💼 Work Experience
👨💻 Senior Machine Learning Engineer
📍 Berkeley, CA · ⌚ Jun 2023 – Mar 2025
Founding engineering team member at GetReal Labs, a cybersecurity and digital forensics startup incubated by Ballistic Ventures and Dr. Hany Farid
Model Development
- Developed core detection models using classical signal processing and modern neural network-based methods for image analysis in the initial launch of the self-serve media forensic workbench. Achieved >95% accuracy and <1% FPR on internal datasets.
- Fine-tuned transformer networks to detect synthetic faces and faceswaps in static files and real-time video.
- Operationalized a multimodal lipsync deepfake detector using audio-visual mismatch analysis, achieving >90% accuracy in real-world testing.
MLOps & Deployment
- Designed training and inference pipelines using AWS SageMaker, Lambda, and ECS.
- Containerized workflows for reproducible ML experiments and scalable deployment.
- Reduced training time ~5× with distributed preprocessing and pipeline parallelism.
- Integrated models into GRL Inspect (file forensics) and GRL Protect (stream protection).
Adversarial & Robustness Testing
- Simulated attacks and edge cases to expose model failure modes and blind spots.
- Tracked emerging GenAI threats and curated augmentation datasets.
- Built visualizations to monitor drift, false positives, and track robustness over time.
Customer Engagement & Incident Response
- Collaborated with journalists & forensic experts during major worldwide elections 2024 for manual verification/incident response.
- Minimized false positives through human-in-the-loop decisions and continuous model improvement based on feedback.
🎓 Data Science Intern
📍 Mountain View, CA · ⌚ May 2022 – Aug 2022
Summer intern at a scaleup building conversational agents for enterprise automation workflows
Product Analytics
- Defined key engagement metrics for enterprise AI features
- Built interactive dashboards to track feature adoption
- Generated actionable insights for product roadmap
- Supported customer success strategies with data-driven recommendations
👔 Consultant → Director
📍 Austin, TX · ⌚ Aug 2017 – Jul 2021
Led technical investigations and strategic consulting for high-stakes IP litigation, M&A due diligence, and enterprise portfolio optimization.
Expert Litigation Support & Reverse Engineering
- Led investigations across 10+ IP litigations in telecom, software, graphics, and infrastructure domains, contributing to outcomes exceeding $100M in settlements and licensing deals.
- Conducted in-depth code analysis, reverse engineering, simulation, and testing to reconstruct logic and control flow for technical evidence.
- Delivered artifacts used in U.S. District Court and ITC proceedings, including infringement charts, rebuttal reports, and expert witness materials.
Leadership, Solutioning & Workflow Design
- Progressed from individual contributor to Director; led cross-functional delivery teams across India and the U.S.
- Streamlined workflows through process automation, reducing turnaround time by ~25% and unlocking new revenue streams.
- Supported business development and solution design for Fortune 500 clients and law firms.
Portfolio Analytics & Commercial Strategy
- Architected workflows to assess patent strength, product coverage, and claim alignment. Reduced portfolio maintenance costs by 20–30% and increased licensing ROI.
- Conducted diligence on $500M+ in IP assets to inform tech licensing and M&A deals.
- Evaluated 100+ technologies and IP portfolios to guide R&D strategy, uncover white space, and improve market positioning.
👨💻 Associate → Consultant
📍 Bangalore, India · ⌚ Oct 2012 – Aug 2017
Advanced from analyst to team lead, contributing to litigation support and IP strategy through data-driven analytics and exploratory investigations.
Patent Analytics & Portfolio Strategy
- Analyzed patent portfolios in telecom, software, and semiconductors using both qualitative and quantitative approaches.
- Used Python and Excel to clean, model, and visualize portfolio data for alignment, gaps, and licensing potential.
- Supported licensing negotiations by preparing strength and overlap analysis against competitor portfolios.
Technical Investigations & Public Code Analysis
- Performed static and dynamic analysis on public/proprietary software systems; mapped features and functions to patent claims.
- Reconstructed control flow and product architecture to generate technical documentation for legal exhibits.
Project Delivery & Team Enablement
- Led analytics workstreams on multi-stakeholder projects; coordinated deliverables across internal and client teams.
- Mentored junior analysts, contributed to hiring and internal tooling, and drove knowledge-sharing across engagements.
🔍 Research Associate (Intellectual Property)
📍 Gurgaon, India · ⌚ Feb 2012 – Oct 2012
Early-career role at a global research firm providing patent analysis services to law firms and corporate R&D teams
Patent Search & Analysis
- Conducted validity, invalidity, and freedom-to-operate (FTO) searches across telecom, software, and electronics domains
- Delivered structured prior art reports to support IP litigation and competitive intelligence
- Trained in patent law, claim interpretation, search strategy, and international IP frameworks
🎓 Education
M.S. in Information Science
📍 Berkeley, CA · ⌚ Aug 2021 – May 2023
Coursework
- Machine Learning
- Deep Learning
- Natural Language Processing
- Computer Vision
- Audio Signal Processing
- Data Engineering
- Experiments & Causal Inference
- Quantitative Research
- Information Law & Policy
- Lean Product Development
Teaching Assistantships
- Natural Language Processing
- Applied Econometrics
- Applied Machine Learning
Research
- Deepfake detection and media forensics under the supervision of Prof. Hany Farid
Capstone Project
- <a href="https://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/projects/2022/detecting-audio-deepfakes-and-ai-voice-cloning-perceptual-learned-features" class="text-blue-500 hover:text-blue-700">Detecting Audio Deepfakes and AI Voice Cloning: From Perceptual to Learned Features</a>
B.Tech in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering
📍 Kerala, India · ⌚ July 2007 – May 2011
Coursework
- Signals and Systems
- Digital Signal Processing
- Digital Image Processing
- Computer and Wireless Networks
- Information Theory
- Microprocessors and Microcontrollers
- Wireless Networks
- Computer Architecture
🎥 Media
- Case Study: AI & Elections
Panel Discussion, Online News Association, 2024
journalists.org/event/case-study-what-we-can-learn-about-ai-and-elections-from-the-worlds-biggest-election/ - Detecting Deepfakes: From Classical Physics to Deep Learning
Invited Talk, Anthill Inside, AI Governance, 2024
hasgeek.com/anthillinside/detecting-deepfakes/ - Deepfakes and Democracy
Panel Discussion, MediaNama, Tech & Policy, 2024
medianama.com/2024/01/223-video-medianama-deep-fakes-democracy-2/
🏆 Awards
- Detecting AI Voice Cloning
SXSW Student Innovation Award Finalist, 2024
sxsw.com/news/2024/sxsw-2024-innovation-awards-finalists-announced/ - The Deepfake Fingerprint
Prizewinner, Nobel Prize Summit on Countering Misinformation (via UNDP & Digital Public Goods Alliance), 2023
undp.org/policy-centre/governance/events/undps-participation-nobel-prize-summit-2023 - Digital Fingerprinting to Protect Against Deepfakes
Research Grant, Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, 2023
cltc.berkeley.edu/publication/digital-fingerprinting-to-protect-against-deepfakes/