Yan received his Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Sydney, Australia and is currently working on architectures and algorithms for privacy-preserving information systems. His research interests are focused on people-centered privacy design which calls for the adoption of a socially meaningful conception of privacy, namely, one that meets people's expectations of privacy. Specifically, his work aims to address the fundamental mismatch between programmable privacy frameworks and the ever-shifting privacy expectations of computer system users.
In general, Yan is passionate about solving fundamental problems that have real-world impact as well as fascinated by the commercial side of transferring ideas into viable business propositions.