# Yuvan Aarya Chikka

London, United Kingdom · Founding AI Engineer · Computer Science student

Yuvan Chikka is a Python-first AI engineer working across AI safety, mechanistic interpretability, multimodal retrieval, backend systems, and fullstack product delivery. He studies BSc Computer Science at Queen Mary University of London and is currently a Founding AI Engineer at 1soul.ai.

## Technical profile

- **AI and safety:** model behaviour, evaluation, interpretability, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Transformers, scikit-learn, PyRIT, and RAMPART.
- **Multimodal systems:** retrieval and generation across video, images, speech, and text using LangChain, CLIP, Whisper, spaCy, Ollama, and FFmpeg.
- **Python backend:** production APIs, relational services, and automation using Django, FastAPI, Flask, SQLAlchemy, Twilio, and Redis.
- **Data and modelling:** pandas, NumPy, BigQuery, PostgreSQL, time-series modelling, and SQLite.
- **Fullstack delivery:** JavaScript, HTML, CSS, REST APIs, Django templates, accessibility, and responsive interfaces.
- **Cloud and DevOps:** AWS, Azure, Docker, GitHub Actions, EC2, and CI/CD.

## Experience

### Founding AI Engineer — 1soul.ai

**January 2025–present.** Develops the core WhatsApp experience through FastAPI and Twilio, including conversation logic and delivery. Built persona representations, update rules, custom environments for simulated persona-to-persona interactions, and GitHub Actions CI/CD.

### AI and Data Analytics Intern — SAV Group

**June–August 2025.** Built Django lead-management dashboards integrating messaging services and Monday.com, area-based acquisition-pricing scripts, and an AWS-hosted RAG assistant for fiftyonelondon web and WhatsApp sales workflows. Led the development stream and delivered usable interfaces and documentation.

### Founding AI Engineer — ReadyTraderOne

**May 2024–August 2025.** Built multi-asset order-book simulations for crypto, FX, fixed income, and commodities, with a Django and Redis interface on EC2. Designed educational market scenarios and trading agents using grid and mean-reversion strategies, qualitative news, and chat-driven market influence.

### AI Engineer — Propmoolah

**September 2024–March 2025.** Reduced WhatsApp interaction time by more than 60% with a FastAPI, Twilio, and NLP-to-SQL flow. Automated government, Rightmove, and Zoopla data into BigQuery, created time-series price forecasts, and built a sourced urban-planning document workflow.

### AI Engineer — Venu.AI

**January–May 2024.** Increased scraping success by 15% with lead-aggregation automation, improved outreach with automatically selected email templates, and designed an Azure processing pipeline with stronger data validation.

### Fullstack Engineer — Freelance

**August 2018–February 2023.** Built fullstack websites and primarily Django-based internal inventory-management systems across application logic, database-backed workflows, and browser interfaces.

## Education and certifications

- **BSc Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London** — September 2025–June 2028; current GPA: 84%.
- **A levels:** four A*s in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Physics, and Electronics.
- **AWS Certified AI Practitioner** — Amazon Web Services.
- **Technical AI Safety** — BlueDot Impact.
- **Deep Learning Specialization** — Coursera.
- **Natural Language Processing Specialization** — Coursera.
- **Mathematics for Machine Learning and Data Science** — Coursera.
- **Data Science Professional Certificate** — IBM.
- **CS50W: Web Programming with Python and JavaScript** — Harvard University.

## Research and selected projects

### Private Is Not Privileged

Mechanistic interpretability research testing whether activation-based predictors have a genuine information advantage over matched external baselines. In a 40-game Diplomacy experiment, an apparent white-box advantage reversed when the text observer received matched post-deliberation information.

- [Research page](https://apartresearch.com/project/private-is-not-privileged-18om)
- [Repository](https://github.com/Ultraviolet-Chikorita/Private-is-not-Privileged)
- [Paper](https://ultraviolet-chikorita.github.io/assets/papers/private-is-not-privileged.pdf)

### GraftLoyal

Mechanistically constructs context-sensitive secret loyalty in a frozen language model by reading internal representations and intervening through a gated writer vector. Evaluated on 1,152 prompts across counterfactual pairs and held-out domains.

- [Research page](https://apartresearch.com/project/graftloyal-a219)
- [Repository](https://github.com/Ultraviolet-Chikorita/graftloyal)
- [Paper](https://ultraviolet-chikorita.github.io/assets/papers/graftloyal.pdf)

### RiskLab

A multi-evaluator framework for detecting manipulative language-model behaviour using rule-based analysis, classifiers, and councils of judges while preserving provenance.

- [Research page](https://apartresearch.com/project/risklab-w0fy)
- [Repository](https://github.com/Ultraviolet-Chikorita/RiskLab)
- [Paper](https://ultraviolet-chikorita.github.io/assets/papers/risklab.pdf)

### LongVideo RAG

Fully local question answering over long videos using transcription, visual frame retrieval, timestamped evidence clips, SQLite indexing, and Ollama generation. Technologies include Python, FFmpeg, Whisper, CLIP, Ollama, and SQLite.

- [Repository](https://github.com/Ultraviolet-Chikorita/videorag-local)

### TransitAssist

Accessible Django public-transport planning with interactive routing and community reporting for barriers and successful accessible journeys. Technologies include Django, SQLite, JavaScript, and Google Maps API.

- [Repository](https://github.com/Ultraviolet-Chikorita/TransitAssist)

## Recognition and leadership

- Third place at Imperial AI Ventures for a video-interview system that generated questions from student essays and used gaze and sentiment analysis.
- Elected QMUL AI Society President for 2026–27.
- Co-organiser of Voice AI Hack, a one-day London hackathon for up to 60 builders.
- TMUA 8.0, USACO Silver, top 10% in the Europe Reply Challenge, and qualification across British mathematics competitions and olympiads.

## Contact and profiles

- Email: ec25966@qmul.ac.uk
- GitHub: https://github.com/Ultraviolet-Chikorita
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuvan-chikka-2b053a295/
- CV: https://ultraviolet-chikorita.github.io/assets/yuvan_cv.pdf