Ananya Uppal
explainable ai · cybersecurity · purdue ms
>▌ MS CIT @ purdue university · gpa 4.0 / 4.0
> graduating ▌ August 2026 · seeking full-time roles
> focus: explainable ai, data-quality repair in ml pipelines, cybersecurity
1.5 years of experience across security and software engineering, most recently a Software Engineer at Palo Alto Networks on the Next-Generation Firewall team, where I built automated test workflows for VM- and hardware-based Panorama/Firewall devices and hardened the certificate test suite across 8 OS releases and ~12M devices in the field.
Last summer, I worked as a Data Science Intern at Leen (designing GRC connectors for ServiceNow, OneTrust, and Archer) and in Summer of 2022, I interned at Nasdaq (blockchain-performance analysis of VMware Blockchain, Hyperledger Fabric/Besu, and R3 Corda using Hyperledger Caliper).
At Purdue I'm a Graduate Teaching Assistant for CNIT 323 (Basic Cyberforensics), CNIT 392 (Enterprise Data Management), and CNIT 175 (Intro to Visual Programming). My thesis with the RDS Lab looks at data-valuation methods for ML data-quality repair. I'm equally focused on production systems and security tooling.
▸about_me.md
I'm a graduate student in Computer & Information Technology at Purdue University, West Lafayette. As a member of the Responsible Data Science (RDS) Lab, my thesis work with Dr. Romila Pradhan focuses on Explainable AI — specifically how data-valuation techniques can detect and repair data-quality issues in machine-learning pipelines.
I've been a Graduate Teaching Assistant for three semesters across CNIT 323: Basic Cyberforensics, CNIT 392: Enterprise Data Management, and CNIT 175: Introduction to Visual Programming. Before Purdue, I spent a year as a Software Engineer at Palo Alto Networks on the Next-Generation Firewall team, and interned at Leen, Nasdaq, and Palo Alto Networks. That mix of research and production engineering shapes how I work: rigorously, but with an eye on what actually ships.
▸education.md
▸beyond_work.md
Away from the screen, I'm a classically trained Hindustani Classical vocalist and sang with the band Tin Pan Alley during my undergrad. I also love films and travelling.
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