Mandira Sawkar

I am a Master’s in Artificial Intelligence graduate from Rochester Institute of Technology, actively seeking AI roles. My interests lie in responsible AI and socially aligned NLP.

I have pursued several applied and research-oriented projects as well as published a paper at EMNLP. I’ve also recently submitted my thesis research on gender bias in the UK parliament during the suffrage movement to ARR. My background also includes experience in large-scale data analysis, model development, and AI safety.

Education

Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, USA, 2026
- MS in Artificial Intelligence
- Coursework: Fundamentals of AI/ML, Math Methods for AI, Ethics of AI, Forecasting Methods, Deep Learning, NLP.
- Thesis: Two Centuries of Sexism in British Parliament: A Computational Analysis of Women’s Representation in the Hansard Corpus.
IIIT – Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India, 2023
- Post Graduate Certification in Software Engineering for Data Science with Distinction.
- Coursework: Data Engineering, Machine Learning, Intelligent Systems Design, etc.
Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi, India, 2020
- Bachelor of Computer Applications with First Class.
- Coursework: Data Structures and Algorithms, Discrete Mathematics, Operating Systems, etc.

Research Interests

I’m broadly interested in building AI systems that are socially aligned and safe, especially in high-stakes domains like justice and governance. My current focus areas include:

Socially Aligned AI – Designing frameworks that integrate fairness, optimization, and behavioral modeling to reduce systemic bias.
Natural Language Processing & Reasoning with LLMs – Exploring how large language models can emulate nuanced human reasoning and decision-making.
Multilingual LLMs & AI Translation – Developing inclusive AI systems that support equitable access across languages, and consequently across different demographics.
Responsible AI – Evaluating model safety to increase transparency and stakeholder trust in AI systems.

Professional Experience

ML Engineer, Kloud9.nyc (Apr 2023 - Jul 2024)
- Built a feature engineering and model evaluation pipeline for ghost inventory prediction across 50+ features and multimillion-row datasets, reducing stock discrepancies by 10% and achieving 92% accuracy.
- Improved model generalization across diverse store environments by evaluating approximately 10 large datasets, increasing prediction stability by 15%.
- Reduced analysis runtime from 3 hours to 20 minutes per batch by developing an automated data insights pipeline for production workloads.
- Partnered with cross-functional data engineering and business teams to streamline production deployment, reducing deployment time by approximately 80%.
- Trained and mentored 5+ interns on feature engineering, evaluation and ML best practices, leading to 3 full-time hires.
Software Engineer, WSP Global (Oct 2020 - Apr 2023)
- Designed and deployed an end-to-end CLI tool that automated onboarding for 60,000+ employees annually, saving 2.5 human-months per year.
- Reduced operations overhead by 71% by building a PowerShell + SharePoint pipeline for automated project archival notifications and clean-up.
- Increased database reliability by detecting and resolving duplicate/inconsistent records across 80,000+ employees per month with a Python + Pandas validation system.
Visa Official, Consulate General of France in Bangalore (Mar 2020 - Sep 2020)
- Authored 5 analysis reports on Covid-19 (w.r.t economy, education, transport), distributed to the French community of 3 states (1000+ persons); Also processed ~50 visas per day.
Management Intern, Campus France India (May 2018 - Oct 2018)
- Counselled and interviewed ~100 students for higher education. Organized 6 education fairs at 10 institutions while also training interns.

Skills

Programming Languages
- Python, R, C++, C, PowerShell, SQL, Java
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
- Hugging Face Transformers, RoBERTa, GPT APIs, Sentence Transformers, BERT-family models, Fine-tuning & Prompt Engineering, Tokenization & Embeddings, Semantic Similarity, NLI, Disagreement-aware Modeling, Evaluation & Calibration, Bias/Fairness Analysis
Machine Learning (ML) & Data Science
- PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn, MLflow, Weights & Biases Regression, Classification, Time Series Forecasting, Optimization, Probability & Statistics, Linear Algebra
Data Engineering and Distributed Systems: Spark, Dask, Pandas, NumPy.
Cloud Infrastructure and Production: GCP, AWS, Azure, Docker, Flask, Git.

Publications

Mandira Sawkar, Samay U. Shetty, Deepak Pandita, Tharindu Cyril Weerasooriya, Christopher M. Homan. “LPI-RIT at LeWiDi-2025: Improving Distributional Predictions via Metadata and Loss Reweighting with DisCo”. NLPerspectives workshop at Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP) 2025. [Link]

Mandira Sawkar. “Two Centuries of Sexism in British Parliament: A Computational Analysis of Women’s Representation in the Hansard Corpus”. Order No. 32676125 Rochester Institute of Technology, 2026. United States – New York: ProQuest. Web. 13 June 2026. [Link]

Talks and Presentations

AI Alignment in Criminal Justice, RIT Graduate Showcase (Apr 2025)
- Delivered an oral presentation on AI in Criminal Justice at the RIT Graduate Showcase and awarded 1st place out of ~60 presentations; proposed a novel framework combining optimization and game theory to reduce bias in jury selection and deliberation using demographic weighting and behavioral modeling, with real-world applicability through simulations and tooling.
LLM-as-a-SupremeCourt-Judge, RIT Graduate Showcase (Apr 2025)
- Presented a poster on the LLM-as-a-SupremeCourt-Judge project at the RIT Graduate Showcase, demonstrating an AI-powered judicial simulation framework using large language models to analyze 200 U.S. Supreme Court cases from the JUSTICE dataset.

Training and Outreach

Trained and mentored 5+ interns in feature engineering, PySpark, and ML best practices, leading to 3 successful full-time conversions.
Interviewed candidates for French translation positions at WSP, leading to 4 hires. Also conducted ~20 student visa interviews for the French embassy.