Awnon Bhowmik

Problem

Differential privacy is mathematically rigorous but often poorly understood in practice. Existing tools either require local installation or lack the interactivity needed to build intuition about privacy budgets, mechanism tradeoffs, and composition behavior.

Approach

Built with Next.js and TypeScript for the interface, with all privacy computations delegated to a WebAssembly module running client-side — no server or database required. Supports Laplace and Gaussian mechanisms with real-time parameter tuning, 13 curated demo presets, sequential composition visualization, and Classroom Pack PDF generation. Includes an embed mode for Canvas, Blackboard, and Moodle integration.

Outcome

Fully functional interactive simulator deployable as a standalone static site. Supports classroom use, independent research exploration, and shareable URL-encoded states for reproducible demonstrations.

Problem

Standard elliptic curve parameter generation often relies on seed-based methods that offer limited transparency into why specific curves were selected, raising concerns about potential backdoor construction. A principled, structure-driven approach with complete audit trails is preferable for high-assurance cryptographic deployments.

Approach

Adapts Selmer's descent theory — using binary quartics and ternary cubics with classical invariants — to deterministically yield candidate curve parameters. Local solubility checks filter candidates before conversion to short-Weierstrass form over prime fields. Each curve is validated against standard cryptographic criteria: group-order analysis, cofactor constraints, twist security, and embedding-degree bounds. The pipeline operates as a Las Vegas algorithm with full audit trail output, and is designed to be compatible with constant-time implementations.

Outcome

Proof-of-concept implementation published as arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.02383 (2025). Companion Jupyter notebook available on GitHub.

Problem

Many intrusion detection tools are either heavyweight enterprise products or limited proof-of-concept scripts. A self-contained, deployable system bridging research-grade detection logic with operational features — alerting, logging, containerization — is useful for both security research and small-scale deployments.

Approach

Captures live network traffic and monitors process and file system activity for suspicious signatures. Detection heuristics target port scanning patterns and brute-force behavior. Automated alerts are dispatched via SMTP and Twilio SMS. A Flask web interface (port 5000) provides log viewing and event management. Packaged with Docker for portable deployment and includes a PyInstaller build for standalone executable distribution.

Outcome

Fully operational IDS with containerized deployment, automated alerting pipeline, web-based monitoring interface, and unit test coverage.

Problem

Keyloggers operate silently by design and are difficult to detect with conventional antivirus heuristics alone. A behavioral monitoring approach — watching for suspicious process signatures, unauthorized file access, and anomalous outbound connections — provides complementary detection coverage.

Approach

Monitors running processes for known keylogger behavioral signatures, watches configurable sensitive directories for unauthorized access patterns, and flags unusual outbound network traffic. Alerting is handled via SMTP email and Twilio SMS. Events are written to a structured log file for post-incident analysis. Configurable through `config.py`; deployable via Docker or as a standalone PyInstaller executable.

Outcome

Deployable host-based detection tool with configurable monitoring scope, multi-channel alerting, and comprehensive audit logging.

Problem

RSA security rests on the computational intractability of integer factorization for classical computers. Shor's algorithm achieves polynomial-time factoring on a quantum computer, making it a critical reference point for understanding post-quantum cryptography and the urgency of lattice-based and other quantum-resistant alternatives.

Approach

Implements the quantum period-finding subroutine and classical post-processing steps of Shor's algorithm in Python, illustrating how the algorithm reduces integer factorization to order-finding in a cyclic group and applies the quantum Fourier transform to extract the period efficiently.

Outcome

Working Python implementation demonstrating the factoring pipeline and its implications for classical public-key cryptosystems. Relevant context for post-quantum cryptography research.

Problem

Academic researchers need a professional web presence serving both scholarly audiences (publications, research, CV) and general visitors, without relying on institutional infrastructure.

Approach

Built with Next.js (static export), TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS. The blog system uses MDX with KaTeX for mathematical notation. The contact form includes rate limiting, HTML sanitization, and EmailJS integration. Deployed to GitHub Pages.

Outcome

Production site serving as primary academic and professional web presence. Source code open on GitHub.