Thariq Shanavas is a physics graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder. He graduated with a major in electrical engineering and a minor in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Thariq became interested in optics when he was working on theoretically modeling surface plasmon resonances in TiO2 nanostructures as an intern at the University of Alberta in his sophomore year. He has since worked at Tyndall National Institute in Ireland on developing machine learning techniques to extend the reach of photonic communication channels and at J-PARC, Japan on designing the trigger system for semiconductor particle detectors. In his free time, Thariq likes bird watching, riding his bike, and reading fiction.