Tinish SubramaniamAI/ML Engineer · On-device AI · Tokyo
Open to AI/ML internships · Tokyo
AI / ML engineer · local-first AI

Useful AI,kept on device.

I build AI that runs where people are, not in someone else's cloud. Speech, language models and embeddings on the device, plus the hardware, backend and apps around them. In English, Malay, Tamil and Japanese.

See the work Download CV
Tsunagilocal pipeline · no cloud
    ● 0 bytes sent to the cloud
    Tsunagi · how it works
    Scripted from real Tsunagi output
    Hatagaya, Shibuya, TokyoMalaysian · Tokyo
    IPUT Tokyo · AI StrategyB.Info.Eng. (Professional), 2nd year
    English · Malay · Tamil · 日本語Japanese at JLPT N1, business level
    Models to hardware to appsWhisper · Qwen · bge-m3 · ESP32 · Vue
    Delivered work

    Built, shipped,
    measured.

    Things I built and delivered come first. Events I attended or was invited to help with are further down, and labelled that way.

    The Suma-Getsu team receiving the award at IPUT 1st place at Onward Onward award · IPUT, 2026
    Case study · Onward Digital Lab · Apr to Jul 2026

    Suma-Getsuスマ月 · month-end, automated

    I led a five-person, cross-department team that built an internal web app for Onward Holdings' accounting team. It files every month-end document to a fixed rule, runs an AI check and summary on each one, then searches, sorts and merges them into a single PDF.

    13→5steps in the monthly process
    61.5%less time, across about 200 documents a month
    40→15.4hhours of work per month
    1stin Onward's in-company competition, 2nd university-wide
    Vue 3Spring BootBox API · JWTApache PDFBoxLLM check + summary
    Read the case study
    Flagship · on-device AI

    Tsunagi繋ぎ · record once, remember everyone

    A private memory recorder. It listens to a lecture, a meeting or a networking night, then turns it into notes, follow-ups and a living map of the people you met. Speech-to-text, the language model and the embeddings all run locally. Nothing about your life goes to the cloud.

    ≈8sfrom someone's self-intro to their contact card, on a 6 GB laptop GPU
    0cloud calls once models are downloaded
    4modes: general, lecture, meetup, event
    2languages in the UI and the transcripts
    faster-whisperQwen 2.5 · Ollamabge-m3FastAPIVue 3ESP32
    How Tsunagi works
    Tsunagi's People and network view, a graph of everyone met in meetup recordings Animation: recording an introduction, then the contact card appearing
    Grok Bot Tokyo Hackathon補助Oct 2026

    Hojo-Grok

    Built & demoed live

    Paste a link to a Japanese government subsidy programme. Get back a plain-language fit score, the pitfalls, and a ready application pack with plan, form and calendar. Built and demoed live at the Grok Bot Tokyo Hackathon.

    GrokLLMDeployed web app
    Gemini · vision✍︎Python

    Event Buddy

    Working app

    Before an event: paste the invite, get a prep checklist and the people worth meeting. After: turn a sentence and some screenshots into a LinkedIn or Instagram caption. Gemini reads the screenshots, and a "Non-AI-Slop" mode bans the usual AI tells.

    Gemini APIVisionFlaskPrompt design
    Hackathon build✓Dart

    Event Companion

    In daily use

    A cross-platform to-do app for event-goers, built in a day at the teamLab hackathon, where it took second place. I still use it every day.

    FlutterDartCross-platform
    Offline-first PWA¥·RMformerly Vybl

    Savi

    In progress

    Personal finance for students and young workers who live between countries and currencies. Works offline, keeps data on the device, and turns saving into a small companion that grows with you.

    ReactTypeScriptPWAIndexedDB
    Travel · social旅iOS · Android

    Auria

    In progress

    A travel and trip-sharing social app: turn saved travel videos into a shared group plan, vote on spots, then share the recap. English and Japanese.

    React NativeTypeScriptMaps
    Repo on GitHub
    AI creative agencySol4rasol4ra.com

    Sol4ra

    In planning

    An AI creative agency for apps, websites, advertising and marketing. The domain is held and the plan is being written. Nothing launched yet, and this card will say so until it has.

    Planning
    Studies & data work

    Understand the mechanism, then automate it.

    1. 01
      Survival prediction, worked by handTook a classic survival-prediction problem apart until the mechanism was clear, before letting a library do it.
    2. 02
      Co-occurrence network of AI conceptsText mining and network analysis of how AI ideas cluster, with KH Coder and NetworkX.
    3. 03
      Self-profiling: sleep and screen timeExploratory analysis of my own behavioural data, looking for patterns worth acting on.
    4. 04
      A local AI stack for faculty researchersIn progress: a course that introduces professors to running AI models on their own machines.
    How I build AI

    Four rules I
    work by.

