Computer science grad student wins best paper award at IEEE symposium
May 28, 2025
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Satwik Kundu, a doctoral candidate in computer science in the Penn State School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and with his adviser, Swaroop Ghosh, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, received the Best Paper Award at the (IEEE) International Symposium on Hardware Oriented Security and Trust (HOST), which was held in early May. Their paper, “STIQ: Safeguarding Training and Inferencing of Quantum Neural Networks from Untrusted Cloud,” was recognized as the top submission out of 144 papers.
The paper, led by Kundu, addresses the critical issue of protecting the training and inference processes of quantum neural networks from untrusted cloud environments. With the rapid development of quantum computing, security concerns around quantum machine learning models have become increasingly prominent, especially as they are deployed in untrusted cloud systems, according to the researchers. The research presented in the paper introduces innovative solutions to safeguard these processes, ensuring that sensitive and expensive data and computational integrity are maintained in potentially compromised cloud environments.
This recognition at the IEEE HOST symposium highlights Kundu’s pioneering work in the emerging field of quantum computing security. Known for its rigorous submission process and competitive nature, HOST only accepts around 20% of its submitted papers. Kundu’s paper was selected not only for its technical depth but also for its practical relevance in securing next-generation quantum computing systems, according to the award winner's press release.
Kundu’s work is part of a growing body of research by Ghosh’s group at Penn State focused on the security of quantum systems and the implications for both the hardware and software components of quantum technologies.
Kundu previously secured $70,000 in IBM Quantum Credits in 2024 and received the Graduate Research Award from Penn State’s College of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering in 2022 for outstanding research contributions.
Ghosh was recently named a fellow by the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association and IEEE.
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- Kundu and Ghosh pose for headshots. Credit: Penn State College of Engineering Directory.
