Helen Propson

Helen Propson

I am a second-year physics PhD student at EPFL, where I am fortunate to be advised by Jonas Haferkamp and Thomas Vidick. I am broadly interested in theoretical computer science, with a particular focus on quantum computation. I received my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in computer science from MIT. As an undergraduate, I conducted research in the Theory of Computation Group, advised by Vinod Vaikuntanathan, and the Engineering Quantum Systems Group, advised by Will Oliver.

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Research

Predicting properties of Scrooge ensembles with high accuracy and low sample complexity

Yue Wu^*, Yuzhi Tong^*, Helen Propson^*, Yihui Quek, Liang Mao

* These authors contributed equally.

arXiv:2609.39992 (2026)

Post-Quantum Verifiable Oblivious Pseudorandom Functions

Helen Propson, Master’s thesis, 2024

Efficient Distributed Oblivious Pseudorandom Functions from LWE

SuperUROP Showcase, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 2023

Optimizing single-qubit control with Floquet theory [slides]

Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, June 2022

Teaching

6.1910 Computation Structures, Graduate TA, Fall 2023

6.1800 Computer Systems Engineering, LA & Grader, Spring 2023

MIT Momentum Leader, Summer 2022

6.0001/2 Introduction to Computational Thinking and Data Science, LA, Spring 2022