From Scholar to Teacher: Aishwarya Naresh Reganti Comes Full Circle
Adriana Wilde
In 2017, Aishwarya Naresh Reganti was awarded an ACM-W scholarship to attend AAAI-17. As she told us then, as an undergraduate student at the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Sri City, this was a momentous opportunity that helped shape her journey in computing and set the stage for what would become an inspiring trajectory. Since then, she has graduated and built a great career in artificial intelligence (AI), with research experience in top universities, such as the University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, and the University of Oxford, as well as with industry leaders such as Microsoft and Amazon. Today, Aishwarya is thriving professionally, having recently co-founded a young start-up which already counts with a formidable portfolio of big clients. She still finds time to give back in powerful ways, as a mentor and educator, as well as a very visible role model for women in AI.
Earlier this year, Aishwarya delivered a powerful TEDx talk in Jacksonville explaining to her audience how the confluence of social media and AI has led us into a dangerous misinformation age. Her talk explains the fast-paced advances in generative AI: from producing clumsy text and distorted images as recently as 2019 to generating realistic stories, lifelike images, and even videos today. Combined with the personalisation algorithms of social media (where many get their news), this creates a dangerous ecosystem. While researchers like herself continue to work on technical solutions, she urged individuals to play an active role: looking more closely for inconsistencies, checking reliable verification sites, and above all, questioning rather than believing what they see online.
Another notable example of Aishwarya’s impactful contributions is the popular 6-week Maven course titled “Building Agentic AI Applications with a Problem-First Approach”, in which she and her partner, Kiriti Badam, served as instructors for the first time this year. This course was extremely well-received by participants around the world. Aishwarya’s and Kiriti’s engaging teaching style and expertise left a lasting impression on both of the cohorts in March and July this year. In addition to the overwhelmingly positive feedback left on their site by many participants, several of them came together 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.
Impressions on ACM Women
“Her story struck a chord with all of us,” shared Melanie Lam, one of the course participants who helped coordinate the effort. “We saw firsthand the value of investing in talent early, and we wanted to pay it forward by supporting the next generation.” The gesture speaks volumes about the ripple effects of community support and mentorship.
Aishwarya’s journey – from scholarship recipient to educator whose work is now inspiring others to give – is a powerful example of impact. The Chair of ACM-W, Dr Rukiye Altin, shared: “It’s been amazing to see how far Aishwarya has come. What touched me deeply this year is that we received donations made in Aishwarya’s name and her partner Kiriti’s name to support other students. This kind and thoughtful gesture means so much to all of us.” Rukiye continues, “As ACM-W, we are truly thankful to Aishwarya and all the anonymous donors inspired by her story. Your support means the world to our community. You remind us why we do this work: because investing in women in computing makes a lasting difference.”