I grew up in a town called Thrissur, in the coastal state of Kerala in South India. I moved to Mumbai in 2003 to pursue a B.Tech in Engineering Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB). My first college experience also unlocked the artistic side of my personality and I decided to study music after my stint at IITB. I auditioned and was accepted at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. I made my move to the western hemisphere in 2008, to pursue a Professional Diploma in Music focussing on classical composition, jazz performance, and electronic music. At Berklee, I was fortunate to study with stellar musicians and educators such as Ralph Peterson Jr (drums), Dean Anderson (percussion), Tibor Pusztai (composition), and Dr. Richard Boulanger (electronic music).

My work with Dr. Boulanger was a turning point as it helped me bridge the seemingly disparate worlds of arts and technology. After my Berklee years, I moved to Atlanta to work with Dr. Gil Weinberg (robotic musicianship guru) at the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology. In Dr. Weinberg's robotic musicianship group, I was part of the core team that developed the world's first robotic drumming prosthetic arm (used by drummer Jason Barnes) and developed control algorithms that enhanced the musical expressivity of the prosthetic drumming arm. My experience working with Jason, sparked my interest in human-machine interaction, particularly in the assistive and rehabilitation domain.

My next stop was Chicago. I started my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University in 2015, where I started my research work in the Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics Lab at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly known as the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago), with Dr. Brenna Argall. My research work focuses on mathematical modeling of human behaviors and protocols for human-robot interaction in the assistive domain. I primarily work on assistive robotic arms with an aim to make them more intelligent so that the end-user experience is optimized. During my Ph.D., I also had the opportunity to work with the Risk Aware Driving group at Toyota Research Institute, Cambridge, MA (internships and part-time) on projects related to agent modeling and human visual attention modeling for enhancing driver safety.

Outside of my main line of work, I am an active musician and currently the music producer for a two-person band (with my partner Ranjani) Lil Idli. I am also a sports and fitness aficionado, with a focus on movement practices and squash (racquet sport).

I love learning about new things and am always looking for new opportunities to expand my horizons.