Karthik is a Graduate Coach and an elite computational researcher currently completing his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Columbia University. Karthik’s academic career is defined by an extraordinary breadth of cross-disciplinary mastery spanning elite engineering, pure mathematics, the humanities, and media. He completed his undergraduate foundations at the University of California, Berkeley, earning three separate degrees: a B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS), a B.A. in Applied Mathematics, and a B.A. in History. He then transitioned to Columbia University, where he earned an M.S. in Computer Science alongside an M.S. in Journalism, before entering his doctoral residency.
Currently a third-year Ph.D. researcher at Columbia, Karthik operates at the cutting edge of modern artificial intelligence, focusing heavily on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and agentic systems. His primary research explores social simulations powered by AI agents, as well as conducting complex longitudinal studies to analyze and map how human interactions with AI evolve over extended periods of time.
With over five years of formal and informal teaching and mentorship experience, Karthik has coached a diverse spectrum of learners ranging in age from 10 to over 50. He possesses deep, dual-perspective expertise in the distinct admissions architectures of both professional/terminal Master’s programs and hyper-competitive Ph.D. tracks. As a Graduate Coach, Karthik utilizes his vast interdisciplinary background to help STEM, humanities, and media applicants build uniquely integrated application profiles, teaching them how to frame complex technical research with narrative excellence.
