Suyash Nagumalli

Early life and education

Suyash Nagumalli was born in Chicago, and moved to Hyderabad at the age of four. He studied at Glendale Academy from grades 1 through 12, where his love for computers and creativity took root.

He began learning computer science in 5th grade, exploring QBasic, Java, C++, HTML, cybersecurity, hardware, and computer fundamentals. A top performer in academics, he scored 6 A*s and 2 As in his IGCSE 10th-grade finals, and was the topper in Math, Computer Science, and Physics in Grade 12. He built his first game, multiplayer Hand Cricket, using Python and SQL, which was featured in his school's Science Fair, and won a competitive coding competition at Oakridge aged 16 - defining moments that led him to pursue Computer Science in college.

Outside of school, Suyash was an avid athlete: a state-level qualifier in roller speed skating, an inter-school competitive swimmer, and a district-level sprinter in the 100m and 4x100m relay. He served as Willow House Captain in 12th grade, demonstrating leadership and commitment beyond the classroom.

Academic and professional career

Suyash completed his undergraduate degree in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and is currently pursuing his Master's degree there. His academic journey has been marked by a strong interest in building software that serves people in daily activities and in healthcare.

Research and innovation

During his undergraduate studies, Suyash participated in the 2022 Jump ARCHES Summer Internship Program at UIUC's Health Care Engineering Systems Center (HCESC). He worked on developing a virtual reality training module for Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) procedures, creating an accessible simulation for medical professionals.

In 2023, while interning at AbbVie Innovation Center as a virtual reality developer, Suyash received the Best Business Innovation Award at UIUC Research Park for creating a virtual environment to simulate the patient screening process. His supervisor praised his initiative, leadership, and innovative thinking in tackling a project that required him to learn new technologies and programming languages. More recently, Suyash built an MVP prompt library to aid in clinical Trial document generation at AbbVie, leading to a $2 million contract with a consultant firm to build out the vision.

Entrepreneurship

Suyash has shown entrepreneurial spirit throughout his academic career. He co-founded a no-nonsense expense tracking app called Spndmate where he led backend development, NoSQL architecture, and cloud deployment.

He also participated in a 3-day startup event organized by UIUC's student-run startup organization Founders - Illinois Entrepreneurs. As part of the startup 'Bubbles', he worked on developing an app to The team won the competition and was connected to various opportunities in the industry.

Hackathons

Suyash is an avid hackathon ethusiast. He's participated in over 6 hackathons, repeating hackIllinois and UCBerkeley AI hackathon where he met Tom Siebel and was inches away from Andrej Karpathy.

Musical career

Music has been a significant part of Suyash's identity from a young age. He began playing the piano at age 8 and earned the highest grade certification from Trinity College London in classical piano at the age of 16. He composed his first original song called "When people go Crazy" in 4th grade on a Yamaha-DGX 640 Piano and continues to make music on Ableton and Logic Pro using his Korg Liano Piano. His secondary instrument is his guitar, and he is also trianing his vocals to pursue his side-quest of becoming a solo artist.

His dedication and passion for music were recognized internationally when he won bronze at the WPTA international piano competition in 2019 He then ventured into diverse genres such as jazz, boogie-woogie, hip-hop. He took a beatmaking class with Professor Lamont Holden at UIUC and uses Ableton has his main DAW. His influences and favorite artists include Zaeden, Charlie Puth, The Weeknd, Chase Atlantic, BTS, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber.

Discography