Apara Venkat
About me
I am a third year Ph.D. student in the Statistics Department at the University of Washington. Before UW, I completed my B.S. in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder in May 2020. I have also interned at Microsoft for three summers as a software engineer. At Microsoft, I worked on Mixed Reality and the Edge browser.
Research interests
Broadly, I am interested in learning from complex systems with missing or hidden information. Specifically, I am interested in developing methods in networks and causal inference with applications to epidemiology and social science. Currently, I am working on:
- Network exploration in the context of contact tracing (+ Tyler McCormick).
- Causal discovery in the presence of latent variables (+ Ema Perkoviฤ).
- Policy evaluation given that we don't have the luxury of performing extensive randomized controlled trials (+ Tyler).
At CU, I worked with Dan Larremore on developing methods and software to automatically parse curricula vitae. Later, I completed my undergraduate thesis, advised by Dan, on identifying effects of node covariates in ranking and choice models.
Outside school
Non-academically, I am interested in music - both listening and playing. I also like to read. My most recent favorite fiction is The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (later, Brandon Sanderson). My most recent favorite non-fiction is The Language of Food by Dan Jurafsky. I enjoy playing a good video game once in a while and my all-time favorites are Uncharted and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Having spent four years in Boulder, I tend to enjoy climbing, biking, and running.
Since my early undergrad days, I have been maintaining a blog where I reflect on science, math, the world, and life.
My current/past projects (green) and academic interests (blue).
News
- 01 Jan 2023 - ๐ The annual retrospective for 2022 is here.
- 28 Sep 2022 - ๐ Entering Year 3 of my Ph.D. at UW.
- 08 Aug 2022 - ๐ I will present our work (+Tyler) on contact tracing at JSM 2022 in Washington D.C. [Slides]
- 24 Jun 2022 - ๐ Ph.D. Milestone 2/n - I successfully passed my Preliminary Exam!
- 22 Jun 2022 - ๐ฎ I started my internship as a data scientist in the Xbox Player Services team at Microsoft.
- 09 Jun 2022 - ๐งโ๐ซ I will attend the Interactive Causal Learning Workshop in Washington D.C.
- 05 Mar 2022 - ๐ I finally revisit 2021.
- 02 Dec 2021 - ๐ง I wrote a guide on getting started with an academic website.
- 18 Nov 2021 - ๐ I will present our work (+Tyler) on contact tracing at the Data Science Methods for Policy Evaluation seminar at Johns Hopkins University. [Slides]
- 29 Sep 2021 - ๐ Entering Year 2 of my Ph.D. at UW.
- 16 Sep 2021 - ๐ง Wrote a How to write homework guide
- 28 Jun 2021 - ๐ Ph.D. Milestone 1/n - I successfully passed my Theory Exam!
- 21 Jun 2021 - ๐งโ๐ป I started my internship at Microsoft in the Object Understanding Team!
- 21 Mar 2021 - ๐ I finally revisit 2020.
- 24 Feb 2021 - ๐ I wrote an article on identifying the why's in life.
- 12 Feb 2021 - ๐ I wrote an article on why we should ask ourselves why we want more time instead of just wishing for it.
- 27 Nov 2020 - ๐ I wrote an article sharing my thoughts on Stoicism.
- 30 Sep 2020 - ๐ I started the first year of my Ph.D. at UW.
- 11 Aug 2020 - ๐ I wrote an article reflecting upon my time at CU.
- 19 May 2020 - ๐ I wrote an article about my experience at HackCU.
- 18 May 2020 - ๐ค I started my internship at Microsoft in the Mixed Reality Team.
- 16 May 2020 - ๐ I received my B.S. in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from CU Boulder!
- 24 Apr 2020 - ๐ I successfully defended my undergraduate thesis!
- 02 Apr 2020 - ๐ฅ I received Outstanding Undergraduate for Academic Achievement Award!