    They come from shipping: an internal tool a company now wants as a product, and a recorder I trust with my own conversations.

    01

    Local first

    If a model can run on the device, it should. Useful AI should not require handing over your data. Tsunagi makes zero cloud calls once its models are downloaded.

    02

    Measure the work

    Count the steps and the hours before and after. Suma-Getsu went from 13 steps to 5 and from about 40 hours a month to 15.4.

    03

    End to end

    Model, pipeline, API, interface, and the hardware when there is some. I would rather own the whole path than hand off a notebook.

    04

    Built for real, bilingual life

    People switch between Japanese and English mid-sentence and mishear names. Systems should expect it: merge "Tanaka" into "Yuki Tanaka", align speech to slides on their own.

    Models & ML

    • Whisper faster-whisper
    • Qwen 2.5 via Ollama
    • bge-m3 embeddings
    • Gemini API vision
    • Grok API agents
    • NetworkX · KH Coder analysis

    Backend & data

    • Python primary
    • FastAPI · Flask
    • Java · Spring Boot
    • Box API JWT
    • Apache PDFBox · PyMuPDF

    Interfaces

    • Vue 3 · Vite
    • React · TypeScript
    • React Native
    • Flutter · Dart
    • PWA offline-first

    Hardware & systems

    • ESP32 firmware
    • C · C++ embedded
    • Circuits · PCB design coursework
    • CUDA on a 6 GB laptop GPU
    TrainingHarvard CS50AICS50xCS50PMachine LearningDeep Learning (CNNs)NLPImage & Speech RecognitionAI System DevelopmentMEXT-certified Math, Data Science & AI program
    The other half of the job

    Between Malaysia and Japan.

    I handle visiting delegations between the two countries, governmental, academic and diplomatic, while also shipping software. Interpreting, hosting, organising, in four languages.

    EnglishNative
    Bahasa MelayuNative
    தமிழ்Fluent
    日本語JLPT N1
    Arabic · HindiBasic
    Tinish with the Ambassador at the Embassy of Malaysia in Tokyo
    Embassy of Malaysia, Tokyo
    UiTM delegation at the University of Tokyo
    UiTM delegation · UTokyo
    MJAA visit to the Shibuya Incineration Plant
    MJAA · Shibuya plant
    1. Interpreted

      CIDB Malaysia delegation in Japan

      Interpreted for meetings with MLIT, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, briefings on the Construction Career Up System (CCUS), and a technical visit to the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel.

    2. Organised

      Malaysian Prime Minister's programme at the University of Tokyo

      June 2026, including his lecture "Humanity in a Human-Machine Civilisation". Hosted the PM's secretariat and the Majlis Belia Malaysia delegation, and ran the delegation dinner.

    3. Hosted

      UiTM professorial delegation at UTokyo

      Hosted Universiti Teknologi MARA professors at the School of Science in Hongo, ending in a formal exchange of mementoes.

    4. Interpreted

      GDG DevFest Tokyo and Education Malaysia Global Services

      Japanese and English, including technical sessions, at DevFest. Live Japanese to English and Malay for EMGS.

    5. Convened

      ASEAN youth leaders in Tokyo

      Brought student leaders together as the Malaysian representative. Plans for joint events came out of it.

    6. Organised

      MJAA visit to the Shibuya Incineration Plant

      With Horie Masahiko, Japan's Ambassador to Malaysia from 2007 to 2011 and later Japan's Ambassador for Global Environmental Affairs.

    7. Invited

      Embassy of Malaysia in Tokyo

      Met the Ambassador about an MSAJ partnership and a possible internship.

    Communities I run

    Communities I run.

    Communities where I do the organising: booking, hosting, catering, and getting people from six universities into one room.

    GDG on Campus IPUT workshop group photo
    Founder & Co-Organizer · Nov 2025 to now

    GDG on Campus IPUT

    Founded after Google approached me. Co-organised an SDGs-to-Startups hackathon and a separate SDGs build event, ran a hands-on Chrome extension workshop with Antigravity, and represented the chapter at national summits including at Google Japan. During finals week I ran a Google workshop for about 30 people with guests from overseas universities, and catered it myself.

    70+hackathon participants
    14teams
    6universities
    ~180students reached
    import tokyo
    Host

    Tokyo Python

    Hosted the Tokyo Python meetup on the IPUT campus, putting students in the same room as Tokyo's Python community.

