About
Hello World! I’m Laxman, a fourth-year Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a second-year Masters student in the Department of Statistics at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). I am a natural hazard researcher and data scientist committed to making world a safer place. My research work focuses on leveraging data-drive statistical and Machine Learning methods to quantify seismic risk and resilience of wood-frame buildings at a community scale.
My aspirations to make a real impact has come to fruition in the form of my involvement at Haselton Baker Risk Group as a Research Engineer Consultant. At HB Risk, I contribute to an array of projects including performing sensitivity analysis, implementing machine learning models to classify system types, and developing numerical models of buildings among others.
My work and research
My research and work experiences are deeply rooted in application and development of state-of-the-art statistical methods in earthquake engineering. As a part of my Ph.D. research, I have developed an end-to-end Python-based computational tool to automate a suite of engineering steps involved in probabilistic performance-based earthquake engineering. The tool utilizes Object-Oriented Programming paradigm to modularize building design, numerical model development, nonlinear analysis, loss assessment and resilience quantification of wood-frame buildings. The idea behind creating an automated tool is mainly two folds: 1) to be able to perform regional assessment on the fly, and 2) compile database of structural responses of the buildings to leverage ML/AI to develop computationally efficient predictive models. My ongoing research work aims to develop and implement advanced predictive models to bypass computationally expensive numerical simulation process.
Research interests
- Application of ML/AI to solve complex problems such as quantifying seismic risk of a community.
- Learn and interpret the data: causal inference.
- Data analysis, sensitivity analysis, and optimization
What’s Next?
As a fourth-year Ph.D. student, I often get asked, “Sooo, what are your future plans?” My answers is always the same. As much as I love research, I want to go into industry and harness (and test really) my data science skill sets. I would be fulfilled if I am in a position to contribute something to the fast evolving field of data science and ML/AI.
Life outside work
If it wasn’t for my commitment to being active, I would have long dropped out of my Ph.D. program. On weekends, I enjoy a nice hike, a bike ride in Marvin Braude Bike Trail along the Pacific Coast, a good weight lifting session, or a fun tennis game. Whatever it is, I am often outside (super grateful for the sunny LA weather).