Nilai Vemula

(901) 505-1560 ยท nilai.r.vemula@vanderbilt.edu

I am an aspiring data scientist, currently studying physics at Vanderbilt University. I have experience working with machine learning models through several research experiences and personal projects.

Education

Vanderbilt University

Bachelor of Arts
Majoring in Physics and Applied Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science
Coursework: Probability and Statistics, Mathematical Modeling in Biology and Medicine, Data Structures and Algorithms, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, Systems Biology
August 2018 - May 2022

Skills

Programming Languages
Technologies and Tools

SQL, Excel, Tableau, Git, Shell/Bash, H2O (Flow), Jupyter Notebooks, LaTeX, Bootstrap 4, Python Libraries: Tensorflow, Keras, Django, scikit-learn, pandas, numpy, scipy, matplotlib, R Libraries: tidyverse (dplyr, ggplot, etc), caret, zoo, BioConductor, mlr

Data Science

Deep Learning, Neural Networks, Semantic Segmentation, Principal Component Analysis, K-means Clustering, Random Forest, Logistic Regression, Linear Regression, XGBoost

Bioinformatics

RNA-Seq analysis (bulk and single-cell), Differential Gene Expression, Gene Ontology Enrichment, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis

Certifications

SQL for Data Science

Coursera: University of California, Davis
Learned SQL syntax and its applications in data science. Completed a final project analyzing Yelp data. Certification here.
August 2020

Experience

Deep Learning and Biophysics Research Assistant

Hutson Biophotonics Lab, Vanderbilt Department of Physics
  • Inferred inter-cellular forces based on the geometry of epithelial cells using biophysics and computational geometry and developed an open-source Python package called pycellfit.
  • Segmented microscope images of cell layers with over 90% accuracy based on the location of Ecad-GFP protein by building a deep learning network.
  • Placed both models into production and developed a user-friendly web interface for researchers.
  • Technologies Used: Python, NumPy, SciPy, Tensorflow, Keras, Django, Heroku, Git/GitHub
August 2019 - Present

Machine Learning Fellow

Buchanan Library Fellowship, Vanderbilt Jean and Alexander Heard Library
  • Digitized two years of handwritten diary entries from the Vanderbilt Special Collections using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) based on an artificial recurrent neural network (RNN) architecture.
  • Created a training set by manually transcribing 100+ handwritten passages. Worked with an interdisciplinary team of eight undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty to review and validate training data.
  • Built and presented a web exhibit of digitized manuscripts for future use by Vanderbilt's libraries.
  • Technologies Used: Python, Tesseract OCR, ImageMagick, Transkribus, ABBYY FineReader
January 2020 - May 2020

Data Science Research Fellow

Vanderbilt Data Science Institute
  • One of eight undergraduate students selected to be part of the Data Science Institute - Summer Research Program.
  • Trained in machine learning practices such as exploratory data analysis, feature engineering, and model building through the ten-week summer fellowship.
  • Partnered with a bioinformatics lab for ten months to cluster genes expressed in pancreatic beta-cells using network analysis of RNA expression data.
  • Identified 15 potential candidates for knock-down experiments and presented research at the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Symposium.
  • Technologies Used: R, Python, Shell/Bash, WGCNA, Cytoscape, Git/GitHub
December 2018 - August 2019

Projects

COVID-19 Data Visualizations

  • Created unique daily visualizations of COVID-19 related data to practice my data visualization skills.
  • Gathered a mixture of data through GitHub repositories, APIs, and web-scraping.
  • Technologies Used: R, ggplot2, rvest, plotly, highcharter, Git/GitHub
Summer 2020

Machine Learning from Scratch

  • Self-learning data science by programming machine learning algorithms from scratch without the aid of any libraries besides numpy and matplotlib.
  • Technologies Used: Python, numpy, matplotlib
Summer 2020

Extracurricular Activities

Vanderbilt International Relations Association

  • Secretary-General of VUMUN XVII: Managed a twelve-person board to host an international relations conference for 300+ high school students. Decreased costs and increased diversity of participants while shifting online due to COVID-19.
  • Head Delegate of Travel Team: Lead a 20-person team to awards at national Model United Nations competitions. Created training strategies and increased team engagement.
  • Director of Technology for VUMUN XVI: Decreased judging complaints by 80% by developing a proprietary algorithm for assigning awards.
August 2018 - Present

Vanderbilt Society of Physics Students

  • Vice President: Planned events to increase engagement to the broader Vanderbilt community between physics and non-physics students.
  • Treasurer: Created a $1000+ budget surplus by managing events efficiently.
  • Built community for physics students through discussions of physics research, development of a lounge space for undergraduate students, and group projects. Provide advising and career planning resources for physics students.
August 2018 - Present

Vanderbilt Student Volunteers for Science

  • IT Committee: Worked with other committee members to save 20+ hours by automating the volunteer assignment process using Python.
  • Team Leader: Managed a group of four volunteers to teach interactive science lessons to 7th grade students at a local Nashville public school.
August 2018 - Present

Vanderbilt University Hospital

  • Patient Care Volunteer: Help patients in the hospital through fun activities and engaging conversations. Distribute books, personal care items, and snacks.
August 2019 - Present

Interests

Apart from cleaning, analyzing, and modeling data, I enjoy most of my time being in the kitchen. I am an avid home cook who enjoys learning about different cultures through their food.

When my fridge is empty, I follow a few action and sci-fi genre movies and television shows, and I spend a good bit of my free time exploring the latest technology advancements in the data science world.