Mara Mihali

Tell us a bit about you  

I was born in Cluj Napoca, in the northwest of Romania. I left home when I was 19 to study Computer Science at University of Cambridge.  

The admission offer was a huge surprise, and I graduated in 2020 amidst the first wave of pandemics, submitting my thesis and sitting my final exams from my parents’ house in a small town in the mountainous region of Maramures.  

I decided to take a gap year between my Bachelors and my Masters. During that time, I did two remote Software Engineering internships with Google, building upon those I’d done during my undergraduate studies.  

Why did you decide to study Information Security MSc at UCL?  

I had an interest in Computer Security since the first year of my Bachelor’s and, at Google, I had two projects in the area, one in web security and one in kernel fuzzing.  

So, when decided do a Master’s, it was a natural choice of topic further explore. I applied to various places and UCL was the most attractive offer. 

What does an average day as a Cryptography Engineer look like?  

I work on a Cryptographic library for a privacy-oriented UK startup, so my days vary as does my role.  

It’s a mixture of developing secure and robust code but also thinking about the open questions that need to be solved in the components of our product involving cryptography. 

As we’re aiming to build a novel protocol, my job sometimes requires reviewing papers and thinking how to make certain ideas or techniques work within our specific use case and performance requirement.  

What’s your favourite thing about your job and why?  

Unknowns motivate me. Not knowing if/how a problem can be solved or even if we are on the right path, is the easiest way to keep myself focused.  

I also enjoy collaborating with a mixture of cryptography, engineers and researchers. This kind of environment is extremely fruitful for my development. 

Thinking back to what you learned during your Master’s, what do you use most in your day to day? 
Concepts I learnt during Introduction to Cryptography and Privacy-Enhancing Technologies represent the foundation on which I built my knowledge.  

I did my MSc Thesis in zero-knowledge proof systems, supervised by Professor Philipp Jovanovic. I am very grateful to him for establishing the research collaboration with Protocol Labs as it essentially opened my current career path.  

My first job was continuing the groundwork set out in my thesis and my current job is also focused on the same area of research. So, essentially, I use quite a bit of what I learnt during my Master’s. 

What’s been your biggest career highlight so far?  

The work done for my thesis, in collaboration with UCL and Protocol Labs, led to a publication accepted at LatinCrypt in 2023.  

I also presented one of the projects I spearheaded as part of Aztec Labs at ZK Summit, a popular conference in the zero-knowledge community that brings together industry and academia.  

Finally, after two years working at Aztec Labs, I have been promoted to Senior Cryptography Engineer. 

What advice do you have for people wanting to work in cyber security?

The Master’s exposes you to many different areas of Information Security, enabling students to take on quite varied career paths.  

I would likely not have worked in cryptography had it not been for my time at UCL, Prof. Philipp Jovanovic’s advice and the great Intro to Cryptography course.  

My advice would be for people to not shy away from complexity or from accumulating breadth of knowledge. Things you never thought would be useful outside of class can become unexpectedly useful.  

I think any cyber security role revolves around having to manage unknowns and understanding what you have to understand and what you can black-box.  

The Master's thesis is also an opportunity to choose a topic that actually interests you, it’s quite a unique opportunity to gain depth into an area.

The Professors in the Information Security Group at UCL have amazing connections with industry and it’s worth taking advantage of the networking opportunities you are exposed to.

Which direction would you like to take your career?  

I’ve been constantly tinkering with the idea of doing a PhD in Cryptography ever since the end of my Master’s thesis project and I finally took the leap of faith and applied this season.

I have been admitted for a Doctoral Position in the Applied Cryptography group at ETH Zurich.  

My aim with the PhD is to establish where on the axis of research and engineering I am positioned and get to explore in depth more areas of cryptography and learn the skills required to perform good and thorough research. 
 

The information on this page reflects the alumna's status at the time of publication (May 2025).