Miranda Wei

PhD candidate at the University of Washington

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I am on the job market for research-oriented roles in computer science, information science, or related fields, starting 2025!

I’m a PhD candidate at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington in the Security & Privacy Research Lab and affiliated with the Tech Policy Lab. Broadly, I study the role of computing and information technologies in perpetuating individual and societal harm, with particular attention to contemporary sociocultural lenses and emerging technologies. My research interests lie at the intersections of security and privacy (S&P), human-computer interaction (HCI), and feminist science and technology studies (STS). I publish in leading security, privacy, and HCI venues, including USENIX Security, IEEE S&P, CHI, SOUPS, IMC, and CCS.

My recent work has focused on addressing online abuse as a new frontier of S&P challenges in three key directions:

  1. characterizing emerging digital safety threats, such as synthetic nonconsensual explicit imagery (“deepfake nudes”) and interpersonal surveillance;
  2. evaluating existing support for online abuse, such as for image-based sexual abuse and online hate and harassment; and
  3. developing conceptual tools to bridge S&P and HCI towards societally informed S&P research, such as by centering gender and other sociodemographic factors.

I am co-advised by Professors Franzi Roesner and Yoshi Kohno. I have also interned with Google’s Security, Privacy, and Abuse Prevention teams, where I was mentored by Drs. Kurt Thomas and Sunny Consolvo. Before starting my PhD, I worked with Professor Blase Ur in the Security, Usability, & Privacy Education & Research Group (SUPERgroup) at the University of Chicago, where I investigated privacy perceptions of online advertising as well as password and security notification usability.

I recieved a B.A. in Political Science and Computer Science from the University of Chicago. I was a researcher with the Chicago Project on Security & Threats (CPOST), where I contributed to the first worldwide database on suicide attacks and led research teams monitoring and analyzing militant group propoganda. My bachelor’s thesis on the Islamic State’s audio propaganda received departmental honors. As an undergraduate, I also spent a year directly enrolled at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where I enjoyed courses in international relations and international law.

Selected Awards

  • John Karat Usable Privacy and Security Student Research Award (2024)
  • Google PhD Fellowship (2023)
  • USENIX Security Distinguished Paper (2023)
  • NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Honorable Mention (2021)
  • ACM Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) Best Paper Honorable Mention (2020)