As the digital world becomes more and more integrated with day-to-day life, computer scientist Samson Cheung's research is helping to provide necessary safeguards, without sacrificing the benefits brought forth by new technologies.

Cheung, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Kentucky, focuses on developing efficient, robust and secure systems to analyze, process and communicate multimedia information. Cheung and his research group are working on visual privacy protection, secure computation, multimedia content management and networking. 

It is a challenging area. Most multimedia applications require handling large volumes of data, at a very high rate, to meet demand for truly realistic user experiences. However, this massive river of data — including photos, audio and video recordings and other types of new digital media — can be challenging to analyze and interpret.