I am a Research Associate at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, working with Prof. Aaditeshwar Seth in the ICTD lab. I am currently working on 1) Tracking Socio-economic Development in Rural India Using Satellite Imagery 2) Identification of ponds, wells, plantations, and cropfields from Google maps for studying and addressing equity issues in natural resources. I am also working as a Research Assistant at Ashoka University with Prof. Anirban Sen and Prof. Debayan Gupta. At Ashoka I am working on: 1) Leveraging LLMs in generating interesting and factually correct stories around various policy issues related to annual union budgets. 2) Design and implementation of best practice principles, standards and ethical frameworks for social media in the AI era.
Before this, I was a Project Scientist in the Vision Lab at IIT Delhi, working with Prof. Nandana Sengupta and Prof. Chetan Arora. I worked on investigating possibilities of automated estimation of household-level economic variables – income and assets, typically measured using a detailed household survey.
Research Interests
I am broadly interested in ICTD (Information Communications Technology for Development), HCI (Human Computer Interaction), and Computational Social Science. My research interests lie in bringing social development impact through information technology. Through my research, I want to make a meaningful impact. Specifically, I’m interested in:
- How can we promote the social well-being of underserved communities in low-resource environments using technology?
- How can we analyze and combat misinformation and hatred on digital media so as to bring people together across race and class?
- How can we use technology for a more rewarding and easier path to innovations in Sustainability, Public Health, and Forest and Animal Conservation?
I often think about how there aren’t enough people from different backgrounds in academia, leading me to reflect on how homogenized groups can influence ideas and research in the field of AI. Through my research, I want to address this bias by exploring the following question:
To what extent can we mitigate downstream issues during the design of technologies?
a) For instance, what methods can we use to identify sources of bias and harm in downstream applications of technologies like AI?
b) What methods can we use to mitigate dataset and algorithmic sources of bias to make technology inclusive for all communities?
Education
I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Delhi University following which I pursued my Master’s degree in Computer Science from South Asian University (SAU), focusing on advanced topics in Machine Learning. At SAU, I worked with Prof. Reshma Rastogi for my thesis, which addressed the persistent challenge of data imbalance in Multi-Label datasets using Generative Adversarial Networks.
When I am not working, I cook, travel, and eat. Apart from my research passion, I have a passion to open a cooking YouTube channel focusing more on Kashmiri cuisine. I look forward to connecting with fellow researchers, professors, and industry professionals and I am always open to having a discussion on AI for social good. If you are interested, feel free to reach out via email (aatif[dot]dar11[at]gmail.com) or Twitter!