Optimist, Technologist;
Hi, this is Aravind – a technologist and optimist who believes we humans can rightly use technology to solve our biggest problems!
Engineering things
Safe Internet for everyone
At Google, I developed state of the art review infrastructure for YouTube’s Trust & Safety to keep the platform safe. This includes developing Child Safety moderation tools, a state of the art ML labeling platform, while leading risk initiatives.
Roles served: Software Development (30+CLs), Product Management, Strategy & Operations, People Management
High Performance CPUs (Intel)
Owned the design and functional validation of Intel’s Skylake Server’s powerful Server CPUs (Caching agent). Led the implementation of the micro-architecture and the validation strategy.
Democracy by numbers
Created India’s (world’s largest democracy) first data analytics to measure the performance of state policymakers. At PRS Legisaltive Research, I have managed projects to navigate unstructured data sources across several languages to create a state policymaker performance tracking system, which was often cited by media.
Research & Publications
Clean Energy
Under the guidance of the Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, led the project to propose clean energy policies for the State of Pennsylvania. Led a cross-functional group from engineering, business and policy to publish the proposal.
Fiscal Policy
First researcher in India to comprehensively analyze the fiscal standing of central (federal) and state governments.
Advised more than 100 policy makers on governments’ budgets and fiscal standing.
Examples: State of State Finances, Maharashtra Budget Analysis
Government Engagement
Expert witness to the Indian Parliament
Formally invited to the Indian Parliament to testify on the merits of Bankruptcy law reforms, the I shared insights, potential improvements and provided valuable recommendations to legislators and policymakers.
Training Policy Makers
I have been formally invited by many state policymakers (legislatures) to train on understanding fiscal policy and annual budgets. Through this process, I trained hundreds of policymakers across India.
Higher Education Policy
I led the University of California student delegation to the US Congress to advocate for improved Higher Education policies regarding research funding, scholarships and education related immigration policies.
In News
What’s next?
Newsense
I intend to create the Universal subscription to access all digital news on earth. One common subscription that would break the paywall no matter how you consume news – Instagram, search or desktop.
Newsense solves three key problems:
- Supply: News companies will see a multi-fold increase in readership, therefore revenue.
- Demand: Users (news readers) pay a small premium to access all news – As I believe A Democracy needs its citizens to pay for news as much as it needs them to vote.
- A healthy news ecosystem will lead to a healthy democracy.
Pitch Deck here.
Education
Master of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
Masters in Computer Science, State University of New York, Buffalo
Aravind Gayam 