While at Emory, PhD student Vishwanath Seshagiri worked to solve technical problems, producing solutions that will likely assist developers working with computer logs.
Class of 2025 graduate Vishwanath Seshagiri will receive his PhD in computer science and informatics from Laney Graduate School this spring. Before attending Emory, Seshagiri obtained his bachelor's degree in engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy in Chennai, India.
His educational background and experiences led him to develop his research thesis "The Whole Nine-Nine Yard: Observability for the Observers," which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to bridge the gap between those who collect logs — records of events that occur within a system, application or network — and those who create logs.
"With my thesis, we have effectively built a 'ChatGPT for Log Search' that can take logs from various sources and provide them to developers. By reducing the time spent searching logs, my work would reduce developers' debugging time, making them more productive," says Seshagiri.
His research will assist developers who spend time and resources troubleshooting everyday issues — like why a video isn't playing properly for users in a specific region. The root cause might be buried in a massive, disorganized sea of system logs generated across thousands of servers. Seshagiri's work acts like a smart assistant, instantly pulling relevant logs from multiple sources and translating them into something understandable and actionable.
After graduation, Seshagiri will join Meta as a research scientist focused on advancing the Linux kernel, the foundational layer of the Linux operating system that manages hardware, memory and system resources.
Beyond his academic achievements, Seshagiri served as vice president of the Laney Graduate Student Council for three years. He credits the support of Laney's Office of Student Affairs — particularly Assistant Dean Jennifer Cason — for helping him navigate the challenges of graduate school and balance multiple responsibilities.
"The workload was more than I expected," says Seshagiri."However, Dean Cason's advice on managing various commitments was really helpful, and I'll continue to apply it in my life after graduating."
Seshagiri's work ethic and impact have not gone unnoticed, particularly by his PhD advisors Avani Wildani, assistant professor of math and computer science, and Andreas Zufle, associate professor of computer science.
"Vishwanath has demonstrated himself as a brilliant researcher who knows how to develop cutting-edge research ideas and inspire a broad, diverse community of collaborators to pursue his vision with him. He has a great pulse on the field and knows when to take advice and when to push back to defend his ideas," says Wildani.
Seshagiri has a reputation for identifying forward-thinking research paths and bold, transformative ideas well before they hit the mainstream.
One such idea — using public financial transaction data to detect patterns of money laundering — has gained serious traction: the concept has spread widely enough that the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched an entire research initiative based on that very approach. Though the DARPA project isn't directly connected with Seshagiri's work, the growing interest highlights the visionary scope of his work.
As he prepares to take the next step in his career, Seshagiri carries with him not just knowledge and technical skills, but also the curiosity and vision that define a true innovator.
"While most PhD students develop deep expertise within a single narrow subfield, Seshagiri distinguishes himself by mastering a wide range of areas — including databases, systems, machine learning, software engineering and language models," says Zufle. "This rare and comprehensive understanding allows Vish to see the broader landscape of opportunities and challenges in ways that others, including myself, often cannot."
