Akku Kumar's Personal Website

Programming and Developing

Summary at bottom

I first started to program in my sophomore year of high school. In a class called “Principles of Engineering”, we had the task of developing code to program a model elevator using a language called ROBOTC. I was terrible at it. For whatever reason, I just could not get the hang of it and let my friend do essentially all of it (he ended up going to Princeton – go figure). At that point, I was sure I would never be a programmer.

Then came senior of high school when my friends and I were tasked with creating a prototype of a stop-sign detector. This time, using an Arduino, I purposely took responsibility for the majority of the programming. This was the first time I learned the invaluable skill of adapting the code I used from online resources and we ended up with a legitimate product:

At the same time, I was attempting to teach myself C++ from https://cplusplus.com/, but I had a lot of trouble as I had no frame of reference to get started with coding as a whole. However, if Excel can be counted as pseudo-coding, I was definitely getting great at it while at my job at an HVAC company.

My first semester of college changed everything. As a freshman engineer at Texas A&M, you have to take a class called ENGR 102, which is essentially just a python-coding class. Despite being in the honors class and having the most home homework I’ve ever had in class, I really enjoyed it. I actually started to understand the mechanics and logic behind coding and I began to work on my own projects outside of class, including an anamorphic sculpture creator and a lithophane creator:

Anamorphosis of a Smiley Face and a Frowny Face

At this point, I knew I wanted to pursue computer science further and decided to get a minor. The first class in the minor is CSCE 121, which is a C++ class, so I took it in my second semester. While I did enjoy the challenge of this class, along with learning extremely important, fundamental programming concepts like classes, OOP, and memory allocation, I quickly figured out that C++ did not come as easily to me as Python. I ended up doing fine in the class, but C++ continues to be something I avoid unless I need to use it. At this time, I also started learning MATLAB for the AggieSat Lab and created this:

A 4D Plot of Strength of Communication Signal as a function of Altitude, Horizontal Incidence Angle, & Vertical Incidence Angle

In late January of 2022, I participated in my first hackathon, TAMUHack. Spending the next 24 hours with three students who I had just met, I struggled to learn Javascript, HTML, CSS, and how to connect to a server using Flask in Python to create a program called SafeStreets. For our efforts, we received third place and a new 3D printer each. Only two weeks later, we attended another hackathon called Hacklahoma at the University of Oklahoma, where we created the Safebet site. This was the first time I used Firebase extensively, resulting in an almost completely broken website until about two minutes before we were to present, but we were able to successfully present. Despite not winning, I personally learned a lot more about Javascript, Firebase, and full-stack development.

I continued this passion into an internship at Lyfe Technologies in London. There, I personally coded a full-stack Chrome Extension from the ground up and was able to pitch it to Mastercard. For this project, I became fluent in Javascript, HTML, CSS, and Firebase, along with learning how to use Apps Script in Google Sheets to make Macros and Power BI’s DAX to visualize information:

The Software Flow of the Extension

Coming back to college for my second year, despite not taking a computer-science leaning class, I am still working on developing my skills. This includes making a program that extracts all the emails from a page, learning how to use Github more effectively, and creating speech-recognition software in Java.

In the summer of 2023, I began an internship at Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth, Texas. After pushing for increased responsibilities, I successfully completed a task fixing the GPS location of the aircraft which had caused 30 ft errors in position prior to my fix. I was able to implement it into the Control Laws of the helicopter, turn it into code, and get it on the helicopter. I literally edited the helicopter!

As well, I created an automated function for adjusting coupled gains to produced the desired output.

That summer, I also worked on automating the process of exporting photos and adding Lightroom filters to them. Using only Python, I was able to download entire albums from iCloud to my computer, add Lightroom filters to each one, and then move them to a new filter based on the album name. I used pyicloud and pyautogui. I tried putting it into a Heroku website, but unfortunately it doesn’t work very well.

At the end of the summer, I was able to also work with a research professor at North Carolina State University to implement a novel Dubin’s car multiple shooting algorithm in Python, which you can find on my GitHub.

In fall 2023, as a part of my research with Dr. Moble Benedict (which you can read more about here), I have learned even more about Python, including implementing reinforcement-learning-algorithms and using real-time simulations of the Parrot Anafi drone with Parrot Sphinx and Parrot Olympe. As well, for my senior capstone, I worked with ROS and Gazebo for the first time to develop a bespoke simulation of our drone being developed.

In the Summer of 2024, I did a deep learning class. I implemented multiple types of neural networks in the class and it helped me as I use neural network for my drone detection algorithm for my research.

Fall of 2024 saw me taking two more classical AI classes. We will see what they teach!

Long-Term Plans

  • Incorporate computer science into my career, especially how it relates to innovative aerospace technologies
  • Become an expert at Python and use it toward performing data analytics and visualization
  • Get several projects on my Github

School Experiences

  • PLTW Classes in High School – C and Arudino
  • ENGR 102 – Python and Basic Programming Skills
  • CSCE 121 – C++ and Object-Oriented Programming
  • AERO 222 – Introduction to Aerospace Computation
  • TAMUHack and Hacklahoma – Javascript, HTML, CSS, & Firebase in a practical setting
  • AggieSat Lab – MATLAB

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

Soft Skills

  • Problem-solving
  • Logical reasoning and deduction
  • Explaining solutions in a non-technical way
  • Focusing on working solutions rather than perfect ones
  • Adapting prior skillsets and knowledge to various problems

Hard Skills

  • Performing test cases
  • Lean code & agile development
  • Full-stack development
  • Client-side and server-side development

Software & Projects

Papers & Projects

Awards & Recognition

  • Third place at TAMUHack
  • Successfully pitched Chrome Extension to Mastercard

Leadership Roles

  • Lead developer of TAMUHack & Hacklahoma teams
  • Lead developer of Chrome Extension