I'm a Doctoral Researcher at CISPA advised by Katharina Krombholz. I study the security and privacy of communities that mainstream research overlooks, like immigrants and people from low socioeconomic backgrounds. I do this by building new methods to better understand the people I work with.

Previously, I did my Masters in UX Design from Purdue University where I also worked as a Design Instructor for 2 years. Even before that, I completed my Bachelors in Computer Science from LUMS university in Pakistan where I was advised by Maryam Mustafa and Mobin Javed. My research interests lie at the intersections of security and privacy (S&P) and human-computer interaction (HCI) beyond the WEIRD contexts. I publish in leading security, privacy, and HCI venues, including IEEE S&P, CHI, and SOUPS.

My recent work has focused on designing better digital safety tools by:

• Understanding the perceptions of young adults around harassment and cybercrime;
• Exploring the S&P experiences and support systems of US immigrants.

I have also worked on several UX projects which I really enjoyed doing. The people with whom I did these projects with are really awesome humans. I created an Urdu language design guideline for developers, a shopping toolkit for tweens, a platform for lived experience sharing for people with disabilities, and a card game to help undergraduate design students brainstorm. During my entrepreneurship era, I even ran a short-lived startup called Band Baaja Baraat which helped users to connect and book reliable vendors of the wedding industry.

I love reading history books and noticing tiny architectural details when strolling around cities. I was raised in Lahore, a city which saw the rise and fall of 4 empires. I also write blogs and post them on this website.

Selected Honors & Awards

• Gave a research talk titled "Designing for Disabled People's Lived Experiences" at University of Washington (2025)
• Gave a research talk titled "Designing for Security and Privacy beyond WEIRD" at Stanford University (2024)
• IAPP SOUPS Privacy Award (2023)
• SOUPS Travel Grant (2023)