About
Hi, I'm Sainath Ganesh, a Software Engineer at Magic Leap - Google, working at the intersection of XR and
AI. I have won over 20x hackathons internationally, and possesses a Masters in CS from the University
of
Illinois which was fully funded via my scholarships in XR Research. With 5+ years of professional experience
in developing user-centeric end-to-end applications from conception to deployment, I have a wide range of
expertise in various fields from XR, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Full Stack and Product
development.
I've been commended by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi for my work leveraging VR and AI as
well
as been invited to deliver talks on Agentic AI at UC Berkeley. Currently I'm leading the development
of
Google's Immersive Capture app, a cutting-edge platform that generates full-scale 3D reconstructions of the
real world using NeRFs and Gaussian Splats. My professional and research interests lie at the frontiers of
immersive and spatial computing.
Years in Tech - Thats over 3000+ days of experience
Hackathons won
Publications - Papers, Patents and Grants
Projects prototyped
Portfolio
Resume
Software Engineer with 5+ years of professional experience (2 FTEs, 2 research roles, 3 internships) building user-centric, end-to-end applications at the intersection of XR and AI — from conception to production deployment.
Professional Experience
Software Engineer
May 2023 - Present
Magic Leap - Google Partnership
- Shipped a production-ready XR pipeline for the Google Immersive Capture App, integrating with Google backend services to facilitate training of Gaussian Splats and NeRFs.
- Built a Gemini-powered calibration tool for 3D content on Google Maps — accelerating QA validation by 10x by cutting QA cycles from days to hours.
- Led end-to-end Out of Box Experience for the Magic Leap 2, collaborating cross-functionally with UX, Product and SW.
XR Researcher | Masters CS
Aug 2022 - Dec 2023
University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
- Optimized upstream video pipelines using gaze-tracked foveation, reducing bandwidth by 70% — enabling improved ML inferencing quality on edge and constrained networks.
- Designed a real-time rendering pipeline for ILLIXR for 3D mesh reconstruction — streaming vertex-colored meshes over WebSockets via Protobuf, optimizing serialization and transfer overheads.
- Developed network-synchronized XR experiences for the HXRI Lab to study how immersive environments support cognitive and behavioral health outcomes in senior populations.
Software Engineer
Oct 2021 - May 2022
Shell India Markets Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore
- Built automated data consolidation pipelines for monthly financial reporting, reducing manual processing time by over 90% (4 hours → 10 mins)
- Developed automated report generation tools and dashboards, streamlining financial workflows
- Designed discrepancy detection systems to improve reporting accuracy and data integrity
Education
Master of Computer Science
2022 - 2023
University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
GPA: 4.0
B.Tech, Computer Science and Engineering
2017 - 2021
Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai
Major GPA: 3.7
Achievements
20x Hackathon Winner
Consistent top finishes in several national and international coding competitions.
Commended by PM of India, Narendra Modi
Toycathon 2021 — Ministry of Education, India
Recognized for innovative projects leveraging VR + AI, including Aura.AI, an integrated AI-VR platform that gamifies Yoga bridging modern technology and Indian tradition.
AI Thought Leadership
University of California, Berkeley (2025)
Delivered lightning talks on Agentic AI at UC Berkeley after winning 1st Place at UC Berkeley LLM Agents Hackathon (2025) - best Agentic AI project among 1100+ universities & 800+ companies
NVIDIA Research Grant
COVID AR Hackathon (2020) — NVIDIA, Indian Ministry of Commerce and Trade
Awarded for an Augmented Reality COVID Symptom Visualizer displaying the effect of the coronavirus on various organs, paired with an X-Ray based image classifier.
Research & Projects
Smooth Operator (2025)
Multi-agent conversational AI system that streamlines the home-moving process. Orchestrated a multi-agent system via Langchain and GPT Realtime (via Twilio), automating conversations with moving companies and negotiating the best quotes — saving users $500–$2,000 per move and reclaiming 3–5 hours of manual effort.
Accelerated Facial Recognition Pipeline (2023)
Improved facial encoding search speed by 15x, integrating classical computer-vision filtering via KD-Trees as a preprocessing step to deep convolutional neural networks — drastically reducing compute and improving end-to-end processing by 250%.
Real-Time ADAS for Level-2 Autonomy (2021)
Designed and implemented lane-keep assist, pre-collision warning and avoidance, adaptive cruise control and other advanced driver-assistance features, enabling partial vehicle autonomy with cameras + ML fusion only.
Application of Neuroevolution for Autonomous Cars
IVCCPS'20, LNEE Springer
Published research on applying evolutionary algorithms to optimize neural networks for self-driving applications in simulated environments. Learn more
Contact
Location:
San Francisco, Bay Area, CA
Email:
sainathganesh1@gmail.com