Who I am

About

I'm Hrushikesh Thanikonda, an AI/ML engineer and data scientist based in Jersey City, NJ. I recently completed my MS in Data Science at Stevens Institute of Technology (May 2026), after earning my BS in Computer Science and Engineering at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden.

What I care about most in data work is trustworthiness. A pipeline that moves data isn't finished until it validates that data; a forecast isn't useful until it's been tested against data it hasn't seen. That conviction runs through everything I've built: ETL pipelines with null handling, outlier detection, and distribution-shift checks; time-series models validated with holdout testing, confidence intervals, and residual diagnostics; and a cloud ingestion platform where data can't reach consumers until a human approver signs off.

My path into data engineering started with machine learning research. My bachelor's thesis — an SVM-based sentiment classifier for cyberbullying detection — meant annotating and reviewing 40,000+ text samples by hand. That experience taught me something most engineers learn late: model performance is mostly a data quality problem. I've been building systems around that lesson ever since.

I work primarily in Python and SQL on Azure (Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, Azure Storage, Key Vault), with .NET for backend services and Power BI for reporting — and in TypeScript when the deliverable is a product rather than a pipeline: Next.js, PostgreSQL with Prisma, and Vercel, the stack behind Law Tracker and this site. On the AI side I've completed Anthropic's AI Fluency, Claude 101, and Claude Code in Action, and I'm working through the Amazon Bedrock x Claude course while building a Claude application on Bedrock alongside it. I also build with AI-assisted engineering workflows — this site was developed spec-first with an AI coding agent working under human review gates. I hold the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst and Meta Database Engineer professional certificates.

I'm looking for an AI/ML engineering or data science role on a team that treats data quality and governance as engineering problems worth solving well.

Experience & education

Timeline

Undergraduate Research — Sentiment Analysis of Cyberbullying Tweets
May 2021 – Sept 2023
Blekinge Institute of Technology
- Developed an SVM-based sentiment classifier achieving 84% accuracy across 40,000+ labeled samples.
- Published findings and presented analytical insights in academic research settings.
View publication
Support Data Analyst (Intern)
May 2021 – May 2022
HCL Technologies — Remote (India)
- Built an employee performance dashboard end to end — KPI definitions with support leads, SQL transformations, Power BI visual layer — cutting weekly reporting from hours of manual spreadsheet work to minutes; adopted by supervisors for weekly coaching and monthly reviews.
- Cleaned and validated ERP, ticketing, and CSAT data in Python (pandas) and SQL; added row-count and column-profile checks that caught silently broken extracts before they reached stakeholders.
- Documented cleaning rules and processes so teammates could rerun every extract without me; translated vague manager requests (“show me who is struggling”) into concrete metric definitions.
Assistant Coordinator (Volunteer)
Jun 2022 – Jan 2024
Rashtriya Seva Samithi (RASS) — Tirupati, India
- Supported the Thrift & Credit Program of RASS, an NGO — a microfinance initiative serving ~50,000 mostly rural women through self-help groups with 0% APR business loans and skill-empowerment programs introducing young women to technology.
- Maintained clean, analysis-ready loan and enrollment data; monitored repayment flow, alerted collections ahead of due dates, and built enrollment growth projections for program planning — alongside server upkeep and system security.
Stevens Institute of Technology — Hoboken, NJ
Master of Science, Data Science · Sept 2024 – May 2026
Blekinge Institute of Technology — Karlskrona, Sweden
Bachelor of Science, Computer Science — published thesis: cyberbullying sentiment analysis · May 2021 – Sept 2023

Certifications

AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations — Anthropic Academy
Claude 101 — Anthropic Academy
Claude Code in Action — Anthropic Academy
Amazon Bedrock x Claude — Anthropic / AWS (in progress)
Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate
Meta Database Engineer Professional Certificate

What I work with

Technical Skills

AI Engineering

Claude API
prompt engineering
Amazon Bedrock (coursework + in-progress build)
AI-assisted development (spec-driven, review-gated)
human-in-the-loop review workflows

Data Engineering & Pipelines

Python
SQL
PostgreSQL
ETL/ELT workflow design
data ingestion & transformation
schema design
data validation
data quality checks (nulls, outliers, distribution shift)
failure detection
pipeline reliability
documentation & reproducibility

Machine Learning & Forecasting

Time-series modeling (ARMA, SARIMA)
ACF/PACF model diagnostics
forecast validation (holdout, confidence intervals, residuals)
classification (SVM)
data annotation & human-in-the-loop labeling
data augmentation

Product & Web Engineering

TypeScript / JavaScript
Next.js
React
PostgreSQL & Prisma
NextAuth session auth
row-level security & role-based access
Supabase
Tailwind CSS
Vercel
layered application architecture
schema migrations
Git & GitHub

Cloud & Platform

Azure SQL
Cosmos DB
Azure Storage
Azure Key Vault
AWS
role-based access control
.NET backend services
secrets management

Analytics & Reporting

Power BI dashboards
statistical diagnostics
anomaly surfacing
decision-support analytics
translating vague requests into metric definitions

About

I'm looking for an AI/ML engineering or data science role on a team that treats data quality and governance as engineering problems worth solving well.

