Engineering Secure Data Computation Outsourcing in Cloud Computing, National Science Foundation, PI, 09/01/2011 - 08/31/2013 (Project Link)
  • Exploiting Pairing-based ZKP for Tactical Network Authentication, Air Force Research Laboratory, PI, 2011
  • Mobile Content Distribution in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks, National Science Foundation, PI, 08/01/2011 - 07/31/2014
  • CAREER: Secure and Privacy-assured Data Service Outsourcing in Cloud Computing, National Science Foundation, PI, 08/01/2011 - 07/31/2016 (Project Link)
  • New Approaches for Secure and Dependable Data Storage and Access Control in Mission-critical Wireless Sensor Networks, National Science Foundation, PI, 09/01/2008 - 08/31/2012
  • Energy Efficiency Research for Large-Scale Internet Data Centers, Illinois Institute of Technology, Interdisciplinary Seed Funding Grants, PI, 03/01/2011 - 02/31/2012
  • A World-class Smart Grid Workforce Training Center, Department of Energy, Co-PI, 03/01/2010 - 02/28/2013

Teaching
  • ECE 543 Computer Network Security
  • ECE 546 Wireless Security
  • ECE 443 Introduction to Computer Security (with Lab)


Hornors and Awards

  • National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, 2011
  • Best Paper Award, the Nineteenth IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP'11), Vancouver, BC, Canada, Oct. 17-20, 2011 
  • Best Paper Award, the Fourth International ICST Conference on Communications and Networking in China (Chinacom'09), Xi'an, China, Aug. 26-28, 2009
  • Best Paper Award, International Conference on Wireless Algorithms, Systems, and Applications (WASA'06), Xi'an, China, Aug. 15-18, 2006.


Professional Activities



Invited Talks

  • The Challenges of Cloud Computing Security, Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory, April, 2012
  • Secure Computation Outsourcing in the Public Cloud, 2012 CRISP Workshop on Information Security and Privacy, University of Denver, April, 2012
  • Cloud Computation and End-to-end Security, Panel on "End-to-end Security for Cloud Computing", NSF Workshop on Security for Cloud Computing, March, 2012
  • Storage Outsourcing Security in the Public Cloud, University at Buffalo, February, 2012
  • Security Challenges for the Public Cloud, University of Michigan-Dearborn, November, 2011
  • Security Challenges for the Public Cloud, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, November, 2011
  • Security Challenges in Cloud Computing, University of Massachussets-Lowell, October, 2011
  • Security Challenges in Cloud Computing, Indiana University Purdue University Indianappolis, September, 2011
  • Security Challenges in Cloud Computing, Governor State University, August, 2011
  • Secure Computation Outsourcing in Cloud Computing, The 11th Emerging Information and Technology Conference (EITC-2011), Chicago, July, 2011
  • Data Service Outsourcing Security in Cloud Computing, University of Science and Technology of China, April, 2011
  • Data Service Outsourcing Security in Cloud Computing, Shanghai Jiaotong University, April, 2011
  • Security and Privacy in Cloud Computing, IEEE INFOCOM 2011 Panel on "The Challenges of Cloud Computing", Shanghai, China, April, 2011
  • Data Service Outsourcing Security in Cloud Computing, Department of CISE, University of Florida, April, 2011
  • Data and Computation Outsourcing Security in Cloud Computing, NSF PI Meeting: The Science of Cloud Computing, National Science Foundation, Washington DC, March, 2011
  • Storage Security in Cloud Computing, Department of ECE, University of Florida, December, 2010
  • Storage Security in Cloud Computing, Department of ECE, University of Waterloo, September, 2010
  • Storage Security in Cloud Computing, Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE), Concordia University, September, 2010
  • Wireless Mesh Network Security, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL/RI), July, 2010
  • Zero-Knowledge Proof and its Application in Tactical Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL/RI), July, 2010
  • Authentication Techniques for Tactical Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL/RI), June, 2010
  • Secure Data Services in Cloud Computing, Department of CS, Illinois Institute of Technology, November, 2009
  • Secure Data Services in Cloud Computing, Shanghai Jiaotong University, August, 2009
  • Multiuser Broadcast Authentication in Wireless Sensor Networks, Northern Illinois University, February, 2008
  • Multiuser Broadcast Authentication in Wireless Sensor Networks, George Mason University, November, 2007
  • Security Research in Wireless Sensor Networks, University of Alabama, Huntsville, February 2007


Current Students

  • Qian Wang, PhD Student, started from Fall 2008  
  • Cong Wang, PhD Student, started from Fall 2008   
  • Zhen Xu, PhD Student, started from Fall 2011
  • Zhan Qin, PhD Student, Started from Spring 2012  
  • Yang Xu, Master Student
  • Kaihe Xu, Master Student
  • I am also working closely with the following PhD students: Jie Li, Yanling Yuan

Keep Looking. Don't Settle. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. -- S.J.
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. -- S.J.

    Last updated on 04/2012.