About Me

​I am a Senior Director of Engineering at Databricks, founded in 2013 by CS faculty members of UC Berkeley who also created Apache Spark. Here, my role is Head of Applied AI, and I am building out an AI/ML/LLM team right now.  Previously I was a Director of Engineering at Meta (formerly, Facebook) in Menlo Park since July 2019, where I led a team of ~200 engineers/scientists working on AI and ML based Video and Reels Recommendations. Before that, I used to work at Google as a Senior Staff Engineer in the Mountain View office in California. There, I led and managed multiple AI/ML teams related to shopping searches on Google.

I don't update this Website very often, but I write a lot about tech, ML, and leadership. I write shorter notes on LinkedIn, and longer via a blog titled TLDR0 on Medium and Substack.  I am also open to career mentoring: Mentorcruise​

I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering at Penn State. I was advised by Prof. James Z. Wang and Prof. Jia Li. Even earlier, I finished a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology Shibpur, which at 150 years is one of the first technical schools built in India, and is an institute of national importance. I received the Glenn Singley Memorial Graduate Fellowship in Engineering for the incoming academic year. Fun fact: I was in the 'Direct PhD' program and hence don't have a Masters' degree. Per Google Scholar, my publications have been cited 8000+ times.

Outside of work, I enjoy photography, music. filmmaking, theater, and food.


Professional Activities

Program Committee Member of ACM Multimedia 2019.
Program Committee Member of ACM Multimedia 2018.
Program Committee Member of ACM Multimedia 2017.
Program Committee Member of ACM Multimedia 2013.
Program Committee Member of ICME 2013.
Program Committee Member of ACM Multimedia 2012.
NSF Funding Review Panelist, for IIS Division, April 2012.
Program Committee Member of SMANE 2012.
Program Committee Member of ICME 2012.
Program Committee Member of ACM Multimedia 2011.
Program Committee Member of ICME 2011.
NSF Funding Review Panelist, for IIS Division, April 2010.
Program Committee Member of ACM Multimedia 2010.
Program Committee Member of ICME 2010.
Program Committee Member of WWW 2010.
Local Arrangement Chair of ACM MIR 2010.
Program Committee Member of ACM MIR 2010.
Program Committee Member of the LS-MMRM Workshop, ACM Multimedia 2009.