Students: Eric Yang

Project: Versatility of Homomorphic Encryption Scheme within Healthcare Implementations | View Poster (PDF)

Major: Computer Science & Business, Electrical Engineering

Advisor: Zhiyuan Yan

Abstract

With the rapid popularity of technology, the world is constantly evolving. This is especially true within the realm of information and communication technology, where individuals want to be constantly connected from all around the globe. Increases in the utilization and employment of information and communication technology have made collaborating with people from across the world extremely viable, simple, and quick. Especially within the healthcare sectors, when information of patient data or medicine is always traveling across different clinics and hospitals, it is vital to have an efficient system to transport millions of data at a time.

This study explores the implementation and potential applications of homomorphic encryption,
particularly within the healthcare domain, focusing on safeguarding sensitive medical data while enabling advanced analyses. The primary aim is to address the critical issue of data security and privacy in healthcare systems, leveraging privacy-preserving machine learning techniques.

The exploration related domains like cloud computing, big data, federated learning, and their intersection with privacy-preserving techniques. The research phase involved practical experimentation, utilizing Paillier Homomorphic Encryption on health datasets obtained from open sources. The experiments included horizontally partitioned learning across multiple hospitals, simulating collaborative model building without sharing individual patient records. Practical implementation of homomorphic encryption, showcasing the computational times for different operations based on dataset sizes. Furthermore, correlations between specific health factors were observed, highlighting the potential utility of homomorphic encryption in predictive modeling without compromising data privacy.

Eric Yang

About Eric Yang

Eric Yang is a junior at Lehigh University, pursuing dual degrees in Computer Science & Business and Electrical Engineering. With a profound interest in merging technology and healthcare, he focuses on enhancing patient outcomes through innovative solutions. Inspired by a cryptography class project, Eric utilizes encryption to bolster the security and privacy of medical data.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Eric actively engages in laboratory research. One project explores electrostatics/electrochemistry's impact on bacterial processes under low voltages, while another delves into computational biophysics, investigating profilin-actin interactions through simulations.

Outside of academia, Eric immerses himself in various musical ensembles, including the Marching 97, Wind Ensemble, Brass Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Philharmonic Orchestra, and Jazz Ensemble.