<REDACTED_1> (Let’s Get Cracked)

<REDACTED_1> was the name of my first ICPC team, which we made in the 2nd year of college. I didn't even know ICPC existed until the end of the 1st year.

<REDACTED_1> means going against the tide and winning anyways, even when the deck is stacked against you. It means winning no matter what.

I was a very underconfident kid, who believed he was averageβ€”so much so that I didn't even attempt a branch change. End of 1st year, I ended up participating in Google Code Jam qualifiers and solved all 4 problems. I was the only person in the whole college (across 4 years) to solve all 4 problems that year.

In the 2nd year, <REDACTED_1> was the best-performing team in our college. We got single-digit ranks in regionals afaik. We then made it to ICPC World Finals both in the 3rd and 4th year, with the team <REDACTED_2>.


Members

Every member of <REDACTED_1> is a good combination of wordcel + shape rotator. Also, all of them have high agency.

Hello folks! I'm Prajwal, a final year AIML engineering undergraduate at RVCE, BLR.

A bit about me:

  • Interned at Qualcomm for the summer in the ML team (CUDA & GPU optimization)
  • Have worked on frontend and backend technologies, built and deployed applications to the web
  • Won a couple of 24-hour all-India AI hackathons securing grants to scale products

I'm currently delving deep into all things ML & NLP. I also enjoy lifting weights and watching the UFC! I am happy to have met Prateek here and look forward to getting to know all of you too!

Hi, I'm Priyav, also known as Digi (Diginova), a 2021 graduate in Computer Science from NIT Allahabad. I am currently working as an app developer at Oracle in Hyderabad. You can find more information about me on my personal website in the bio section or on LinkedIn.

Currently, I am working on hardware projects related to creating Docucap. Additionally, I am involved in some exciting extensions and private projects. I am focused on connecting with like-minded individuals who maintain sanity in the increasingly competitive world of social media followers.

I hope we can learn from each other 🌸.

Hey folks, I'm Tarun. Here are some cool things about me:

  • Currently a founding ML engineer at a seed-stage company in SF.
  • Worked for a year in Japan in quantum information research.
  • Enjoy blues improv.
  • Like poker, especially weird variants.
  • Used to be a quant, cut ties with the job but not the gambling habit.

Nice to meet you all! πŸ”₯

Hi, I'm Zex. I am a software engineer and a Computer Science undergraduate student. My interests revolve around cybersecurity, finance, and machine learning.

Hi there! I'm Rohit, a fourth-year PhD student at Penn. Currently, I am working on uncovering hidden evolutionary dynamics from data, with a focus on biological systems.

I am passionate about these activities, as evidenced by my PhD research. I believe I possess a high level of agency and may also exhibit traits of self-diagnosed autism.

Hey everyone! I'm Mantek, an ML Engineer at Google working on impactful predictive modeling. Outside of work, I love experimenting with cocktail recipes, capturing moments through photography, and diving into conversations about economics, politics, and philosophy.

Hi folks, I'm Aryan, a Software Development Engineer (SDE) at one of the MNCs in India. Outside of work, you can find me lurking on http://codeforces.com and sometimes on the badminton court. Thanks to COVID, I have a degree in Electrical Engineering from IITK (a story for another time over a drink).

Hey all, I am a final year student at the University of Mumbai. My interests revolve around AI, LLMs, and data. I am currently working on building AI for India (India needs small and efficient Indic LLMs for various use cases). I am excited to be here!

Hi, I'm Shreesh, an ECE graduate student at CMU with a focus on architecture and design. I spend many hours each week trying to understand computers so I can better communicate with them.

Here's a list of topics I have dedicated my time to in the last few years:

  • autonomous robots
  • self-driving cars
  • compute in memory
  • network on chip
  • SRAM physical design
  • design for testable chips

Visit my website at http://ntr0pie.github.io.

Hello everyone! I'm Ishan, based in Bhubaneswar, and a graduate of KIIT. Over the past few years, I have developed a keen interest in computers and technology, focusing on understanding how they work. Apart from that, I enjoy cubing, reading books, and playing chess.

Hey everyone, I am Srikanth, a software engineer at SigNoz where I develop an open-source observability platform. I have a strong interest in developer tools, observability, and databases.

