dgree21 [at] illinois [dot] edu
Welcome, visitor! I am a second year Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised by Professor Nikita Borisov. My research lies at the intersection of web privacy and systems engineering. I focus on studying the online advertising ecosystem's effect on user privacy. A core ideal of mine is that my work has impact. I know that this word is often used in a nebulous sort of way. Specifically, my contributions should enable an ordinary person to navigate the Internet more safely -- without the need for hypervigilance. Ultimately, I aim to improve user quality of life through the development of privacy-enhancing technologies and the study of emerging tracking paradigms.
While my work is important to me, so are my hobbies. I play chess, run, and watch football. Recently, I've started learning to play guitar and knit. On the technical side of things, I'm working on setting up the perfect homelab, complete with self-hosted, high-performance services and robust security infrastructure. To stay practically engaged when my work gets too theoretical, I like to challenge myself on various security training platforms. My interests are truly all over the place, and I wouldn't have it any other way :D
Jason Liu, Muhammad Adil Inam, Akul Goyal, Dylen Greenenwald, Saurav Chittal, and Adam Bates.
(To appear) In the Proceedings of Workshop on Attack Provenance, Reasoning, and Investigation for Security in the Monitored Environment (PRISM)
February 23, 2026, San Diego, CA