Nikil Shyamsunder । निखिल् श्याम्सुन्दर् ।

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I study computer science and mathematics at Cornell University. I am broadly interested in formal methods, high-performance computing, compilers, and computer architecture.

I work on Protocols, a DSL for specifying the interfaces of digital circuits, in the Computer Architecture and Programming Abstractions Lab (Capra) under Adrian Sampson. In Spring 2026, I’m at AWS’ Annapurna Labs as a machine learning compilers intern, working on the Neuron compiler stack.

I enjoy hiking, snowboarding, classical languages (Latin and Sanskrit), and recently, Victorian literature.

News

Mar 05, 2026 I was inducted into Cornell’s chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society.
Jan 05, 2026 I began my internship as an ML Compiler Engineer at AWS, working on the Neuron compiler for Trainium and Inferentia.
Dec 16, 2025 My teammate and I published a blog post for our graduate compilers class on our project building an end-to-end backend that lowers the Allo accelerator DSL to Google’s XLS for ASIC synthesis and comparing it to LLM-based program synthesis.
Oct 10, 2025 Our work on the Protocols DSL was accepted to the FMCAD ’25 Student Forum, where I presented in October.
Jun 13, 2025 My teammates and I on CUSail won the 2025 International Robotic Sailing Regatta.

Experience

See here for detailed breakdowns of my work.

Regression Testing Dashboard
My regression testing dashboard built @ Beacon, presented in this company article
Lumen Technologies (May 2025 – Aug 2025)

Engineered scalable AWS-based data pipelines and dashboards in Angular to process and visualize real-time network threat intelligence for millions of IPs.

CMSX @ Cornell University (Jan 2025 – Present)

Building full-stack features for Cornell CS's internal course management platform.

Cornell Computer Architecture & Programming Abstractions Lab (Aug 2024 – Present)

Developing Protocols, a Rust-based hardware specification language to push the envelope in verification.

Beacon Platform (May 2024 – Aug 2024)

Built a full-stack testing dashboard and root-cause analysis system, reducing regression failures by 22%.

Discrete Mathematics - CS 2800 (Aug 2024 – Present)

Teach core topics and lead recitations for 400+ students each semester.

Projects

See here for detailed project descriptions.

Protocols Example: Here, two Protocols defining the interface for an add and sub operation respectively are inputed, along with the corresponding Verilog description and a set of top-level tasks to execute. The corresponding waveform is outputted by the interpreter after completion.
Visual Example of the Protocols Interpreter I built in action
CUSail team winning IRSR
My team and I winning the 2025 IRSR
CS 6120: Advanced Compilers (Fall 2025)

Implemented LLVM-based compiler analyses, optimizations, and dynamic compilation systems in C++.

Cornell Autonomous Sailboat Team (CUSail) (Sep 2023 – Present)

Lead 40-member team developing an autonomous robotic sailboat with ROS 2 and scalable APIs.

Decentralized Voting for Prescription Validation (Fall 2024)

Built decentralized validation platform in OCaml with hybrid blockchain and >91% test coverage.

Crazy Crush – 2D Infinite Runner Game (Spring 2024)

Developed Valentine's-themed infinite runner in Unity during DiGA Game Jam.

TinyTutor – RAG on a Budget (Spring 2024)

Built lightweight tutor app with FAISS, BERT, and Docker; finalist at Cornell AI Hackathon.

Neural Networks from First Principles (Spring 2023)

Implemented core ML models in Octave/MATLAB from scratch, focusing on math and optimization.

Latest Posts

Nov 07, 2025 Optimizer vs. Learner: Strategic Manipulation in Games and Auctions
Jul 14, 2025 Using Hadoop to Analyze 32 Million Movie Ratings
Aug 08, 2024 A Case Against Supreme Court Term Limits