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About Me
How do we make optimal decisions in Complex Systems?
What if I told you that the 2008 financial crisis, the 2015 Ukraine power crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic all had one thing in common? They all had a single trigger. For the 2008 crisis, it was the sub-prime mortgage bubble burst; For the Ukraine power crisis, it was a cyberattack at a single power station; For COVID-19, it was patient zero. All of these triggers caused a massive domino effect leading to absolute chaos. To control this chaos, we need to make Data-Driven Decisions.
That's why it is so important to model and study how influence propagates in Complex Networks, and also to design algorithms that help us makes complex decisions. But there's one problem though - Graph algorithms are NP-Hard, which means you can either get computation speed, or accuracy, but not both. Consequently, you often see Graph algorithms being run in Supercomputers, making real-world and real-time deployment often impractical. To this end, my PhD research addresses three open research problems:
1. Can we design Graph Optimization Algorithms, while optimizing risk and guaranteeing performance?
2. What is the effect of the Graph Structure on the information flow in a complex network, and can we control this using influencers?
3. Can we run Graph Optimization in real-time using a distributed edge computing architecture by leveraging Graph Neural Networks?
At the cutting edge of Deep Tech: Embracing the Academia-Startup-VC ecosystem
My near-term career goal is to fully leverage the academia-startup-VC ecosystem to go all out on founding/building a deep tech startup. As part of this effort, I spun off our research and co-founded ASTERS, where I serve as the Head of AI, and work with the DHS on commercializing our tech and bring it to market. We recently received coverage from NBC's local news station on Channel 10 WBIR Knoxville. We are currently working on an MVP (Q4 target), and will officially start fundraising soon.
I'm also super interested in Deep Tech Venture Capital, and have been following this space very closely. I was part of 14 student PhD Founder cohort at Dorm Room Fund this past summer, where we participated in a nights-and-weekends program that helped us understand the ecosystem a lot better, and prepared us to spinoff our research into scalable deep tech startups through talks and mentorship from top VCs, YC-backed founders, and Thiel Fellows. I'm applying to more PhD to VC programs. More Soon.
Paying it forward: Cultivating Research amongst young adults
I've been fortunate to mentor more than 15 students in my capacity as a PhD student, TA, and a pro-bono career counsellor. I predominantly mentor students on REU research, senior design projects, teach homework assignments for ME 231 Dynamics, and leverage my interdisciplinary background to offer advice on choosing a STEM career. I'm a pen pal at Letters to a Pre-Scientist where I'm slated to match with a high schooler and exchanging letters about what a STEM career could look like. Additionally, I'm also mentoring the Robotics club at American High School (Fremont, CA) on the FIRST Tech Challenge.
I also serve on the Student Leadership Council at the Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence (SENTRY), where I pitch and conduct student programs for the director (Prof. Silevitch). Previously, I was the Vice-President for Manthan, the Indian Student Association at the University of Tennessee, where my most notable accomplishment was helping incoming students finding housing using a centralized housing tracker software. If you're someone who needs help in their career, please feel free to reach out if I can help you in any way.
Curious Innovator: On a mission towards making a positive impact
The MBTI test classifies me an ENTJ-A (Extraverted – 74%, Intuitive – 72%, Thinking – 54%, Judging – 68%, Assertive – 75%). While I have my reservations against these types of tests, I think it is worth taking these with a pinch of salt. Friends who know me well would generally agree with this, and know me as a go-getter who won't take no for answer. I have a track record of displaying remarkable grit and hustle. For instance, I co-authored 4 research papers while I was in undergrad, and only one of three who got a direct PhD admit in the Class of 2020 (in spite of COVID!). In my PhD, I've gone above and beyond just research, and won a competitive DHS grant for our lab, and spun off our research and cofounded ASTERS. I also got a chance to get exposure in Industry R&D at Dow, and experience the startup-VC ecosystem at Dorm Room Fund. These achievements, I think, can be primary attributed to my insatiable curiosity, and relentless ambition to make a positive impact, along with the acumen to get stuff done.
Outside of work, I love being in the great outdoors. One of the great privileges of being a grad student in East Tennessee, is the proximity to the breathtaking Smokies. It's no surprise that it is by far the most visited national park in the country! I'm a people person, and genuinely like getting to know people, their interests and causes they support. I'm formally trained in Indian classical music, and grew up playing the violin. I pride myself in my music taste, which spans multiple genres, languages, and styles. I would consider myself down=to-earth and grounded, with the ability to identify the things that matter, versus the things that don't. Along with meditation, and self-reflection, one of the themes I've been exploring a lot lately is Meta-cognition - the ability to view one's actions from a third person's lens. If any this piques your interest, please feel free to reach out for a chat.
