Sachin Lodha

Eminent Speaker

Short CV: Sachin Lodha is part of TCS's Corporate Research and Innovation team and heads its Cybersecurity and Privacy research that is working on diverse problems pertaining to trustworthy AI, de-risking cloud, quantum resilience, privacy by design, and human aspects. He has a special interest in data privacy and related topics. His efforts on that front have led to multiple research papers, patents, and award-winning innovations that are available as commercial TCS products.

True to Tata spirit, Sachin Lodha has been involved in several community activities. For example, he is a member of ACM India Council and COMSNETS Association. He was a member of the Cyber4AI Task Force constituted by Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India, a Steering Committee member for India wide Lightweight Cipher Design Challenge, a Working Group member for drafting the guidelines on “Anonymization of Data” under the project “e-Governance Standards and Guidelines” by MeitY, etc.

Sachin Lodha graduated with a B.Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay and received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rutgers University, USA in 2002. He has been with TCS Innovation Labs in Pune ever since then. He is the first recipient of the TCS Distinguished Scientist Award for his sustained and high-impact contributions to research and business.

Title of Talk 1: Fun with Algorithms

Synopsis: An algorithm is a systematic procedure that produces—in a finite number of steps—the answer to a question or the solution of a problem. The name derives from the Latin translation, Algoritmi de numero Indorum, of the 9th-century Muslim mathematician al-Khwarizmi's arithmetic treatise "Al-Khwarizmi Concerning the Hindu Art of Reckoning." But algorithms go further back in time than this genesis of its name suggests, how can one ever forget the greatest common divisor algorithm learnt in high school mathematics? It first appeared in Euclid's Elements in 300 B.C.!

Since 1950s, the field of algorithms has prospered like never before with the advent of computers for obvious reasons. It is now a very vibrant field, rich in content and plentiful with problems, every new technological breakthrough bringing in with it new challenges for an algorithm designer, and therefore helping him retain his job too.

In our short talk, we will introduce the audience to various types of algorithms, related notions, and their connections to the real-world problems. We also promise lots of innocent looking puzzles, many of them play crucial role in algorithms design of today. We will end this talk with a brief mention about the current research in algorithms, and its potential for tomorrow.

Title of Talk 2: Privacy—Challenges and Opportunities

Synopsis: These are most exciting times to be a privacy researcher since, in today's hyper networked world with global data flows, almost all major business and technology trends, then be it Big Data, Cloud Computing, Mobility, BYOD, or Internet of Things, require deep privacy underpinnings. So, there is ample opportunity to invent and innovate.

In this talk we begin by observing that security and privacy are fundamentally different notions. While the security paradigm assumes a clear separation between users and attackers, in privacy paradigm users are attackers too, depending on the use intent, and therefore security controls such as standard encryption-based mechanisms do not suffice!

Next, we discuss the major goal of data privacy research, that is, to find the right balance between the two extremes of fully disclosed and completely withheld data that preserves both data privacy and its utility, and thus enable data sharing.

We then deliberate on two orthogonal efforts towards privacy formalization, namely, k-anonymity model and differential privacy. Both are not full proof, and yet are good frameworks for enabling fool proof data sharing in diverse scenarios.

Finally, we close the talk with a brief overview of our work and a description of some privacy problems that could have both practical relevance and theoretical meat.

Title of Talk 3: Cybersecurity — Modern Challenges and Emerging Measures

Synopsis: As we increasingly depend on technology, cyber threats and vulnerabilities are creating trust issues for businesses and enterprises, and cybersecurity is being considered as the number one threat to the global economy over the next five to ten years. In this talk, we explain this phenomenon by first describing the changing cyber ecosystem due to extreme digitalization, and then its ramifications that are plainly visible in the latest trends in cyber-attacks. In the process, we arrive at five key implications that any organization needs to be cognizant of and discuss about a dozen emerging measures that may help address consequences of those implications substantially. It is hoped that these measures will play a critical role in making cyber security more proactive, cognitive, automated, connected, invisible, and risk aware.

Sachin P. Lodha

Qualifications: Ph.D. in Computer Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

Title: Chief Scientist

Affiliation: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Contact Details: TCS Innovation Labs - Tata Research Development and Design Centre, Pune
Email: [email protected]