Download AKSHAY KULKARNI Visiting Scientist +1-607-280

A KSHAY KULKARNI
Visiting Scientist
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14850
+1-607-280-7502
[email protected]
http://www.linkedin.com/in/akkulkarni
O BJECTIVE
To solve interesting and challenging problems using my strong analytical and computer skills, acquired
through extensive research experience in computational astrophysics. Targeting a wide range of fields,
including but not limited to high-performance computing, software development and support, analytics, and
industrial research.
S UMMARY
OF
Q UALIFICATIONS
• 7 years of full-time research experience, designing and running massively parallel astrophysical simulations on various supercomputers and analyzing large datasets.
• Solid engineering and research background with strong analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Versatile set of programming and system administration skills.
• Proven competence in troubleshooting hardware and software problems.
• Ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously and see them to completion.
• Good team player with excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to learn new things quickly.
E MPLOYMENT
Oct 2011 – present
Jan 2010 – Sep 2011
2005 – 2009
2004 – 2005
2003 – 2004
:
:
:
:
:
Visiting Scientist, Department of Astronomy, Cornell University
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University
Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Astronomy, Cornell University
Teaching Assistant, Department of Astronomy, Cornell University
Graduate Fellow, Department of Astronomy, Cornell University
E DUCATION
Dec 2009 : Ph.D. in Astronomy, Cornell University
2007
: M.S. in Astronomy, Cornell University
2003
: B.Tech. in Engineering Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India
T ECHNICAL S KILLS
• Languages: C/C++, Python, Perl, Bash, Fortran, LaTeX, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Visual Basic.
• Platforms: GNU/Linux (various distributions), Windows (98, 2000, XP), MS-DOS.
• High-performance computing (HPC) systems and platforms: NASA clusters Pleiades (SGI ICE),
Columbia (SGI Altix) and Discover (Linux NetworX); TeraGrid clusters Kraken (Cray XT5) and Queen
Bee (Dell); Harvard Odyssey cluster; Cornell Velocity Cluster (Windows).
• HPC/scientific software: MPI (Message Passing Interface), OpenMP (Open Multi-Processing), PBS
(Portable Batch System), GSL (GNU Scientific Library), MINPACK.
• Visualization software: Tecplot, Python (matplotlib), gnuplot.
• Computational fluid dynamics (CFD): mesh-based finite-volume Godunov-type codes.
• Time series analysis.
• Other: Intel and GNU compilers, rsync, LVM, Samba, Git, Subversion, GNU make; some experience in
GUI programming with Qt, GTK and Visual Basic.
1
Akshay Kulkarni
[email protected] — 607-280-7502
P ROFESSIONAL E XPERIENCE
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC)
Harvard University, Jan 2010–Oct 2011
• Modeled gas flows around black holes using supercomputer simulations.
• Performed code scaling tests and determined the optimal grid resource utilization strategy on a range
of cluster architectures.
• Developed a general-relativistic ray-tracing code (C, parallelized with OpenMP) to produce images of
the simulations.
• Implemented a new startup module in the code (in C) for the current project.
• Wrote Perl, Python and Bash scripts to download, analyze, visualize and back up the simulation results.
Ph.D. program in Astronomy, Cornell University, 2003–2009
• Designed and carried out the first ever global simulations of plasma instabilities around magnetized
stars.
• Debugged the simulation code (Fortran, parallelized with MPI) and resolved the discrepancy with the
non-parallel version.
• Wrote an input/output module to enable the code to collect data from its parallel sub-processes and
write it serially to disk, and vice versa, making the data vastly easier to handle.
• Set up a stereoscopic visualization/animation system for the simulations, involving seamless integration
of Perl, Python, Bash and Tecplot scripts, completely transparent to the user. Also developed a technique to make dual-projector stereoscopic presentations using HTML/JavaScript/CSS. These became
very effective in promoting the group’s research at scientific conferences.
• Wrote programs to perform time series analysis of the brightness variations of the simulated stars.
• Created Perl scripts to automate most common tasks: submitting jobs on clusters, estimating the wait
time for a job in a queue, and downloading, post-processing and backing up data. Even inexperienced
users were able to perform those tasks as a result.
• Did troubleshooting of practically any technical problem faced by colleagues: problems with compiling
and running codes or downloading data from supercomputers, network connection issues and hardware
failures, to name a few.
• Managed thesis advisor’s computer network, consisting of 17 desktops. One of the desktops was used
as a data server and visualization/parallel job testing machine.
P UBLICATIONS , AWARDS
AND
O THER E XPERIENCE
• As a hobby during undergraduate years, developed a full-fledged software program to draw two- and
three-dimensional graphs of arbitrary user-supplied mathematical functions. The program included an
equation parser, and its GUI interface, built in Visual Basic, supported standard operations such as
translating and zooming the view.
• 11 publications (4 with lead authorship) in peer-reviewed journals.
• Recipient of grants from the American Astronomical Society, the International Astronomical Union and
Cornell University for conference presentations.
• Teaching Assistant for two introductory astronomy courses at Cornell University. Also involved with
some outreach work.
• Foreign languages: Russian (competent), Hindi/Urdu and Marathi (native).
2