I am a teaching-track faculty member at the Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University. I completed my Ph.D. at Washington University in St. Louis, advised by Dr. Yevgeniy Vorobeychik. My research interests are genetic privacy, adversarial machine learning, complex network models and natural language processing. My work in genetic privacy is in collaboration with the GetPreCiSe center at Vanderbilt University.
"There are lies, there are damned lies and there are statistics." Mark Twain, quoting somebody else
"Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain." Arthur Weasley
Advisor : Dr. Yevgeniy Vorobeychik
Honesty Is Not Always the Best Policy: Defending Against
Membership Inference Attacks on Genomic Data
Advisor : Dr. Yevgeniy Vorobeychik
Minor: Mathematics (emph. Graph Theory, Complex Networks)
My primary interest is in the application of Artificial Intelligence techniques to data privacy. My Ph.D. research was focused on applying adversarial machine learning and large-scale optimization techniques to preserving user-level privacy in the sharing of genomic data. I am particularly excited by genomic data - both due to the computation challenges posed by their scale, as well as the increasing prevalence of genetic testing in both medical and direct-to-consumer settings. Currently, I am exploring dynamic opt-in/opt-out mechanisms for federated learning, and the use of sequential neural-network architectures to scale genomic data privacy techniques.
Since starting in my role at Northeastern, I have taken a keen interest in creative applications of POMDPs and reinforcement learning, particularly in the fields of game-playing and design, robotics and mechatronics. While my background in robotics is very limited, I am steadily exploring this area through collaborations with faculty in other departments. I am also working on applying LSTM-based neural networks to develop player signatures in competitive e-sports to detect attempts to bypass IP bans.
I am also passionate about complex networks and their applications in CS. I have a background in graph theory, with a focus on building programs that efficiently handle very large graphs in memory. Thanks to some exposure to NLP, I am also interested in exploring graph attention mechanisms.
Finally, I am excited about CS education research, where my goal is to scale interactivity for technical content to large classrooms with minimal setup, build tools for instructors to aid in pedagogy, and build creative and novel assignments! To this end, I am working on a number of projects, including a highly customizable, open-source, browser-based algorithm visualizer, a tool to automate project-group assignments based on student interests, work-style and availability preference matching, and novel AI assignments that introduce students to black-box environments through games.
Please do get in touch with me, should any of my work pique your interest. A full list of my work and publications may be found in my CV.
Learn more about my teaching philosophy, current and past courses, and find resources for effective presentations!
My story begins in the tiny town of Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu in India. Soon after I was born, we moved to the capital city of New Delhi for better work opportunities presented themselves to both my parents - my father chose to pursue accounts despite a background in Physics, and my mother found joy in teaching Mathematics. However, during my school years, I was anything but studious. Not that I did not enjoy my subjects - I had exceptional teachers - but I enjoyed not being in class (especially without official blessing) far more. Instead, I would spend my time indulging in every extra-curricular activity the school had to offer, or hiding in the music room practicing in a hard-to-spot corner, much to the annoyance of my teachers. Throughout school, I would repeatedly quote the words of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, "If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It's much easier to apologize than to seek permission." Little did my family of educators expect me to end up becoming one.
Growing up in Delhi is an aspect of my life I'm deeply grateful for; the city is a melting pot of cultures - cultures spanning 1.3 billion people. The result is an endearing sort of mess - nothing works the way it is supposed to, nothing is where you'd expect it to be, nothing is predictable, and yet life is perfectly normal for the average dweller. Ordo ab Chao. Residents of Delhi thus tend to be quite creative with everyday solutions, and function on what is a rather untranslatable term, jugaad - use only what you have, but get the job done anyway. It is an attitude one develops over time, as Delhi holds your hand and teaches you fortitude.
The four years of my undergraduate degree at Shiv Nadar University were truly transformative, both academically and otherwise. I found in my peers an exploratory zeal. In addition, the university is one of the very few institutes in India that actively fund undergraduate research, and offer a Major/Minor program. As I was introduced to graph theoretic models in my CS curriculum, I had my "Eureka!" moment, which eventually led to a minor in Mathematics with a focus on complex networks. I also managed to acquire significant teaching experience as the primary instructor for classes of 20-30 students over 3 semesters, as part of the university's Learning and Academic Support Center. By junior year, having also interned with leading tech firms, I was fairly convinced that academia was where I wanted to be. A few years in, I have no regrets. As my advisor once put it, "it feels right".
Outside the lab, people who interact with me know me for a few different reasons, primarily that I am a musician. I've trained in Carnatic (Indian Classical) vocals since the age of 5, I taught myself half a dozen instruments, I beatbox and I compose (including for short films). At SNU, I helped establish the university's orchestra, and we even managed to pull off a performance of Mozart's 40th symphony. My evenings were usually spent experimenting with different genres and fooling around with instruments that didn't necessarily belong in them. My playlists, as a result, are far better-organized than my research folder.
My grandfather was a major influence growing up, and I can attribute most of my current interests to him in some way. Chief of these is a deep-rooted love for literature, poetry and good oration. An English and Tamil teacher himself (and Physics, but that's for another story), he introduced me to the great authors of yesteryear at a young age. I hold the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the poetry of John Keats and Shakespeare's sonnets especially close to my heart. My own poetry (for the sake of contrast or casual reading) can be found on my blog.
I share a passion for anything with an engine in it, and I hit the road every chance I can. My aviation geekdom has taken me down the rabbit hole that is flight simulation. My other addiction happens to be to coffee, and not just as a result of being in grad-school. Hailing from a Tamil family, I started drinking filter coffee before I started eating solid food (or so I'm told)!