I am a senior lecturer in the Computer Science Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Evolutionary dynamics on complex networks, machine learning, programming language design, pedagogy
Books (on an assortment of topics), gastronomy, music, travel, Vipassana meditation
I was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai and grew up in Mumbai. I received my primary and secondary education at Model English School and higher secondary education at Ruparel College. During my second year at Ruparel College, I attended the famous (now defunct) Agrawal Classes. I received my bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunication from University of Mumbai in 1996 after which I worked for two years as a software engineer at Tata Interactive Systems, where I designed and implemented multimedia-rich e-learning software. I received my master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts at Boston (UMB) in 2001, following which I worked at BMC Software as a product developer until 2006. My role at BMC Software was to design and develop system- and application-level performance-monitoring software. I then decided to seek a doctoral degree in order to fulfill my ambition of pursuing a career in academia with both research and teaching responsibilities. I received my PhD in Comptuer Science, also from UMB, in 2013. My thesis, entitled Evolutionary Dynamics on Complex Networks, was directed by Prof. Timothy Killingback from the Mathematics Department.
Here is a compilation of questions that I get asked frequently, along with my responses.