Picture of Kentrell Owens, a handsome young man, presenting a poster at a conference

Kentrell Owens

PhD Candidate (2020 - present)

Computer Science and Engineering
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington, USA
[my first name]@cs.washington.edu
Curriculum Vitae

My pronouns are he/him.
Google Scholar
Mastodon: @kentrellowens

About Me

I'm a fifth (and final!) year PhD candidate at the University of Washington in the Security & Privacy Research Lab. My advisors are Tadayoshi Kohno and Franziska Roesner. My research interests are broadly (usable) computer security & privacy, with a specific focus on consumer protection for underserved consumers. Through my research, I attempt to do impactful computer security & privacy research that fulfills my sense of curiosity, justice, and hope. If you're looking for a postdoc, I'm on the job market for opportunities!

I earned my M.S. in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) where I worked with Lorrie Cranor, and my B.S. from Rice University (Houston, TX). I grew up in rural northern Louisiana, and I'm a first-generation college student. I owe the victories in my life to all the investments my friends, family, teachers, and communities have made in me. If you're reading this, you might be one of those people; thank you!

Updates

12/18/2024 - Last week I did a Research Exchange at ICSI at UC Berkeley hosted by Serge Egelman. I met with researchers there, gave a presentation about my work, and got some valuable feedback on proposed work. It was the most time I've spent in Berkeley, and I had a great time there.

10/25/2024 - I really enjoyed my time at the 2024 New England Computing & Data Science Rising Stars Program at Boston University. I received genuinely useful mentorship from the faculty and staff there, and I was able to connect with several peers doing inspiring work. I look forward to keeping in touch with them!

10/9/2024 - I had a great time co-presenting with Elizabeth Vasquez about surveillance of prison communication at Artifical Justice: AI, Tech, and Criminal Defense hosted by the National Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers' Fourth Amendment Center and Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology. I am grateful for the invitation and really enjoyed meeting people and learning from the other presenters.

Publications

2025

2024

2023

  • The Surveillance AI Pipeline
    Pratyusha Ria Kalluri*, William Agnew*, Myra Cheng*, Kentrell Owens*, Luca Soldaini*, Abeba Birhane*
    arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.15084. Under review. 2023.

2022

2021

2020

2019

Last updated February 2025.