Judge Pool

Rithwik Sudharsan

Paragon / Zipline / Berkeley

I’m Rithwik, a postgraduate researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. I completed dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Computer Science and Cognitive Science, and now I’m diving into AI research in Joshua Bloom’s lab, exploring how AI can drive advancements in science. My work has been published as a first-author paper at ICLR 2024, and I’m currently developing software for a CubeSat constellation that’s set to launch in 2026. In addition to my academic work, I’m passionate about tech policy and community engagement. I’m a founding member of the Paragon Fellowship, a nonprofit startup that raised $150K to support pro-bono tech policy consulting for local and state governments. I also serve as a commissioner for the City of Berkeley and contribute as an open-source intelligence analyst for the Berkeley Human Rights Investigations Lab

Richard Tang

Thinkvas AI/Learnest AI

Richard is currently a Data Scientist @ Asana, running 501c3 non-profit called Learnest to promote responsible AI in education, and building a startup called Thinkvas AI, a one-stop visual study space like NotebookLM+Figma. Richard holds a MS in Education Data Science from Stanford University and BA in Economics from University of California, Berkeley.

Adil Jussupov

PocketDot, Inc.

I'm Stanford Design Engineering alumni and the founder of PocketDot, an award-winning accessibility startup born at Stanford that develops innovative Braille technology for blind and visually impaired individuals. With a background in engineering, design, and business, I have led cross-functional teams, built prototypes, and secured early traction in the accessibility space. I'm passionate about creating human-centered solutions that combine technology, impact, and inclusivity.

Gladys

Beta University

Building the #1 pre-accelerator in the Silicon Valley, helping 400+ founders build VC-fundable business each year.

Clarence Chen

TravoAI

Co-founder and CEO of Travo (YC W26), a real estate data platform that lets users search any property and instantly access rental comps, ownership, zoning, and financials. He studied EECS at Stanford, previously built and sold an education company.

Yi Luo

Ello/Echoher/Beta University

Yi Luo is a Learning Designer at Ello (YC W20, Series A EdTech), where she builds conversational AI and tutoring systems integrating ASR/TTS and generative AI. She has designed global entrepreneurship curricula at Beta University, supporting 200+ startups and 2,000+ learners, and contributes to Echoher, a nonprofit for women and nonbinary founders. She also founded LingoEcho (recognized as a YC China Top 1% and Microsoft Startup Hub company) and has worked on speech data research at TikTok and Side. With publications and conference talks in computational linguistics, she focuses on advancing innovation at the intersection of AI, language, and education.

Dylan Vu

Amazon

Software developer at Amazon Health (One Medical) and UC Irvine computer science graduate specializing in full-stack web development with TypeScript, React, and Node.js. He actively mentors at hackathons and has experience spanning web, mobile, embedded, and game development.

Jennifer Lin

Stanford & Founder of Nexora

I am a Stanford MS in Learning Design & Technology graduate and founder of Nexora, an AI startup transforming how global teams communicate. With experience across three continents and a track record of building corporate training programs for Fortune 500 companies, I specialize in cross-cultural communication, product design, and EdTech innovation. I love joining hackathons and won a prize the first time I participated in one!

BHAVUK JAIN

Google

A bit about me: 1. Tech Lead at Google Research - Applied AI 2. Google Summer of Code Mentor 2025 (Oppia), helping students and developers navigate open-source AI projects. 3. Recently I participated as a judge and panelist at a hackathon organized by Cortex AI, which gave me a great perspective on how builders are experimenting with applied AI. 4. Currently working on applying AI agents to enterprise developer workflows on Google Cloud, bridging research and real-world applications. Given my background, I would love to contribute to the hackathon as a judge/mentor.

Muthu Selvam

U.S. BANK

Muthu Selvam is a Lead Software Engineer and Vice President at U.S. Bank, specializing in Frontend Engineering, AI, and Digital Banking innovation. With over 13 years of experience, he has pioneered secure, scalable financial platforms and authored research in AI-driven fraud detection, customer experience, and fintech. He actively contributes as a peer reviewer, technical program committee member, and conference speaker, advancing global discussions in AI and financial technology.