Additionally, I serve as a core developer and maintainer of OpenTelemetry Python & agent management, contributing significantly to the OpenTelemetry project for the past 3 years.

Currently, I am studying the ClickHouse source code to gain insights into its query engine.

In the future, my goal is to establish my own company focusing on creating developer tools.

I'm Ajay, 22 years old, currently working remotely at a friend's gaming startup that offers rewards in games.

I have previous experience in engineering at two YC startups. One of my random achievements includes getting the entire infrastructure PCI-DSS certified, as no one else wanted to take on the task, haha.

Cold direct messages have proven successful for me in securing all of my past jobs and internships.

I am leading the tech and quant team at Llamarisk, a risk management group focused on crypto.

Three things I have achieved include:

  • Directly managing risks of around $10 million worth of assets through my work.
  • Publishing a paper that eliminates noise in retinal scans while preserving minute details using a ResNet-like autoencoder (before the era of transformers).
  • Taking pride in my diverse overall FOSS work.

Just to give a heads up: I am involved in crypto and pleased to be the career outlier in the group.

Hi everyone, I'm Akash Bhalotia, also known as Whiplash99. I have interned at GS and Rubrik, and have worked full-time at Google for 2.5 years. Currently, I am joining a seed-stage startup to gain hands-on experience in preparation for someday creating my own startup. I am currently exploring ML, GenAI, System Design, and Distributed Systems. Additionally, I am passionate about health and fitness. I excel at finding global optima in situations where others may only see a local viewpoint. Building strong relationships with people is important to me, and I am always eager to approach and talk to new individuals. My approach to achieving my moonshots involves endless trial and error, continuous improvement over time, and a healthy dose of reliance on luck.

I am one of the few who are genuinely passionate about their craft, particularly in math, problem solving, and creative building. In terms of achievements, I have won multiple hackathons and coding competitions, including CalHacks. Aside from software, I have also created other impressive projects such as DevLabs (https://devlabs.club), where I have led workshops teaching over 120 people, and Fluttr, a web agency where I collaborated with various organizations and startups. There are many more exciting projects on the horizon! πŸ™Œ

I am Yashovardhan Srivastava, a final-year undergraduate from NIT Warangal. I am a Kaggle expert and have developed an Interpretability library along with several Python packages that receive hundreds of monthly downloads. I believe in learning through practical application and am currently exploring the fields of NLP and Interpretability. I am always eager to learn and enhance my skills :)

You can find out more about me here: https://yash-sri.xyz/

Hey, Prateek. I recently discovered the Upstream Flow community and I would love to join. Here are my responses to the three points you inquired about:

  • I am Sagar, a freelance software engineer based in Delhi. I have a passion for creating 3D animations for the web using mathematics and coding.

  • While currently residing in Delhi, I have also lived in Bangalore in the past. Although I am open to exploring other cities, particularly metro cities, my ultimate goal is to settle in Delhi with my family.

  • Two things I take pride in are my unique method of solving a Rubik's cube and my ability to quickly learn new skills. I have self-taught myself to play the guitar, flute, coding, and numerous other skills by watching tutorials on YouTube.

Hi, I'm Pranjal. Currently, I am a technical staff member at Xai. I also enjoy writing CUDA kernels for fun (https://cudaforfun.substack.com/).

Previously, I worked on data infrastructure at Meta, focusing on projects like Presto and Velox. I met Prateek during ICPC WFs in 2018 and 2019.

Yo! Nil here. I play drums (used to) and I code. I am mostly interested in deciphering the abstraction that has engulfed the tech libs. I try to understand things from first principles and break things using the top-down approach. I work at a startup where I am building a Flutter app to accompany a medical device, writing Bluetooth modules for firmware, and also ensuring that the AI models to be run on the device are fast enough to provide real-time data. Currently living in Bengaluru.

Eventually, I would like to live in Shenzhen, Tel Aviv, and San Francisco.

I built a Git for myself (which I do not use, haha), led the media team in college, received appreciation from Ashneer Grover for some amazing photos, and built the MVP app in my new workplace in just 3 weeks even though I had no idea about frontend/app dev 3 weeks before that.

