I'm a PhD student in Computer Science at Columbia University, advised by Xia Zhou, Dan Rubenstein, and Vishal Misra. I am broadly interested in computer vision, mobile systems, and security. Currently, my research focuses on developing proactive technical solutions to combat deepfakes. I'm a recipient of a Columbia SEAS Presidential Distinguished Fellowship and an Amazon CAIT PhD Fellowship.

Previously, I completed my Bachelor's and Master's in Computer Science at the University of Chicago, advised by Heather Zheng at the SAND Lab.

Email / CV / LinkedIn

Research

* Denotes co-primary authors

Active Light Modulation to Counter Manipulation of Speech Visual Content

Hadleigh Schwartz, Xiaofeng Yan, Charles J. Carver, Xia Zhou

In submission.

[arXiv]

Set Phasers to Stun: Beaming Power and Control to Mobile Microrobots with Laser Light

Charles J. Carver^*, Hadleigh Schwartz^*, Toma Itagaki, Zachary Englhardt, Kechen Liu, Megan Graciela Nauli Manik, Chun-Cheng Chang, Vikram Iyer, Brian Plancher, Xia Zhou

IROS 2025 (To appear)

[arXiv] / [demo video] / [code]

Catch Me If You Can: Laser Tethering with Highly Mobile Targets

Charles J. Carver^*, Hadleigh Schwartz^*, Qijia Shao, Nicholas Shade, Joseph Lazzaro, Xiaoxin Wang, Jifeng Liu, Eric Fossum, Xia Zhou

NSDI 2024

Best demo award & SRC runner-up at MobiCom 2023

[paper] / [demo video] / [presentation] /

Towards a General Video-based Keystroke Inference Attack

Zhoulin Yang^*, Yuxin Chen^*, Zain Sarwar, Hadleigh Schwartz, Ben Y. Zhao, Heather Zheng

USENIX Security 2023

[paper]

Teaching/Service

I really enjoy teaching! In addition to serving as a TA for CSEE 4119 (Computer Networks), I participate in Columbia's Teaching Development Program, a multi-year evidence-based teaching certification by the Center for Teaching and Learning, aiding PhD students in refining their pedagogical practices.

Alongside Sam Deng, I co-coordinate Columbia's Emerging Scholars Program, a peer-taught course for first and second-year students aiming to enrich their experience in introductory-level CS courses and provide exposure to the breadth of the field. Unlike typical, programming-focused intro CS courses, ESP is discussion-based and centers on group problem-solving in various CS topics, from NLP to cryptography.

I also serve as a yearly reviewer for the CS department's PhD Pre-Submission Application Review (PAR) program.

Last updated June 19, 2025.