👋🏽 I'm currently a Product Manager at Microsoft, where I've built AI-powered enterprise and consumer products for millions of users. I've driven high-impact releases for Microsoft Teams, Edge Wallet, and Microsoft Advertising. My expertise extends to launching products in complex and regulated domains including AI and payments. I'm currently focused on building AI agents and designing evaluation frameworks to improve model output quality. 

🤘🏽Previously, I graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering. At UT, I developed an interest in EdTech and entrepreneurship. This inspired me to launch initiatives like Resistorings with a goal to improve equity in education. 

🔧 I'm builder at heart. I enjoy working across hardware, software, and AI. In my free time, I'm often prototyping, testing ideas, and experimenting with new AI tools. You can view my recent projects here.  

📩 If you have an idea for a project, have questions about my work, or just want to connect, I would be happy to chat! 

Cohort Lead & Mentor at Microsoft's Tech Resilience Program (2022)

Cohort Lead & Mentor at Microsoft's Growth Groups (2021)

Student Lead at Texas Inventionworks (2020)

External Outreach Lead for Cockrell School Cares (2020)

Corporate & Career Chair of Society of Women Engineers (2018)

Selected Member for Inspire Leadership Program (2017)

Social Chair of Women in Electrical & Computer Engineering (2019)

1st Place in Microsoft Teams Hackathon (2022)

1st Place in Poster Exhibition on Engineering Research (PEER) Competition (2019)

Dr. Beer Endowment for Student Awards in Written and Spoken Communication (2019)

Women in Engineering Program Volunteer Award  & Scholarship (2018)

UT Austin Outstanding SWE Member Spotlight (2017)

👋🏽 Hi! I'm Upasana. I'm a Product Manager at Microsoft, computer engineering graduate from UT Austin, lifelong explorer, and a mission-driven builder. 

Smart Garden Built With Cursor

I love houseplants, but I often forget to water them or don’t always know how to care for them properly. The product manager in me wanted to validate that this wasn’t just a personal problem, so I did some light user research by browsing Reddit communities like r/gardening, where threads discuss how confusing it can be to care for different plant types. To solve this problem, I built a smart garden app that tells me exactly when my plants need water based on plant type and real-time soil moisture data. 

As a user, I need an easy way to know when my plant needs water without memorizing care instructions. The solution should account for the specific type of plant and rely on real sensor data rather than guesswork or rigid schedules.

I started on the hardware side by building a circuit using an ESP32 microcontroller and a soil moisture sensor, writing the firmware in C/C++. To validate the setup, I ran a series of experiments measuring soil moisture in completely dry conditions and in water-saturated environments. After a few iterations, the readings became consistent and reliable.

Once the sensor was placed directly into a plant, the system worked as intended, continuously capturing real-time soil moisture data that could be sent to the application layer.

With the hardware working, I moved on to the software. Using Cursor, I built a mobile app with React and TypeScript that receives soil moisture readings from the soil moisture sensor and alerts me when those readings fall below a configurable threshold.

Within about an hour, I had a working MVP that displayed live moisture data and triggered alerts when a plant needed water. The app automatically calculates each plant’s status as “Thirsty,” “Happy,” or “Too Soon” based on moisture readings and watering history, turning raw sensor data into an actionable signal.

To go beyond basic alerts, I integrated the OpenAI API, using GPT-4o for image-based plant identification and GPT-3.5 for plant-specific care tips. Users can upload a photo of their plant to automatically identify the species, after which the app surfaces  guidance on watering and general care, tailored to that plant.

After the MVP was functional, I focused on improving the user experience. I added the ability to name plants, attach photos, and fine-tune moisture thresholds per plant. I also refined the AI prompts so the app could inject a bit of personality like occasionally delivering plant-related puns along with useful advice.

These optimizations helped transform the app from a simple monitoring tool into something more personal and engaging, while still grounded in real sensor data and practical plant care guidance.

- Scrappy user research goes a long way: While I didn’t interview users directly, browsing Reddit communities like r/gardening surfaced recurring pain points quickly and helped validate that this problem was widely shared.

