Hi! My name is Ryan Torok, and I am a Master's student in
Computer Science at Princeton University, working with
Prof. Amit Levy on secure and
usable web systems. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, I previously
worked with Profs. Calvin
Lin and Akanksha
Jain on hardware optimization for graphs as part of the Turing
Scholars program at the University of Texas. In my career, I am
interested in how to design and implement computer systems for
security in both the corporate and government sectors, leading to a
future technology leadership role where I can specialize in making
the web a safe place for everyone.
CV | Mail
| GitHub
Industry Work
Winter - Summer 2021
Software Engineer — Boeing CCTS Starliner Program (via Barrios
Technology, Ltd) [more]
Summer 2020
Software Engineer Intern — Boeing CCTS Starliner Program
Summer 2019, Spring 2020
Software Engineer Intern — Boeing ISS Program
[more]
After finishing my undergraduate degree in December 2020, I returned to
Boeing for one final six-month stint, this time working on a few years'
worth of backlogged updates to the framework responsible for
running the Starliner's software qualification tests, whose
results are formally documented and sent to NASA. The updates
significantly reduced the amount of human inputs necessary to start the
tests, eliminating the chance for human error, and reduced the amount of
waiting time in between them.
Eight months after departing Boeing to start my Master's degree at
Princeton, I was thrilled to watch the Starliner complete its
second Orbital Flight Test in May 2022, which saw it successfully dock
with the International Space Station for the first time. I am even more
looking forward to seeing the spacecraft finally ferry crew to the
station after over a decade of development and testing, when it will
carry veteran astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore on the Crewed
Flight Test in the summer of 2023. [back]
I worked two internships with Boeing's software team in
summer 2019 and spring-summer 2020. I worked in the testing groups for the
software that runs on the International Space Station as well as Boeing's new
Commercial Crew spacecraft, the Starliner. With the critical
responsibility to protect the spacecraft and crew, this software has some of the
strongest correctness requirements in the world.
During my 2019
internship, I was located on-site at the office just a few miles from NASA's
Johnson Space Center, and the company organized several trips to JSC for the
roughly 30 interns working for the summer. Pictured is myself in front of the
full-scale model of the Boeing Starliner at JSC building five, where we also had
the opportunity to see mockups of the ISS and the Space Shuttle flight deck. My
group also made trips to see the ISS Software Development Integration Lab
(SDIL), housing duplicates of the decades-old Honeywell computers that run the
ISS (your phone has more processing power), the Neutral Buoyancy Lab where
astronauts train for spacewalks in a 50-foot deep swimming pool, and the ISS
Mission Control Center. To round out the experience, everyone remembers the
mother duck who built a nest outside the building's entrance, whose eggs hatched
into adorable ducklings during the last week of my
internship. [back]
Academic Work
Sandcastle: Leveraging Sandboxes for a Minimally Invasive
Browser Fingerprinting Defense [PDF][more]
with Amit Levy
In Proceedings of the 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy
Improving Graph Workload Performance by Rearranging the CSR Memory
Layout [PDF][more]
with Calvin Lin and Akanksha Jain
Undergraduate senior thesis, Fall 2020
Sandcastle is a novel browser fingerprinting defense that uses sandboxing techniques to minimize its interference with legitimate applications. Our paper is set to appear in the proceedings of IEEE S&P 2023. I will post more details here after publication. [back]
In the final two semesters as an undergraduate, I concluded my Turing Scholars honors Computer Science degree with a research project in Computer Architecture. The project began at the end of Dr. Calvin Lin's graduate research course focusing on hardware prefetching and caching. My final project for the course was an entirely new prefetcher which utilized register data to improve the accuracy of address-correlating prefetchers. The technique showed promise for traditional server workloads, but when I transitioned to focus on memory latency in graph workloads, I discovered the register-based techniques were not producing timely prefetches because of graphs' heavy pointer-chasing behavior. Then, I shifted my focus to different strategies, and ended up discovering two worthwhile techniques, a prefetcher which could extrapolate the neighbor indices in the CSR graph memory layout, and an alternate CSR-like layout which allows the graph to achieve better spacial locality and suffer fewer cache misses. These two topics became the subject of my senior honors thesis in December 2020. [back]
Teaching
Princeton University
Spring 2023
Teaching Assistant — COS 461, Computer Networks
Fall 2022
Teaching Assistant — COS 316, Principles of Computer System
Design
Spring 2022
Teaching Assistant — COS 226, Data Structures and Algorithms
Fall 2021
Teaching Assistant — COS 318, Operating Systems
University of Texas
Fall 2019
Teaching Assistant — CS 314H, Honors Data Structures
[more]
Though I have served as a TA a total of five times across two
universities, my first TA role at UT Austin is still the most special
to me. The cohort of 26 students I taught represented the inaugural
class of UT's new joint Honors Computer Science and Business program,
and I was granted a chance to interact very closely with my students
as they braved a difficult course I remembered struggling with
as a freshman.
