SIG

Special
Interest
Group

Pwn

To hack
or "own"
(slang)

y

For
cool
logo

sig-poh-nee

What do we do?

As the cybersecurity club at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, our mission is to teach students cybersecurity through meetings, competitions, and research.

We're beginner-friendly

We believe cybersecurity should be accessible to all, so we teach everything from the ground up. Our club content is designed to be approached by anyone, regardless of skill, major, or experience.

Our teaching philosophy

We believe that the best way to learn is by doing – so we're not going to lecture you for an hour. Our meetings are typically 15 minutes of presentation followed by 45 minutes of hands-on hacking.

A pie chart showing the 15/45 meeting time breakdown.

Who are we?

SIGPwny is completely student-run and would not be able to support everyone without the contributions from our admin team, helpers, and alumni.

Admin Team

Pete Stenger profile picture

President

Pete Stenger

@spicypete

Hi! I'm in my third year in CS. You can find me rock climbing or playing TOTK. Ask me about Python, Ghidra, and automation.

Minh Duong profile picture

President Designate

Minh Duong

@WhiteHoodHacker

Hi, I'm a junior in CS! I like web and hardware hacking. I keep our meetings and website running :D

Anusha Ghosh profile picture

President Emeritus

Anusha Ghosh

@0xk4l1

I'm an MSCS student interested in exploring AI security! Outside of school (and SIGPwny), I love fiber arts and music :D

Anakin Dey profile picture

Admin

Anakin Dey

@spamakin

Hello! I'm a senior in math and my main interest in cybersecurity is crypto! No, not that crypto, the other one.

Emma Hartman profile picture

Admin

Emma Hartman

@lukewarmdaisies

Hi, I'm a junior studying CS! I like learning about operating systems and will talk musical theatre to anyone who will listen!

George Huebner profile picture

Admin

George Huebner

@shorden

Sophomore in CS and Physics. Come talk to me about Emacsen, quantum computers, and Nix!

Hassam Uddin profile picture

Admin

Hassam Uddin

@Heasummn

Hey I'm Hassam! I'm a junior in CS interested in all things cryptography, theory, math, and compilers.

Julius White V  profile picture

Admin

Julius White V

Hello! I am a Junior in Computer Science and Economics. I am interested in personal finance and entrepreneurship!

Richard Liu profile picture

Admin

Richard Liu

@richyliu

Reverse engineer and pwn enthusiast. When I'm not staring at Ghidra or GDB, I like to spend my free time rock climbing.

Sam Ruggerio profile picture

Admin

Sam Ruggerio

@Surg

Hi! I'm a CS PhD doing theory, but you'll find me in cybersec doing neat things as well!

Helper Team

Akhil Bharanidhar profile picture

Helper

Akhil Bharanidhar

@akditch

Hi! I'm a sophomore in CS, talk to me about pwn :p

Cameron Asher profile picture

Helper

Cameron Asher

@bigkirbs

Freshman math major who does web dev.

Daniel Wang profile picture

Helper

Daniel Wang

@meow

Hi! I'm a junior studying Computer Engineering interested in web exploitation and reverse engineering.

Henry Qiu profile picture

Helper

Henry Qiu

@CBCicada

Freshman in CompEng, interested in hardware and embedded systems. Currently doing CTFs as a hobby.

Jake Mayer profile picture

Helper

Jake Mayer

Sophomore in CS interested in web / embedded security and robotics.

Jupiter Peng profile picture

Helper

Jupiter Peng

Just a programmer

Kyler Norr profile picture

Helper

Kyler Norr

Social chair, Computer Science and Astrophysics, Computational Astrophysics and Software Engineering

Louis Asanaka profile picture

Helper

Louis Asanaka

Hey! I'm a junior in CS, interested in web / game hacking and operating systems!

Pomona Carrington Hoekstra profile picture

Helper

Pomona Carrington Hoekstra

@theta

Senior in Math and Biology at UIUC; ping me for help with Linux systems.

Ronan Boyarski profile picture

Helper

Ronan Boyarski

I'm a freshman studying Computer Science + Philosophy. I spend most of my time on red teaming & malware development.

Sagnik Chakraborty profile picture

Helper

Sagnik Chakraborty

@quaternion2112

I love making computers do weird things

Alumni

Ankur Sundara profile picture

Ex-Officer

Ankur Sundara

@arxenix

Class of 2020

Chris Kauchak profile picture

Ex-Research Director

Chris Kauchak

@2much4u

Class of 2022

Dillon Korman profile picture

Ex-Officer

Dillon Korman

@DrDinosaur

Class of 2020

Faisal Khalid profile picture

Ex-Admin

Faisal Khalid

@Chief

Class of 2022

Cyber Risk @ Deloitte

Ian Klatzco profile picture

Ex-President

Ian Klatzco

@ian5v

Class of 2019

security consultant

Jesse Wang profile picture

Leech

Jesse Wang

@jjwang11

Class of 2020

Joseph Ravichandran profile picture

Ex-President

Joseph Ravichandran

@0xjprx

Class of 2021

microarchitectural security @ MIT

Joshua Park profile picture

Ex-Helper (Infra)

Joshua Park

@_dingu

Class of 2020

Security Analyst

Kevin Higgs profile picture

Helper

Kevin Higgs

@kmh

Class of 2024

Trail of Bits

Nathan Farlow profile picture

Ex-President

Nathan Farlow

@0x1337cafe

Class of 2022

Nicholas Husin profile picture

Ex-Officer

Nicholas Husin

@NicholasHusin

Class of 2022

SWE / SRE @ Google

Thomas Quig profile picture

Ex-President

Thomas Quig

@Thomas_Quig

Class of 2022

privacy @ apple

YiFei Zhu profile picture

UIUCTF Infra

YiFei Zhu

@zhuyifei1999

Class of 2021

Kernel Dev @ Google

Playing with the Linux kernel

kuilin profile picture

Ex-Infra Admin

kuilin

@thekuilin

Class of 2021

grad student @ gatech