# Sivam Pillai

> Personal site and thinking lab of Sivam Pillai — AI systems, manufacturing, ideas, and musings. Primary topics: industrial intelligence, time-series ML, energy-aware systems, applied AI in factories, startups, and occasional creative work (poetry, design, photography).

Sivam Pillai is a CTO and co-founder building applied AI for industrial systems (PhD). This is a personal blog and profile site, not a company marketing site. He publishes project case studies, essays, blog posts, short notes, quotes, and creative work. Many project and blog posts reference Zolnoi (industrial AI for manufacturing).

**When to use this site vs LinkedIn:** Use this site for authored long-form thinking, project narratives, and curated resources. Use [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivampillai) for professional history, roles, and network context.

**How to navigate:**
- Main nav: Home, Projects, Writing (Essays, Blog, Quotes, Notes), Creatives (Design, Poetry, Photography), About, Now.
- Footer also links: Collections, Resources, Search, Contact.
- **Search:** `/search` — Pagefind full-text search over published content; filter by section.
- **Related content:** At the bottom of many essays, blog posts, projects, notes, and quotes, items with shared `tags` are linked (Thinking Lab).
- **Machine-readable index:** `https://sivampillai.com/sitemap.xml`
- **Slug URLs:** Content URLs use the Markdown filename stem (e.g. `e003-llm-2026` → `/essays/e003-llm-2026`). Only entries with `publishStatus: published` appear on the live site.

**Licenses:** Site code is MIT; written content is CC BY 4.0 unless noted. Attribute when reusing content.

## Start here

- [Home](https://sivampillai.com/): Tagline, intro, and a Featured sampler (project, essay, creative, quote).
- [About](https://sivampillai.com/about): Bio, values, and background in industrial AI and time-series.
- [Now](https://sivampillai.com/now): Current focus (work, research, activities, off-script); updated periodically.

## Projects

- [Projects index](https://sivampillai.com/projects): Industrial AI, monitoring, tools, and experiments.
- [DataVed](https://sivampillai.com/projects/x001-dataved-tool): Streamlit time-series exploration dashboard.
- [Eval Sakhi](https://sivampillai.com/projects/x002-evalsakhi-agent): AI evaluation agent for structured eval plans.
- [Autobot line follower](https://sivampillai.com/projects/x003-autobot-line-follower): Early robotics competition build (2009).

## Essays

- [Essays index](https://sivampillai.com/essays): Longer reflective and technical pieces.
- [What AI really unlocks](https://sivampillai.com/essays/e001-ai-unlock): Intent, abundance, and what AI changes for outcomes.
- [Deep learning evolution (2016)](https://sivampillai.com/essays/e002-deep-learning-2016): How deep learning moved from theory to traction.
- [Evolution of LLMs and AI systems](https://sivampillai.com/essays/e003-llm-2026): Transformers, scaling, RLHF, agents.
- [Research papers are not supposed to be boring](https://sivampillai.com/essays/e004-writing-research-paper): Clarity and storytelling in research writing.
- [The 5 C's that shaped my life](https://sivampillai.com/essays/e005-5cs-of-my-life): Competence, courage, confidence, connection, conscience.

## Blog

- [Blog index](https://sivampillai.com/blog): Posts with dates and categories; paginated.
- [AI for Manufacturing at Bosch Fit Fest 2024](https://sivampillai.com/blog/b001-bosch-event): Zolnoi, generative AI, time-series in manufacturing.
- [Startup lessons podcast](https://sivampillai.com/blog/b002-podcast-startup): Five lessons from building a startup.
- [Fortune India × Nasscom Future Forge 2025](https://sivampillai.com/blog/b003-fortune-india-panel): DeepTech and AI in manufacturing panel.
- [Why I love engineering](https://sivampillai.com/blog/b004-why-i-love-engineering): Reflection on engineering beyond machines.
- [Sci-fi book on Amazon](https://sivampillai.com/blog/b005-i-wrote-a-book): Navad to Earth – An Odyssey.

## Quotes and notes

- [Quotes](https://sivampillai.com/quotes): Curated quotes with tags and optional source URLs.
- [Notes](https://sivampillai.com/notes): Short ideas, observations, and snippets.
- [Writing hub](https://sivampillai.com/writing): Overview linking essays, blog, quotes, notes.

## Creatives

- [Creatives hub](https://sivampillai.com/creatives): Entry to design, poetry, photography.
- [Poetry](https://sivampillai.com/creatives/poetry): Poems; detail URLs under `/creatives/poetry/{slug}`.
- [Photography](https://sivampillai.com/creatives/photography): Gallery with lightbox.
- [Design](https://sivampillai.com/creatives/design): Slide grammar and visual storytelling (grid only).

## Collections and resources

- [Collections](https://sivampillai.com/collections): Curated bundles and themes.
- [Resources](https://sivampillai.com/resources): Books, tools, links, podcasts, repos, papers.

## Optional

- [Search](https://sivampillai.com/search): Full-text search when you know a keyword but not the section.
- [Contact](https://sivampillai.com/contact): Contact page; footer modal also submits via Formspree.
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivampillai): Professional profile.
- [X](https://x.com/SivamPillai): Short updates and commentary.
- [GitHub](https://github.com/sivampillai): Code and open-source work.
- [Medium](https://medium.com/@drspill): Cross-posted or alternate publishing.
- [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/sivampillai): Personal and social.