Prof. Man Ho Allen Au from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), recently visited the School of Cyber Science and Technology at Shandong University (SDU). He delivered an academic lecture and participated in the collaboration discussion. The events were hosted by Associate Dean Prof. Wei Puwen, with the attendance of Associate Dean Prof. Hu Sihuang and other faculty members from the school.
Prof. Au presented a lecture titled "Efficient Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Circuits over Any Field", introducing their latest zero-knowledge proof system built on Vector Oblivious Linear Evaluation (VOLE). JesseQ supports both arithmetic and Boolean circuits over any field and achieves high performance with minimal overhead. He further discussed the practical applications of VOLE-based proofs in real-world scenarios such as verifiable computation, and private authentication. Attendees, including faculty and students, engaged in discussions with Professor Au on topics such as protocol construction techniques, distributed acceleration of zero-knowledge proofs and their applications.
During his visit, Prof. Au also attended the SDU&PolyU collaboration round-table discussion. Both sides presented their respective programs, faculty, research projects and university-industry collaboration in cryptography. Discussions focused on cutting-edge advancements in threshold cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs, along with potential collaborations such as joint laboratory development and dual-degree doctoral programs.
About Man Ho Allen Au:
Prof. Man Ho Allen Au serves as Director of the Research Centre for Blockchain Technology and Associate Head of the Department of Computing at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has authored over 200 refereed papers in top-tier journals and conferences, including CRYPTO, ASIACRYPT, ACM CCS, NDSS, IEEE S&P and SIGMOD. His work has been recognized with several prestigious honours, including the 2024–25 Hong Kong Engineering Science and Technology (HKEST) Award and the 2023 BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize (STIP) in FinTech.
By Xiao Anqi
