Patel is currently an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University. His core research focuses on the intersection of machine learning and computational neuroscience, with a key emphasis on learning abstractions, which is critical for understanding and constructing truly intelligent systems. Before returning to academia, he spent six years in the industry, where he developed real-time inference systems trained on large-scale data for ballistic missile defense at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and algorithmic trading at a top global high-frequency market-making firm. He obtained his Ph.D., M.S., and B.A. in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from Harvard University, supported by an NSF graduate fellowship.