- Building is dramatically faster than it used to be: Tools like Cursor made it surprisingly fast to go from idea to MVP. What would have taken weeks to scaffold and iterate on in the past was achievable in hours.

- Iteration becomes natural once something works: After the MVP was functional, improvements emerged organically. Instead of asking “what should I build next?”, I found myself reacting to real usage and continuously refining the experience.

I built a smart garden app that tells me exactly when my plants need water based on plant type and real-time soil moisture data. 

Smart Garden App: Using Cursor, ESP32, and Moisture Sensors

Customer support is one of the most impactful applications of AI: high volume, repetitive queries, and clear success metrics make it an ideal candidate for automation. 

I wanted to understand the core primitives behind these products, so I built a Support AI agent using Cursor for my e-commerce business, Resistorings, to handle customer escalations.  

I started by defining 4 core use-cases for the agent:

FAQs: Answer questions about materials, pricing, brand story 

Order Tracking: Look up order status by order ID or email 

Returns: Check eligibility of returns based on 30-day policy window and delivery status 

Exchanges: Process product exchanges based on size and cost 

Product Info: Retrieve detailed product information from catalog

For each use case, the agent knows when to answer directly from its knowledge base (no API call needed) vs. when to fetch real data using tools. This was needed to reduce latency and cost. 

The core architecture follows the agent loop in which the LLM generates a response or triggers a tool call. When thinking about the broader system, I assessed the tradeoffs between a single agent vs. multi-agent architecture. I ultimately chose a single-agent architecture for the following reasons:

Complexity: Single agents are simpler to build, debug, iterate

Latency: Single agents often have 1-2 LLM calls per request 

Cost: Single agents have lower token usage 

Use Case: Scenarios were within bounded domains with clear tool definitions 

As the agent grows in complexity, I can see s future state where I build specialized sub-agents for billing or technical support, which would require a multi-agent architecture. 

The Support Agent is built in Python and uses GPT-4o-mini with function calling. I defined five core function/tools that map to each use case:

lookup_order: finds order by ID or email 

check_return_eligibility: verify 30-day window, delivery status 

initiate_exchange: process size/product exchanges 

get_product_info: retrieve product details 

When defining the tools, I had to set a clear description so the LLM knows when to use it, define parameters, and add business logic around policies. In production, these would call Shopify, Stripe, and internal APIs. 

As a starting point with evaluations, I added a feature to trace each step the agent takes. This was especially helpful for observability to understand what tools were triggered. There is still more work to be done around robust offline evaluations before deploying the agent to production.

The prompt was the product spec: The requirements, knowledge boundaries, and decision-making logic were all in the system prompt. When I needed to change the agent's behavior, I updated the prompt. 

Visually representing the agent's behavior improved observability: Building a step by step agent loop visualization wasn't just for debugging; it changes how I understood what the model was doing. Being able to see "Model decided to call lookup_order → Tool returned order data → Model generated response" made the system trustworthy and debuggable.

I built an e-commerce support AI chatbot that manages FAQs, returns, exchanges on orders for my jewelry business. 

E-Commerce Support AI Agent for Resistorings

Startup Senior Design ECE Capstone Project

The ECE department at UT Austin offers two types of Senior Capstone Projects: (1) Projects sponsored by corporations (2) Projects that have the potential to turn into startups. Given my interest in entrepreneurship, I eagerly applied to the Startup Senior Design Capstone with a team of 4 other ECE students. The course spanned across two semesters with the following milestones:

Develop the engineering design for a product

Validate the design through prototype construction and testing, modeling, simulations, and manufacturing analysis 

Develop a company prospectus and seek venture funding for the project

My teammates and I were deeply interested in applying engineering to help disadvantaged communities. Throughout undergrad, many of us were tinkering with personal projects to further explore this interest. In fact, one of my classmates on the team, Sijin Woo, had developed a smart mobility aid for blind and visually impaired people for an embedded systems course a few semesters prior. The project was referenced frequently in our early brainstorming sessions and we recognized that there was very little innovation and funding in educational tools for blind and visually impaired students. 

