Li Qinbin
Nationality: China
Faculty & Year of Study: School of Computing, Year 3
Undergraduate: Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
Why Did You Choose To Pursue A PhD?
I like to learn and discover new things. Being a PhD student, I can study the state-of-the-art theories in an area I like. Moreover, I can propose and try my ideas and even publish them. Research is interesting. I like to challenge myself and solve tough problems.
Can you tell us briefly about your research topic?
My main research interests lie in federated learning and differential privacy. Many machine learning algorithms are data hungry. However, in reality, data are dispersed over different organizations under the protection of privacy restrictions. Federated learning enables multiple parties to collaboratively train a machine learning model without exchanging their local data. It is a very interesting and meaningful research area.
Moreover, machine learning models suffer from potential attacks, which may leak sensitive information about training data. Differential privacy can help to protect the models in a simple and effective way. These two areas have attracted many researchers.
How does PhD graduate education compare with your undergraduate experience?
During the undergraduate study, there is usually a typical answer for every question. However, in PhD study, I am working on the unsolved problems and I have to provide my answers. There are more uncertainty and flexibility in PhD study. I can give full play to my creativity.
Any highlights you'd like to share with us about your PhD life?
The most existing part of my graduate journey is that my papers got accepted into top computer science conferences.
Any advice for someone who's considering a PhD in NUS?
Work on the topic you like.