Working at the Intersection of AI and Scalable Systems
Aravind Sathyanarayanan, MS’25, software engineering systems, earned his bachelor’s degree in electronics and computer engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology in India. After graduation, he spent over two years as a software engineer at Optum (UHG) and previously completed internships at Ford Motors, IIIT, and Nokia Solutions.
Aravind Sathyanarayanan decided to join Northeastern University after realizing he wanted to deepen his knowledge of advanced software concepts and stay ahead of emerging tech trends. Northeastern stood out for its strong reputation and Boston’s vibrant tech scene. He was particularly excited about courses such as “Enterprise Software Design” and “Generative AI”, which offered the perfect opportunity to build on his professional experience while exploring the future of software development.
Sathyanarayanan credits the curriculum with being the perfect bridge between his industry experience and cutting-edge technologies. He highlights courses such as “Famous Network Structures” and “Cloud Computing” with Adjunct Professor Tejas Parikh, “Web Designing” with Professor Amuthan Arulraj and “Enterprise Software Design” with Teaching Professor Yusuf Ozbek. These courses, along with mentorship from his professors, have been crucial to his learning journey.
He is also grateful for Northeastern’s co-op program, which helped him understand the U.S. job market and strategically position himself to achieve his career goals. Sathyanarayanan applied to many companies across multiple job platforms and ultimately secured an opportunity via Glassdoor, successfully completing five rounds of interviews.
Sathyanarayanan secured his co-op at Bosch as a software engineering intern. During his internship, he worked on developing pipelines for HVAC software applications, integrating SonarQube into CI pipelines, enhancing API security headers and building a Flask-based UI tool to streamline internal test execution workflows.
Projects and Innovations
Sathyanarayanan developed Health360, a full-stack fitness app using React, Node.js, and MongoDB, and built a cloud-native app leveraging Terraform, Docker and Kubernetes for scalable microservice deployment. Every project comes with challenges, and Health360 was no exception. Managing CI/CD pipelines and setting up secure infrastructure was initially difficult, but he overcame these hurdles by utilizing GitHub Actions, AWS IAM and applying concepts learned in his “Cloud Computing” coursework.
Outside the classroom
Sathyanarayanan has actively participated in internal hackathons, developing an AI-powered chatbot for customer support and a real-time posture detection app using computer vision. He describes these experiences as a valuable blend of learning, teamwork, and innovation under pressure. The chatbot was inspired by inefficiencies in traditional support systems, while the posture app was motivated by seeing peers suffer from poor desk posture during long study hours. Sathyanarayanan credits Northeastern’s Generative AI coursework for providing a strong foundation in model integration and deployment, while faculty feedback helped him refine both solution design and usability.
In addition to his technical work, he was leading the Toastmasters Club, sharpening his communication and leadership skills. He also worked as a part-time supervisor at Snell Library, gaining experience in team coordination and responsibility.
Future Perspectives
Northeastern has shaped Sathyanarayanan’s journey by combining real-world co-op experiences with hands-on coursework, helping him transition from a developer to a solution-oriented engineer. He aspires to work at the intersection of AI and scalable systems, creating technology that addresses real-world problems with both impact and accessibility.