FarmSmart, 1st, HackIllinois 2025
An AI assistant that helps farmers read their own fields: crop‑disease detection at 85% accuracy, plus revenue forecasts.
Sriram Natarajan
From concept
to reality.
Computer Science + Linguistics at the University of Illinois. Most recently at C3 AI and Rivian.
I’m a software engineer who builds end to end, then ships it where it’s used. Forward‑deployed AI for federal teams. Firmware for an electric vehicle’s inverter. Full‑stack products with real users. Models that read crops, machinery, and brain scans.
C3 AI· Forward Deployed Software Engineer Intern · Summer 2026
C3 AI: Fuel routed.
Missions ready.
The Defense Logistics Agency supplies the U.S. military: about 5 million items, tracked in systems that don’t talk.
C3 AI unifies those records into one model of the supply chain.
Then AI forecasts demand against stock on hand, and flags a shortfall before it happens.
On the Federal team in Redwood City, working with the Defense Logistics Agency. Python, SQL, and the C3 AI Platform.
Rivian· Embedded Software Engineer Intern · Spring 2026
Rivian: Direct Current in.
Motion out.
Switch a battery on and off thousands of times a second.
Vary the width of every pulse, and the average becomes a wave.
Three waves, 120° apart, turn a motor.
On the inverter team: the power electronics between the battery and the motors. C, C++, and Python.
Gies Disruption Labs · Robotic arm
Gies Disruption Labs robotic arm: Six axes.
One clear path.
Six joints, each with its own range of motion, moving as one.
The straight line to the target runs right through an obstacle.
So the path is planned around it, and recomputed in real time.
Software Engineer: real-time path planning and obstacle avoidance for a six-axis arm, in C++ with ROS and Gazebo.
The arm (opens in a new tab)Along the way.
Hacker Dojo
Software & Strategy Intern
Helped build an AI health and wellness platform with more than 1,000 users.
2025
Ward Lab, Illinois
Machine Learning Research Associate
Processed satellite imagery and built models that predict habitat suitability for endangered species.
Illinois Design Challenge
Infrastructure Lead
Led the infrastructure team building the web platform for the Midwest’s largest cadathon, with 250+ participants.
2024–now
CS 124, Illinois
Course Assistant
Helps students build and debug full‑stack apps, from auth to UI.
Projects
Built against
the clock.
2x hackathon winner. And a few things that took longer than a weekend.
Cat Vision Copilot, 2nd, HackIllinois 2026
Computer vision that inspects Caterpillar machinery and flags component defects.
Calmoto, 88%, Drowsiness detection accuracy
Watches a driver for signs of fatigue in real time, then reads to them and asks questions to keep them alert.
IlliniResearch, 500+, Research openings
Connects Illinois students with research on campus, with an AI cold‑email writer and résumé matcher.
Seed Drone
Seed Drone: Planting
from the air.
A seed‑dispersal payload I CAD‑modeled, 3D‑printed, and field‑tested, with real‑time C++ on Arduino driving the servos, and GPS tracking on AWS to follow what grows.
Research
Research: Reading the brain, early.
A convolutional network that classifies MRI scans for early signs of Alzheimer’s disease, built in TensorFlow and Keras.
Code for the Alzheimer’s research (opens in a new tab)University of Illinois Urbana‑Champaign
Fluent in both.
Computer Science + Linguistics, with a minor in Data Science: how machines compute, and how people talk. 3.85 GPA. Class of 2028.
Main Quad, UIUC.
Coursework
CS 441
Applied Machine Learning
CS 421
Programming Languages & Compilers
CS 411
Database Systems
CS 374
Algorithms & Models of Computation
CS 233
Computer Architecture
CS 225
Data Structures
CS 173
Discrete Structures
LING 406
Introduction to Computational Linguistics
LING 307
Elements of Semantics & Pragmatics
LING 270
Language, Technology & Society
STAT 400
Statistics & Probability
MATH 257
Linear Algebra with Computational Applications
Off the clock
Huge
Warriors fan.
324 3 Pointers Made By The Greatest Of All Time, Stephen Curry from 2016–2017.
Contact