About Me

(in about 782 words)

Intro

I am a Software Engineer at Citrix based out of San Francisco, CA. I graduated from Virginia Tech with a Masters degree in Computer Engineering in 2019. At Citrix, I work on building automation, reporting and analytics tools and dashboards for teams across the company. The most fun part about my job is providing automation solutions to mundane tasks that saves time and effort and reduces the bandwidth for error. My goal as a Software Engineer is to focus on good design, scalability and deliver clean, efficient and extensible solutions. I am particularly interested in projects related to social impact, music, art and culture.

Currently

At Citrix, I have learned how to work in an agile environment, collaborate across different teams, shape customer demands into actionable tasks and deliver solutions with technologies like C#, React, Python and PowerBi.

Some history

  • My parents got my sister and I a computer in 2001 with Windows 98 with a mechanical keyboard. For the next 3-4 years, my sister and I played the living daylights out of Need For Speed, Max Payne and Road Rash.

  • At 7, I learned Logo at school and spent all my time drawing complicated shapes like pentagons and hexagons.

  • At 8, after learning Q-Basic at school, I held a Q-Basic quiz party at my home. The invitees are my friends to this day and I am as confused by this as you are.

  • At 12, I built my first website using HTML dedicated to Harry Potter. Terrible would be a kind word to describe it.

  • At 14, I joined the Animation Club of my school and started tinkering with Adobe Flash to make short clips. I learned about frames, scenes, objects, transitions, morphing and layering. It was a lot of fun! That same year, I participated in an inter-school animated short film competition and made it to the semi-finals.

  • At 15, I was one of the 25 people selected worldwide to make a short independent film organized by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. After filming 20-25 hours of footage, I learned how to use Audacity and Sony Vegas Pro to edit and add sound and transition effects.

  • At 16, I took my first high school Computer Science class. I built another website (less terrible than the first one) using HTML, ASP and CSS. My final project for the class was the website for Papa Johns (I still have the source code for it).

  • At 17, I decided to pursue a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from VIT (Vellore Institute of Technology), Tamil Nadu. That year, I took courses on Data Structures using C. While the course was an uphill battle, I discovered my penchant for problem solving and programming.

  • At 18, I utilized the summer to do a 3 month long intensive course in Java. That summer, I took a deep dive into Data Structures and OOP concepts. I built tic-tac-toe and tamogotchi games for the final submission.

  • At 19, a few friends and I formed a group called The Dumbledore's Army where we would meet at the library thrice a week to work on projects/ do competitive programming/ brush up on our coding skills. It was a great environment to teach, learn, clear our doubts and cement our fundamentals.

  • At 20, I took a course in Microcontroller Interfacing and thoroughly enjoyed it. I went on to become a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the same course for 3 semesters at Virginia Tech.

  • At 21, I built a cellphone charging station with a coin sensor and a built-in entertainment system using Raspberry Pi. The entertainment system comprised of a jukebox or two 'arcade-like' games coded into the pi. At the final demo, the head of department charged her cellphone while blasting AC/DC on my setup. It was a good day.

My more recent projects can be found under the Projects section. Ask me in person for other stories that I'm afraid to share on the internet.

I like

Fun facts

  • I am currently working on a passion project to build a playlist generator using Spotify's REST API.
  • I am almost always reading something. Currently, I am reading The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.
  • I am a huge Arctic Monkeys fan. I got introduced to them in 2008 with Fluorescent Adolescent. It's still one of my favourite songs by them. I got the opportunity to see them live in 2018. Best day of my life.

Places I have lived

  • New Delhi, India
  • Vellore, TN, India
  • Blacksburg, VA, USA
  • Washington DC, USA
  • Raleigh, NC, USA