Hi! I'm

Pragna Mamidipaka

CV
Photograph of Pragna Mamidipaka

I am a rising second-year PhD student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University, where I am fortunate to be advised by Prof. Theophilus Benson.

Research Interests

My work lies at the intersection of operating systems and networking! My current research is focused on designing frameworks and runtimes that simplify the lifecycle of eBPF programs — from deployment to coordination to state sharing — so that developers can more easily extend the kernel with observability tools, transport mechanisms, and other enhancements.

Previously

I completed my undergraduate studies from IIT Hyderabad, where I dabbled in diverse domains ranging from astrophysics to theoretical computer science. Some of my most formative experiences included working on pulsars with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, traveling to Japan for a research internship that ultimately inspired me to pursue a PhD, and working in the NetX lab with Dr. Praveen Tammana.

Outside Academics

In my free time, I enjoy watching movies, biking, and exploring new places. I recently finished the 25 mile steel city route at PedalPGH! I'm picking up table tennis these days, and it's been a good way to relax. I also love practicing and teaching yoga, and I feel lucky to share it with the CMU community.

Recent Updates

Sep 2025 Presenting Apiary at the N2Women workshop at Sigcomm!
Jun 2025 Began investigating traffic burst patterns in datacenter networks and their impact on transport and queuing performance.
Oct 2024 Started exploring eBPF program management, leading to the creation of Prism (specifically for observability) and Apiary (as a general orchestrator).
Aug 2024 Started my PhD journey at CMU!

Current Research

Prism: Towards Software-Defined Observability
(Feb 2025 – Present)

Prism rethinks observability through a programmable, modular framework that decouples probe specification from execution. By introducing a reactive programming model, a specialized compiler, and a dynamic runtime, it allows eBPF probes to adapt to workload and kernel context — bringing observability closer to a software-defined abstraction.

Characterizing Datacenter Bursts
(Jun 2025 – Present)

This project investigates the microsecond-scale bursts that appear in datacenter networks. By carefully characterizing their nature and frequency, we aim to understand how these bursts affect congestion control, transport protocols, and performance engineering techniques — laying the foundation for more burst-resilient datacenter designs.

Apiary: A Runtime Framework for Distributed eBPF Program Management
(Aug 2024 – Present)

Apiary introduces a new abstraction for managing distributed eBPF applications across complex systems. Through a classifier–enforcer model, coordinated runtime, and system-level support for updates and shared state, it addresses key challenges of programmability, isolation, and lifecycle management — making large-scale eBPF deployments more practical and dependable.

Poster

Publications

The Indian Pulsar Timing Array Data Release 2: I. Dataset and Timing Analysis
2025

Authors: P Rana, P Tarafdar, C Dwivedi, BC Joshi, D Deb, S Mondal, P Mamidipaka, et al.

Venue: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia

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Low-frequency pulse-jitter measurement with the uGMRT I: PSR J0437–4715
2024

Authors: T Kikunaga, S Hisano, ND Batra, S Desai, BC Joshi, M Bagchi, T Prabu, et al.

Venue: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia 41, e036

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Do pulsar and Fast Radio Burst dispersion measures obey Benford's law?
2023

Authors: P Mamidipaka, S Desai

Venue: Astroparticle Physics 144, 102761

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Application of Efron-Petrosian method to radio pulsar fluxes
2023

Authors: P Mamidipaka, S Desai

Venue: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 2023 (12), 034

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