Apara Venkat

I am Apara. I am a first year Ph.D. student in the Statistics Department at the University of Washington. My research interests broadly include stochastic modeling, networks, optimization and machine learning. I am interested in developing new methods in these areas and applying them to real world problems in fields such as computer science, physics, social science and epidemiology. Clearly I am interested in a lot of things. I am still in the process of identifying my niche.

Before UW, I completed my B.S. in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. My undergraduate thesis on identifying effects of node covariates in ranking and choice models was advised by Dan Larremore.

Non-academically, I am interested in music - both listening and playing. I also read a variety of books. My most recent favorite fiction is The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. My most recent favorite non-fiction is Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. I enjoy playing a good video game once in a while and my favorite one is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Since my early undergrad days, I have been maintaining a blog where I reflect on science, math, the world, and life.