I received my B.E. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BITS Pilani in 2001, and MS, PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from University of California, Berkeley in 2003 and 2007 respectively.
I joined Microsoft in 2007 where I have been working as a software developer on Bing Maps.
Although a software developer by trade, at heart I am most interested in science.
My research interests are quite varied, and I am usually interested in anything that has to do with physics.
Past Research:
During my MS, I developed a software that could be used for automated hole filling in images.
This software was licensed to Google through UC Berkeley's Office of Technology Licensing.
My PhD was very interdisciplinary, and the high-level goal was to understand the mechanisms by which the brain senses motion.
I did not get along well with my advisor, with the result that my PhD was largely a failure.
Nevertheless, I consider myself to have made following contributions:
- Devised and conducted a series of psychophysical experiments aimed at gathering quantitative data on how humans perceive motion
- Used the experimental data to validate a model of motion sensing put forward by Watson & Ahumada
- Invalidated some other motion models based on matching features from frame to frame
- Showed that THC in marijuana can lead to an impairment of motion perception abilities (observer performance can drop by as much as 15%, and reaction time increases by as much as 222 +/- 96 ms)
- Put forward a theory to explain position invariance of MST(d) cells in the brain
- Showed that the omega effect fits in the category of a typical bistable illusion, and therefore the processes that give rise to this illusion may be the same processes that underlie much of other bistable phenomenon
Post PhD, I developed a visual illusion that was selected among the top ten finalists of the Best Visual Illusion of The Year 2009.
Current:
At present, I am not pursuing any serious research activity, and am more involved in software development at large.
Given an opportunity, I am interested in experimental research aimed at understanding biology, the functioning of living organisms, and applying this knowledge to invent better energy-efficient machines - whether it be at macro, micro or nano scale.
I am also interested in electromagnetics, plasma physics, and radio-astronomy.
Another area of strong interest is the role played by noise in physical and biological systems (nonlinear dynamics and chaos).
I am a big fan of old fashioned research involving little to zero use of computers.
Einstein, Newton, et. al. did not have any computers and yet they were able to make some of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of physics.
I have been interested in science (esp. physics) since my childhood, and it's the thrill of doing an experiment and discovering a surprise that keeps me motivated and interested in science.