My students frequently complimented my skill at clearly explaining
complicated topics, and I created a few special activities such as a
logo contest for the course's final project to make the class
fun. It was particularly rewarding for me to see my former students
succeed in their future coursework, and I remain friends with
several of them even after graduating. Picutured here are 23 of my
26 former students, and had I known they were taking a group photo I
might have been tempted to photobomb. Thank you to my students for
being some of the best people I have ever worked
with. [back]
Miscellany
When I'm not hacking on research, you might find me
playing the cello outside in one of Princeton's
many courtyards, especially during the holiday season. I also
love writing my own music, and I am particularly
proud of my 2018 full orchestra
composition, Christmas in Boston.
You might also find me running around the Princeton campus or on the
Delaware and Raritan Canal Towpath. I also enjoy hiking at places like
the Delaware Water Gap
and Mercer Park.
TODO [back]
I have played the cello since age 10, and served as the vice president
of my high school orchestra. We regularly placed in the top 15 schools in the
state of Texas, also performed at prestigious national competitions, including
the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, the ASTA National Orchestra Festival in
Pittsburgh, and the National Orchestra Cup in New York City's Lincoln Center
(unfortunately I was first chair for this one and my bridge broke on stage
during the performance — everyone was absolutely mortified). I also earned
the right to perform in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 Region 9 Symphony Orchestra,
which accepts the top ten cellists across the North Houston area.
My high school orchestra also had its fair share of fun
traditions, such as the annual Cello Ensemble performance of
ThePianoGuys' arrangement of Nearer My God to Thee. My most
memorable orchestra memory has to be when I soloed Silent Night
with the choir at our combined holiday concert. I continued to perform
casually throughout college. I love sharing my music outside in campus
courtyards, especially during the holidays. My favorite piece to
perform is Luigi Boccherini's Cello Concerto in B♭ major, a
beautiful piece that takes advantage of the instrument's versatility
and range. Advanced players can learn left hand techniques which allow
them to play music in higher octaves more commonly played by the
violin and viola, giving the cello the largest range of any string
instrument outside the piano. [back]
Alongside my cello performance, I have dedicated significant time to
composing my own orchestra music. I find writing music to be quite
theraputic, because while it is mainly a creative activity, having to
keep track of several lines of music at once to assemble the chord
progression I want involves the same mathematical part of my brain
that solves problems in the Computer Science realm. The writing
process involves just enough of this logical thinking process that it
becomes the perfect intersection of art and science that keeps me
entertained for hours.
You can listen to a few of my favorite compositions here:
Christmas
in Boston (2018) [score][more]
121 Thursdays (2016)
Spirit
of Adventure (2015)
[back]
Christmas in Boston is a holiday-themed full-orchestra piece
named not after the city as a whole, but after a small store in the
Faniuel Hall district, which is open all 12 months of the year and
serves as the world's greatest antidote to the summer heat if you
visit in July. As my first dive in to full orchestra composition, I
felt the piece struck the perfect balance between original melodies
and familiar classics to go down as a memorable holiday score. The
piece is organized into nine separate sections, which you can learn
more about by clicking below.
