Venkatesh Umaashankar

With a journey spanning from electrical engineering to senior ML leadership at Google, I'm passionate about making machines not just smarter, but genuinely helpful. My work focuses on transforming complex data into solutions that protect users and enhance experiences—whether it's preventing abuse on Google Maps or optimizing 5G networks at Ericsson.

The most rewarding aspect of mentoring for me is watching others navigate paths I struggled through with greater ease. There's a special satisfaction in seeing someone avoid the pitfalls that once slowed my progress, allowing them to advance further and faster than I could.

My approach to work and leadership has been shaped by various books rather than a single influence. "Deep Work" taught me that eliminating distractions is a superpower in our distracted world. "Atomic Habits" showed me that consistency in small actions leads to remarkable outcomes. "Outliers" opened my eyes to understanding advantages in an unfair world, while "No Rules Rules" demonstrated how the combination of trust, skill development, and constructive feedback creates high-performing organizations.

As someone who has built global teams across India, Sweden, and the US, I've found that diverse perspectives are the foundation of breakthrough innovation. This belief drives both my professional work and my passion for helping others succeed.

My fascination with reinforcement learning and graph neural networks continues to fuel my research interests, while my experience teaching Big Data Technologies at IIT Madras allows me to share this enthusiasm with others.

When I'm not immersed in code or algorithms, you'll find me in the kitchen preparing traditional Indian dishes or baking muffins, swimming laps for clarity, cycling to explore, or—most importantly—spending quality time with my son. His curiosity reminds me daily why I'm so driven to create technology that makes our world more intuitive and accessible.