Talk Intermediate

It is Time to Invent AI, Not Just Use It: 10 AI Project Ideas for the Engineer in You

Rejected

Session Description

The AI revolution isn’t just about using tools - it’s about inventing them.

In this talk, we’ll deconstruct how AI is built - tracing breakthroughs from BERT's open source release to physics based models like Genesis - to highlight a repeatable method grounded in open collaboration, modular experimentation, and community driven problem solving. We’ll then dive into 10 actionable project ideas - from training foundational models on domain specific knowledge graphs to multi-modal, multi-physical AI to run robots to controlling drone swarms using multi-agent AI.

No prior AI expertise and no GPUs? That’s an advantage since fresh perspectives and scarcity lead to new architectures. You may rethink causal reasoning for medical diagnosis, run models on small devices or design AI benchmarks tailored to Indian cultural contexts. We’ll close with open-source repos, datasets, and playgrounds to turn these ideas into code.

AI’s next breakthrough won’t come from trillion parameter models - it’ll start from your pull request. Let's begin.

Session Categories

FOSS

Speakers

Rahul Kulkarni Technologist, Educator and Mentor | DoNew

Rahul Kulkarni is a technologist, educator, and mentor who, over his two-decade career, has built several groundbreaking products and teams globally. Currently he wears multiple hats - in his role as Chief Technologist at Samagra, Rahul leads digital transformations across state governments using open-source solutions while building internal capabilities. He has helped architect key national DPIs (Digital Public Infrastructure) and population scale AI implementations, and has pioneered the Code for GovTech mentoring program to accelerate open-source DPGs in India.

As Co-founder and Partner at DoNew, he applies strength- and project-based mentorship models to help organizations build moonshots. He works closely with global giants like the Tata Group, Amdocs and Fiserv, as well as startups supported by the Central Square Foundation and Michael Susan & Dell Foundation.

As Adjunct Faculty at Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, Rahul is shaping one of India’s first regional-language Bachelor’s programs in Computer Science. He also drives India’s National Education Policy (NEP) adoption as a Malaviya Mission Mentor and is a Fellow at the Anjali Morris Foundation for students with dyslexia.

Previously, Rahul was Chief Product Officer at Sokrati (later acquired by Dentsu-Japan) and spent six years at Google, where he helped build iconic products like Google Finance, Orkut, and Google India Maps. Earlier in his career, he led LabVIEW at National Instruments, developing high-speed control systems for clients like NASA and CERN.

Rahul holds 9 patents, has spoken at the United Nations and TEDx, and earned a Masters in Engineering from Georgia Tech and a Bachelors from VJTI Mumbai.