[Score][Recording][back]
[0:00] A Chillier Kind of Season
[1:37] A Bustling Scene
[3:25] A Peaceful Night
[5:15] Snow on the Rooftops
[7:05] From the Highest Peak
[9:53] Avalanche
[12:05] Northern Lights, a Winter Ambience
[14:04] The Light Reappears
[16:16] Holiday Spirit in the Air
A Chillier Kind of Season
You may be surprised to learn that I did not notice how much
this section's opening line resembles the tenor line from
Pachelbel's Canon until multiple years after the piece was
completed. Early in writing, I had planned for Christmas
in Boston to take on a very different structure, with a
few longer movements and a small refrain of this section's
main melody in between each, making it similar in structure
to Mussorgsky's
Pictures at an Exhibition. Though I eventually abandoned this
structure in favor of several short sections,
both this section's melody and the piece's title are leftovers from
that original premise. In fact, the opening line was originally
intended to resemble walking down a city street, probably in the heat
of the summer, followed by the entry of the main violin melody
representing the rapid change from summer to winter one experiences by
passing through the doors of the piece's eponymous holiday store.
[back]
A Bustling Scene
If I had to choose one, this remains my favorite section. The
uplifting melody at the opening is downright addictive, and one I
still catch myself humming at any time of the year. The cross-section
callbacks with the trombones in the opening melody and the low strings
in the middle help the tune capture the same lighthearted bounce as
Leroy Anderson's classic Sleigh Ride. Adding more sound from the
back of the orchestra on top of the tune interspersed with "The Most
Wonderful Time of the Year" in the final stretch of this section
transforms the lighthearted melody into an epic voice that is not
heard again until the second half of the piece.
[back]
A Peaceful Night
When I was growing up, my parents had a set of electronic bells they
would hang in our living room each December, and O Come All Ye
Faithful was the first song it was programmed to play when it
was powered on. Ever since, it has remained one of my favorite
Christmas songs, and it was the first holiday tune I learned to play
on my cello as far back as fifth grade. In writing this section, I
wanted to give the solo violin a lot of freedom without leaving them
to play completely on their own. I ended up looking at a guitar
arrangement of O Come to help guide what chord progression I
chose for the harp and upper winds in the background. I also like
how the march feel added by the percussion near the end of the
section sounds unexpected but not out of place. If I have one regret
about this section, it is that I could have put more effort into the
intervals between the two violin sections in the final stretch.
[back]
Snow on the Rooftops
Fueled by its mysterious arpeggios, this section is very much a
fusion of John Williams' Hedwig's Theme from the Harry
Potter film series and Stephen Flaherty's Once Upon a
December from the 1997 classic Anastasia. Between slowly
adding a new instrument to the mix every time the phrase repeats to
the introduction of the chromatic note sequences that feature
prominently in the James Bond franchise, this section perfectly
captures the level of wonder and anticipation I imagine a young child
would feel looking out their bedroom window on Christmas Eve, seeing a
blanket of snow on the neighboring houses, wondering when a particular
red-suited man was going to land on their roof. Oh, and the bassoon
melody at the end is pretty awesome, too.
[back]
From the Highest Peak
Though I had a rough idea about what I wanted to do with this
section for a long time, it was challenging to come up with a
unique-sounding melody that well-captured the thrill of skiing or
snowboarding down a mountain at impressive speed (I've never done
either, by the way). I ended up making heavy use of the upper
strings playing a 2-againt-3 rhythm to make the melody sound fun,
leaving the low strings to keep the mood of epic
excitement. Meanwhile, the middle stretch just begs the audience to
take a break from the intensity and grab a cup of coffee and watch
the little kids on the bunny slope. If you'd like an excuse to read
the score, you can look for the harp roll leading into the repeated
6/4 measure that completely fails to show up in the recording.