I scheduled meetings with teachers at the Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired so the team could better understand the needs of blind & visually impaired students. Through our first few meetings, it became clear that blind students struggled learning math concepts that involve visual aids like graphs and charts. This is because current braille technology is expensive and inaccessible. We landed on our product for the senior capstone project: an affordable braille display to represent tactile graphs and charts for students. 

We named the product ReadMe and immediately started brainstorming possible designs and developing low-fidelity prototypes. Since braille can be displayed in 2x3 or 2x4 matrices, we built a prototype with a 4x4 matrix which can easily scale to these different sizes. Each dot can be raised within the matrix via thermopneumatic actuators. This process involved filling multiple brass tubes with a volatile liquid. Once the tubes are filled, they are sealed with a thin, nitrile membrane. Then, each brass tube is filled with a nichrome heat wire. When the brass tubes heat up, a force is created by heating the volatile liquid, causing the flexible membrane to expand. 

At this point in the semester, COVID-19 hit campus and we were all instructed to collaborate remotely on our final prototype. With most of the electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineering development completed, we turned to building a user interface that could seamlessly integrate with JAWs (a computer screen reader that converts to text to speech). I developed low fidelity designs which involved a simple drag and drop display where educators and students could easily import images, files, and text. This information would be the input which would trigger the braille display to build the corresponding tactile graphs. 

The course culminated in a virtual demo day where we presented ReadMe in a 2-minute pitch which showcased our designs, prototypes, and partnerships with local schools. This Senior Capstone Project was the perfect way to apply my interests in engineering, entrepreneurship, & design. It also re-affirmed my passion for using technology to promote education equity. 

I built an affordable braille display to help blind and visually impaired students learn math through tactile graphs and visuals. 

ReadMe: Affordable braille display designed for blind students to learn math 

Diwali Diya Light Up Earrings

As a computer engineer, I’m always thinking about new ways to apply engineering creatively and make it more fun. I love earrings, and I love demystifying engineering, which led me to start Resistorings: light-up earrings designed to make engineering feel fun, playful, and expressive. 

For a long time, I had wanted to build Diwali diya earrings. Diyas are small clay oil lamps that I grew up using to light homes during Diwali, the festival of lights. While light-up jewelry exists, I hadn’t seen anything on the market that was both culturally specific to Diwali and electronically interactive.

My goal was to create lightweight, wearable diya earrings that actually light up, bringing together culture, hardware, and design. This was a product I personally wanted and believed others would too, so I decided to build it myself.

The first and most critical phase was designing the diya itself. While I’m not a mechanical engineer, this became a hands-on learning experience in iterative design.

Using CAD, I approached the process much like software development: starting with a simple design, creating small prototypes, and iterating repeatedly to get the size and proportions right. I used a 3D printer to test multiple versions, refining the shape for comfort, durability, and aesthetics. I ultimately chose an orange plastic to reflect the festive nature of Diwali.

This stage reinforced how important rapid prototyping is when translating an idea into a physical product. I probably created around 5 different prototypes of varying sizes and shapes.

The electronics were intentionally simple: a coin cell battery, resistor, and LED. The main challenge wasn’t circuit complexity, but working within tight physical constraints. Fitting all components cleanly inside a small diya required careful layout decisions and tradeoffs between size, weight, and functionality.

This phase mirrored real product development constraints, where elegant solutions often come from simplifying rather than adding complexity.

Building the MVP revealed several opportunities for improvement. Future iterations could include creating a custom PCB to further condense the circuit, reducing the diya base to make the earrings lighter, and adding customization features such as light patterns or color-changing LEDs.

These enhancements represent natural next steps if this project were to evolve beyond a personal build into a scalable product.

Low-stakes building fuels creativity: Building without deadlines, specs, or assignments made the process more rewarding and exploratory.

Prototyping early reduces risk: Testing multiple versions early made it easier to iterate and converge on the right design.

Creativity sits at intersections: The project showed how product thinking, technical execution, and cultural context come together to create something meaningful.

