Devshi Mehrotra, AB'19, is learning about artificial intelligence technology this summer as a researcher at Stanford Law School.
Devshi Mehrotra doesn’t aspire to design the next big app or social platform. Instead, she wants to leverage technology to tackle issues ranging from criminal justice reform to income inequality, while inspiring communities around the world to do the same.
“The set of priorities that drive technological research and innovation today are not inclusive of the challenges facing large parts of society, especially not racial minorities and low-income communities,” said Mehrotra, who graduated in June from the University of Chicago with a joint bachelor’s and master’s in computer science. “I see computer science education as a tool to encourage individuals from diverse backgrounds to draw from their unique set of experiences in building products that uplift the communities they personally care about.”
Mehrotra is spending the summer as a researcher at Stanford Law School working with artificial intelligence—technology she will continue to explore this fall as part of a master’s program at Tsinghua University in Beijing, one of the world’s most renowned institutions of technology.
It is Mehrotra’s transformative experience at UChicago that inspired much of her ambitious career path. While a student in the College, Mehrotra led an organization called compileHer, which is dedicated to computer science education for young girls, particularly those of color. The group teaches an after-school tech curriculum in Chicago schools, including lessons on robotics, virtual reality, coding and drones.
