This wide-scale deployment of tiny sensors and improvements in data mining algorithms will enable numerous new applications for personal and societal benefits. However, a significant question is how we can address people's legitimate privacy concerns. For example, even a seemingly innocent time series graph of household power consumption can reveal a detailed picture of users' lives. My research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction (HCI), privacy, and mobile systems, focusing primarily on these two conflicting questions: sensing and privacy.

In this talk, I will present two projects in sensing and privacy, respectively. The first project (MobiCom'19) retrofits a microwave oven to heat food along programmable thermal trajectories of every volumetric pixel, making it possible for microwave ovens to roast bacon discriminatively or heat baby formula uniformly. The second project (Oakland'22) illustrates a new software architecture that can prevent unnecessary privacy leaks. In the end, I will discuss future directions in balancing the utility of ubiquitous computing applications and users' privacy protection.

Haojian Jin is an assistant professor at UCSD Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute. His research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction, privacy, and mobile systems. His work has been recognized with a UbiComp Gaetano Borriello Outstanding Student Award, Research Highlights at Communications of the ACM and GetMobile, and best paper awards at Ubicomp and ACM Computing Reviews. See more at: http://haojianj.in/.