Hi! I’m Hal.
I’m a first-year PhD student in Computer Science at Cornell Tech, working with Vitaly Shmatikov’s lab on privacy, security, and AI. Right now, I’m generously funded by a Cornell University Fellowship (awarded to 20% of incoming doctoral students). From next year on, I’ll be an NSF Graduate Research Fellow (awarded to ~15% of applicants).
From 2021 to 2024, I worked as a Senior Privacy Engineer at the Wikimedia Foundation, focusing on differential privacy, algorithmic accountability and transparency, and global accessibility. I’m still working on utilizing Wikimedia’s public data for quick and accurate geolocated online trend analysis.
I also sometimes write and edit for Reboot and Kernel Magazine.
I double-majored in Computer Science (B.S.) and History (B.A.) at Brown University, graduating in December 2020.
I’ve played keys and written music with Birdnest since 2021, and was a founding member of Honeycomb before that. My new project, Trouble Department, will be coming soon.
If you’d like to reach out, send me an email at [my first name][at][this domain].