“It's truly unfathomable,” said Surya Karthikeyan Vijayalakshmi, a new graduate of the University of Florida’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. “If you told me 15 years ago that I'd be here at UF with an AI Medallion, with a job offer after, and with lifelong friends, I would’ve been very grateful, for sure.”
Prior to his journey in Gainesville, Karthikeyan Vijayalakshmi was born in Chennai, India. His family moved to Florida when he was just 11 years old.
“Being an international student comes in many different shapes,” said Karthikeyan Vijayalakshmi. “I'm someone who is truly blessed. Due to my family's sacrifices, I came here at a much earlier time in my life. About half of my life was spent in India and then half over here. It's something that impacts you very much off-screen. The sacrifice that my family went through is something that is really going to hit me as I walk across that stage on May 2nd.”
Karthikeyan Vijayalakshmi earned his Bachelor of Science. His passion for technology, which led him to UF to study computer science, started a decade earlier.
“Growing up, my dad would bring the latest smartphones, and we had a personal computer. I didn't have a Nintendo or anything, so all my gaming would be done there. I grew up around a lot of technology. As I enrolled in math and science classes in high school, the problem-solving nature in me really grew. I think combining both of those together really was my decision to pick computer science. And UF being the best in the state for computer science, it was an easy decision for me.”
Despite the impacts of artificial intelligence on the job market, Karthikeyan Vijayalakshmi is confident in the value of his computer science degree.
“The stigma that you can only work tech roles is not very true. I think having computer science as your degree gives you the most freedom if anything, especially with AI tools now. It gives you that base knowledge of fundamentally how technology and computers work, which you can then use in quite literally any industry.”
In the summer of 2025, Karthikeyan Vijayalakshmi took on an internship in California as a software development engineer at Amazon. He worked on devices, focusing on Fire TV and Amazon Photos.
Surya Karthikeyan Vijayalakshmi standing next to an Amazon sign
“I put in a lot of hours,” he said. “I really got to see how a big corporation like that functions, how quickly they push out code, the quality of their code, and the logistics side of things. Of course, I was a little nervous in the beginning having to tackle this whole big codebase that I had no idea about. I ended up using AI agents almost every single day to write code.”
Across his undergraduate career, Karthikeyan Vijayalakshmi served as a web and education technology development intern for a variety of organizations, including UF College of Education, UF Health Cancer Center, and Gator Growl. He also worked as a STEM Researcher for SMILE Labs, interned with Gator Bazaar, and served as Vice President of UF’s chapter for the Association of Computing Machinery. All this experience with coding and AI prepared him to excel in his Amazon internship.
“That really helped me a lot, having done that during my time at UF with all these students and with the courses on how I can better use AI,” he said. “So, I learned a lot there, put in the hours, and luckily I'll be returning to Amazon full-time as a software development engineer this upcoming summer.”
Karthikeyan Vijayalakshmi is one of the AI-ready graduates coming out of UF. Throughout his educational program, he witnessed how quickly the technology evolved.
“I think it's a very interesting thing for me and my class because we were on the forefront of AI, when it was shifting from just being a trend into something that we use in the real world now and having to adapt with that. I think the biggest benefit that I had going to UF was I was surrounded by like-minded folks who wanted to be the best at what they do. I know people that write their own LLMs, they train their own programs, they're up to date with all the latest information. And so being surrounded by them, I made sure that I also didn't fall behind and I had the latest information to use in my projects. And it really did help me get to where I am now.”
He is also one of the very first University of Florida students to earn an AI Graduation Medallion, which the AI² Center rewards student who gain experience through internships, experiential learning, clubs, and research with a coveted symbol of the Gator Standard.
“The AI Medallion signifies staying up to date with everything that's new. I think there's a lot of drastic change that comes with AI. Being a medallion owner, learning about AI and interacting with the UF community, I think truly sets you apart from a candidate that chooses not to. In this modern world, I do believe that the folks who use AI to their benefit will end up having a slightly better hand than those who do not. Having that medallion up there, I hope spreads that message to everybody that this is something that we need to learn more about and use to our advantage, to excel all our careers.”
As a newly minted alum, Karthikeyan Vijayalakshmi now looks forward to engaging with the Gator Nation and offering his support to students and graduates coming after him.
“Gators love to help Gators,” he said. “Once that happens to you first, it truly changes your perspective on what you can do, what you thought you could do, and to what you know you can do. And I think that's truly something that's really motivated me to keep going. And I hope to be on the other side now giving back.”