Ashish Gupta
Welcome to my home page. I'm a computer scientist, academic researcher, engineer and a founder.
This page provides various resources from my current and past projects & research.
Since 2019, I started out as the CEO and now am the CTO of Polymer Search. We are a VC backed company, fully automating the end-to-end intelligence process from complex structured data using advanced AI inference and algorithms.
This page provides various resources from my current and past projects & research.
Since 2019, I started out as the CEO and now am the CTO of Polymer Search. We are a VC backed company, fully automating the end-to-end intelligence process from complex structured data using advanced AI inference and algorithms.
Co-Founder/CTO of Polymer
We started Polymer Search in response to the overwhelming amount of structured data every knowledge worker has to work with on a regular basis and the difficulty in making sense of that without advanced tools.
Polymer Search uses the power of algorithms, automation and AI to automatically infer your data for you and bring you powerful insights, answers and highlights from your data without writing advanced queries.
Get started in minutes at www.polymersearch.com
We started Polymer Search in response to the overwhelming amount of structured data every knowledge worker has to work with on a regular basis and the difficulty in making sense of that without advanced tools.
Polymer Search uses the power of algorithms, automation and AI to automatically infer your data for you and bring you powerful insights, answers and highlights from your data without writing advanced queries.
Get started in minutes at www.polymersearch.com
Brief Video Overview of Polymer
Founder for CoinQuanta / Stock Quanta
I started CQ/SQ to bridge the gap between quantitative investing and retail investors. After my time at the quant hedge fund D.E.Shaw, I saw a huge gap between how retail investors allocate their hard earned money and how professionals invest their capital. CQ/SQ brought a lot of principles from this world to everyone using an extremely simple comparative interface that let investor evaluate the performance, risks, correlations, liquidity of the ENTIRE market. This led to finding high quality but hidden opportunities relative to one's portfolio.
Since its shutdown in 2019, we have received a lot of requests for bringing it back. This project will be coming back in August 2023. Stay tuned!
I started CQ/SQ to bridge the gap between quantitative investing and retail investors. After my time at the quant hedge fund D.E.Shaw, I saw a huge gap between how retail investors allocate their hard earned money and how professionals invest their capital. CQ/SQ brought a lot of principles from this world to everyone using an extremely simple comparative interface that let investor evaluate the performance, risks, correlations, liquidity of the ENTIRE market. This led to finding high quality but hidden opportunities relative to one's portfolio.
Since its shutdown in 2019, we have received a lot of requests for bringing it back. This project will be coming back in August 2023. Stay tuned!
Book: A Non-Math Guide to Quantitative Finance, Risk, Performance
As part of my mission to illuminate quantitative finance for the masses I authored a short book on Improving Performance and Risk for Regular investors (A Non Math Primer on Quantitative Finance). It has received received great reviews from multiple readers and investors.
Download the book (PDF)
Tech Lead for Google Smart Bidding & Machine Learning Team
I was the Tech Lead of the Machine Learning team (2012-2018) who built Machine Learning Models and built advanced Predictive and Performance Analytics for Google AdWords. Our focus was on Conversion Optimization for all Search advertisers, that accounted for multi-billion dollar revenues.
We launched many new products and models that focused on letting advertisers set their goals and not worry about the details. These products now form the backbone of Google Ads spending.
I co-wrote the Smart Bidding Whitepaper @ Google (PDF) that explains in detail how to leverage Machine Learning to drive optimal outcomes for your ad spend.
Short Video Intro to Smart Bidding
Support page about Smart Bidding.
I was the Tech Lead of the Machine Learning team (2012-2018) who built Machine Learning Models and built advanced Predictive and Performance Analytics for Google AdWords. Our focus was on Conversion Optimization for all Search advertisers, that accounted for multi-billion dollar revenues.
We launched many new products and models that focused on letting advertisers set their goals and not worry about the details. These products now form the backbone of Google Ads spending.
I co-wrote the Smart Bidding Whitepaper @ Google (PDF) that explains in detail how to leverage Machine Learning to drive optimal outcomes for your ad spend.
Short Video Intro to Smart Bidding
Support page about Smart Bidding.
Quant Developer, Equity Options Algorithmic Trading
D.E.Shaw is one of the top Quantitative Hedge funds in the world and it was a time of tremendous learning. I worked in the Algorithmic Trading for Equity Options group as a Quant Developer (2008-2012), helping with many aspects of trading, hedging, market making and risk aspects.
This was my first time working in professional Finance and helped me to see a completely different way of objective investing and how to look at risk systematically.
D.E.Shaw is one of the top Quantitative Hedge funds in the world and it was a time of tremendous learning. I worked in the Algorithmic Trading for Equity Options group as a Quant Developer (2008-2012), helping with many aspects of trading, hedging, market making and risk aspects.
This was my first time working in professional Finance and helped me to see a completely different way of objective investing and how to look at risk systematically.
DoubleTrust: Re-inventing web search
One of my weekend projects (DoubleTrust Search Engine) was featured in Businesweek, TV (ABC News) and multiple media outlets across the world, and had 50,000+ views within two weeks of releasing.
It combined the best of Google and Yahoo in one interface to offer a better tradeoff for many important search categories. I went back to my PhD instead of pursuing it as a full time venture.
It was eventually sold to a tech company.
See here for description, user feedback and press coverage
My Academic Research
My Google Scholar Profile (with downloadable research papers)
At Northwestern University and outside (IBM Research, Intel Research), I have published numerous research papers at many top CS conferences. My research has been in the fields of:
- Optimizing Distributed Systems Performance.
- Parallel Computing: Automatic Optimization
- Distributed Virtual Machines
- Very High Speed Network Traffic Techniques
- Peer to Peer High Performance Search Algorithms
Princeton University Course: Theory and Practice
One of my well cited papers was included in the advanced Graduate Course Princeton Course “Cool System Ideas: Inspirations from Theory” to illustrate a great example of theory combined with practice in Computer Science. To be included with other top papers in the field of Computer Science for teaching students was an amazing recognition for us!
Joy Faces: A Novel Slum Project for Happiness Via Photography
My brother and I did a community project in an Indian slum in North India. We wanted to boost happiness for the slum residents (mostly neglected by the mainstream) through the medium of photography. The idea was very simple:
- Approach families, siblings and individuals.
- Take their smiling pictures with a high quality DSLR.
- Print & frame those pictures.
- Return to the slum, gift them the framed pictures for hanging in their homes!
It was hugely successful. It brought lot of happiness to the the slum residents and is one of the more memorable experiences I've had in my life. Some of the things we did not expect:
- Pretty soon after we arrived, everyone started approaching us to have their photos taken!
- It created a sense of unity and shared joy among residents.
- When we returned to give them the framed pictures, that was unexpected. Moving experiences for everyone involved.
Some of the photographs that we framed and returned to the slum residents:
