About

Me and my life so far…

Short bio

I am currently a Master’s student in Social Data Analytics and Research at the University of Texas at Dallas. I have ~2.6 years of work experience at a boutique analytics firm, consulting with Indian fashion retail giants as a data analyst. But I am also interested in policy holding a certification in Technology Policy from the Takshashila Institution. It is this quantitative background blended with an interest in policy which led me to move to the US all the way from India to pursue my current degree.

I have been awarded the Graduate Archer Fellowship and as part of that program, I am currently looking for internships in policy or in the social sector in DC (or to work remotely from DC) for Summer 2023 (June 2023-Aug 2023). Please contact me on LinkedIn if you have any leads or you are interested in hiring me.

From a technical standpoint, I am good at SQL, Python and advanced Excel. I have also worked with R, Bash (mostly awk), Google Apps Script, Git/Github and Hugo (this website is built with it). But I have also developed technical writing skills and have a knowledge of Economics and Technology Policy. I am looking forward for a career where I can leverage my quantitative skills to create evidence-dependent policy.

CV

💻 Work Experience

Research Assistant @ ArtSciLab, University of Texas at Dallas, USA (Oct 2022 – Present)

  • Inculcate appropriate research design and data collection methodologies in the research projects of the lab
  • Kickstart an academic blog on the proceedings of the lab

Senior Analyst @ Cartesian Consulting Private Limited, Bangalore, India (June 2019 – Jan 2022)

  • Analyzed and visualized the behavior of 10M+ customers to assist in redesigning a retail client’s loyalty program
  • Prototyped an AI-based Anomaly Detection System for proactive business decision-making for a pitch to the CEO
  • Consulted with stakeholders from a cross function team of 10+ members via verbal and written communications
  • Awarded ‘Rookie of the year 2019’ and ‘Employee of the year 2020’

📌 Volunteer Experience

Founding Vice President @ Effective Altruism UT Dallas, University of Texas at Dallas (Oct 2022 – Present)

  • Organize community events to discuss the ideas of ‘Effective Altruism’ including ‘Cause prioritization’ and ‘Longtermism’

Volunteer Facilitator @ Centre for Effective Altruism, EA Virtual Program (April 2022 – May 2022)

  • Facilitated discussions for 8 weeks on Effective Altruism and received a 94% positive rating from participants

📖 Education

Master of Science in Social Data Analytics and Research @ The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA (Aug 2024 - Present)

Graduate certificate in Advanced Public Policy @ The Takshashila Institution, Bangalore, India (May 2022)

  • Wrote a policy proposal to revitalize the tourism sector in India using Bardach’s eightfold path to policymaking
  • Learnt intermediate microeconomics

Graduate certificate in Technology Policy @ The Takshashila Institution, Bangalore, India (Dec 2020)

  • Wrote a policy proposal to build the semiconductor sector in India using Bardach’s eightfold path to policymaking
  • Learn the basics of information economics

Master of Science in Physics @ National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Mangalore, India (May 2017 - May 2019)

Bachelor of Science in Physics @ DG Vaishnav College, University of Madras, Chennai, India (May 2014 - May 2017)

  • Won the ‘Best outgoing student of BSc Physics’ award

📝 Academic project

Establishing the large-scale structure of Protein-Protein Interaction networks @ NIT Karnataka, Mangalore, India May 2018 - May 2019

  • Utilized subgraph algorithms to isolate the protein network of Alzheimer’s Disease from bioinformatics databases
  • Applied Graphlet techniques to understand the structure of the isolated network
  • Used several Python libraries such as Networkx, Numpy, Scipy, Pandas
  • Wrote a thesis and received an A grade
  • Related results published in Springer Proceedings
    • Khasim, A., Subramanian, V., Ajith, K.M., Shajahan, T.K. (2022). Structure of Protein Interaction Network Associated With Alzheimer’s Disease Using Graphlet Based Techniques. In: Banerjee, S., Saha, A. (eds) Nonlinear Dynamics and Applications. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99792-2_42

✍️ Notable Writings

🗣️ Languages

Tamizh (Native), English (Advanced), Hindi (Intermediate), Française (Beginner)

Longer bio

I am Venkatesh (pronounced Venn-cut-aesh). Friends calls me Venki (pronounced Venn-key) and this website is the namesake of that nickname. I am a Tamizhan born and brought up in Chennai, India. I currently live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in TX, USA. Below is the story of how I went from Chennai to Mangalore to Bangalore and finally to Dallas - a journey from the Indian South to the American South!

In 2012-13, when I was in high school, I was invited to attend the INSPIRE Science camp which motivated me to pursue a degree in Physics in college and I graduated from NIT Karnataka, Mangalore, India with a Master’s degree in 2019. Towards the end of that degree, I discovered my love for Linear Algebra and decided to switch paths to Data Analytics. I joined Cartesian Consulting as an Analyst in Bangalore, India and worked there for 2 years and 8 months. I was good at work and got a promotion to Senior Analyst while winning multiple awards for my performance. But my aspiration to be an Effective Altruist, pushed me to explore ways to utilize my data analytics skills in a more meaningful domain. So alongside my work at Cartesian, I began my exploration with a certificate course in technology policy at a local think tank, The Takshashila Institution, and fell in love with the policy domain. This newborn interest led me to apply to the Social Data Analytics course of the School of Economics, Political and Policy Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas. I was delighted to get admitted to the program, decided to take a short break while pursuing another certificate at The Takshashila Institution, this time in Advanced Public Policy, and then moved to Dallas in July 2022. In Sep 2022, I created this website. Fingers crossed for the adventures to come! 😊

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Any opinions expressed here are my own and may not reflect the opinions of the organizations I am affiliated with at any point.