Ashwin Varma Email: Ashwin.Varma@rice.edu | Phone: 832-386-5044 | Address: 6310 Main Street Houston, TX 77005

ACADEMICS Rice University, Houston, TX August ’15 — Present B.S. in Computer Science, Expected June 2019; B.A. in Biochemistry, Expected June 2019 Rice Baylor Medical Scholar, Class of 2023 Century Research Scholar Relevant Classes: Introduction to Computational Thinking (COMP 140-Rice), Differential Equations and Linear Algebra (MATH 211), Introduction to Computer Science (Udacity), Design and Analysis of Algorithms I (Stanford-Coursera) SKILLS Programming Languages: Python, C, HTML5, Java, Bash ENTREPRENURSHIP AND PROJECTS Empiric, In Progress Co-Founder September ‘14 — Present

•! Working with Dr. Devika Subramanian and a team of three to create a mobile application that identifies the propensity of certain roads to flood by associating local rainfall levels with past flooding probabilities. Will interface with existing GPS applications to re-direct routes if a chosen route has a propensity for flooding.

IntronaHealth for Healthcare Solutions Founder June ‘14 — Present

•! Created IntronaHealth, a patient-centric healthcare website for disseminating health provider and insurance information to patients, and assembling patient derived data on healthcare providers in Houston to aid patient decision making.

o! Partnering with University of Houston to demo data collection services in the coming year. o! Attempting to use CMS-released data to augment patient-derived data sources to create patient focused medical

consulting application. •! Authored a policy paper outlining business, industrial, and regulatory solutions to build better healthcare provider

institutions. Lemelson-MIT Inventeam $10,000 Grant Finalist President, Research Lead, and Head of Grant Submission May ‘11 — June ‘13

•! Constructed a Bicycle-powered Mobile Medical Unit for use in Emergency Health applications in developing countries. •! Managed a team of 12 to design, build, test, and present the design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012 •! Head of all research and scientific backing for experimental testing and proofing the validity of the engineering

hypothesis RESEARCH EXPERIENCE, AWARDS, AND PUBLICATIONS Baylor College of Medicine, Center for Genome Architecture, P.I. Dr. Erez Aiden Pre-Doctoral Fellow for Computational Genetics August ’15 — Present

•! Project #1: Elucidated 3D Genome Structure through Computational Contact Matrices measuring Contact Probabilities among distant genomic loci.

o! Demo: http://www.aidenlab.org/juicebox/ •! Project #2: Identifying 3D genome loop-mediated effects on gene transcription and enhancer/promoter action via

targeted insertion and deletion of CTCF motifs. MD Anderson, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, P.I. Dr. George A. Calin Pre-Doctoral Fellow June ‘14 — April ‘15

•! Project: Developed a novel method (SFNR Profiling) by which Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms could be used to “Flag” associated non-coding RNA transcripts to profile a variety of unknown long non-coding RNA molecules for their biological relevance in cancer progression.

•! Implemented unsupervised and supervised hierarchical clustering algorithms to determine SNP Flagged Non-Coding RNA-mediated cancer classifications.

•! Designed Assays for for prognostic study to predict outcome of cancer patients using patient-specific SFNR signatures. •! Awards:

o! National Semifinalist, Siemens Competition 2014 o! Grand Award Nominee, 2015 SEFH o! Honorable Mention, Davidson Fellowship 2015

Shriners Children’s Hospital, Burn Immunology Laboratory Associate Researcher June ‘12 — July ‘13

•! Project: Developed an endotoxin-derivative (MPL-A) based prophylactic therapy to improve innate host response to bacterial sepsis via recruitment of immature, double-positive myeloid cells to infection sites.

•! Awards: o! National Semifinalist, Siemens Competition 2013 o! First Place, Grand Award Nominee, 2014 Science and Engineering Fair of Houston o! Published Abstract at the Sealy Forum for Aging.

University of Texas Medical Branch, Lab of Tissue Engineering and Organ Regeneration Associate Researcher August ‘13 — May ‘14

•! Project: Studied stem cell delivery and development mechanisms to stimulate angiogenesis and higher-order cell growth in lung whole-organ tissue engineering efforts.

•! CEU Certified at the 2014 “Advances in Tissue Engineering” Conference held at Rice University. ACTIVITIES Rice University Computer Science Club Technical Committee Freshman Representative August ‘15 — Present

•! Partnering with Texas Medical Center institutions such as Baylor College of Medicine to sponsor a Health-oriented section of the HackRice hackathon, aimed at promoting software solutions to digital and global health problems.

•! Organized technical activities of Rice Computer Science, such as hosting mock technical interviews and arranging HackRice, the University sponsored Hackathon,

Roosevelt Institute: Rice University Chapter Co-Chapter Head August ‘15 — Present

•! Currently working with the Rice University Center for Civic Leadership to introduce a “Roosevelt Policy” Capstone Program in which students will engage in a year-long study of a particular policy proposal, from initialization, research, and implementation. Working with the Roosevelt Institute to provide opportunities for publishing policy research in conjunction with the Roosevelt Institute National Network and Rice Baker Institute Faculty.

Policy Debate Captain, Novice Coordinator May ‘13 — June ‘15 Vice-President May ‘14 — June ‘15

•! Awards: o! 2014 UIL 5A State Policy Debate Champions o! 2014 NSDA Nationals 10th Overall Individual Performer o! 4 Tournament of Champion Bid Rounds: University of Texas (2013, 2014), University of Houston (2014, 2015). o! 4-Time Texas Forensics Association State Qualifier.