Akshata Madavi


From Pipelines to Predictions | Data Engineer Turning AI/ML Builder | SJSU Grad Student

6+ years engineering data at scale, now channeling that into AI/ML. Building LLM-powered apps, experimenting with RAG, and bridging the gap between raw data and intelligent systems.

Experience

Senior Data Engineer
LTIMindtree - Pune, India

May 2023 – Mar 2025

  • Developed and optimized near real-time data pipelines to seamlessly migrate on-premises traditional databases to a centralized BigQuery platform, facilitating efficient analytical workloads and insights. Processed approximately 10 million records.
  • Designed and implemented an event-driven pipeline to process and load complex, inconsistent data from multiple Excel sheets into GCP, reducing processing time from a week to under 10 minutes with parallel processing of 30 GB.
  • Established orchestration using Google Workflow to ensure smooth execution and management of data pipelines.

Key Achievement: Reduced processing time from 1 week to under 10 minutes

Data Engineer
AI Adventures - Pune, India

Aug 2021 – Apr 2023

  • Led migration of course data from Moodle to MySQL, enabling business intelligence views that drove a 20% increase in revenue.
  • Expanded insights into sales, student retention, and curriculum performance, improving data-informed decisions across the organization.

Key Achievement: Drove 20% increase in revenue through BI views

Data Engineer
STL - Pune, India

Jun 2018 – May 2021

  • Built near real-time data pipelines to migrate on-prem databases (Oracle, SAP and Salesforce) to BigQuery, enabling efficient analytics and processing approximately 1 TB of data.
  • Provided Tableau reports and data-driven insights to support business functions, including scrap detection and DOE analysis, driving process improvements and informed decision making.
  • Collaborated with cross-functional teams to ensure effective data usage, driving successful operational outcomes, and achieve business objectives.

Key Achievement: Processed 1 TB of data from multiple enterprise sources

Education

San Jose State University (SJSU)
MS, Software Engineering (Data Science)

Aug 2025 – Present

Courses: Data Analytics, Data Mining, Recommender Systems, Enterprise Software Platforms

College of Engineering Pune (COEP)
BS, Computer Engineering

Aug 2014 – May 2018

Courses: Programming, Databases, Algorithms, Software Design

Projects

Vital Watch

Real-time health monitoring system that tracks vital signs and provides early warning alerts for critical health conditions.

Tech Stack: Python, Kafka (Confluent), KSQL, Twilio, ElevenLabs

AI Governance

Chrome extension + local Ollama backend to detect and redact sensitive data in LLM prompts before submission.

Tech Stack: JavaScript, Chrome Extension, OpenAI, Ollama

Smart Study Companion

AI-powered learning assistant that adapts to each student’s pace, tone, and skill level with interactive conversations.

Tech Stack: Python, LangChain

Blogs

Deep Learning’s Blind Spot: The Table Problem

Exploring why deep learning models struggle with tabular data and when traditional ML methods still outperform neural networks.

Catching Risk Early: A Recall-First Lung Cancer Classifier

Building a lung cancer classifier using CRISP-DM methodology and Scikit-learn, prioritizing recall to minimize missed diagnoses.

What I Learned Today

Daily learnings and notes from my journey in AI/ML, data science, and software engineering. Each note captures a concept, technique, or insight from my studies.

View All Study Notes →