Vishal Paul

PayPal

Senior Software Engineer at PayPal with over two years of experience designing and implementing AI-driven solutions as part of the AITech team. Contributed to advancing machine learning systems by leveraging expertise in algorithms, Java, and Python, aligning technical innovations with business objectives. Previously supported machine learning platform initiatives during an internship at PayPal, contributing to automation and scalability. Passionate about building robust, scalable systems that empower data-driven decision-making. Committed to fostering collaboration and delivering impactful solutions in the financial technology space.

Syed Mustafa

Fidimension

A Master’s in Computer Science, working as a software developer, and building multiple projects aiming to market them.

David Yuan

IntBot

Co-founder of IntBot, a robotics startup building cutting-edge humanoid robots for interactive and digital tasks. Former researcher at Stanford AI Lab (SAIL), holds a BS in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Shreyash Karandikar

Moodys

Currently working as Full Stack Engineer at Moody's. Participated in 8 hackathons won 4. Judged and mentored 3 hackathons

Akshata Kishore Moharir

Microsoft

AI researcher and Adjunct Faculty specializing in Responsible AI, Explainable AI, and applied machine learning for fraud detection, aviation safety, and environmental risk prediction. I have authored several published papers and patents in the field of AI/ML, reflecting both research excellence and practical impact. I serves as a reviewer & mentor for leading conferences including NeurIPS, ICML, AAAI, and IJCAI, and has also contributed as a judge for the American Statistical Association (ASA), IEEE Computer Society, and MIT-affiliated events. She is passionate about advancing ethical, transparent AI while mentoring the next generation of innovators.

Madhav Goenka

Celestral AI

Stanford Alum, built and sold custom AI solutions to Fortune 500 companies as a (technical) consultant, building the context layer of agentic automation

Adi Singh

Dereference

Engineer. 12x Hackathon winner, Startup founder raising pre seed. In EF incubator. Happy to judge in ML and similar niches.

Mohamed Sobhy

Morpha

I ranked 3rd in the Egyptian olympiad in informatics in 2020 and 2021, from a pool of +10,000 participants. During college (BEng in Computer Science at HKUST), I started exploring entrepreneurial ideas, and in a span of few months, I taught myself web development with a modern tech stack. Currently I'm building an AI startup in the computer vision space.

Anmol Jain

Pure Storage

Anmol Jain is a Technical Product Manager specializing in AI-driven platforms, cloud infrastructure, and enterprise data systems. She has led strategy and development for next-generation storage and SaaS solutions at Pure Storage, VMware, Brillio, and Accenture, and has consulted on healthcare innovation projects with health-tech startups such as ixlayer and Allergood. An active member of Women in Product and the GHC community, she is committed to advancing equitable access, reskilling, and representation in tech.

aziz rakhimov

omi

built bunch of hardware projects during t like ember mole, lifebulb, hydrotor, etc founded heat robotics https://www.linkedin.com/company/heat-robotics head of hardware at omi - manufactured 10k+ omi products worldwide - designed + manufactured omi wristband - designed + manufactured omi firmware developer kit all links in my linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azizrak/

Nilli Martinez

MIT

Nilli is an MBA candidate at MIT and a former Hardware Engineer at Google. Over the past five years, she has led cross-functional efforts at companies like Bossa Nova Robotics, View (IoT), and Google Cloud to modernize lab workflows, improve test systems, and scale hardware development. She blends deep engineering expertise with product thinking and a passion for reimagining how we build and test physical products.

Mohammed Rayan Boukhanifi

Mortar

Current ceo at Mortar building autonomy platform for industrial work (800k$ in contracts in 8 weeks) ex-head of hardware Pickle (raised 5m$ and YCW25) we worked there with teams from Qualcomm and OpenAI CSE at CUHK, worked in stanford-cuhksz makerlab

Sarthak

Bhanzu

A strategic business leader driving global expansion across 16+ countries, with expertise in international market strategy, education innovation, and scalable operations. He has played a key role in raising $33.5 million across three funding rounds, building cross-functional teams

Joshua Davis

Frances (AI Marketplace for Home Cooks) / Stanford

Joshua is a Stanford GSB grad and Schwarzman Scholar on a mission to make healthy food exciting, accessible, and affordable for all. This journey has spanned the past 7 years, during which he's moonlighted from 7pm-2am as a line cook, built a hydroponic farm in his apartment, donated 20,000 lbs of produce to service-workers during COVID, and started a kombucha company in China. Today, he's building a new venture that provides high-quality, affordable food for anyone who doesn't want to cook.

