About Me

I'm applying to CS PhD programs this cycle to do research in usable privacy enhancing technologies.

I hold an MS in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where my work explored microarchitectural side-channel attacks and usable security. I'm passionate about building privacy-preserving systems that are accessible to both developers and end-users, leveraging applied cryptography and confidential computing. Recently, I’ve been investigating privacy challenges in generative AI chatbots.

I founded the Georgia Institute of Technology Security Seminar, a vibrant forum where students and faculty engage with cutting-edge security and privacy research presented at leading academic conferences.

Prior to my MS, I was a Software Engineer on Messenger Growth at Meta in the San Francisco Bay Area. I earned a BS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised by Chris Fletcher.

Meeting me

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Research

Publications

Peer-Reviewed

  1. Poster: “Learning Too Much About Me”: On the Security and Privacy Concerns of Generative AI Chatbots

    Pradyumna Shome, and Miuyin Marie Yong Wong. Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS). August 2024.

  2. GoFetch: Breaking Constant-Time Cryptographic Implementations Using Data Memory-Dependent Prefetchers

    Boru Chen, Yingchen Wang, Pradyumna Shome, Christopher W. Fletcher, David Kohlbrenner, Riccardo Paccagnella, and Daniel Genkin. USENIX Security Symposium. August 2024.

    • 🏆 Real World Cryptography 2024 Talk
    • 🏆 2024 Pwnie Award for Best Cryptographic Attack
  3. Opening Pandora's Box: A Systematic Study of New Ways Microarchitecture Can Leak Private Data

    Jose Rodrigo Sanchez Vicarte, Pradyumna Shome, Nandeeka Nayak, Caroline Trippel, Adam Morrison, David Kohlbrenner, and Christopher W. Fletcher. International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA). June 2021.

    • 🏆 Intel Hardware Security Academic Award Honorable Mention

Other

  1. SoK: Rowhammer in the Post-TRR Era

    Pradyumna Shome

Talks

  1. Small World with High Risks: A Study of Security Threats in the npm Ecosystem,
    • Security Seminar, School of Cybersecurity and Privacy, Georgia Institute of Technology, September 2022
  2. Prime+Probe 1, JavaScript 0: Overcoming Browser-based Side-Channel Defenses,
    • Clean Slate Processor Design Seminar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, May 2021
  3. PRISM: Protections Impeding Side-channel Attacks in Microarchitecture,
    • Illinois Computer Science Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), August 2020
  4. Broadway: Scaling Programming Education Through a Distributed Autograding Framework,
    • Undergraduate Research Symposium, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, April 2020

Awards and Honors

  1. Pwnie Award for Best Cryptographic Attack, "GoFetch: Breaking Constant-Time Cryptographic Implementations Using Data Memory-Dependent Prefetchers" (2024)
  2. Community Engagement Award, School of Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology (2023)
  3. Best Paper, CS 7001 Conference on Graduate Studies in Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology, "SoK: Rowhammer in the Post-TRR Era" (2022)
  4. Intel Hardware Security Academic Award Honorable Mention (2022)
  5. IEEE S&P Symposium Shadow Program Committee Invitation (sole undergraduate among senior PhD students and postdoctoral researchers) (2021)
  6. Malwarebytes Cybersecurity Scholarship, Malwarebytes (2020)
  7. Illinois Engineering Achievement Scholarship, UIUC Grainger College of Engineering (2020)
  8. Outstanding Course Assistant Award, UIUC Department of Computer Science (2020)
  9. Kleiner Perkins Engineering Fellowship Finalist, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (2019)
  10. Illinois Engineering Achievement Scholarship, UIUC Grainger College of Engineering (2019)
  11. Forbes Under 30 Scholar, Forbes (2019)
  12. Illinois Engineering Achievement Scholarship, UIUC Grainger College of Engineering (2018)
  13. SPIMBot Hall of Hame, UIUC CS 233: Computer Architecture (Spring 2018) (2018)
  14. Edmund J. James Scholar Program, UIUC Grainger College of Engineering (2017)
  15. AP Scholar with Distinction, College Board (2017)

Personal

Writings

Personal interests

art museums (Impressionism, Fauvism, Pop Art)

board games (social deduction, party, and cooperative)

bubble tea

cultures of the world (Chinese and French among others)

cooking (photos)

education (pedagogy, andragogy, and heutagogy)

economics (behavioral, developmental)

espresso

how the world works

finance

fine dining

meditation and mindfulness

mental health

movies (adventure, comedy, fantasy, mystery, science fiction, and documentaries)

music (EDM, trance, house, instrumental)

music production

neuroscience

online tourism

philosophy

psychology

reading (fantasy, mystery, adventure, and non-fiction)

romantic relationships

running (3 half-marathons and counting!)

strategy games

table tennis

tennis

technology (security, privacy-enhancing, and productivity)

travel

trivia

Music

I've been playing the piano for many years, have tried my hand at music production, and am always discovering new music to listen to. Genres I've been exploring recently include K-pop, Mandopop, video game soundtracks, alternative rock, sea shanties, and more. Enjoy listening to some of my early efforts at digital music composition and feel free to follow me on Spotify.

© Pradyumna Shome 2017-Present. Based on HTML5 UP.