Srikar Kodavati
Boston,US
Summary
Applied ML researcher and engineer with experience building production ML systems, LLM-based applications, retrieval-augmented pipelines, and scalable data-driven workflows. Strong hands-on background in Python, SQL, PyTorch, AWS, ranking systems, MLOps, and multimodal generative modeling, with research interests in interpretable AI, diffusion models, and enterprise GenAI systems. Currently pursuing a PhD focused on Generative AI and LLMs, following completion of a Master’s degree.
Overview
5
5
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Machine Learning Intern
Waters.com
Boston, US
05.2024 - 08.2024
- Developed retrieval-augmented workflows using embeddings and vector-based search to improve access to domain-specific knowledge.
- Built agent-style workflows integrating retrieval reasoning with response generation to enhance efficiency in complex internal tasks.
- Experimented with lightweight fine-tuning and adapter-based tuning to increase adaptability of small language models.
- Queried and processed structured data using SQL across relational and warehouse-style data systems.
Software Developer
DataBeat
Hyderabad, India
12.2019 - 01.2022
- Productionized computer vision models for object detection and tracking, delivering ML-based safety solutions to over 25 organizations.
- Containerized and deployed ML components within microservice architecture, enabling scalable inference and seamless integration into production systems.
- Contributed to development of scalable backend infrastructure for ML-powered applications, enhancing reliability and performance of deployment pipelines.
- Designed and implemented distributed financial data processing system achieving 99.5% reliability, enabling high-availability enterprise workloads.
- Conducted causal analysis and time-series forecasting on structured business data, identifying revenue optimization opportunities that resulted in 32% increase in advertising revenue.
Education
Ph.D. - Computer Science
University of Massachusetts Boston
08-2026
MS - Computer Science
University of Massachusetts Boston
08-2023
Skills
Machine learning
Supervised learning
Basic neural networks
Machine learning frameworks
LLM applications
Data analysis
Data preprocessing
Data modeling
Data systems
Programming languages: Python, SQL, Java
- Software development
- Cloud services
- Containerization
- Version control
Projects And Publications
LLM-Assisted Multimodal Personality Interpretation
• Prototyped an LLM-assisted framework to interpret personality-related cues from structured multimodal signals, including facial action units, gaze, head motion, and speech features.
• Used retrieval over semantically organized behavioral descriptors with prompt-based reasoning to generate interpretable personality summaries.
• Demonstrates experience in LLM workflows, retrieval-based reasoning, and interpretable multimodal analysis.
Semantic Personality Dataset and Controllable Facial Expression Generation
• Built a semantically interpretable dataset combining FACS Action Units, gaze, and head motion with Five-Factor personality annotations.
• Developed an attention-based diffusion model for controllable facial expression generation using speech and personality traits, achieving an FID of 0.6 and an R² of 0.77.
• Demonstrates strength in multimodal learning, generative AI, and quantitative model evaluation.
Multi-Modal GNN for Personality Trait Prediction
• Developed a graph neural network to fuse multimodal behavioral signals for personality trait prediction, achieving 93% accuracy.
• Applied attention mechanisms to improve interpretability across heterogeneous input features.
• Demonstrates experience in multimodal representation learning, predictive modeling, and applied AI system design.
Certification
- Deeplearing.ai specialization
- University of Buffalo Dapps
Awards
- HackUMB, 09/23, 1st place
- CS Research Symposium, 02/24, 2nd place
Timeline
Machine Learning Intern
Waters.com
05.2024 - 08.2024
Software Developer
DataBeat
12.2019 - 01.2022
Ph.D. - Computer Science
University of Massachusetts Boston
MS - Computer Science
University of Massachusetts Boston