Hi, I’m Prajwal Chinthoju

Controls and Optimization enthusiast

Thanks for dropping by my website!!! If there is one thing that makes me get out of bed in the morning (or not sleep at night), that would be curiosity. My interests have changed a lot in the past few years but my curiosity to learn new things has never changed.

I started off with an immense interest in learning about automobiles. I did my bachelors at IIT Madras (2018), one of the most prestigious institutes in India. While pursuing this degree, I worked as an intern at Ashok Leyland (a HCV manufacturer in India), where I developed a porous heat exchanger simulator plugin module in ICEM CFD. In the final years of my undergrad program, I became interested in renewable energy, especially wind energy.

I joined Wipro Automation as an Operations Executive in 2018 after graduation. Before you make any assumptions, no, this is not the popular Indian IT firm with hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide. Wipro automation started off as a new business unit in Wipro enterprises, a manufacturing arm of Wipro. When I joined, the entire business unit was a team of 5 people. My designation was an Operations Executive but I wore multiple hats in this organization. My primary role was to lead the asset management division where I built a portfolio of offerings, did a fair bit of business development, and managed multiple global partnerships. Outside of my division, I spearheaded the implementation of project management-based SAP workflow. I particularly value this experience because it thought me how to evolve into a successful business unit while maintaining the strict standards of a multinational corporation

After I felt that I needed to return to academics to quench my thirst for problem-solving, I joined UIUC as a Masters student in Systems Engineering. There was something about control systems that really piqued my interest (maybe it was just watching the SpaceX boosters land for the first time or Tesla's FSD). Anyways, I really dug into this subject as it had a good balance between analytical and numerical topics. I loved bringing out the real mathematician in me when I had to use proof-based analysis to understand different kinds of control systems. I took up a part-time role at John Deere for the final year which gave me much-needed experience in applying the knowledge of control systems to an industrial-scale problem

Apart from all this interesting stuff going on in my life, I also indulged in hobbies such as running, working out, swimming, and playing guitar. I'm not bluffing when I say that I can play the entire rhythm track to "Tornado of Souls" by Megadeth (Mustaine's Part) and I'm halfway through the solo (by all means the most craziest solo I've ever heard).