About
Atharva Dhekne “tacitonic”, is a recent graduate in Music Technology from the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University (NYU). He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Pune. Born in 1999, Atharva has been playing and learning classical piano since the age of 5. His cross-domain research interests include interactive audio, spatial audio, game audio, mixing, mastering, recording, engineering, production, audio programming, sound design, and product design.
A research and development professional with generalist experience in audio, music, gaming, technology, production, project management, open source, design, and UI/UX development, Atharva has worked on projects spanning the globe and impacting millions. Notably, he has done research and worked on projects with Rockstar Games, NYU, Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, WordPress, Google, the Apache Software Foundation, Muellners Foundation, and the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI; Ministry of Industries, Government of India).
Apart from academics, Atharva’s passion is undoubtedly for his extracurriculars and volunteering. Being a true proponent of holistic development, he has given immense prominence to community building. Particularly, he has led multiple teams in organizing three TEDx events, the treasury in his college’s departmental student organization, and the editorial team for Google’s Developer Student Clubs. He has also volunteered for organizing various conferences including three Audio Engineering Society (AES) Conventions as an Event Coordinator and at the IRCAM Forum New York.
Atharva has collaborated with a distinctive ensemble of distinguished artists including Kevin Killen (David Bowie, U2, Bon Jovi, Elvis Costello, Kate Bush, Shakira, Peter Gabriel), Greg Ellis (Billy Idol, Mickey Hart, Ust. Zakir Hussain), Taufiq Qureshi (Ust. Allarakha, Ust. Zakir Hussain), and many more. At NYU Steinhardt and the Clive Davis Institute he studied under and assisted the likes of accomplished engineers, producers, and leaders such as Kevin Killen, Jim Anderson, Ulrike Anderson, Nick Sansano, Alan Silverman, Bob Power, Jeff Peretz, Michael O’Reilly, Erin Tonkon, Errol Kolosine, Bobby Wooten III, Kenta Yonesaka, Ahmir “?UESTLOVE” Thompson and Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter (The Roots), and Viven Goldman. He appreciates a diverse scope of musical genres and is influenced by an extensive gamut of creative and musical artists. See his Favorites playlist for particulars. Atharva extends from this extensive sonic vocabulary to realize a unique multi-modal artistic identity.
Chat with Atharva about gaming, typography, geo-politics, languages, or the Oxford comma, and you’ll get his absolute attention. Atharva wishes to pursue his passion for audio and music as his profession. One more thing he wishes, is to not write this bio in third person.
You can view his Resume and Curriculum Vitae (CV).
Professional Experience
Kevin Killen
Assistant Audio Engineer, Producer, Archivist
- Assisting 8x Grammy Award winning producer and mixing engineer Kevin Killen, with credits including David Bowie, U2, Bon Jovi, Elvis Costello, Kate Bush, Shakira, and Peter Gabriel.
- Engineering overall audio post-production and sound mixing workflows.
- Overseeing studio administration, scheduling, and production-related tasks.
- Facilitating archival and documentation of multi-track projects.
New York University
Audio Engineer, Production Coordinator
- Engineered the Turn Up Festival 2023 based on NYU Holodeck (NSF Award #1626098).
- Enabled audio linking between NYU and the University of Arizona for their distributed performances using CoreLink (NYU High Speed Research Network); engineering audio for the performances.
- Coordinated and managed audio, rehearsals, final performances, and overall production for the dancers, musicians, and students.
Rockstar Games
Audio Programmer Intern
- Worked on audio and music implementations on the engine and game level, as well as design and production aspects for an unannounced project.
- Expanded data-driven functionality of DSP effects on the effect chain using Rockstar proprietary audio tools.
- Implemented variable parameter functionality for the proprietary synthesizer and all DSP effects, enabling macro functionality for multiple parameters.
- Added mastering effect chain functionality to the master buss.
- Introduced console-specific debugging and audio metering capabilities to builds of the game. Added console-specific audio mastering functionality in-game.
Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music
Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
Production Assistant
- Oversaw and advised technical and administrative activities for clients, engineers, faculty, and students in the production studios and labs, for recording sessions, classes, and events.
- Handled record-keeping, supervised inventory, troubleshooting, and maintenance of software, instruments, microphones, and audio equipment.
- Coordinated studio bookings and providing technical assistance in recording and class sessions to a wide range of creators ranging from professional recording artists, to in-house student artists and performers, to film scoring composers and musicians.
WordPress, Google
Technical Writer and Project Committer
- Technical Writer for Google and Google Developers’ Season of Docs 2020. Designed a “Full and Renewed set of Documentation Style Guide” for WordPress.org which is used universally across WordPress documentation.
- Individually designed and wrote over 110 components of the WordPress Style Guide to be used globally by all WordPress developers and users. The Style Guide has been published internationally, for use for over 455 million websites that form a 40% share of all the websites on the internet.
- Contributor to the WordPress Core, Meta, Docs, and Polyglots communities.
Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI)
Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India
Project Researcher
- Project research on sensor fusion in application of autonomous self-driving vehicles. Part of the Technology Group in ARAI. Capstone final-year academic project for B.Eng. in Computer Engineering.
- Implemented RADAR, LiDAR, and camera sensor fusion for static and dynamic object detection.
Muellners Foundation Denmark
Project Manager, Research and Development Fellow
- Oversaw and assisted in the general administration and OSS operations for the Foundation. Configured and facilitated the IT infrastructure, community and development channels, and onboarding process for new members.
- Independently acquired and facilitated non-profit grants from Google, Techsoup.org, Microsoft, Slack, Amazon, Adobe, Atlassian among others.
- Migrated development infrastructure of the Foundation to Agile methodologies using Jira. Enhanced Product Management by upgrading user management, permission schemes, project roles, global permissions, and issue ticketing.
- Co-authored and presented research on “BitRupee: Passwordless authentication using ZKP Bitcoin protocol” at ApacheCon 2020. Research implemented on an open source blockchain-based cryptography wallet aimed at transparent fund donation and allocation in the working of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Developed the website of the project using Jekyll while also building the UI and UX for the wallet using AngularJS.
- Assisted in developing an unnamed Bounty Program as a product platform in collaboration with the Apache Software Foundation (Apache Fineract); primarily for fintech developers.
Campus and Community Involvement
TEDxPVGCOET
Licensee and Lead Organizer
- TED Conferences Licensee and Organizer for TEDxPVGCOET 2021. Led an organizing team of 35 members.
Logistics and Operations Lead
- Responsible for managing operations and logistics for the entire event with a total yield amounting to over INR 1.5 lacs. Greg Ellis, Achyut Godbole, Saransh Sharma, Gaurav Sangtani were the highlights of the Speaker Panel which consisted of 6 speakers and also featured 5 artist performers for the conference.
- Curator for percussionist Greg Ellis for the project “Drum Language and the Rhythm of Indian Traffic”. Arranged a multi-instrument rhythm performance with famed percussionists Greg Ellis and Nitin Satav.
- Acquired 4 organizations as sponsors independently, with funding amounting to over INR 50,000. Developed the tedxpvgcoet.com website and peripheral social media.
TEDxKothrud
Lead Organizer
- TED Conferences Organizer for TEDxKothrud. Co-led an organizing team of 50 members.
- Organized a TED Countdown event, which is a global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action. The speaker panel consisted of Dr. Janak Palta McGilligan, Greg Ellis, Sayali Andhare, Sid Thatham, and Vivek Gurav.
Google Developer Student Club PVGCOET
Chief Editor
- Responsible as the Chief Editor for Google DSC PVGCOET. Team Lead (Core) for the Editorial Team.
- Open source proponent for the club.