Manuel Romero

Domu AI

GTM Engineer at Domu (YC S24), a Voice AI company that grew from $1M to $5M ARR in four months, securing enterprise clients across banking, fintech, and telecom. Experienced in building GTM systems that connect data infrastructure, automation, and AI-driven sales execution.

Patrick Sun

Average Tech Lab

I’m the co-founder of Average Tech Lab, where we build and scale consumer apps end-to-end ($3M in annual run rate, acquired in under a year). I also previously worked on deep learning inference infrastructure at Microsoft AI.

Aurora Feng

Neural Motion

I'm currently building Neural Motion, a robotics infra startup that turns messy data into a standardized, reusable, embodiment-agnostic layer. I graduated from Stanford University and was previously heavily involved in early stage venture at Pear VC and ZhenFund.

Tien Nguyen

Google

I am SWE in AI & Infrastructure in Google, and I like to be active engagement with my peers and students to help them both career-wise and job.

Vikranth Kumar Shivaa

Fig

Engineering leader and startup founder with 6+ years of experience scaling AI, FinTech, and consumer products to millions of users. Engineering at Fig (200K+ downloads, 50K+ sites), Co-Founder & CTO of Nooble (100X.VC Class 05, $150K+ pre-seed, Product Hunt feature), and Co-Founder of HAL51.AI (inventor of Lemurbox, the world’s most affordable AI holographic learning device). Early at FamApp (20M+ users, $42.7M+ raised).

Dan Aleksandrov

Kiln

I lead product marketing & GTM at Kiln ($18B in assets, working with the largest DeFi protocols and TradFi), previously scaled Mercuryo €10M→80M ARR, and won a couple hackathons myself.

Hoc Phan

Okahu, Inc

Hoc is the technical realist, obsessed with the hard “how.” As an expert in data, AI, and enterprise‑scale architecture, he focuses on the Enterprise Readiness Gap: the tech debt, API design, security, and data‑silo blockers that quietly kill most agent pilots.

Haolin Guo

Meta

Software engineer with experience at Ripple, Lookout, Bayesian Group, Huawei Technologies, and IBM. His background spans data ingestion pipelines, GraphQL APIs, cryptocurrency trading platforms, and data security systems.

Nihar Bhujbal

Republic Finance

I'm Nihar Bhujbal, a Senior Data Scientist and Machine Learning Engineer based in Dallas, TX, with over 7 years of experience building and deploying production-grade ML systems across finance, e-commerce, and cybersecurity. I currently lead credit risk modeling and LLM-powered applications at Republic Finance, managing models that govern a $3B portfolio and driving hundreds of millions in revenue. I hold a Master's in Data Science from Georgia State University and work across the full ML stack, from big data infrastructure and cloud platforms to deep learning, NLP, and generative AI.

Chloe Pilon Vaillancourt

Qarnot

Engineer in Physics, with a background in Cloud, AI, hardware and Multiphysics SaaS (CFD, Physical AI, etc.). Hackathons aficionados (Agentic, GPU, Application, etc.).

COMPAORE Mohamado

Madson business center

Entrepreneur based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, associated with Madson Business Center. Active in the West African tech and business community.

Amaan Saigal

Improvability AI

Chief Executive Officer at Improvability AI, a generative AI platform for sustainability reporting and due diligence based in London. He previously worked at Perplexity, Terrascope, and ESG Management Services, and holds a Master of Science in Fintech with Business Analytics from the University of Westminster.

