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Full-Stack AI Engineer and Data Scientist with 3+ years of building AI-enabled software. Delivered end-to-end systems across data pipelines, LLM integration, APIs, and cloud deployment.

General Information

Full Name Phanindra Kalaga
Email phanindra.connect@gmail.com
Phone +1-771-233-3129
Website funindra.me
Languages English, Telugu, Hindi

Professional Summary

Summary Full-Stack AI Engineer and Data Scientist with 3+ years of building AI-enabled software. Delivered end-to-end systems across data pipelines, LLM integration, APIs, and cloud deployment. Shipped open-source tools and shared lessons learned through public speaking at AI and open-source events. Consistently ramped quickly and took ownership early in senior-leaning teams.

Education

  • Jan 2024 Dec 2025
    Master of Science in Data Science
    George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
    • GPA 3.90
    • Relevant Coursework: Machine Learning, NLP, Data Mining, Computer Vision, Cloud Computing
  • Aug 2019 May 2023
    Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering
    Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, India

Experience

  • April 2024 Present
    Lead Graduate Research Specialist, LAiSER
    George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
    • LLM Pipeline Scaling: Built and scaled LLM extraction pipelines across 1M+ records using vLLM; improved inference throughput 7x, cutting end-to-end processing time from 2 months to 8 days for empirical research workflows.
    • LLM API Integration: Integrated Gemini API into LAiSER for multi-model evaluation workflows; designed abstraction layers to support rapid experimentation across different LLM providers.
    • Retrieval Performance: Implemented FAISS-based semantic search and optimized retrieval, delivering a consistent 30% speed improvement for retrieval-augmented research workflows.
    • Open-source Engineering: Primary maintainer of LAiSER GitHub organization (multiple repos) with a team of 7; drove architecture decisions, reusable libraries, and rapid iteration to support reproducible research. 2x winner of GW OSPO annual open-source student awards.
    • Release Quality & DevSecOps: Led releases for 4+ major versions using GitHub Actions; added CodeQL and Dependabot for automated scanning and alerts; standardized Conventional Commits and Semantic Versioning for transparent collaboration.
    • Research Communication: Worked with non-technical partners to explain design choices and trade-offs; supported over $1M in grant-backed research delivery with partners including the Walmart Foundation and the Gates Foundation, applying NIST AI RMF for risk management.
  • Aug 2024 Dec 2024
    Software Engineer Intern, Data Science for Sustainable Development
    George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
    • Web Platform Integration: Led a team of 5 to design and deploy a web-based analytics platform (Next.js, Flask) on AWS EC2 and S3, integrating data pipelines and APIs for collaborative research workflows.
    • Workflow Automation: Built agentic workflows to generate insights and operational summaries, improving partner collaboration efficiency by 30%.
  • July 2021 Jan 2023
    Full-Stack Engineer
    NashAgri, An Agritech B2C Organization, Maharashtra, India
    • Product Systems: Built a cross-platform CRM from scratch to manage vendor transactions and inventory; added ML analytics to improve operational visibility and decision-making.
    • Data & Geo Analytics: Managed geospatial data for 45,000+ farmers across 25,000+ regions (MongoDB, GeoJSON) to improve supply chain visibility and generate strategic insights.
    • Backend Features: Delivered 5+ core features (invoice generation, RBAC, real-time auctions) supporting a 40% increase in vendor transactions in the first quarter.

Certifications

  • Jan 2026
    Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect

Projects

  • 2025
    Reinforcement Learning for Pseudo-Labeling (Capstone Project)
    • Model agnostic, custom RL environment for data annotation to outperform state-of-the-art semi-supervised techniques and enable reproducible evaluation.
    • Tools: OpenAI Gymnasium, High Performance Compute (HPC), Tensorboard, PyTorch (torchvision)
  • 2026
    Danger Detection with ML (GWU Open-Source Student Award, 2026)
    • Built a real-time computer vision prototype to detect hazards at schools and public spaces; implemented instant alerts with captured visual evidence. Achieved 25 FPS mean throughput on edge CPU for low-latency IoT. Open-source on GitHub.
    • Tools: Python, OpenCV, YOLOv3 (Darknet), NumPy, argparse, SMTP (email notifications)
  • 2024
    Benchmarking Database Architectures for Network Analytics
    • Reproducible Python benchmark of MySQL, MongoDB, and Neo4j on a synthetic road network dataset to deliver recommendations on which database performs best for each query type.
    • Tools: Python, MySQL, MongoDB, Neo4j (graph algorithms), SQL recursive CTEs, MongoDB aggregation/lookup, psutil (performance monitoring), Faker
  • 2024
    Global CO₂ Emissions Analysis Dashboard
    • Built a dashboard analyzing 223 years of CO₂ data across countries, sectors, and income groups to identify relation between historical emissions and renewable adoption priorities.
    • Tools: Tableau, Python, pandas, Plotly, Matplotlib
  • 2023
    My Own Medic (Selected for United Nations Open-Source Week 2025)
    • Designed an open-source architecture for a medical assistant using EHR records and LLMs to reduce documentation errors and improve clinical workflows. Open-source on GitHub.
    • Tools: MySQL, PHP, Hugging Face API, HIPAA compliance

Publications

  • Oct 2025
    LAiSER (Journal of Open Source Software, under review)
    • Technical paper submitted Oct. 2025; describes the LAiSER open-source system and emphasizes reproducible research software practices.
    • Submission link

Developer Relations

  • 2024 Present
    President, Google Developer Groups On-Campus at GWU
    • Led 200+ student organization for AI/ML awareness via events and workshops; cohosted DevFestDC (900 attendees); cohosted DevFest Annapolis (300 attendees)
  • 2024 Present
    Chairperson of Relations, Data Science Association
    • Cultivated relationships with C-suite executives and senior engineers for hosting events to provide career insights to 170 data science students

Presentations and Awards

  • January 2026
    • GWU Open-Source Student Awards: Received award for open-source contributions (Danger Detection with ML)
  • December 2025
    • Build with AI - Startup Day: Organized a summit for 200 attendees featuring C-suite executives and senior engineers; delivered a session on the impact of open-source software on AI and business strategy
  • November 2025
    • DevFest Annapolis: Hosted a tech-talk and technical workshop on Model Context Protocol (MCP), Multi Agent Systems (MAS) and agent communication mechanisms for 100+ students and faculty
  • October 2025
    • DC Startup and Tech Week: Hosted a technical workshop for 60+ startup founders on building with AI, containers, and serverless deployments on Google Cloud
  • July 2025
    • Badge Summit at CU Boulder: Hosted a table talk with 50 leaders in higher-education research on skills and credentials
  • May 2025
    • GWU Open Source Conference: Delivered a keynote session on open-source software best practices
  • January 2025
    • GWU Open-Source Student Awards: Received 3rd prize for best open-source software

Technical Skills

  • Languages
    • Python, SQL, JavaScript, R
  • ML & LLMs
    • NLP, LLMs, vLLM, PyTorch, scikit-learn, Hugging Face
  • Data, Cloud & MLOps
    • Pandas, NumPy, Spark, Airflow, Docker, AWS (EC2, S3, IAM, CloudWatch), GCP, Git, GitHub Actions, CI/CD, MLflow
  • Databases & Product
    • PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Neo4j, FastAPI, Flask, Next.js, React, Plotly, Matplotlib, Tableau