Academic grant helps Exeter student to win IEEE award

When Exeter College student Christy Kin-Cleaves (2016, Computer Science) first heard about the International Workshop on Information Forensics and Security (WIFS), organised by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, he didn’t know if he would be able to attend. The event offered a unique opportunity to discuss emerging challenges in different areas of information security and forensics with researchers from around the world, as well as to share research results. Unfortunately, it was taking place in Hong Kong, and the cost of the trip was prohibitive.

WIFS is one of the most prestigious conference venues for steganography, and has a very low paper-acceptance rate, often taking multiple attempts for a paper to be accepted. As such, the competition is very high, and being invited to present a paper at WIFS takes substantial effort.

Christy applied for an academic grant from Exeter College, which enabled him to attend the conference and to submit a paper, co-written with Andrew D Ker, Tutorial Fellow in Computer Science at University College. Their paper ‘Adaptive Steganography in the Noisy Channel with Dual-Syndrome Trellis Codes’ won the award for Best Student Paper.

Afterwards Christy said: ‘The college grant really helped finance my trip to WIFS. Conference travel is a key aspect of your time as a DPhil student, it allows you to meet other researchers in the field, and present your work on a large scale. Having your work published helps bolster your academic standing, and is key to being awarded a DPhil. I’m extremely grateful to the college for helping me achieve this!’