ACM-W Above and Beyond: Aishwarya Naresh Reganti

This month’s scholar highlighted as part of the ACM-W Above and Beyond Project is Aishwarya Naresh Reganti, who has inspired her students to express their appreciation in a remarkable way: by organising a donation in Aishwarya’s honour, inspired by the support she once received through the ACM-W scholarship. We catch up with her below as she discusses her journey and teaching philosophy.

What has been a highlight of attending the conference (utilizing the ACM-W Scholarship)?

That scholarship gave me access to international research communities I had no exposure to as an undergraduate student in India. Attending a top conference opened my eyes to what people were building, how they were thinking, and the standard of work expected. It was a mindset shift. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that experience shaped how I teach now. I care a lot about helping people understand the bar (the standards expected of the discipline), not just finish the course. The goal is to help them build real skills and confidence. That scholarship was one of the first steps that made me feel like I could even be part of this field.

How did attending the ACM-W sponsored conference impact your career?

LevelUp was built on a simple belief: people grow when someone shows up for them. I didn’t have mentors growing up who looked like me or worked in AI. But a few people along the way did bet on me, and that made a difference. With LevelUp, I wanted to make that kind of support easier to access. We run events, learning groups, and mentorship programs for folks who are early in their journeys. That’s the same kind of support ACM-W gave me back in 2017 when they helped me attend my conference.

After receiving the ACM-W scholarship in 2017, did you envision that one day you’d come full circle to inspire others to support the same organization?

Not at all. In 2017, I was just trying to find my place. The ACM-W scholarship was one of the first signs that someone out there believed in me and my potential. Years later, when my students chose to give back to the same organization (ACM-W), it honestly stopped me in my tracks. It wasn’t orchestrated or planned. It was just a ripple effect, and that’s what made it powerful. It reminded me that belief is contagious. Someone believed in me, I passed it forward through teaching, and now these students are doing the same. It’s a core memory for me, especially since this was my first cohort.

Your TEDx talk emphasized the importance of verification in an age of AI and misinformation. How does this philosophy inform the curriculum you developed for your Generative AI System Design course?

That mindset is built into how I teach. Building generative AI systems is exciting, but it comes with real risks, hallucinations, bias, and misuse. So in the course, we don’t just talk about what you can build, we talk about what you should build. We cover evaluation, grounding, traceability, and human-in-the-loop design. Teaching students to think critically about what their systems are doing, and how to validate or debug them, is just as important as teaching them how to build systems.

With your significant reach on LinkedIn and through your newsletter, ‘The Nuanced Perspective,’ how do you approach your responsibility as a role model for women in computing?

I don’t try to “perform inspiration”. What I mean with this, is that I’ve not set out to become a role model. I just share what I’ve actually seen, tried, and learned. If that helps people cut through the hype and focus on what matters, great. There’s too much noise in AI right now, and people can easily get caught up chasing whatever sounds exciting. I try to bring clarity instead. For women like me, especially those who didn’t grow up with access or a voice in these spaces, it can be hard to speak up. That’s part of what drives me. You don’t have to be loud or fit a mold to have something valuable to say. I try to model that by being direct, honest, and intentional. If it helps more women share their work, ask complex questions, or take up more space, that’s progress in my book.

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