Hrishikesh Chakrapani

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Senior Data scientist working with Agentic AI based solutions and experience in Machine learning algorithms, Vision techniques and RAG

Yaxing Yu

Apple

AI Product Manager at Apple who has delivered B2B and B2C products reaching millions of users. Over 10 years of product delivery experience with strong expertise in real industry use cases and customer feedback. Experienced hackathon judge.

sreeprasad govindankutty

Reddit

I am working on Safety AI for content moderation at Reddit.I work on backend to remove any violating content that gets posted to Reddit. I love side projects and chess. I would be honored to mentor/ judge and support in any way I can.

Ziyang Ding

ByteDance

AI engineer based in San Jose with a Stanford University education, currently at Fireworks AI. Described as someone who learns, thinks, and executes fast, with experience spanning applied machine learning and AI systems. Previously at ByteDance.

Ujjwal Gulecha

Anthropic

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ujjwalgulecha/ Experienced engineering leader with more than 8+ years of experience with expertise in distributed systems, consumer facing products, AI/ML usage in product apps. I led the team responsible for the homepage at Doordash which was the highest visibility, impact and tier 0 area. I have built systems which generate multi billion dollars of revenue for Doordash. Now joining anthropic to build AI/ML systems which I believe is the future of the world

Arvind Nedumaran

Genledger

I'm a serial founder and veteran DevOps consultant. I launched my first funded company at 18, grew a second to profitability, and have spent over a decade helping startups scale their systems as both a consultant and a full-stack engineer for a YC company. Currently building my next venture, I bring a rare, full-lifecycle perspective on turning ideas into durable businesses.

Salman Munaf

TikTok

Salman Munaf is a Lead Site Reliability Engineer at TikTok, where he builds and operates large-scale video infrastructure serving millions of users. He specializes in distributed systems, observability, and reliability at scale, with prior experience as a Software Engineer at Meta. Salman is passionate about helping developers embed reliability into their workflows from day one, making complex systems more resilient and easier to operate.

LAVANYA LAHARI NANDIPATI

CALIBER IT SOLUTIONS INC

I am a Software Engineer with expertise in Java, Spring Boot, cloud platforms (AWS & Azure), and healthcare technology solutions.I have experience in building secure, scalable applications and is passionate about problem-solving, innovation, and mentoring others in their tech journey. I actively contribute to knowledge sharing through technical writing and community engagement, and she brings a strong focus on guiding participants toward practical, impactful solutions.

Aman

Parallel Web Systems

Ex Stanford CS/AI masters. Ex Samsung SWE. Currently in the first 10 engineers in Parallel - founded by Ex Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal

Mahati Kumar

Meta

About me: - Product Technical Leadership @ Meta: Over a decade building and scaling products from 0 → 1 → PMF, including Facebook Stories (500M+ users) and Meta Horizon Mobile. - Startup Mentor: Guided multiple cohorts at Founder Institute in Silicon Valley and London, helping founders refine pitches, products, and achieve product-market fit. - Pitch & Storytelling Expertise: Experienced in shaping narratives that drive adoption, growth, and investor confidence. - Commitment to Diversity in Tech: Dedicated to empowering women and non-binary technologists through mentorship and advocacy.

Iyanuoluwa Ajao

Dataligence Labs

I am an AWS Community Builder with over 6 years of experience as a Software and AI Engineer. Currently, I am working on ClassmateBot, a WhatsApp-based AI study partner that helps secondary school students learn, retain knowledge, and pass their exams. Beyond my technical experience, I am the author of The Rise of AI Newsletter, where I explore AI’s impact on startups and careers.

nossa iyamu

Anax

I’m an AI founder currently building Anax, a sales automation platform powered by large language models. I’ve previously won hackathons with Hugging Face and top French universities, and bring experience in data science, product building, and early-stage startups.

Raymond Peck

Agentix.Pro

Long-time Silicon Valley startup guy (technical leader and IC). DS/ML/AI since 2014.

Ratna Kandala

University of Kansas

I am a postdoc working on using Natural Language Processing to develop tools, techniques to understand how our daily language use related to emotions and mental health. My background is in Systems Biology and Linguistics.

Preeti Singh

Capgemini

With over a decade of experience in data engineering, distributed systems, and AI/ML workflows, I’ve worked extensively on building scalable architectures and mentoring teams on practical applications of emerging technologies. I would be excited to bring this perspective to the judging process, providing constructive feedback to participants and helping highlight projects with strong technical depth and real-world potential.