[back]
Avalanche
This section got a lot of attention from me, and there are so many fun
stories I could tell here, like the note in the French Horn section near the
end that started out as a typo. This section had much more of a story
in my head during writing than most of the others, with the desceptive
cadence that ends the previous section representing the collective
gasp of the skiers noticing they are on the verge of an avalanche,
that is eventually set off by a bird (represented by the piccolo)
landing on a tree and causing enough vibration to push the mountain
over the edge. Following the blare of the avalanche warning horn, the
section proceeds with a frantic escape down the mountain, highlighted
by a slew of augmented chords and inconsistent odd phrase
lengths. The unique chord progression in the final buildup evokes a
sense of last-ditch confidence before the outcome is left uncertain up
until the final downbeat. [back]
Northern Lights: A Winter Ambience
This section was heavily inspired by David Wise's Aquatic
Ambience from the first entry in the Donkey Kong Country
game series. In hindsight, I think Northern Lights
resembles Aquatic Ambience a bit too much, since the heavy use
of strings for the ambient chord progression makes this section sound
more like water than snow. The main idea I intended for the start of
this section, which isn't caputred well by the recording, is that the
final downbeat of the previous section should reverberate in the hall
long enough for the upper strings to begin this section without its
start being heard by the audience. Admittedly, I didn't have many
ideas for building on top of the melancholy melodic line
provided by the harp and vibraphone. I ended up introducing a rhythmic
variation of Blue Christmas, followed by a brass doubling of
the strings' ambient progression to provide a strong "lonely holiday"
vibe, meant to contrast heavily with the final two sections.
[back]
The Light Reappears
This section got the least amount of attention from me. I did achieve
my major goal of including a movement that keeps the peace of the
previous section but abandons the melancholy feel in favor of a more
optimistic, reflective one. However, I definitely think I could have
developed the Greensleeves motif much more than I did. Though
it was definitely meant to be more minimalistic and reflective, being
the last chance for the audience to catch their breath before the
fast-paced final section, I still feel like the middle of this section
lacks the amount of forward motion I was going for.
[back]
Holiday Spirit in the Air
There's a lot to love here, and a lot I could talk about. Beginning
with the classic "clock tower bell" note pattern, my goal was to
capture the same epic feel of Spirit of the Season from the
classic children's holiday film The Polar Express. Meanwhile,
the bass line in the low strings was loosely based on that of the
theme The Reaper's Line of Sight from the game Kid Icarus:
Uprising. Following the fun rhythmless variant of Deck the
Halls, we move into a thick, sensitive arrangement of Silent
Night, which is a subtle nod to my favorite memory from my high
school orchestra days: when I played Silent Night along with
the choir at our combined holiday concert. From there until the end of
the piece, the goal was simply to stack as many classic holiday
melodies in between the angelic violin runs until every major section
of the orchestra was playing a different line. Though this section was
written in only a few days, it definitely provides the illustrious,
cheerful ending this piece
deserved. [back]
I decided I had to include this picture I took in August 2022 from the
peak of Mount Tammany at the Delaware Water Gap. In the lower-right
corner, you can see the Delaware River carving through the Kittatinny
Mountains, paralleled on its right by Interstate 80, whose vehicles
look like tiny matchbox cars from this 1500-foot vantage point.
Hiking up the mountain is an intense climb, with steep inclines and a
rocky trail where flat places to plant your feet are few and far
between. After encountering a pair of waterfalls near the mountain's
base, you find yourself surrounded by trees, giving no indication of
your elevation for the entire ascent, until it opens up beautifully at
the peak to the view you see here, making the trek up the mountain
more than worth it. Though it was a fairly hazy day, you can make out
the peaks of mountains across the river on the Pennsylvania side that
are several miles downrange. With the upper-level winds in your face
and the sheer vastness of the space you can see, the pictures
absolutely do not do the experience
justice. [back]