HYDE Places 3rd at the 5th UC CCS Research Congress 2026 (Student Category) · Matt Alexius
Raj Efpi Tag-at, Nathanael Larida, and Matt Alexius Merano placed 3rd in the student podium presentations at the 5th UC CCS Research Congress 2026 with HYDE, a digital art provenance system built on blockchain and steganography.
On May 13, 2026, my team (Raj Efpi Tag-at, Nathanael Larida, and me) placed 3rd in the student podium presentations at the 5th UC CCS Research Congress, held at the UC Jones Building. We presented HYDE, our blockchain and steganography system for digital art provenance, to a panel of evaluators. The theme that year was "Intelligent Futures: Exploring the Frontiers of Artificial Intelligence Research."
About the 5th UC CCS Research Congress
The College of Computer Studies of the University of Cebu Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue (UCLM-CCS) organized the congress. Faculty, student researchers, and people working in tech came from across the UC campuses to present computing and AI research. In the student category, teams gave live podium presentations and were judged on research quality, methodology, and how much the work contributes.
Presenting HYDE at a research congress
HYDE protects ownership of digital art even after an image is reposted, compressed, or stripped of metadata. It hides a watermark in the artwork's pixels using steganography and records the provenance on a blockchain, giving the artist tamper-resistant proof of origin that moves with the file from platform to platform. Presenting it at a research congress was different from pitching a product. We had to frame the problem academically, walk through our methodology carefully, and defend our design and implementation choices when the panel pushed on them.
What placing 3rd meant to us
Research congresses judge the method, how clear the contribution is, and whether the research question matters outside the lab, so a good live demo only goes so far. Placing 3rd among student computing and AI research from across the university told us HYDE holds up as research, and that an independent academic panel saw a real contribution in it.
Certificates
- Certificate of Recognition: 3rd Place in Podium Presentation, UC CCS Research Congress 2026, College of Computer Studies, University of Cebu, May 13, 2026