WSPT, the c-mu rule and Deficit Round Robin: which scheduling
policies actually help an LLM router-scheduler. Why a conservation law makes every win a
redistribution, how much a bad size predictor really costs, and what NVIDIA Dynamo's
premium/regular classes buy you. Traces the rules back to Smith 1956, Cox and Smith 1961 and
SIGCOMM 1995, then tests them: eight plots from two reproducible simulators.
Welcome to my Den of Reflections
Welcome to the world of my reflections, where I discuss books, lifestyle, technology, and startups/investing.
Hello, I’m Shashwat (Shawn) Gupta. I’m an MS student in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in the Supercomputing System and AI Lab (SSAIL), and before that I was a Research Software Development Engineer at Microsoft Research India, where I worked on agentic communication and automated workflow discovery. I graduated in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur (IITK CSE’24); that journey was a transformative experience, blending rigorous academics with hands-on projects in machine learning and human-computer interaction.
Beyond the classroom, I have actively engaged in entrepreneurial ventures, founding startups and exploring the intricacies of venture capital. Through this blog, I aim to share my insights, experiences, and the valuable lessons I’ve learned along the way, with a focus on the intersection of technology and investment. Welcome to my blog, where I hope to inspire and inform fellow enthusiasts and aspiring professionals.
Why I Write, and Why This Blog?
I write to guide someone in my shoes or who wants to achieve something that I got at some point in my life. Think of it as a note to my younger self, someone who might be navigating similar challenges and aspirations elsewhere. Documenting and reflecting on my journey allows me to consolidate the lessons I’ve learned, providing a clearer perspective on my experiences and growth. Additionally, this blog serves as a platform for discussion and exchange of ideas related to technology, IIT, investing, and life in general. By sharing my insights, opening up conversations, I hope to connect with like-minded individuals who share my passions and curiosity.
Research
Exploration-Aware Bayesian Optimisation in Workflow Space -
how we made agentic workflow search stop collapsing onto one idea, and why a KNN novelty
term beats a smarter prompt. (Accepted at ARR)
Optimal Parsing Techniques in Message-Aware Computational
Structures - A framework for learning optimal message formats for LLMs.
(Findings of ACL 2026)
Engineering write-up, not a paper: generating pre-verified tool
stubs from troubleshooting guides with 100-way concurrent BFS, and benchmarking an
incident-triaging agent across 60,000+ tickets.
EXplainable Analysis for Crohn's and Tuberculosis using CT -
Medical imaging research for disease diagnosis and analysis.
Deep dives into the world of research, academia, and pushing the
boundaries of what we know.
Technology
[AI/ML]
[Read More] GradCAM for 3D images (annotated
code)
Detailed implementation and explanation of GradCAM for 3D
medical imaging.
[Read More] Diffusion Models — a
beginner’s guide
A beginner’s guide to the math behind Stable Diffusion and
Dall-e!
[Read More] Spatial Transformer
Network (STN)
Overview, challenges, and proposed improvements for Spatial
Transformer Networks.
[Read More] Towards Artificial
General Intelligence (AGI)
What is in store for us? A hype story identifying current
trends. (Towards AI)
[Read More] The Critical Nuances
of Today’s AI
And the Frontiers That Will Define Its Future. (Towards AI)
[Read More] Neurosymbolic AI — a
microthesis
An exploration of combining neural networks with symbolic
reasoning.
[Read More] Keswani’s Algorithm
for 2 player non-convex min-max
optimisation
An overview of the algorithm and its applications.
[Read More] The Surge of No-Code
AI Platforms in Data
Analytics
Current Trends, Applications, and Future Predictions.
Startup/Investing
My insights from the business world
[Read More] 4 SaaS Startups I found
Interesting
Startups that are doing a fabulous job in the current market.
[Read More] Startup metrics and
finding North Star metric
Understanding key metrics for your startup's success.
[Read More] Building my own startup
(HealthPredict) in college
Lessons learned from building a venture during undergraduate
years.
[Read More] Towards Artificial
General Intelligence (AGI)
Implications of AGI on the future of business and society.
[Read More] Microthesis (a template
from Blume Ventures)
Mastering the art of the microthesis for investment analysis.
IIT Kanpur
My reflections and recollections from my wonderful time at IIT Kanpur (my alma mater)
[Read More] Nine Point Someone:
Juggling Academics, Adventure and
Ambition
My journey end-to-end at IIT Kanpur. contribution to "As We
Leave" Series.
[Read More] Foreign Exchange at EPFL
My journey as an exchange student at Europe's leading CS
university.
[Read More] Building my own startup
(HealthPredict) in college
Reflections on entrepreneurship within the campus ecosystem.
[Read More] Building the ACM SIGCHI
Student Chapter
Insights, challenges, and opportunities from building a student
club.
[Read More] The Research Hustle
My wild journey through 6 research Internships at IIT Kanpur and
Beyond.
Books
My summaries and in-depth analysis of books I read
by Thomas M. Sterner
Psychology of Money
by Morgan Housel
Never Split the Difference
by Chris Voss
Wings of Fire: Autobiography of Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam
by Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam