Akhil Penumudy

Machine Learning, Chemistry, and AI.

North Carolina πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡ΈB.S. Chemical Engineering + Data Science

Education

B.S. Chemical Engineering + Data ScienceNorth Carolina State University2020 – 2024

Experience

Summer 2025

MRL Data Science Intern

Merck Β· Rahway, NJ

- Fine-tuned and evaluated foundation models from published literature, applying transformer-based architectures to learn representations of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks and molecular metadata.

- Built scalable RNA-seq QC and single-cell processing pipelines on GPU-accelerated cloud infrastructure, saving 200+ hours of manual effort.

Aug 2024 – Jun 2025

Undergraduate Research Fellow

NC State University Β· Wei Research Group

Co-developed a patent-pending ML pipeline for predicting VOC reaction outcomes using chemical graph features and 100K+ molecular sensor interactions.

Summer 2024

Data Engineering Intern

Merck Β· Durham, NC

Optimized downstream purification data collection for GARDASIL9 and built real-time monitoring dashboards across 30+ reactors.

Aug 2022 – Jul 2023

Undergraduate Student Researcher

University of Cincinnati Β· College of Engineering

Developed ML-driven biofeedback modules for real-time speech therapy, integrating ultrasound tongue imaging with a Unity game engine.

Projects