Journey

It all started in a small classroom in class 9, with a green-screen monitor running TurboC. We had HTML in class 8, but it didn’t capture my attention the way C programming did. There was something magical about writing those few lines of code and watching the compiler bring them to life. That curiosity, that spark, became the foundation of everything that followed.

My aunt, a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, played a huge role in shaping this journey. Back then, she was pursuing her Master’s, and she had stacks of programming books from her undergraduate days. I remember spending evenings flipping through her C programming books, trying to solve exercise questions on my own. Each successful execution felt like a small victory. Looking back, I realize those moments planted the seed for everything that came next.

When she suggested I explore Python and the field of AI/ML, I didn’t hesitate. She told me it was a fascinating domain, the future of technology. She was right. I started with Core Python Programming by R. Nageshwara Rao, a gift that changed my life. I went through one chapter every day, completed assignments, and soon began building my own GUIs and games using Pygame. Within a month, I had already moved beyond the basics. Then came Machine Learning, I discovered Andrew Ng’s courses and got completely lost in the world of algorithms and neural networks. But class 10 demanded attention. The JEE (Joint Entrance Exam) was approaching, and I had to put coding and ML on hold to focus on my studies.

Then came the turning point, admission to Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) in Mumbai, one of India’s most prestigious engineering colleges. Stepping into B.Tech in Computer Engineering felt like entering a new world. In my first year (November 2022-2023), I dove into Competitive Programming, solving problems on LeetCode, Codeforces, and participating in contests. Simultaneously, I learned web development: React.js, Next.js, TypeScript, GraphQL. I built projects for hackathons, experimenting with technologies simply to learn and grow.

By the middle of my second year (2023-2024), I returned to my first love, Machine Learning and Deep Learning. Those old friends felt like coming home. I worked on diffusion models for gravitational lensing simulation, explored image generation and music generation, experimented with GANs and LSTMs. Each project taught me something new. Somewhere along the way, I developed a fascination with quantum computing, an interest that would soon change everything.

It happened by chance. I randomly joined the Deloitte Quantum Climate Challenge 2024 on Slack and met Marek Grzesiak, a stranger who would become a teammate and friend. We were determined to win. I started learning quantum computing from IBM’s tutorials, building Quantum SVMs, Quantum Logistic Regression models, and quantum time-series models for flood prediction. We wrote a comprehensive paper and technical report on the future of quantum-based flood prediction. In May 2024, the impossible happened, we were selected among the top 3 teams worldwide and got invited to present our work at Deloitte HQ in Düsseldorf, Germany. That moment, standing in front of an international audience, was one of the proudest in my life.

Shortly after, I joined two programs simultaneously: the SciML Small Grants Program and the Quantum Open Source Foundation Mentorship. Under SciML, I worked on refactoring OrdinaryDiffEq.jl, dividing it into subpackages, my first real contribution to open-source scientific computing. The work earned me a bounty. Later, I worked on SciMLBenchmarks.jl, fixing critical bugs in their benchmarking systems.

In November 2024, something significant happened, I was selected as an intern at the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the organization behind India’s retail payment ecosystems. Two months later, in December 2024, I participated in the Secure Offline RAG Challenge, a worldwide competition organized by Trustii.io. After weeks of intense work, I secured Second Runner Up, a testament to how far I had come.

In January 2025, I joined Deloitte Hacksplosion, another hackathon that landed me a spot in the finals. In March 2025, I traveled to Bengaluru for the on-site finals. That same month, I took on a new role as Machine Learning Head at Community of Coders (CoC), VJTI’s coding community, guiding juniors, organizing events, and sharing knowledge.

In March 2025, I joined PumasAI as a Product Developer Intern. For four months, I worked on building AI tools for Pharmacometric Research using Julia, a unique intersection of healthcare, AI, and scientific computing. In parallel, I returned to NPCI (May-July 2025) to work on RAG systems and AI model benchmarking, further deepening my expertise in applied AI.

By mid-2025, my interests shifted toward AI research itself. I became captivated by Generative Modeling, 3D graphics, World Models, LLMs, and Mechanistic Interpretability, the fundamental questions of how AI truly works. This became my new obsession.

In October 2025, I joined Transformerlab as an Independent Contractor, continuing my work on cutting-edge AI research while contributing to an open-source platform for transformer models.

Looking back, my journey has been anything but linear. From a curious kid typing C code in TurboC to working on frontier AI research, it’s been a rollercoaster of learning, building, failing, and growing. And the story is still being written.