About

Education

I graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 2009 with a BS in Computer Science. There I was a member of the improv troupe IMPROVment, the ACM group, the International Collegiate Programming Competition team, and Model UN.

I started attending UC Davis in 2009 as a Computer Science PhD student focusing in computer security. As you can see on the home page, my research has primarily focused on the Android smartphone OS, though my security interests are far more broad, including web security, malware, and more.

Activities

I tend to be drawn to a diverse range of topics, including psychology and screen writing / video production. Overall, I'd say my biggest hobbies are martial arts and improv comedy.

I did Shorin-ryu karate for about six years under the fantastic Sensei Nishime. Their whole family is incredibly talented and friendly.

More recently, I've been doing a fair amount of improv comedy. I first started doing improv comedy my freshmen year at Case with IMPROVment. We did primarily shortform improv including a number of musical games. Since I've been at UC Davis, I've been a part of Birdstrike Theatre. Birdstrike nearly exclusively does longform improv, which has been a fun change of pace.

Shortform? Longform? From Wikipedia:

Shortform improv consists of short scenes usually constructed from a predetermined game, structure, or idea and driven by an audience suggestion.

Longform improv performers create shows in which short scenes are often interrelated by story, characters, or themes. Longform shows may take the form of an existing type of theatre, for example a full-length play or Broadway-style musical such as Spontaneous Broadway.