I'd love to give you a typical boy genius story, where I'd tell you that I rewrote the Windows 98 OS at age 8, but I could never do it with a straight face. My tryst with technology, and computers in reality did begin at age 8, with my very first desktop computer. I have very fond memories of spending long summer afternoons with Road rash, and Need for Speed. My first brush with technology came in the form of a torn speaker cone, and a broken radio controlled McLaren F1. The silver lining was that I was encouraged at home to continue tinkering with tech, and this fostered my love for technology.

As far as academics go, I was a decent student through school, and by the time I reached junior college, I was genuinely fascinated by the sciences. It was in the summer of my eleventh grade, that I gave quite some attention to tech as a hobbyist, because I wanted to fix the aforementioned broken RC car. It so happened that I got deeply interested in electronics, and eventually in microcontrollers because of this project. I ended up utilizing an Arduino based microcontroller, and an nRF based RF controller to make brand new electronics for the car. A further interest in electronics came about owing to learning how to play the guitar. This led me to investigate the workings of guitar effect pedals, and I spent many a wonderful summer breaks building my own effects, and in the process blowing up the occasional capacitor.

As I neared the end of my undergraduate program, I got rather taken by image processing, and in turn computer vision. I secured an internship at IIT- Bombay building computer vision applications for medical imaging. I got to learn a lot of really amazing concepts while on the job, and largely dealt with imaging outside the visible spectrum. I secured a permanent employment there after the internship, and continued work on the imaging project, which I genuinely believe led to some of my best work at the time. I was also chiefly developing the algorithms and software for a couple of smart parameter monitoring systems at the time, which led me to work very closely with medical data, and put me squarely in a rather high stakes environment. In all truthfulness, I enjoyed every second of my work there, and got an amazing amount of exposure to data science paradigms.
Eventually my work got me so interested in computer science in general, that I decided to pursue a masters degree in the subject.

Thus began a new chapter of my story, and I attended Georgia Tech for my MS in computer science. To say that the program at GT was rigorous would be an understatement, however, I genuinely believe that it has made me a better programmer, data scientist, and a better person in general. As I graduated from GT, the Coronavirus pandemic hit our lives, and considerably changed our understanding of normalcy. I've used the time in isolation, under lockdown to further augment my skills. I got involved in some community efforts in using deep learning on radiographs for diagnosing coronavirus, and even put to use my engineering chops in conceiving a ventilator manifold for emergency use. The latter didn't see light of day, however, it did give me some joy in knowing that I can put my skills to use for such noble causes.
 

For those of you who are interested in the Petrolhead side of me, I've had a long long affection for vehicles. I've been fascinated by the double-decker buses of Bombay from as far back as I can remember. I've loved cars, specifically the really fast ones, I'm a great fan of the McLaren F1, and it has acted as a doorway to many more amazing cars for me. I appreciate most motorsport, and follow Formula 1 to a great extent, and events like the 24 Hours of Le Mans whenever possible. I do have certain quirks and preferences when it comes to cars, but, I genuinely appreciate any opportunity to engage in a discussion on the topic. As James May would say, "It doesn't matter if you prefer ICEs or electrics, what matters is partaking in the experiment that is the car."

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Along the way, I've learned some great lessons, in life, and in technology. I've made some great friends who've truly made my story more interesting. I now await the next chapter knowing fully well that it's going to be a very engrossing one. I've had a number of significant pieces of work through this journey, each of which mark a significant stage in my story, do check them out in the projects page. If you want to know more about my education, or my work, click away on the appropriate buttons, and you'll find all the information there.