The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) this week named University of Massachusetts Amherst professor of computer science Gerome Miklau to lead a 4.5-year, $2.8 million grant to develop tools and techniques that enable the agency to build data management systems in which “private data may be used only for its intended purpose and no other.”

Miklau’s project is part of a national program dubbed by DARPA “Brandeis” in recognition of the U.S. Supreme Court Justice who in an 1890 essay expounded on the right to privacy. DARPA kicked it off this week with an official announcement during the researchers’ initial conference in Washington, D.C.

The work will be carried out in three, 18-month phases, Miklau says. He estimates that UMass Amherst will receive about $1.2 million, while collaborators Ashwin Machanavajjhala at Duke University will get about $1.1 million and Michael Hay at Colgate University approximately $470,000. At UMass Amherst, the project will support two doctoral students.
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