Hi! Iām Michael Noguera
(he/him), a first-year PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where I work with Professors Aishwarya Ganesan and Ram Alagappan in the Distributed And Storage Systems Laboratory (DASSL).
I completed my undergraduate degree in Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May 2025, advised by Professor Xiangyao Yu.
Before switching to systems, I worked with Prof. Rahul Chatterjee on privacy and security, supported by the WISCERS program and a Sophomore Research Fellowship.
I also spent two summers interning at Netflix, where I learned a ton from some incredible engineers.
My primary research interest is computer systems. Data-intensive systems, cloud-native systems, and operating systems are all fascinating to me. I like to see the “big picture” and find efficient and resilient designs satisfying. Currently I wonder a lot about problems of data movement, resource disaggregation, new interconnect technologies, and the future of the memory-storage hierarchy.
While it is not my research focus, I have always been interested in the security of computer systems. Information and its flow are common themes in my work, and side-channel security and microarchitectural attacks have long fascinated me.
As an undergrad, you could find me at Reading Group or in the Undergraduate Projects Lab, where I was one of the twelve “Coords” (student leaders) that ran the lab. As a grad student, you can find me in the DASSL lab.
Extracurriculars in undergrad…
Between classes I studied at the library or socialized in the Undergraduate Projects Lab, where I was a student lab coordinator from sophomore year until I graduated. We hacked on a lot of cool things and I enjoyed hanging out with other amazing computer-interested people. We also hosted the MadHacks hackathon. I contributed to organizing two MadHacks before co-leading MadHacks 2025.
I was part of the leadership team of the Cybersecurity UW student club, where I and other leaders planned and presented ethical hacking lessons. My involvement in this decreased over time and I took a more advisory role toward the end.
I constantly thought I was going to do so much cool stuff at the makerspace! I recieved my TEAM Lab red permit in the fall of 2021, and took laser cutter training. However, I never made it in there for anything substantial as I always ended up working on things at home.
I serve on the board of directors for Wisconsin Future Problem Solving, a K-12 competitive writing program that I have been involved with since sixth grade.
When I was in high school…
I went to Madison West High School, where I competed on the Science Olympiad team (for Detector Building, Code Analysis, Circuit Lab, & Machines), and started a Computer Security Club to do Jeopardy-style CTF hacking competitions. I briefly did (Public Forum) Debate before joining Science Olympiad.
I also took UW CS classes during the school day, starting with CS 300 in Summer 2019 and ending with CS 537 in Fall 2020. This was facilitated by the Early College Credit Program, which I highly recommend looking in to for other high schoolers interested in studying topics at the college level.
Hobbies
Other interests of mine include playing music with my brother William, stargazing, photography, and watching sports and Star Trek. And hiking. If you’re in Madison during the winter, walk out on the lake by
Frautschi Point and look back towards the shore to see some incredible icicles.
