Prajakta Pardeshi

My journey in AI began about 14 years ago during my undergraduate studies in India, where I was deeply involved in robotics and worked on classical computer vision algorithms to help robots navigate automatically. That early passion nudged me to explore opportunities in the United States, where I pursued my master's degree in computer science, completing it in 2018. During my master's program, I was exposed to extensive machine learning courses, which opened up the modeling aspects of AI for me. I genuinely love working on mathematical equations and algorithms, and AI and machine learning are essentially all about training those equations and algorithms. Over approximately 8 years in the field, I have contributed to the community by conducting two workshops in AI with Women Who Code in Chicago and giving talks on AI, including one hosted at GitHub in 2024. While I have been focused on my professional obligations recently, I have also volunteered with a non-profit working on climate conservation. My broader goal for the future is to utilize AI to solve climate problems, particularly working on conservation projects and coral reef protection projects. I wouldn't limit myself to solving climate issues only through AI, but that will be my starting point as I head into the climate and sustainability space.