Anubhav Sharma

Jeeva AI

I am the Lead at Jeeva AI, where I build and scale agentic AI systems that power next-generation productivity, customer success, and sales intelligence tools. I have experience guiding diverse teams through hackathons, workshops, and real-world deployments—always with an emphasis on accessibility, inclusivity, and practical outcomes. My focus is on making AI approachable, so that anyone, regardless of background, can feel confident exploring and building with it.

Aarthi Sivasankaran

Google

Aarthi Sivasankaran is a strategic Technical Program Manager with over 10 years of experience at Google, Amazon, and WarnerMedia, leveraging a unique blend of IT expertise, a Master of International Business (MIB), and an Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) degree.

Minfeng Lu

Meta

I am a machine learning engineer with experience spanning startups, big tech, and co-founding a company. At Zoox, I rearchitected core prediction frameworks for self-driving cars. At Meta, I now lead large-scale ML initiatives in ads ranking that directly impact billions of users. https://www.linkedin.com/in/minervagupta/

Chandrima Sabharwal

Ireland

Machine learning engineer based in Dublin, Ireland, with experience in ML deployment, feature engineering, and system design. She has interviewed and worked with companies including Microsoft and Prezent, and shares technical insights on ML engineering.

Nandini Tengli

Google (YouTube)

I'm an ML engineer at YouTube, currently working on large scale code migrations with LLMs/LRMs. I came to the US for my undergrad in CS and found my interest in ML through my studies and being part of the Entrepreneurship Association at college. I love learning new things and sharing what I've learned with people.

John Onuigbo

Foris Labs

John Onuigbo is the co-founder and CEO of Foris Labs, an award-winning edtech startup that builds virtual science laboratories to democratize access to quality STEM education in Africa. He also founded Stemnovo Ng, empowering young people in rural and semi-urban communities with coding, robotics, and entrepreneurship skills.

Poorani Ravindhiran

Volkswagen

I am a Robotics and Computer Vision Engineer with a Master’s degree in Robotics from the University of Michigan and industry experience at Volkswagen, Qualcomm, and Fuji Innovation Lab. My work spans autonomous vehicle perception, LiDAR/Radar sensor fusion, and deep learning for vision tasks, with publications in IEEE. I am hoping to spend time in mentoring and sharing knowledge in robotics, AI, and computer vision to help teams translate ideas into impactful solutions.

Jean Kim

N/A

Kim offers her lens as an operating room nurse, safety advisor, and patient advocate to help students identify unmet healthcare needs. She engages students in exercises to determine their hacks’ commercial feasibility, community impact, demo approach, user workflow, and technical architecture.

Kirill Acharya

Stanford University

I am a 2nd year PhD Student at Stanford, doing research in SAIL. I am interested in multiple AI directions: safety, evaluation, optimization and have the works published in the world’s best AI conferences.

Ramanpreet Singh Khinda

LinkedIn

Seasoned tech leader with 12+ years experience of working at LinkedIn, Google, Snap, etc. specializing in high-performance mobile platforms and SDKs.

Sasidev Mahendran

BNY

I am a Data Scientist with 4+ years of experience in machine learning, risk management, and fraud detection, with a proven track record of building scalable solutions that drive measurable business impact. I bring expertise in experimentation, predictive modeling, and analytics, combined with a passion for mentoring and evaluating innovative ideas.

Artem Shitov

McKinsey

McKinsey consultant specializing in AI infrastructure and data platforms. I design and scale AI infrastructure, tying model choices (LLMs/SLMs/fine-tunes) to cost, latency, and reliability. Previously Solution Architect at GridGain (real-time data & AI processing).

Sreejith Mohan

StartX

I design and run programs for founders who want to build their companies in the silicon valley

Sumit Ranjan

Constructr

I have spent several years building large-scale AI/ML systems. As Lead Architect at Adobe, he launched agentic and personalization AI solutions for global brands. Previously at PayPal, he led architecture for personalization and next-gen web and mobile consumer applications.

