Introduction

I'm a pre-final Computer Science undergraduate with B.Tech. Currently, working as Research Assitant at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) under Dr Swati Aggarwal (Marie Curie Fellow) simultaneously being a part-time remote MLops engineer at Wains.me, Spain. Also, Upcoming Research Intern at Ulm University, Germany

For accomplishments, continue with the blog journey.

Getting Started

I have always loved to explore various domains and fields but used to get bored with most of them. Later, After a gift of Dell Inspiron 3647, sparked my interest in coding but lacking resources was always a hurdle (I'm talking about 2017 and limited Internet connection with youtube being a far reach) since progress moved at turtle speed despite still moved. In 2020, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic brought a whole set of challenges but also opened up new opportunities. Now, the bug of inquisitiveness in me tried to taste Freelancing.

Freelancing

Choosing to freelance was very random with almost no prior thought. I had some decent projects in the field of Machine Learning and was also a part of IEEE. And, I was even ranked 7th in an online competition called CVZone for deep learning in my first year of college

Message: I choose ML because it seems a road less taken and quite challenging

Continuing with freelancing, I created my account on Fiverr which was the top google search result. The next day, started offering my services in deep learning and task automation using python (Python, is the language of versatility). Getting a first client took some time but ultimately, I had my first order to create a shopping bot (This was not a big deal and hence, completed in just 2 days). My greatest sense of achievement came right after my first payment of $100 was credited to my account then, there was no looking back.

Luck favours hard worker

I was lucky enough to get a 3-month contract from a company called wains.me to work and design something related to docker which I had no idea about but I grind hard enough to deliver and since, then I'm enjoying challenging myself working there as part-time.

Attempt to Self Improvement

I have always been an eager guy who wants to get better from my previous self every time. Hence, I actively sought out tech events and hackathons, to attend and meet up with new minds and perspectives. I came to know about Asia's Largest Hackathon - Smart India Hackathon 2022 at the very right moment but with very bad luck since team members backed out at the very last moment of phase 1 selection and ultimately left hope to participate. But, sometimes your desire is strong enough to get you what you want because I got an invitation from another team for me to join them as an ML developer and I was on the move to Tamil Nadu for Finals. Surprisingly, we emerged as Winners with a cash prize of ₹ 100K (Check here) after developing an AI career guidance tool for underprivileged students.

Tiresome Process

After, Investing a great time in development as a part-time remote developer and Open Source Contributor at Zulip, I felt that I was neglecting my core interest which was research and after recovering from this guilt. I immediately started writing emails to professors all around the world asking for research positions. Writing emails to professors can be a tiresome process, especially when you're asking for a research position. It can be difficult to know what to say and how to say it in a way that will persuade the professor to consider you for a position. Consequently, After 50 failed tries with no response, I was contacted by Dr Swati Aggarwal (Marie Curie Fellow), NTNU to work on Brain Signals, it was one of the happiest days but, more were on the way ahead as I have been selected for the DAAD WISE program and will be joining the research lab of Dr Friedhelm Schwenker at Ulm University, Germany in March 2023.

Side Hustles

Side hustles have been an integral part of my life. So, being a CTO of a startup called "Sibilize" was nothing new because I always wanted to try my hands at entrepreneurship and develop something on a real scale going from system designing to implementation which was ultimately fulfilled by May 2022.

As a driven and ambitious individual, I make it a priority to regularly seek out and apply for various opportunities that align with my interests and goals. I try not to sit ideally because life is too short and, hence, I apply to scholarships and programs, recently, I applied for an MLH fellowship and even got selected with just the motivation to intercommunicate with diverse (obviously with technical skills).

Additional

I've always wanted to interact with and mentor people, and I try to do so regularly. As a result, I've even held seminars (see here) and started a Discord community (with 150+ members) to teach and guide people about remote work, research, and open source.

I will also post individual blogs on each section in upcoming future.