Bell Labs PhD Internship: Privacy-Preserving Biometric Authentication

Bell Labs PhD Internship: Privacy-Preserving Biometric Authentication

Biometric authentication often relies on noisy, high-dimensional data, making privacy-preserving matching a challenging problem. This internship explores new cryptographic protocols that enable biometric verification without revealing the underlying biometric information.

The focus is on building efficient cryptographic techniques and protocols for the key building blocks of a private biometric pipeline. Optional: integration with advanced authentication protocols such as PAKE, MPC, 2PC, or related secure computing techniques.

The goal is to develop practical methods which form part of a bigger platform for secure, noise-tolerant biometric verification.

Duration: flexible, to be agreed (typically 3-5 months), starting time flexible

How You Will Contribute And What You Will Learn

• Familiarize yourself with a range of different cryptographic techniques: MPC, FHE & ZKP, and understand their limits and tradeoffs.
• Given your interest, you can optionally familiarize yourself with privacy-preserving fuzzy protocols used in biometric authentication, such as fuzzy PAKE/PSI/extractors.
• Explore the most efficient and effective protocol and tools for the problems at hand and ultimately selecting a few promising combinations for further development.
• You will develop functional prototypes of the selective data filtering, privacy-preserving feature extraction and thoroughly evaluate the results.
• Consolidate your research outcome in a scientific publication.

Key Skills And Experience

• PhD student in Computer Science/Engineering.
• Experience with MPC, FHE or Zero-Knowledge Proofs.
• Strong programming skills (Rust, C++, …).
• Interest in privacy-preserving authentication, secure computation, or cryptographic protocol design.
• Optional: knowledge of PAKE, 2PC, or related protocols

About Us

Advancing connectivity to secure a brighter world.

Nokia is a global leader in connectivity for the AI era. With expertise across fixed, mobile and transport networks, powered by the innovation of Nokia Bell Labs, we’re advancing connectivity to secure a brighter world.

Learn more about life at Nokia .

Our recruitment process

We act inclusively and respect the uniqueness of people. Our employment decisions are made regardless of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by law. We are committed to a culture of inclusion built upon our core value of respect.

If you’re interested in this role but don’t meet every listed requirement, we still encourage you to apply. Unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences enrich our teams, and you may be just the right candidate for this or another opportunity.

The length of the recruitment process may vary depending on the specific role's requirements. We strive to ensure a smooth and inclusive experience for all candidates. Discover more about the recruitment process at Nokia .

About The Team

Some of our benefits:

• Flexible and hybrid working schemes
• Well-being programs to support your mental and physical health
• Opportunities to join and receive support from Nokia Employee Resource Groups (NERGs)
• Employee Growth Solutions to support your personalized career & skills development
• Diverse pool of Coaches & Mentors to whom you have easy access
• A learning environment which promotes personal growth and professional development - for your role and beyond

Key skills/competency

• Cryptography
• Biometric Authentication
• Privacy-Preserving Protocols
• MPC
• FHE
• Zero-Knowledge Proofs
• Secure Computation
• Protocol Design
• Rust
• C++