Hey Prateek, I'm Vivek Khatri, a software developer based in Nagpur, Maharashtra. I am passionate about coding and dedicated to making a positive impact in India. I started a community project at https://humansoftpot.com, but unfortunately, it is currently stagnant. You can read my thoughts and reflections at https://musings.peculiarvivek.com and find my tech blog at https://tech.peculiarvivek.com.

Throughout my career, I have worked at several startups and have been involved in building the initial versions of products. Despite facing challenges beyond my control, my experiences have led to entertaining stories. I specialize in backend development and have the ability to create functional front-end designs (thanks to chatgpt/claude).

My ultimate goal is to be in the top 1% of my profession and to pursue a career as an author. I find joy in deploying code to production and believe in a pragmatic approach when building tech products. Keeping it simple (KISS) is my life philosophy. I'm happy to be a part of this community!

Hi, I'm Utkrisht, a 19-year-old college dropout who has been coding for the past 10 years. During this time, I have accomplished some awesome things, such as:

  • Reverse Engineering GTA at the age of 7
  • Building my own Arch Linux-based distro from scratch at 11
  • Possibly being the youngest RedHat Certified Engineer at the age of 12
  • Starting to learn Quantum Computing at 13 and implementing Grover Search & Shor’s algorithm
  • Teaching a Master's student about Quantum Circuit building via Skype at the age of 15
  • Developing the fastest Copy-Trading-System for one of India's biggest and oldest Stock Brokers with nearly $15 million in AUM

Currently, I am obsessed with distributed computing and building InTacht (Intelligent Global Infrastructure). To learn more, visit: http://intacht.notion.site.

Hi, I'm Yash, a 22-year-old college dropout from India. I was probably 13 when I wanted to build a flying car, so I started experimenting with 3D printers and hardware. At 14, I successfully cold emailed the wife of an Indian tech billionaire who runs an NGO asking for help. I enjoy sharing awesome facts and case studies about different founders via https://x.com/solopreneur_pvt?s=21&t=drsXnwvECYUOB0yX4sRZPQ. For the last few years, I've been working on distributed computing and am currently building InTacht (http://InTacht.notion.site).

Hi Prateek,

I'm Chirag Joshi, a 14-year-old AI enthusiast from Gujarat currently working on impactful AI solutions at Edutor App (@EdutorApp).

Current Location: Palanpur, Gujarat, India

Desired Location: A tech-driven hub offering maximum technical depth and learning opportunities.

Top achievements:

  • Left school to focus on learning AI, programming, and building impactful projects.
  • Attended Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang's Keynote at Computex 2024 in Taiwan.
  • Developed AI-powered tools for K-12 education, benefiting thousands of students.
  • Converted educational content into engaging podcasts in the Gujarati language.

I am excited about the opportunity to be a part of <REDACTED_1>!

Best,
Chirag Joshi

Hi Prateek, I would like to be a part of <REDACTED_1> tidbits.

My name is Ammar Shaikh, a 23-year-old from Mumbai currently working as a software engineer at Jio. These days, I spend most of my time learning RL. I don't have a fixed place I'd like to live as I can mingle well with different cultures and people, and will move wherever life gives me an opportunity. Though I haven't achieved much yet, here are a few accomplishments:

  • I am quite good at Competitive programming and have won a CodeChef global round. I also have a decent ranking in CP contests.
  • I stood in the top 100 in the National Physics Examination out of 200,000 participants.
  • A lot of what I've learned are simply tools to bootstrap me to a better road. I hope I can be a part of a network of high agency folks.

Hi, I'm Abhishek Choudhary, a Software Engineer at Flipkart. (LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/theabbie). My hometown is Navi Mumbai. While I plan to continue living in India in the future, I certainly aspire to travel to various European countries.

Top Achievements:

  • Completed my Engineering degree
  • Successfully passed the Flipkart Offcampus interview
  • Ranked within the Top 10 Indians in Leetcode ratings (Profile: https://leetcode.com/theabbie)
  • Established a network of over 5000 connections on LinkedIn

Want to Join <REDACTED_1>?

If you think you should be a part of <REDACTED_1>, DM me on Twitter with the following: