Vishwak S
About Me
| Hello there! I am Vishwak Srinivasan. I am currently a Visiting Researcher in the Core Data Science Team at Facebook. I recently graduated with a Master of Science from the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. Previously, I was an undergraduate student at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad where I majored in Computer Science and Engineering with Honors. I am interested in theory-oriented research with a pinch of development. In the long run, I hope to become a faculty at a reputable university. | 
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Research Interests
- Machine Learning and Optimization
- Optimization methods for machine learning
- Statistical Learning Theory
- Theory of Deep Learning
My Google Scholar profile can be found here. This is my CV for reference.
Skills
- Programming Languages : Python, C++, C, CUDA, Bash Script
- Tools : Latex, Git, Mathematica, Gnuplot
- Frameworks : PyTorch
- Libraries : NumPy, SciPy, CVXPY, scikit-learn, NetworkX, LAPACK, MAGMA
Other Interests
- I am a trained pianist - I have completed 6 out of the 8 grades at the Trinity College London in Piano Practical.
- Reading about history in general.
- Playing Sudoku.
Things I've done during my high school days (click to know more)
| 2011 | The first secretary of the Trivia Club, appointed for one year. |
| 2011 2012 2013 |
Qualified for the Regional Mathematics Olympiad 3 three times |
| 2012 2013 |
Won 2nd place in 2012 and 6th place in 2013 in the Times NIE Fundamental Quiz at Chennai, India. |
| 2012 | Topped the school in the CBSE board exams in Grade 10 - scored the highest CGPA possible: 10/10, tied with 8 others. |
| 2015 | Topped the school in the CBSE board exams in Grade 12, with 100% in both Mathematics and Computer Science with a total of 490/500. This placed me 5th in Chennai, India and 6th all over India in the Science Stream. |
| 2015 | Secured an All India Rank of 527 in the Joint Entrance Examination - Main (JEE Mains) and an All India Rank of 4637 in the Joint Entrance Examination - Advanced (JEE Advanced). |
Things I've done during my undergraduate study: (click to know more)
| 2016 | Received the Certificate of Excellence in Academics from IIT Hyderabad. |
| 2016 2017 |
Interned with Dr. Maunendra Desarkar, worked on optimization methods (gradient descent and its stochastic analogue) and matrix factorization methods for recommendation systems. |
| 2017 2018 2019 |
Interned with Dr. Vineeth Balasubramanian, working on more optimization methods (accelerated gradient methods on non-convex surfaces), relevance of noise-based methods in deep linear neural networks. |
| 2017 | Interned at the WEBLAB, University of Tokyo with Dr. Yusuke Iwasawa, worked on deep generative models and generative adversarial networks |
| 2017 | Teaching Assistant for Introduction to Probability (MA 2110) by Dr. Balasubramaniam Jayaram. |
| 2017 2018 2019 |
Started open-source software contributions, by contributing to PyTorch and projects in its ecosystem. |
| 2018 | Teaching Assistant for Discrete Structures - 2 (CS 1340) by Dr. Saketha Nath. |
| 2018 | Published ADINE: An Adaptive Momentum Method for Stochastic Gradient Descent in CoDS-COMAD 2018 with Dr. Balasubramanian. |
| 2018 | Received the Certificate of Excellence in Research from IIT Hyderabad. |
| 2018 | Secured the S N Bose Fellowship among 43 others out of ~1500 students across all fields of science and engineering in India. |
| 2018 | Interned with Dr. J. Zico Kolter, worked on dynamics on gradient descent in infinite ReLU neural networks. |
| 2018 | Teaching Assistant for Optimization Methods in Machine Learning: CS 6230 by Dr. Vineeth Balasubramanian. |
| 2018 | Attended the First PyTorch Developer Conference in San Francisco, CA. |
| 2019 | Teaching Assistant for Discrete Structures - 2 (CS 1340) by Dr. Maria Francis. |
| 2019 | Received the Certificate of Appreciation for Research in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Hyderabad. |
| 2019 | Graduated with honors!! |
Things I've done during my masters: (click to know more)
| 2019 | Working with Adarsh Prasad and Dr. Pradeep Ravikumar on Robust Gradient Estimation. |
| 2019 | Continuing contributions to PyTorch and projects in its ecosystem. Promoted to maintainer status for the linear algebra backend. |
| 2019 | Attended the Second PyTorch Developer Conference in San Francisco, CA. Gave a lightning talk on developments in Linear Algebra in PyTorch |
| 2020 | Working with Adarsh Prasad and Dr. Pradeep Ravikumar on learning Ising models. |
| 2020 | Served on the Master of Science in Machine Learning Admissions Committee. |
| 2020 | Teaching Assistant for Convex Optimization: 10-725 by Dr. Yuanzhi Li for the Spring semester. |
| 2020 | Working with Dr. Justin Khim and Dr. Pradeep Ravikumar on Subseasonal Climate Forecasting. |
| 2020 | Working with Dhruv Malik and Dr. Yuanzhi Li on Policy Gradient Methods in Reinforcement Learning. |
| 2020 | Returning Teaching Assistant for Convex Optimization: 10-725 by Dr. Yuanzhi Li in the Fall. |
| 2020 | Joint work with Adarsh Prasad on learning Ising models under Huber contamination has been accepted at NeurIPS 2020. |
| 2020 | Graduated!! |
Contact Me
- Email:
vishwaks at cs dot cmu dot edu - GitHub: https://github.com/vishwakftw
- Skype:
vishwak.srinivasan - LinkedID: https://linkedin.com/in/vishwaksrinivasan