Practice-oriented theory of cryptography, cryptography in novel computing environments.
Professor O'Neill's research runs along two main threads. First, he studies the practice-oriented theory of outsourced database protocols, which allow a client to store its database on an untrusted server while simultaneously hiding as much information about the data as possible for the server and allowing the client to make queries. This is novel as for efficiency some information about the data has to be revealed to the server. Second, he studies the design and analysis of deployable or deployed protocols in the ``random oracle model,'' which models a cryptographic hash function as a truly random function.
Adam O'Neill is an Assistant Professor in the in the College of Information and Computer Sciences at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor the Computer Science department at Georgetown University. He also held a visiting faculty position in the Cryptographic Technology Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology under Alexandra Boldyreva.
Professor O'Neill was selected as a scholar by the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation from 2008-2010.