I designed Diwali light-up earrings in CAD, 3D printed them, and built the embedded circuit to light them up!

Diwali Light Up Earrings: Using CAD, 3D Printing, and Embedded Electronics

I’ve always been excited about using technology to improve the lives of underserved communities. As a third-year engineering student, I felt I wasn’t gaining enough hands-on experience applying my skills effectively in disadvantaged communities. I sent a cold email to Dr. Janet Ellzey, the director of Humanitarian Engineering at UT Austin. It was this email that sparked over 2-years of research on minimal lighting systems.

At first, the problem space involved lots of ambiguity. The Red Cross was looking for ways to reduce gender-based violence in refugee camps in Lebanon. Research showed that gender-based violence increased at night near bathrooms and hygiene facilities, where people are most vulnerable. Humanitarian organizations attributed this problem to poor lighting in hygiene facilities and landed on the most obvious solution: install bright lights in bathrooms. Surprisingly, when these organizations installed brights lights, rates of gender-based violence didn’t decrease (and in some cases even increased). The brighter lights led to meeting grounds for groups to socialize at night, which increased the vulnerability of women and children. This was the first time I recognized that the most obvious solution is not always the most effective solution. 

I had to rely on frequent Zoom calls with the Red Cross to deeply understand the problems and environmental settings of these refugee camps. The ambiguity soon turned to clarity and I learned the following insights:

The brightness or the lux level of a lighting system impacted large-group behavior in refugee camps.

Bathrooms in refugee camps were typically built from corrugated tin so any lighting system needed to easily work well with this material.

Theft was a serious problem with past lighting systems, as they were frequently stolen or dismantled to be sold within the camps.

Refugee camps in Lebanon were typically exposed to the outdoor elements which involved sand storms in the spring and heavy rains in the winter.

Lighting systems needed to be portable and low-cost so they could be easily assembled by volunteers on-site.

Meeting regularly with the Red Cross helped me better understand our end users: (1) Refugees who need adequate lighting systems to safely use washrooms (2) Red Cross volunteers who need to easily assemble these lighting systems on-site. Understanding the user personas and needs helped me land on our ultimate goal of this research: develop a low-cost, portable minimal lighting system for washrooms in refugee camps. 

It became clear that building a great solution would require both electrical and mechanical engineering expertise. I contacted my classmate and good friend, Ashley Perez, to co-build a lighting solution. I kicked off the research by deconstructing low-cost garden lights which are affordable, portable, and utilize solar energy. I wanted to understand the circuit and solar cell used in these types of products. The circuit for a garden light is quite simple - it involves a battery, inductor, solar cell, LEDs, and QX5252F (integrated circuit used in most garden lights). We needed to implement this circuit but we still had no idea how to design a lighting system of the right brightness levels.

People were at the center of this research, so we spent lots of time understanding the current lighting conditions in camp settings. We read publications such as Lighting, WASH, and Gender-Based Violence in Camp Settings, How Night-Time Lighting Street Lighting Affects Refugee Communities, and The Sphere Handbook to learn more about how lighting impacts behavior and standards in humanitarian response. After reading these papers, we noticed that there are no minimal technical standards for lighting systems in emergency camp settings. This makes it increasingly difficult for researchers and engineers to develop lighting solutions for emergency camp settings. Before finalizing any designs, we set standards across illumination, sustainability, durability, and size. Our proposed minimal lighting standards were outlined in a Technical Literature Review. This became our first major deliverable for our research.

The lighting standards were principles that guided our designs. We developed three possible design solutions: (1) pop-socket setup (2) glow-patch implementation (3) band-aid design. We evaluated these three designs based on our lighting standards (illumination, sustainability, durability, and size) in a Design Decision Matrix. We chose to proceed with the band-aid design which was rated the highest across our lighting standards. If you’ve gotten this far, you might be wondering: how are band-aids and lighting systems even related?

