I am a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Complex Resilient Intelligent Systems (CRIS) laboratory of Professor Venkat Venkatasubramanian, at Columbia University in the City of New York.
I graduated from BITS Pilani-Goa Campus in 2020 with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honors) in Chemical Engineering, and am interested in applying my knowledge and skills to real world problems. Classical chemical engineering, as performed by the large MNCs and engineering contractors has always fascinated me. During the pursuit of my undergraduate degree, I completed industrial trainings- twice in the world renowned Reliance Industries Limited Jamnagar Refinery, and the other at Maire Tecnimont. Exposure to the same has helped me understand the industrial needs of chemical engineering, thus providing a different perspective to my field of study.
In the Summer of 2021, I pursued an internship at Aspen Technology Inc., a leader in developing asset performance management tools for the engineering industry, in their data science team. I developed algorithms to solve nonlinear experimental design, and optimization problems. In the Fall semester of 2023, I pursued an internship at Dow Chemicals, working on challenging problems at their Packaging, Specialty Plastics, and Hydrocarbons (PSP&H) Polyethylene (PE) R&D group. Here, I worked on the application of generative AI techniques.
Additionally, I have worked on two industrial projects with Deccan Fine Chemicals in my junior year which involved modelling and simulation of full-scale process plants. This enabled me to develop a better understanding of the deliverables such as PFDs, BFDs and P&IDs. Having successfully completed the two projects, I am interested in the field of process systems engineering. Along those lines, I pursued my senior-year thesis at National University of Singapore (NUS) in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, on the modeling, simulation and optimization of cogeneration plants.
Outside of academics, I am excited about swimming, cycling, rock-climbing, running, photography, traveling, music, cooking, and reading books – in no particular order.