Madison Pickering

Courses

I enjoy teaching and have covered the following topics:
- Spring, 2024: Engineering for Ethics, Privacy, and Fairness in Computer Systems. I guest-lectured and otherwise provided support for following topics: LLMs and their safety/guardrails, k-anonymity, and differential privacy.
- Winter, [2023-2024]: Introduction to Computer Security. I provided assignment support for the following topics: One Time Pad reuse, Length Extension attacks, subverting HTTPS usage through network packet analysis, Password Cracking, TOCTOU exploits, Buffer Overflows, Certification Measurement, and Fuzzing using AFL.
- Spring, 2022: Introduction to Computer Systems. I helped students create higher-level programming constructs (e.g., binary search) at the bit level.
- Winter, 2022: Inclusive Technology: Designing for Underserved and Marginalized Communities. I guided and mentored three groups of students' research projects through weekly check-ins.

Anonymous Student Feedback

[Spr '22: Introduction to Computer Systems]"I've never had a better TA than Madison (I'm a third year student). They are so caring and generous with their time. More than that, they are an extremely clear and effective teacher, always armed with multiple answers to ensure their students fully understand the concept at hand. They made an impossible project feel attainable to me and substantially contributed to my understanding the concepts at the heart of the class."
[Win '24: Introduction to Computer Security]"Madison is the best TA ever; I would not have understood or gotten through so many assignments with Madison. They were so helpful outside of class and even outside of office hours (they would schedule office hours when students asked for them out of the kindness of their heart) and put in so much time and effort to make sure everyone understood the assignment. They were always so kind even when I came up to them with basic questions, and never made me feel bad about not understanding something. If there are any TA awards please have Madison win them because I don't know any other TA that would have put in that much time and effort for a class."
[Win '23: Introduction to Computer Security]"Honestly there is only 1 TA that I want to evaluate: Madison. The rest I didn't interact with either because they hadn't answered my question, or I just didn't cross with them (there are a lot of TAs in the class though, plenty of ways to get help). Madison helped a ton with the assingment she was in charge off, and she was very kind in her response (something you will appreciate at 2am in the morning)."