I am pursuing an MS in Computer Science from UIUC, advised by Prof. Daniel Kang. I am exploring Applied Cryptography, AI, and Computer Systems through my research and coursework.

My thesis explores the tradeoffs in designing and implementing zero-knowledge-proof frameworks and virtual machines. We created an end-to-end benchmark for popular ZK frameworks such as plonky2 (rust), halo2, gnark (go-lang), circom, and VMs (rust-lang) such as SP1 and RISC0 on cryptographic and machine learning tasks. We also microbenchmark the low-level protocols like lookups, hash functions, and operations like MSM and FFTs to understand the performance.

I also worked on creating privacy-preserving biometric systems using zero-knowledge proofs, where a user can prove his biometric identity from his device without sending sensitive data. Such a system can help keep users safe from scams like the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS) scam in India. I am curious and interested in finding cryptographic solutions that can differentiate humans from AI.

I worked at ritual.net during the summer of 2024. Ritual is building infrastructure for open access and the development of AI. During the internship, I conducted experiments on optimizing the Zero Knowledge LLM inference on GPUs. I worked with OPT and the Llama family of open-source models.

Before UIUC, I worked at KPMG India doing analytics for financial due diligence in the Mergers and Acquisition team. I graduated from IIIT Naya Raipur at the top of my class. During my undergraduate studies, I was interested in privacy-preserving machine learning (Differential Privacy and Federated Learning). For a brief period before COVID, I was interested in developing wearables. I developed hardware and software components for wrist-based activity monitors and mental stress detection systems. I was active in extracurricular activities, led multiple student organizations, and was awarded the Ajai Chowdhry Gold Medal for Transformational Leadership.

I like to cook, play games, and go into rabbit holes in the web during my free time. These days, I spend most of my free time knowing what’s happening in crypto and AI. (The fields are moving sooooo fast.)