Timeline

Undergraduate Research — Sentiment Analysis of Cyberbullying Tweets
May 2021 – Sept 2023
Blekinge Institute of Technology
- Developed an SVM-based sentiment classifier achieving 84% accuracy across 40,000+ labeled samples.
- Published findings and presented analytical insights in academic research settings.
View publication
Support Data Analyst (Intern)
May 2021 – May 2022
HCL Technologies — Remote (India)
- Built an employee performance dashboard end to end — KPI definitions with support leads, SQL transformations, Power BI visual layer — cutting weekly reporting from hours of manual spreadsheet work to minutes; adopted by supervisors for weekly coaching and monthly reviews.
- Cleaned and validated ERP, ticketing, and CSAT data in Python (pandas) and SQL; added row-count and column-profile checks that caught silently broken extracts before they reached stakeholders.
- Documented cleaning rules and processes so teammates could rerun every extract without me; translated vague manager requests (“show me who is struggling”) into concrete metric definitions.
Assistant Coordinator (Volunteer)
Jun 2022 – Jan 2024
Rashtriya Seva Samithi (RASS) — Tirupati, India
- Supported the Thrift & Credit Program of RASS, an NGO — a microfinance initiative serving ~50,000 mostly rural women through self-help groups with 0% APR business loans and skill-empowerment programs introducing young women to technology.
- Maintained clean, analysis-ready loan and enrollment data; monitored repayment flow, alerted collections ahead of due dates, and built enrollment growth projections for program planning — alongside server upkeep and system security.
Stevens Institute of Technology — Hoboken, NJ
Master of Science, Data Science · Sept 2024 – May 2026
Blekinge Institute of Technology — Karlskrona, Sweden
Bachelor of Science, Computer Science — published thesis: cyberbullying sentiment analysis · May 2021 – Sept 2023

Certifications

AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations — Anthropic Academy
Claude 101 — Anthropic Academy
Claude Code in Action — Anthropic Academy
Amazon Bedrock x Claude — Anthropic / AWS (in progress)
Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate
Meta Database Engineer Professional Certificate

Technical Skills

AI Engineering

Claude API
prompt engineering
Amazon Bedrock (coursework + in-progress build)
AI-assisted development (spec-driven, review-gated)
human-in-the-loop review workflows

Data Engineering & Pipelines

Python
SQL
PostgreSQL
ETL/ELT workflow design
data ingestion & transformation
schema design
data validation
data quality checks (nulls, outliers, distribution shift)
failure detection
pipeline reliability
documentation & reproducibility

Machine Learning & Forecasting

Time-series modeling (ARMA, SARIMA)
ACF/PACF model diagnostics
forecast validation (holdout, confidence intervals, residuals)
classification (SVM)
data annotation & human-in-the-loop labeling
data augmentation

Product & Web Engineering

TypeScript / JavaScript
Next.js
React
PostgreSQL & Prisma
NextAuth session auth
row-level security & role-based access
Supabase
Tailwind CSS
Vercel
layered application architecture
schema migrations
Git & GitHub

Cloud & Platform

Azure SQL
Cosmos DB
Azure Storage
Azure Key Vault
AWS
role-based access control
.NET backend services
secrets management

Analytics & Reporting

Power BI dashboards
statistical diagnostics
anomaly surfacing
decision-support analytics
translating vague requests into metric definitions

About

Timeline

Technical Skills

01AI Engineering

02Data Engineering & Pipelines

03Machine Learning & Forecasting

04Product & Web Engineering

05Cloud & Platform

06Analytics & Reporting

About

Timeline

Technical Skills

01AI Engineering

02Data Engineering & Pipelines

03Machine Learning & Forecasting

04Product & Web Engineering

05Cloud & Platform

06Analytics & Reporting

AI Engineering

Data Engineering & Pipelines

Machine Learning & Forecasting

Product & Web Engineering

Cloud & Platform

Analytics & Reporting

AI Engineering

Data Engineering & Pipelines

Machine Learning & Forecasting

Product & Web Engineering

Cloud & Platform

Analytics & Reporting