    ASEAN youth leaders gathering in Tokyo
    Head of External Affairs · 2026 to now

    MSAJ

    Malaysian Students' Association in Japan. Before this role I was Head of Editorial and Media (2025 to Jan 2026) and received that term's Best Efficiency Award. Also recognised for the Media and Marketing committee at the MSAJ Career Fair 2025.

    2leadership terms
    1Best Efficiency Award
    2020

    Running a factory at 20.

    No photos from that year. Just what happened.

    25+→5people left on site when the Japanese staff were sent home
    7am→11pmevery day, for a year
    2governments that recognised the work: Malaysia and Japan

    I landed in Japan in March 2020, about five minutes after lockdown measures took effect. I was held at the airport for three days with no way to contact my parents, then sent home by my embassy. I had paid a year of university fees. There were no classes and no refund, and after a year I withdrew.

    Back in Malaysia I joined a Japanese sanitiser research company and became the site's general manager. When the pandemic sent the Japanese staff home, the operation dropped from more than 25 people to 5, and I ran it. Seven in the morning to eleven at night, for a year: turning research into manufactured product, handling production and shipping, exporting to Japan and supplying Malaysian medical facilities.

    In 2023 I came back to Tokyo, studied Japanese at Akamonkai until I passed N1, and started university again at IPUT in 2025.

    Recognition

    On the record.

    Awards with a certificate or a result behind them.

    1. Jul 2026

      Onward in-company co-creation competition

      Suma-Getsu, as group leader. The head of Onward's DX department came to the school to present it in person.

      1st
    2. 2026

      地域共創デザイン実習 優秀賞 · IPUT

      Regional Co-Creation Design Practicum, second place university-wide. Signed by IPUT's president 村上憲郎, formerly president of Google Japan.

      2nd
    3. 2025 term

      MSAJ Best Efficiency Award

      For the Editorial and Media term. Plus a Certificate of Appreciation for the Media and Marketing committee at the MSAJ Career Fair 2025.

      ★
    4. Hackathon

      teamLab hackathon

      Event Companion, a to-do app for event-goers, built on the day.

      2nd
    Rooms I've been in

    Learning in public.

    Events I attended or was invited to help with. Each one is labelled for exactly what it was.

    Did the workInvited to help with future eventsAttended or guest
    Heineken × Formula 1 pitchathon
    Pitched · invited back

    Heineken × Formula 1 pitchathon

    Pitched "LARP as an F1 Racer: be the team, live the celebration." Shin Suda, Heineken Japan's Marketing Director, opened the session.

    Builders & Brews (Nebius × Tavily)
    Attended

    Builders & Brews (Nebius × Tavily)

    Physical AI from Dhruv Diddi of Nebius, sovereign AI from Stefania Druga of Sakana AI. One stop on a 20-city tour.

    Camp AI: Agents at Work (Auth0)
    Attended

    Camp AI: Agents at Work (Auth0)

    In Japanese, in Shibuya. Panel with Yusuke Wada (Cloudflare, creator of Hono), Taiji Hagino (Datadog) and Haruki Goda (Sakana AI).

    Antler Japan
    Invited to help

    Antler Japan

    Day-zero VC in about 30 countries, behind 1,000+ companies including Airalo and Lovable.

    Genspark at CIC Tokyo
    Invited to help

    Genspark at CIC Tokyo

    Meet-the-founders night. Eric Jing addressed the room.

    Builders Weekend / Shipaton
    Guest

    Builders Weekend / Shipaton

    Co-hosted with Open Network Lab, Digital Garage's accelerator.

    teamLab hackathon
    2nd place

    teamLab hackathon

    Built a to-do app for event-goers on the day. Took second place.

    ASEAN youth leaders, Tokyo
    Convened

    ASEAN youth leaders, Tokyo

    Convened as the Malaysian representative. Joint events came out of it.

    TBS national television, 2024A point I raised about language became a full panel discussion among six intellectuals.
    JASSO 8th PlenaryRepresented Malaysia among Japan's international student associations.
    Guest lecture at 15Spoke to an audience of 300+ at Jamal Mohamed College, India.
    Stripe Tour TokyoAttended, including a session with a major Japanese VC.
    HENNGE developer conferenceGuest.
    Self-funded throughoutAmazon fulfilment, a kids' programming school, The Okura Tokyo, Kura Sushi, Torikizoku and a translation company.
    Internships · collaborations · speaking

    Let's build
    something useful.

    tiniissareal@gmail.com
    Download CV LinkedIn Every contact + QR