The band-aid lighting system can be broken down into three main features: 

1 central module which serves as the casing for the circuit and solar cell 

2 flaps on either side which serve as the light source with embedded LEDs

Adhesive backings to ensure the lighting system can permanently stick to any surface  

I started prototyping by building a custom printed circuit board (PCB) for our band-aid implementation. I used KiCad, an open-source software, to build the PCB. Since the original band-aid implementation required 3 LEDs on each flap, I designed a custom PCB that connects rows of LEDs in both directions and radiates the optimal minimum lighting levels of 200 lux. 

I spent 2-weeks rapidly prototyping with the goal of building a low-fidelity, working prototype. I leveraged the circuit, solar cell, and LEDs of a deconstructed garden light and 3D printed a case in which the circuitry could be protected in the central module. This was truly a low-fidelity prototype so I used masking tape and paper to build out the flaps. This was my first real foray in rapid prototyping and I learned how crucial this process is for quick testing and iterating on ideas. 

In the second iteration of the lighting system, I developed a high-fidelity prototype which leveraged the custom PCB that radiated light at exactly 200 lux. This iteration involved more research into materials design where I used nylon for the band-aid flaps to waterproof the system and an epoxy adhesive that prevents the lighting system from being removed/disassembled from the washroom. Once the prototype was fully assembled, I spent time testing the lighting system outdoors to weather conditions like rain and dry heat.

The rapid prototyping culminated in developing a low-cost (less than $2) minimal lighting system for washrooms in refugee camps. This research was presented at the annual Poster Exhibition on Engineering Research (PEER) Competition where we won 1st place. I hope to continue iterating on the designs by working closely with the Red Cross and the Humanitarian Engineering Department to test the product in refugee camps in Lebanon. 

I built a minimal lighting system for low-cost, easy installation in refugee camps. 

How I built a low-cost minimal lighting system for refugee camps

My journey into electrical engineering began in a high school Physics class. With little to no prior knowledge about circuits, terms like resistors, capacitors, and diodes felt like learning a new language. I quickly grew interested, especially during the hands-on labs where I could light up LEDs with just a few basic components: wires, resistors, a battery, and a breadboard.

This class was particularly impactful because it revealed how pervasive and essential electrical engineering is in our world. From power generation and consumer electronics to communication systems and medical technology, the field's broad influence became clear. This realization inspired me to pursue a degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin.

However, during my first semesters, I was struck by the low number of women in my program. It was evident, especially in labs and classes, where I could easily count the female-identifying students in my classes. My advisors confirmed that electrical engineering had one of the lowest female-to-male ratios at UT, with just 11% of women pursuing the degree. While organizations like the Society of Women Engineers and Women in ECE provide crucial support and community, they primarily focus on retention rather than increasing accessibility to electrical engineering education for younger students.

This inspired me to launch Resistorings, a project that merges my excitement for circuits and jewelry to make electrical engineering concepts more accessible and engaging, particularly for kids. Through fun, lighthearted activities like creating personalized electrical jewelry, my goal is to spark interest in electrical engineering, especially among female-identifying students, and encourage them to pursue careers in the field.

Launching Resistorings involved building a website, designing a logo, and establishing partnerships with local STEM organizations such as the Girls Empowerment Network and the Society of Women Engineers. I also started a blog that features interviews with female-identifying ECE students, exploring their journeys into the field and what inspired them to pursue this degree.

As I maintained the platform, I developed the product itself in two parts: (1) designing the electrical jewelry, and (2) creating the educational curriculum for STEM workshops. In just a few weeks, I crafted simple, colorful electrical earrings using beads and resistors, selling them for less than $5 to engineering students, mentors, and family friends. The proceeds funded materials for playdough circuit activities, which I used to host workshops at STEM conferences, teaching kids about circuits. At the end of these workshops, each student received a pair of Resistorings as a reminder of the concepts they learned.

I enjoy tinkering with Resistorings and envision it growing into an instructable circuit jewelry kit for educators and parents. This experience has solidified my passion for EdTech and entrepreneurship, and I hope to continue innovating in this space.

I founded Resistorings, an EdTech initiative that designs electrical earrings to teach kids about circuits. 

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