Between the Algorithm and the Lens

I've been staring at this blank editor for twenty minutes. Not because I don't know what to say — but because I'm not sure where a person like me even begins.

My name is Souvik Bagchi. I'm a third-year Computer Science student at Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, specializing in Data Science. I build software. I shoot streets. I make music that sounds like the inside of a city that doesn't exist yet. And somewhere in between all of that — I do research on using machine learning to predict drug resistance in breast cancer.

If that sounds like a lot of contradictions in one sentence, you're right. But I've stopped trying to resolve them.

---

The Builder

The earliest thing I remember caring about was making things work. Not just running — working. Elegantly. Efficiently. In a way that felt like it had intention behind every line.

That instinct led me to Android development, to Linux ricing, to eventually shipping Voxtrona Music — an app live on the Play Store with a real user base, a cyberpunk aesthetic I designed from scratch, and a discovery layer that treats music the way it deserves to be treated: as an experience, not a commodity.

It led me to hackathons — most recently winning first place at the SIGIL WebOps Hackathon with a real-time catering platform powered by Next.js 15, Firebase, and Gemini 2.5 Flash. It led me to campus leadership roles: Google Campus Ambassador, IBM Z Student Ambassador, Open Source Connect Campus Lead — not because I wanted titles, but because I genuinely believe the people around you level you up, and I wanted to be someone who creates those environments.

---

The Researcher

There's a version of me that exists only in fluorescent light and terminal windows, training models on genomic data at 11pm.

Under Dr. Himangshu Pal, I've been working on something that matters in a way most side projects don't: applying machine learning to predict chemotherapy drug resistance in breast cancer. We are exploring ways to leverage genomic sequences to build reliable predictive models, and we're currently preparing to submit our findings to a conference.

I think about this work differently from the rest. Code for a product is code you can iterate. Code that might eventually inform a treatment decision for a real person — that's different weight. That's the kind of problem I want to be in the room for.

---

The Photographer

I shoot street photography under @mrhyperion. West Bengal mostly. Sikkim sometimes. The spaces between things — a vendor's cart under sodium light, a stranger mid-motion on a platform, the specific way rain changes how a road reflects the world above it.

Photography taught me something that engineering school didn't: that most of composition is about what you leave out. The frame is ruthless. You can't fit everything, so you have to decide what matters, right now, before the moment ends.

I've carried that into everything else I do.

---

The Sound

As Hollow Ink, I make ambient and soundtrack music — the kind that doesn't announce itself. Atmospheric. Cinematic. It lives in the background of moments that feel too large for words but too quiet for silence.

I think of it as the score to whatever I'm building at the time. Some of my best code was written to tracks I made myself. There's a kind of feedback loop in that I haven't fully figured out yet, but I'm not in a hurry to.

---

Why This Exists

I built this space because I was tired of portfolios that look like portfolios. Grid of projects, list of skills, contact form. Fine. Functional. Forgettable.

I wanted something that felt like an arrival. A place you enter, not a document you scan. So I built this experience — and this blog is part of it. Not a list of updates. Not a thought leadership channel. Just honest writing about what I'm building, what I'm learning, what I'm getting wrong, and occasionally what I'm getting right.

If any of that sounds interesting to you — welcome. I'm glad you're here.

"The work is the thing. Everything else is just evidence that you showed up."

— Souvik Bagchi
Sikkim, India · June 2026