I grew up in a quaint little town in Central India, tucked away in green hills and bordered by jungles teeming with tigers and leopards—the very inspiration behind The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling! I completed my undergraduate degree in Electronics and Communication in the state of West Bengal (which, fun fact, is actually in the east of India—and also home to the famous Royal Bengal Tigers!).

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After that, I moved to Los Angeles, CA, for my Master’s in Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC). During my time there, I became very interested in Natural Language Processing and Web Search & Retrieval. These interests led to my early research projects with the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) at USC, and later, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and DARPA.

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Following two extended internships at NASA JPL (yes, it spanned almost an entire year!), I joined full-time as a Scientific Software Engineer. Not long after, my role transitioned into that of a Data Scientist, in line with the rising popularity of Data Science and the nature of my work at the time.

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At NASA JPL, I focused heavily on collaborations with various institutions to develop Intelligent Systems—AI, ML, Automation, Algorithm Design… you name it—across a wide range of domains and use cases. During this time I worked with Government Agencies—DARPA, NSF, DHS, NIH, NCI, NIST, USGS, Universities—Stanford, Caltech, CMU, MIT, USC, Georgetown, and others, Research Organizations—Mitre, Ronin Institute, Startups—Hyperion Gray and Companies—Chevron, Celgene. You can find details on some of the most notable projects here.

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At some point along the way, I gave a TEDx talk on Data Science called “Demystifying Data Science”, and a quote from my talk—a personal definition of who a Data Scientist is—was included in a German book on Data Science:

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“A Data Scientist, not a rocket scientist or a geologist kind of scientist. More like a Computer Scientist, but not a Software Engineer. One who makes software with a focus on Data Analysis, like a Data Analyst, but with a lot of data, but not always!”

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Right before (and especially after!) the rise of ChatGPT, a big chunk of my work shifted towards research, design, consultation and education around large language models (LLMs), agent-based data workflows and their use cases. Most of this work was for NASA JPL, Caltech, and the NCI division of the NIH.

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In 2024, I decided to take a step back (from several things at once!) and enter a long-anticipated phase of Exploration and Travel. During this time, I...

• Solo-traveled across Asia.

• Gave guest lectures and talks (on LLMs, agentic workflows, ML, and more).

• Advised an AI+Crypto startup that aimed to conduct “true” human-in-the-loop evaluations of AI models on-chain, helping refine their tech, product, and funding pitch.

• Collaborated with an ex-NASA colleague and a professor from the University of Michigan to brainstorm and shape an idea for a project-lifecycle-based social network.

• And most importantly (and joyfully!), I dove into creative work—natural dyeing, pottery, zine-making, photography and more.

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In my personal life, I’m an avid reader of fiction, mythology, and books on philosophy, psychology, and spirituality. I meditate when I can and have a deep love for the art of cooking. Honestly, I’m a bit of a Hobbit—given my love for good ingredients, timeless techniques, and slow, mindful food preparation that nourishes the soul. In pottery, I’m not too terrible a wheel-thrower and quite a decent hand-builder. I love brewing and tasting teas—Oolong, Sencha, Pu'er...mostly the more traditional ones (a bit of a purist here!) I write (mostly for myself), and occasionally dabble in photography—usually in creative bursts. Here’s a small photography collection from my college days, and here’s some recent, but very selective, stuff. And here a gallery of some other creative stuff I mentioned before.

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If you have a wonderfully creative idea and need an extra head and a hand, feel free to reach out.

 

And thank you for reading, you have a very good attention span it seems!