Research

My current research looks at how to use tools from theoretical CS, particularly cryptography, to support accountability in data sharing systems, including statistical data analysis and machine learning. In undergrad, I did research in computational complexity theory, specifically within proof complexity and meta-complexity. Underlying my research is an abiding interest in TCS methodology, namely: what makes a mathematical abstraction "good," and what are useful methods for designing good abstractions?

Bell, Z. R., S. Goldwasser, M. P. Kim, J. Watson. “Certifying Private Probabilistic Mechanisms” Crypto (2024): https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/938.

Bell, Z. R. “Going Meta on the Minimum Circuit Size Problem: How Hard Is It to Show How Hard Showing Hardness Is?” HMC Senior Theses (2021), 250: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/hmc_theses/250.

Bell, Z. R. “Automating Regular or Ordered Resolution is NP-Hard.” Electronic Colloquium for Computational Complexity (2020), 105: https://eccc.weizmann.ac.il/report/2020/105/.

Bell, Z. R., J. Camero, K. Cho, T. Hyde, C. Lu, R. Miller, B. Thompson, E. Zhu. “Density of Periodic Points for Lattès Maps over Finite Fields.” The Journal of Number Theory (2022), Volume 238 p. 951-966: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022314X2100367X.