VARUN MACHHALE KUMAR

I am a second year Master's student in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette. I'm currently working with Dr. Alexander Chubykin on understanding the mechanism of memory encoding via theta oscillations in the mouse visual cortex. Previously, I was working with Dr. Joseph Makin to generate time aligned phonemes to decode speech from neural signals. My primary interest includes applying machine learning to solve prevalent problems in neuroscience.

I completed my undergraduate degree from NITK, India in Electronics and Communication Engineering in May 2021. During my bachelors, I worked on applying deep learning to segment medical images. I worked on my bachelor thesis with Prof. Hardik J. Pandya at BEES Lab, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to use signal processing for detecting and classifying epileptic subtypes.

• Machine Learning
• Signal Processing
• Computer Vision
• Natural Language Processing
• Neuroscience
• Neurodegenerative diseases
• Medical Imaging

• Purdue University

August 2022 - July 2024 (anticipated)

• Master's in Electrical and Computer Engineering

• National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK)

July 2017 - May 2021

• Bachelors in Electronics and Communication Engineering
• • Department Rank: 2 (out of 106 students)

• Lourdes Central School

June 2005 - May 2017

• AISSCE CBSE Class XII (2017)
• • Dakshina Kannada District Topper


• AISCE CBSE Class X (2015)

Probing memory encoding in mouse visual cortex

Purdue University, West Lafayette
August 2023 - Present

Graduate Researcher

• Worked on developing a machine learning decoder to predict stimuli and mice genotypes based on recorded neural signals
• Developed a unified package for streamlining the data analysis pipeline of the lab

Speech Decoding using ECoG signals

Purdue University, West Lafayette
November 2022 - July 2023

Graduate Researcher

• Devised a preprocessing pipeline to compute time-aligned phonemes from speech data to train a speech decoder

Automated extraction of ECG signals from PDFs

BEES Lab, Indian Institute of Science
January 2021 - September 2021

Research Intern

• Developed an algorithm to automatically convert non-overlapping 12-lead ECG signals recorded in the form of PDFs to numerical data

Automated Epilepsy Classification using EEG signals

BEES Lab, Indian Institute of Science
July 2020 - September 2021

Research Intern

• Developed a fully automated epilepsy classification system to classify epileptic patients into various subtypes of epilepsy using EEG signals

Bladder cancer segmentation using deep learning

NITK, India
October 2020 - March 2020

Undergraduate researcher

• Implemented a deep learning neural network to segment immunopositive and immunonegative tumour cells in the bladder and calculated its Ki-67 index

Small signal parameter extraction of GaN AND GaAs transistors

CeNSE, Indian Institute of Science
May 2019 - July 2019

Summer Research Intern

• Implemented a method to extract the parasitic capacitances, inductances and resistances from the S parameters of a Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) transistor.
• From the extrinsic parameters, the intrinsic parameters of the MOSFET were further extracted

Vision transformers with learnable resizer networks

Purdue University

Implemented a Vision Transformer (ViT) model and evaluated the effect of learnable resizer modules on the ViT model performance
Code PDF

Speech enhancement using CNN-GAN

National Institute of Technology Karnataka

Used a time-frequency mask based approach for speech enhancement using convolutional generative adversarial networks (CNN-GAN)
Code PDF

Heart-chamber segmentation using deep learning

National Institute of Technology Karnataka

Designed and implemented a two-chamber echocardiogram segmentation algorithm using deep learning and compared its performance using various performance metrics with existing deep learning architectures
Code PDF

MPOWER Scholarship 2022

The MPOWER scholarship is awarded to international students studying in the US based on the applicant’s qualifications, quality of essays submitted and applicant’s potential as a scientist to make positive impact.

Honorary Mention Winner for the June 2022 monthly scholarship

DAAD WISE Scholar 2020

Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service) Working Internships in Science and Engineering (WISE)

Received the DAAD WISE Scholarship for the year 2020.

DAAD is a German organization that promotes international academic and research exchange programs. It supports students, researchers, and academics from around the world in pursuing educational and research opportunities in Germany.

The program targets around 100 students all over India pursuing a degree in the fields of science and engineering who wish to do a 2-3 months research internship at a publicly-funded German higher education institution

Award letter

CeNSE scholarship 2019

Centre for Nano Science and Engineering Scholarship, Indian Institute of Science (IISc)

The CeNSE scholarship program provides an opportunity for undergraduate and masters students from India and abroad, selected through a rigorous and competitive process, to intern at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, IISc for a period of 8-10 weeks.

Was among the 26 students all over India to be selected for the scholarship program in the year 2019.

Award letter

Institute Scholarship

National Institute of Technology Karnataka

Every year top five meritorious students in every department are awarded the Institute scholarship from NITK.

Received the scholarship thrice: Jan 2018, Jan 2019 and Sept 2021

Spatiotemporal analysis of interictal EEG for automated seizure detection and classification

Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, vol. 79, p. 104086 (2023) (Impact factor: 5.076)
Rathin K. Joshi, Varun Kumar M. , Megha Agrawal, Avinash Rao, Latika Mohan, M. Jayachandra and Hardik J. Pandya

doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bspc.2022.104086

BibTex Citation
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BibTex Citation

@article{article, author = {Joshi, Rathin and M., Varun and Agrawal, Dr and Rao, Avinash and Mohan, Latika and Jayachandra, Mahesh and Pandya, Hardik}, year = {2023}, month = {01}, pages = {104086}, title = {Spatiotemporal analysis of interictal EEG for automated seizure detection and classification}, volume = {79}, journal = {Biomedical Signal Processing and Control}, doi = {10.1016/j.bspc.2022.104086} }

Citation
×

Citation

Joshi, Rathin & M., Varun & Agrawal, Dr & Rao, Avinash & Mohan, Latika & Jayachandra, Mahesh & Pandya, Hardik. (2023). Spatiotemporal analysis of interictal EEG for automated seizure detection and classification. Biomedical Signal Processing and Control. 79. 104086. 10.1016/j.bspc.2022.104086.

Machine Learning and related

Purdue University

• ECE 69500: Generative Models
• BIOL 56200: Neural Systems
• ECE 57000: Artificial Intelligence
• ECE 62900: Introduction to Neural Networks

National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK)

• EE871: Machine Learning
• EC899: Applications of Machine Learning Techniques For Medical Image Analysis
• EC348: Image and Video processing
• EC347: Speech and Audio processing
• EC272: Digital Signal Processing

Mathematical courses

Purdue University

• STAT 51100: Statistical Methods
• ECE 60000: Random Variables

National Institute of Technology Karnataka

• EC457: Statistical Analysis
• MA110: Engineering Mathematics I
• MA111: Engineering Mathematics II (Calculus)
• EC454: Numerical Analysis and Applications
• EC224: Mathematics for Electronics and Communication Engineering

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