Massimiliano Viola

Stanford

I am currently at Stanford, where I work on 3D vision and generative models. Previously, I spent two years in Zurich at Cerrion (YC S22), and interned at NVIDIA, ETH Zurich, MBZUAI in Abu Dhabi, and a few other startups.

Taher Patanwala

Arbor

I am a Founding Lead Engineer at Arbor (USA) with 4+ years of experience and having the title of Master on Codeforces and Guardian on Leetcode having very high global ratings in coding competitions. I hold a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering with 5/5 GPA

Gavin(Xiaoxian) Wang

Meta

Software engineer and entrepreneur based in the SF Bay Area, currently building Vybers Inc. His work involves language models and machine learning, including research on techniques like Mixture of All Agents with Llama and Gemma models. Previously at Meta.

Aashutosh Soni

Synquic

AI/ML engineer based in Indore, India, currently at NeuroByte Ventures with previous experience at Synquic. He has a background in full-stack development, microservices, and DevOps, and is a graduate of Acropolis Institute of Technology and Research.

BARBARA WANG

WANG FOUNDATION | THE FARM COLLECTIVE

As of 28 May 2025, the HONG KONG SMART CITY ASSOCIATION LIMITED has officially certified with a change of name to: WANG FOUNDATION LIMITED. As Founding Chairwoman of the WANG FOUNDATION (IRD Section 88 Tax-Exempt Charity) and as a Strategic Partner of Google Cloud, its a great honor to launch the WANG FOUNDATION x Google Cloud Program, the 1st and ONLY of its kind among NGOs with the vision of scaling socio-economic impact through technological disruption and innovation. In a record-breaking 15-months time, the WANG FOUNDATION has granted 62 AI Startups globally with over USD 10,340,000 in Google Cloud resources, fueling innovation and driving impactful, transformative technologies with the mission of human-centric AI, technology for good, improving our quality of life, and saving countless lives. Globally recognized by Google, WANG FOUNDATION hopes to grant an additional USD 20,000,000 worth of Google Cloud to 80 - 100 innovative AI startups, making a global impact! Barbara Wang is the 2025 WINNER of the Prestigious 21st AmCham Women of Influence (WOI) Awards in the Category of “WOMAN CHANGE MAKER IN STEM.” Barbara Wang is the Founder & CEO of THE FARM COLLECTIVE (Stanford University is affectionately known as “The Farm.") is a VC that specializes in investing into AI startups. Barbara Wang is an Honorary Adjunct Assistant Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK Med) in the Department of Otorhinolarynology, Head and Neck Surgery, accelerating global, impactful healthcare AI startups. Barbara Wang is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Faculty of Business & Economics (January 2025 – Present) for The University of Hong Kong (HKU). Previously, Barbara Wang was the Program Director, HKU Startup Connector of Techno-Entrepreneurship Core (TEC) (2023 – 2024), successfully accelerated 17 HKU AI startups with HKD 33,150,000 worth of Google Cloud resources in a record-breaking 3-months time, building the 1st and only program among all Hong Kong universities.

Sunil Agarwal

Cisco

a seasoned technology leader with 19+ years of experience in data, cloud, and observability solutions. I drives innovation through automation and AI-driven insights. Passionate about mentoring, I enjoys guiding developers and inspiring future innovators.

Swapna Iyer

www.thelabcompany.co

Founder of The LAB (Let All Build) Company, passionate about writing code and solving problems through innovative software. She has extensive engineering experience at Apple (Wireless Communications), Qualcomm (LTE Modem), Cisco, and 2Wire.

Natalia Navas

Stealth Startup

Natalia studied computer science engineering specialized in AI, and then spent over half a decade in Kaszek, latin america's leading VC firm. There she worked in the investment team analyzing deals, and supporting portolio companies in product, tech and strategy. She's currently a second year MBA at Stanford business school and building as part of a Pear X company.

Romain Magne

Story Protocol

I am a software engineer with experience in frontend, backend, and smart contracts (programs running on blockchains). At Story, we are building an AI-native infrastructure for the intellectual property economy. In the past, I participated at several hackatons and won prizes.

Esther

jungle ai

ex-meta, and google research program, founding engineer in jungle ai (ai for education)