Projects
Everything from my first game engine that got me into programming to this very site you’re on.
LLM FactChecker
A comprehensive fact-checking pipeline that leverages large language models (LLMs) and various natural language processing (NLP) techniques (retrieval augmented generation w/ real-time web search, chain-of-thought reasoning, etc.) to verify the factuality of claims or statements, especially related to political speech. ML research project for COMS 3997: Large Language Models at Columbia/Barnard; special thanks to my incredible team members Sunny Fang, Ha Yeon Kim, JP Suh, and Anissa Arakal! GitHub repo here to try: https://github.com/shayantist/LLM-FactChecker
DishCover
Picture this: you sit down at a restaurant, grab the menu, and as you flip through pages of dishes that you can't pronounce, your dilemma begins. That's exactly where DishCover comes in: it's an app designed to unveil the culinary wonders lurking on restaurant menus. It helps you find the most popular dishes at restaurants with associated reviews for those dishes. You can search for specific dishes, discover new ones, and make informed dining decisions by reading reviews from fellow foodies. Full-Stack Web Application developed as part of Columbia’s COMS4111: Introduction to Databases; special thanks to my partner in crime Lucas Yuan! Check out the finished product here: https://dishcoverdb.vercel.app/
World Economic Forum Climate Reality Grant
As part of the World Economic Forum's Global Shapers Dhaka Hub, I’m co-leading a project to support grassroots climate action and education in Bangladesh via large-scale projects like plastic recycling and tree planting. In August 2022, for our work, we won a grant from former US Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. Since then, by partnering with local NGOs like the Lalsabuj Society, we’ve taught over 1000 kids in rural parts of Bangladesh what directly causes recurrent local climate disasters and what they can do about it, spearheading a new generation of climate leaders.
Reach4Help Global Map of Aid
A global map of over 10 thousand nonprofits, businesses and aid organizations, serving as the backbone for logistical coordination of volunteer help through the pandemic, Mexican earthquake, California wildfires, Ukrainian invasion, Bangladesh floods and other crises. Check it out at https://map.reach4help.org/
The Site You’re On Right Now
A cathartic side-side-project to practice web development with Next.js, using Notion as a CMS. Plus, I get to show off a little 😉
Reach4Help Peer-to-Peer Volunteer Matching App
A peer-to-peer app matching people in need with local volunteers who could help them with food deliveries, support with getting vaccines, etc. Reach4Help’s first pilot project that helped over 6 thousand individuals across the US, UK, Canada, and Portugal
Bangladesh National COVID-19 Policy Dashboard
A suite of COVID-19 data visualization tools I led development on being used by policymakers from the Prime Minister to heads of administration and healthcare services in all 64 districts across Bangladesh to make timely decisions on lockdowns, public health communications, and healthcare decisions
COVID-19 Spatial SEIR Model
A statistical model I helped develop with professors at UC Berkeley and Harvard School of Public Health to identify COVID-19 “hotspots” (parts of Bangladesh at high risk of COVID transmission and infection using syndromic surveillance)
Rohingya Ethical Work Project (REWP)
An international e-commerce gateway for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to possess self-sustainability by providing job opportunities for selling garments, handicrafts and other products on Amazon, Alibaba, Etsy, etc. Part of the project also involved developing a mobile app used in the camps to calculate and pay hourly wages in accordance with the International Labour Organization’s decent work practices
#C0FF33 at Google
In high school, I led a group of students on a machine learning project based on LSTM models at Google NYC to understand human emotions from voice intonations for use in digital personal assistants, medical applications, and improving accessibility for those with speech disabilities
NetLogo: The Final Frontier
A side-scrolling shoot ‘em up game modeled after the world of Star Wars I made in 10th grade, and then proceeded to name it after a phrase associated with Star Trek for some reason (Disney and Paramount pls don’t sue me, it was purely educational)
Whinecraft: My First Project
My first ever exposure to programming when I was 9, by trying (← key word here) to make a Minecraft clone with Java and OpenGL (big ups to Bucky @ TheNewBoston for giving me my start)