Post-Quantum Cryptography
Stewarding the transition to quantum-resistant computing through standards, cryptographic agility, interoperable technologies, and practical migration pathways from policy to deployed systems.
PQC Area →
University of California, Irvine
Ro Cammarota
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Director, Confidential Intelligence Lab
Research Vision
Artificial intelligence and quantum technologies are reshaping the computing infrastructure on which society, industry, and national security increasingly depend. They are creating extraordinary new capabilities, but also changing long-standing assumptions about cybersecurity, privacy, and trust. My research asks how computing systems can remain secure, private, and resilient through this technological transformation.
I approach this challenge as an end-to-end systems problem, spanning cryptography, algorithms, software, computer architecture, and hardware. My work focuses on post-quantum cryptography and the migration toward quantum-resistant systems; privacy-enhancing technologies, particularly encrypted computation; protection of AI models and computing platforms against physical attacks; and resilient computing under faults and adversarial conditions.
The goal is not simply to defend today's systems against today's threats, but to build security, privacy, and resilience into the foundations of emerging computing infrastructure—and to translate these ideas into practical systems, open technologies, standards, and ultimately real-world adoption.
I pursue this research through the Confidential Intelligence Lab (CIL) at UC Irvine.
Research & Development Areas
Privacy-Enhancing Technologies
Building the foundations for computing on sensitive information without compromising its confidentiality, advancing privacy-enhancing technologies from cryptographic foundations and standards to efficient systems and real-world applications.
PETs Area →Confidential Intelligence
Exploring algorithms and computational paradigms inherently friendly to encrypted computation, and co-designing them with cryptography and computing systems to enable meaningful privacy-preserving applications at scale.
Encrypted Computation Area →Secure AI and Hardware Security
Building AI systems that remain trustworthy under physical attacks, natural perturbations, and hardware-level threats through cross-layer protection spanning algorithms, software, system architecture, and silicon.
Secure and Reliable Encrypted Computation Area →Recent
FPT.
Special Session,
Trustworthy and Agile FPGA Acceleration for Post-Quantum and
Privacy-Preserving Cryptography: Architectures, Automation, and Resilience.
Co-organized with Elif Bilge Kavun and Francesco Regazzoni.
2026.
FDTC.
Joint work with TU Dresden and Barkhausen Institut.
Structure-Aware Software Resilience for Number Theoretic Transforms.
FDTC.
2026.
SeHAS @ HiPEAC.
Program Co-Chair with Lilas Alrahis for the
Secure Hardware, Architecture and Software Workshop
.
2027.
DAC.
Keynote,
Encrypted Computing: From Cryptographic Curiosity to Infrastructure
for AI.
Secure and Private System Design for Generative & Agentic AI.
2026.
Associated blog →
Associated blog →
FHEmem.
Joint work with UC San Diego.
A Processing In-Memory Accelerator for Fully Homomorphic Encryption.
IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing;
Best Paper Runner-up.
2026.
GateBleed.
Joint work with NC State University.
Exploiting On-Core Accelerator Power Gating for High Performance
& Stealthy Attacks on AI.
Selected for IEEE Micro Top Picks.
2026.
Associated blog →
Associated blog →
DATE.
Invited talk,
Private AI on Modern Hardware.
Special Session on
Beyond Conventional Hardware Security: Next-Generation Design and
Security Evaluation for Hardware Architectures.
2026.
Associated blog →
Associated blog →
NSF SaTC.
Served as a panelist for the National Science Foundation
Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program.
2026.
Seoul.
Invited talks on FHE systems, homomorphic-encryption standardization,
and U.S. trends at the 9th Homomorphic Encryption Standardization
Meeting and the Private AI Initiative Workshop.
2026.
Associated blog →
Associated blog →
HERACLES.
Invited talks at Yonsei University and Seoul National University on
HERACLES: 8192-way SIMD Programmable Scalable Fully-Homomorphic
Encryption SoC for Privacy-Preserving Cloud Computing in Intel 3 CMOS.
2026.
Associated blog →
Associated blog →
Writing & Features
Security Guidelines for Homomorphic Encryption.
Reflections on practical security guidance for
homomorphic-encryption systems, accompanying the
Cryptography in Context article.
2026.
Article → · Blog →
Article → · Blog →
The future of encrypted computation.
Featured in IEEE Spectrum on HERACLES, practical fully homomorphic
encryption, and the evolution of encrypted-computing infrastructure.
2026.
Featured article →
Featured article →
Homomorphic encryption and the road to practical computing.
Earlier IEEE Spectrum feature on the development and potential
of fully homomorphic encryption.
2023.
Featured article →
Featured article →
Contact & Opportunities
Work With Us
I welcome inquiries from students, researchers, and collaborators interested in cryptography, privacy-enhancing technologies, secure AI, resilient computing, and related systems research.
Students & Collaborators →Office Hours
Students are welcome to meet with me to discuss courses, research opportunities, projects, and academic questions.
By appointment.
Contact
Donald Bren Hall 3076
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA
ro.cammarota [at] uci.edu