Yuke Zhang 张钰珂

About Me

I am a postdoc researcher in the knowledgable and supportive NEJ group, at the ECE Department of the University of Toronto, working with Prof. Natalie Enright Jerger. I received my Ph.D. from the ECE Department of the University of Southern California, and I am very fortunate to be advised by Prof. Peter A. Beerel.

My research interests include

• ML privacy and security: SAL-ViT, C2PI, RNA-ViT
• Hardware security: TriLock, Fun-SAT

My research vision aims to provide a comprehensive and vertically integrated suite of solutions for data privacy—from the algorithmic core to the silicon substrate—ensuring that privacy is not just an add-on feature but a foundational principle of modern ML systems.

Google Scholar | LinkedIn | Email

News

• Jan. 2024 - I gave a talk on Efficient Data Protection - From Algorithm to Hardware at Stanford Security Lunch!
• Dec. 2023 - One paper has been accepted at ICASSP 2024!
• Oct. 2023 - I am selected as a USC MHI Scholar!
• Jul. 2023 - Our paper RNA-ViT is accepted at ICCAD 2023!
• Jul. 2023 - Our paper SAL-ViT is accepted at ICCV 2023!
• Apr. 2023 - I am selected as a DAC Young Fellow!
• Apr. 2023 - I am selected to receive the USC Annenberg Endowed Fellowship!
• Mar. 2023 - Our paper C2PI is accepeted at DAC 2023!

Publications (Full list)

(*= Equal contribution)

1. Y. Zhang*, D. Chen*, S. Kundu*, C. Cheng, P. A. Beerel, "SAL-ViT: Towards Latency Efficient Private Inference on ViT using Selective Attention Search with a Learnable Softmax Approximation," ICCV 2023.
   Paper | Code | Video
2. D. Chen*, Y. Zhang*, S. Kundu*, C. Cheng, P. A. Beerel, "RNA-ViT: Reduced-Dimension Approximate Normalized Attention Vision Transformers for Latency Efficient Private Inference," ICCAD 2023.
   Paper | Video
3. Y. Zhang, D. Chen, S. Kundu, H. Liu, R. Peng, P. A. Beerel, "C2PI: An Efficient Crypto-Clear Two-Party Neural Network Private Inference," DAC 2023.
   Paper | Code | Video
4. S. Kundu, Y. Zhang, D. Chen, P. A. Beerel, "Making Models Shallow Again: Jointly Learning to Reduce Non-Linearity and Depth for Latency-Efficient Private Inference," CVPR workshop (ECV) 2023.
   Paper
5. Y. Hu, Y. Zhang, K. Yang, D. Chen, P. A. Beerel, P. Nuzzo, "On the Security of Sequential Logic Locking Against Oracle-Guided Attacks," TCAD-I 2023.
   Paper
6. S. Kundu, S. Lu, Y. Zhang, J. Liu, P. A. Beerel, "Learning to linearize deep neural networks for secure and efficient private inference," ICLR 2023.
   Paper
7. Y. Zhang*, Y. Hu*, P. Nuzzo, P. A. Beerel, "TriLock: IC Protection with Tunable Corruptibility and Resilience to SAT and Removal Attacks," DATE 2022
   Paper | Code | Video
8. Y. Hu*, Y. Zhang*, K. Yang, D. Chen, P. A. Beerel, P. Nuzzo, "Fun-SAT: Functional Corruptibility-Guided SAT-Based Attack on Sequential Logic Encryption," HOST, 2021.
   Paper | Code
9. D. El-Damak, P. Garcha, M. R. Abdelhamid, and Y. Zhang, "Circuit Implementation Using Emerging Technologies," IEEE SSCS Magazine, Fall Issue, 2021
   Paper
10. C. Y. Ko, C. Chen, Z. He, Y. Zhang, K. Batselier, and N. Wong, "Model Compression and Inference Speedup of Sum–Product Networks on Tensor Trains," IEEE TNNLS, Sep. 2019.
    Paper
11. Y. Zhang, D. El-Damak, "A Reconfigurable Passive Switched-Capacitor Multiply-and-Accumulate Unit for Approximate Computing," MWSCAS, 2020.
    Paper
12. Y. Zhang, C. Y. Ko, C. Chen, K. Bastelier, N. Wong, "Sparse Tensor Network System Identification for Nonlinear Circuit Macromodeling," 2018 IEEE 14th International Conference on Solid-State and Integrated Circuit Technology. (Invited)
    Paper
13. Y. Zhang, K. El-Sankary, J. Zhou, "A Blind Digital Background Calibration for VCO-based ADC," Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, vol 97, no.2, pp.387-394, Nov. 2018.
    Paper
14. Y. Zhang, K. El-Sankary, "Offset-Injection Digital Background Calibration for VCO-based ADC," Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, vol. 92, no.3, pp.501-506, Jul. 2017.
    Paper
15. Y. Zhang, K. El-Sankary, "Orthogonal Polynomials Nonlinearity Compensation for a digital VCO-based ADC," Electronics Letters, vol 52, no.11, pp 915-917, May 2016.
    Paper

Selected Honors

• 2023 USC MHI Scholar
• 2023 DAC Young Fellow
• 2023-2024 USC Annenberg Endowed Fellowship
• 2022 Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship Finalist
• 2021-2022 WiSE Qualcomm Top-Off Award
• 2020 SSCS WiC Rising Star
• Student Travel Grant: DAC 2023, HOST 2022, ISSCC 2020, CICC 2020

Community Services

• Conference reviewer - HOST 2024, DAC 2024, ICML 2024, ICLR 2024, NeurIPS 2023, IJCNN 2023, ASYNC 2021, CICC 2021
• Journal reviewer - TCAS-I, Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing