Avinash Prabhakaran

Education

I was born in the idyllic state of Kerala in India. I started my schooling in Kendriya Vidyalaya and moved across different states in the country with my parents, both managers in public sector companies. Then we moved to Jersey, UK where I finished my schooling from Le Rocquier School and Hautlieu School. After school, I went back to India to my home state to do my undergraduate degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Federal Institute of Science and Technology under Mahatma Gandhi University. Bitten by the bug of AI during my engineering years, I flew to Vancouver to do my Masters in Data Science at The University of British Columbia, Vancouver. I look forward to become a Data Scientist, and a good one at that.


Employment

During my final year of Engineering I got campus placement with TCS and Standard Chartered GBS. After graduation, I took up the offer of Standard Chartered GBS, Chennai as an Analyst. I worked as part of Identity and Access Management (IAM) & Global Information Security (GIS) teams, which integrate business-critical applications to Oracle Identity Governance and SailPoint IdentityIQ, to automate user restrictions and prevent data leakage. I worked there for a year till I called it quits in July 2017 to pursue my real passion in the fields of Data Science and Machine Learning.

After I completed masters degree in Data Science from The University of British Columbia, I joined Canvass Analytics, a global leader in AI industrial advanced analytics in Sept 2018. The role requires the skills of a data scientist and machine learning engineering to use AI for intelligent industrial operations. So far I have dealt with industries in oil and gas, steel, and forest-produce sectors.

Interests & Projects

I also have interests like Web Development, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. During the final year of engineering I was introduced into the world of robotics and Arduino. I have gone on to do projects like Gesture Controlled Wall Climbing Robot, Secret door pattern detector and built a custom quadcopter using Pixhawk. I try to widen my knowledge and skills by developing websites and doing various projects. Where my learning and online browsing fall short, I enroll into online courses to help me with my projects such as Virtual Self Driving Car and Powering AI to Play Doom and few others. You are welcome to find details of these projects in the Blogs and Projects section of my Website. I have also done many projects on Data Science and Machine Learning which can be found on my GitHub page.


Other Stuff/Interests

I am a huge movie buff and a hardcore Chelsea fan. My weekends are spent catching up on football reruns when I can. I was part of the St. Clements F.C., Jersey in 2010. I also played as striker for the FISAT college football team while doing bachelors. Besides football, like every Indian, cricket is a big time fascination; I have played for my school team during grade 12 and 13. I have now added Table Tennis to my repertoire of interests. The highlight was winning One Eleven Ping Pong tournament in April 2019. I also enjoy playing tennis in late evenings. During spare time I listen to music and watch movies. I am a massive fan of Malayalam cinema and Mohanlal. I used to play guitar during my school days and hope to get started on it again. I have tried my luck learning dancing and drums. However I cannot claim anything on that front. I am a foodie, and relish different cuisines. But my interest is only in the eating part. I can cook for survival though.