More about me
Education
| Course | Department, Name of the Institution | University/ Board | Aggregate Percentage/CGPA | Year of Passing |
| M.S. | Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles | USC | 3.62 | 2019 |
| B. Tech | Computer Science and Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University,Coimbatore | Amrita University | 08.91 | 2015 |
| XII | Devi Academy Senior Secondary School, Chennai | CBSE | 88.80 | 2011 |
| X | Devi Academy Senior Secondary School, Chennai | CBSE | 90.00 | 2009 |
At the outset, I would like to introduce myself as a dreamer. Former Indian President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has rightly said “youngsters should dream to achieve their vision.” My vision is to excel in the field of computer science. I knew that I would have to cross many milestones to achieve my dream. The first step was obtaining an undergraduate degree in computer science and engineering. The next milestone is to research and pursue graduate studies at your distinguished institution.
This academic journey started right from childhood. In kindergarten, I was fascinated to see some of my crayon colors on the first google doodle of a Burning Man. Using the internet made me wonder how it all works, and this sparked my interest in computers. I have always been a high performer and plan my career well in advance. During high school, I was awarded a merit certificate by the Central Board of Secondary Education for scoring in the 99.9th percentile in the year end national board exams. In preparation for undergraduate studies, I enrolled in C, C++, Data Structures and Algorithms, Java Applications at NIIT which is recognized as the Top IT Training Company for 20 consecutive years by Cybermedia publications. I received excellent grades in these courses. I also trained in WPF and ASP.NET applications, and learnt Java at the Oracle Workforce Development Program.
I was delighted to secure admission to Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, which is accredited 'A' by NAAC, and ranked among one of the best multi-disciplinary research universities in India. Since I had already learnt core computer science subjects, it was easy for me to excel in the courses. At college, I focused on exploring advanced topics by working on several projects. During my junior year, as part of my coursework for Data Structures, I developed a Dictionary, with an insight from my professor, S.Padmavathi. I implemented a digital tree which is used for word lookups. The worst case time complexity for this tree is O(m) where m is the length of the search string. I also added reverse buckets to cater to synonyms. Simple modification of the trie has helped me build the Routing table for IP address in an SDN implementation as a part of the Computer Networks course.
In the summer of my second year, I interned at ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited) which is India’s largest producer of crude oil. I worked under the guidance of Shri B. Ravindranath, who is the Chief Manager of the programming department at ONGC. I developed an Intranet mail for ONGC forms. It involved creating an internal e-mail like structure and providing forms in ISO format for employee use. It was built using ASP and ADO.Net. I was very happy to have utilized my summer vacation creating a product of value.
It is true that what we learn as children shape our interests as adults. I had learnt ‘Sri Sri Yoga’ at The Art of Living and Shotakan a style of karate during childhood. I am the proud owner of a brown belt (3rd rising to 1st kyū). While studying Principles of Digital Image Processing, I wanted to incorporate Yoga and Karate in technology. Two of my peers and I developed an Automated Yoga Pose Correction tool. The user would be performing various Aasanas, and the tool would indicate accuracy upon comparison with yoga poses demonstrated by trained professionals. We implemented the tool using various image processing technologies such as Structure Learning, Second-Derivative-in-the-Gradient-Direction (SDGD) filter, background modelling, co-ordinate system transform, interpolation, and finally filtering and composing.
My obsession with google doodles and the internet led me to explore networking concepts with zeal. My thirst intensified after I completed CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) certification in Routing and Switching. I was overjoyed to receive an opportunity to intern at Cisco Systems, where I trained at Dimension Data and successfully became a Cisco Certified Network Professional. I am pleased to mention that Cisco had sponsored both my training and certification. The internship was an intense program dealing with trainings all Cisco technologies like Routing, Switching, Voice, Security, Wireless and Virtualization. I was also a part of the Server Virtualization team in their Global Technical Center and worked on four projects. In the first one, I created dynamic programs to identify common defects and field notices pertaining to Seagate HDDs. In the second, I designed algorithms for PCI error detection and reading IPMI thermal sensors to obtain inventory of server components. Both these projects were part of Any RMA Deserves Attention (ARMADA) initiative. The project aims to reduce RMAs and potentially save millions of dollars for Cisco. The other two projects involved parsing Service Profile and Fiber Channel configuration details to help with log analysis. Technical leaders in the field evaluated me on each and every topic taught during internship.
My knowledge earned me a full-time position with GTC in the Server Virtualization team at Cisco. I have a challenging role here. I am expected to troubleshoot network-down scenarios in a short period of time and resolve the problem either by applying a workaround or using my own logic on the laid networks to identify the cause. I have worked on many cases and the one pertaining to performance problems faced by Nimble Storage is noteworthy. The issue was eventually isolated to a firmware bug on Nimble Storage. A single abort causes the storage controller to believe that the initiator PLOGI retries are exhausted and subsequently log out the initiator. The workaround was to increase the number of PLOGI retries at the adapter level of the server. As a person who sympathizes deeply with the plight of poor people, I engaged in numerous volunteering activities throughout my life. I have worked with the NGO organization HelpAge India in fighting against isolation, poverty and neglect. I volunteered to serve food to the needy at Amritavarsham, in which we celebrated the birthday of Mata Amritanandamayi (hugging saint and founder of Amrita). I participated in the Ahimsa-Peace Rally, during ‘Gandhi Jayanthi’ on International Non-Violence Day. On October 8th this year, I lead a team at the Lions Club International and performed Eye Screening for Cataract Surgery for 330 low income patients. My experiences have taught me the importance of sensitivity and team work.