Aditya Rao

Aditya Rao

Currently Working On

LLM Security Researcher at SJSU

Researching semantic enrichment methods to improve malware graph classifier robustness under distribution shift

CTO & Co-Founder

Leading end-to-end ML and product development across VR, healthcare, and entertainment

Experience

Startups

Jan 2024 - Present

Co-Founder & CTO

NBA APIPythonSwift

Cybersecurity Startup (Series B)

Aug 2025 - Dec 2025

Threat Intelligence & Full-Stack ML Intern

Building threat intelligence pipelines and full-stack ML systems at a Series B cybersecurity company.

PythonCSVElasticsearch

Sixfold AI (Series B)

Jun 2025 - Aug 2025

Full-Stack Machine Learning Engineer Intern

Built LLM observability tools with Auth0 + Langfuse tracing, reducing evaluation time by 40%. Developed an agentic RFC-to-POC prototype with Claude Code CLI.

Next.jsAuth0PythonClaude Code

Pick N Show

Feb 2024 - Jun 2025

Full Stack Developer

Built a photographer-client interaction platform with recommendation systems, increasing user retention and sales.

Groq APIPythonThree.jsStreamlit

HoopSight AI

Aug 2024 - Feb 2025

Founding Machine Learning Engineer

Founded a startup building an NBA prediction platform with 74% accuracy outperforming ESPN. Open-source dataset with 200+ downloads, attracted 3 angel investors.

NBA APIGitHub Actionsscikit-learn

Model N

Jun 2024 - Aug 2024

Machine Learning Product Intern

Developed ML-based Deal Optimization POC presented to C-level executives. Shipped a usable model that the product team moved forward with.

scikit-learnEC2PolarsSeaborn

Upwork

Jan 2024 - May 2024

LLM Red-Teaming Specialist

Conducted LLM red-teaming and adversarial testing for 3 international businesses to identify model vulnerabilities.

OpenAIGoogle Docs

Google exploreCSR

Oct 2023 - Dec 2024

Machine Learning Researcher

Fine-tuned YOLO for gesture recognition with 30% latency reduction using TF Lite. Built V-QUIP, a vision-based classroom polling system.

TensorFlowOpenCVPython

ChatBuilt

Dec 2023 - Jan 2024

AI Chatbot Developer

Built GPT-4 Turbo chatbots that increased user retention by 40% across both deployed sites.

BotpressPythonHTMLOpenAI API

Finance-Flash (Alphashots.AI)

Dec 2023 - Feb 2024

ML Researcher

Researched stock prediction algorithms and conducted comparative analysis for pattern recognition and matching.

Yahoo FinanceTA-LibPython

Open Avenues

Sep 2023 - Nov 2023

Signal Processing & CV Engineering Intern

Built a text-recognition program using the EAST algorithm with OpenCV and TensorFlow for natural image text detection.

OpenCVTensorFlowPython

DIA Higher Ed

Sep 2023

AI Implementation Intern

Demonstrated sentiment analysis and ML techniques to help colleges analyze student survey responses.

PythonNumPy

Projects

Options & Insider Trading Bot

Private

Real-time financial news aggregation and SEC insider trading monitor with custom Greeks calculations and automated trading signals. Backtested returns outperformed the S&P 500 by ~4% annualized.

Outperformed S&P 500 by ~4%
PythonDiscord.py

NBA Prediction Platform

Private

ML platform achieving 75% game-by-game accuracy across 400+ games, outperforming ESPN. Open-source Kaggle dataset with 200+ downloads.

75% accuracy200+ downloads
Pythonscikit-learn

nba_api Open-Source Contribution

Triaged a critical data integrity failure and shipped fix v1.11.3 for a Python client with 3.4k+ stars and 1M+ downloads.

3.4k+ stars1M+ downloads
Python

Mapnosis

Best Use of MongoDB Atlas - HackMerced IX

Environmental health risk identification app using geospatial data. Won Best Use of MongoDB Atlas at HackMerced IX.

Next.jsMongoDB

Picsure

Private

AI-powered image authenticity detection and EXIF metadata analysis using deep learning.

PythonOpenCVTensorFlow

Research & Publications

S&P 500 Forecasting Using Generative AI

Published in the UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal. GPT-4-based trading prediction model for short- and long-term S&P 500 forecasting with iterative accuracy improvements.

2 citations (H-index 24, IF ~6)200+ DOI downloads

V-QUIP: Vision-Based Quick Impromptu Polling

Google exploreCSR research. Fine-tuned YOLO and optimized TensorFlow Lite models for real-time gesture recognition in classrooms, achieving 30% latency reduction.

TensorFlowOpenCVPython

Subgiant Star Classification

UCSD Stellar Data Lab astrophysics research on classification of subgiant stars using Gaia DR3 survey data. Built data pipelines and ML models for stellar categorization.

PythonPandasscikit-learn

Alzheimer's Detection from MRI

TensorFlow/Keras neural network for Alzheimer's detection from brain MRI scans, improved accuracy from 12% to 80%.

TensorFlowOpenCVPython

Recommendations

He's sharp, self-motivated, and takes complete ownership of his work. These qualities allowed him to drive complex projects forward with minimal guidance. He's the kind of person who sees what needs to be done and makes it happen. Any team would be fortunate to have him.

Staff Engineer

Sixfold AI

The scope of the project was quite huge, but he had an unwavering determination to take the project to completion. One of the comments he received was that it usually takes a team almost a year to build what Aditya could do on his own in 2 months - which speaks volumes about his abilities, drive and passion.

AI-enabled Product Leader

Model N

What impressed me most about Aditya was his ability to pick things up quickly and pivot to make changes where feedback was provided. Within a short period of time, Aditya was able to deliver a usable model that our product team can move forward with.

Product Management Leader

Model N

Aditya demonstrated exceptional skill in designing, coding, and implementing a sophisticated conversational chatbot. What set Aditya apart was his innovation - he added advanced features like NLP and machine learning that took our chatbot's capabilities to the next level. He accomplished the project smoothly, professionally, and ahead of schedule.

Social Impact Entrepreneur

ChatBuilt

He came up with excellent recommendations within a short span of time. He would make an excellent addition to any team. He adds even more strength to his technical skills by integrating his strong core values.

Co-Founder

Alphashots.AI

He went above and beyond what I had expected in the short time frame. Aditya was able to gain an understanding of our company's work quickly and provide what I feel were very insightful findings for us in the possible integration of AI in our operations.

Senior Developer

DIA Higher Ed

I was incredibly impressed by his ability to grasp our work in such a short amount of time, communicate his findings clearly, and provide valuable insights.

Founder & Managing Director

DIA Higher Ed

Career Highway

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