Hi, I'm Jigyasa
I am a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, advised by Prof. Aryan Deshwal.
My research focuses on uncertainty-aware Bayesian optimization algorithms for discovering optimal designs in large offline design spaces — with applications in molecule discovery, protein engineering, and materials design.
My background spans pure mathematics (combinatorics, graph theory, differential topology) at IIT Bombay and IISc Bangalore, and two years engineering deep learning systems in computer vision and NLP at V-Labs. Outside research: avid badminton player, former theater member at IISc's Rangmanch, and enthusiastic teacher.
- Bayesian Optimization & Black-Box Function Optimization
- Uncertainty Quantification in Machine Learning
- Computer Vision & Natural Language Processing
- AI for Scientific Discovery — drug design, materials science, protein engineering
- Combinatorics & Graph Theory
Experience
AI Developer
Document Extraction using Transformers (DExTr) LLMsTransformersRAG
Built a transformer-based enterprise extraction platform using ChatGPT, LLAMA, and Mistral. Improved context-awareness, reduced hallucinations, and automated insurance workflows (NAS, WC, Loss Run).
Confidence Score Analysis XGBoostCatBoostCalibration
Investigated failure modes of high-accuracy DL models via feature engineering and binary classifiers to identify when predictions are unreliable despite high overall accuracy.
First Notice of Loss (FNOL) CLIPTIMM
Automated insurance hail-damage assessment from images. Developed end-to-end CLIP pipeline for roof classification, improving accuracy by 13% over prior model.
Visual Document Understanding PyTorchDonutDenseNetEasyOCR
Pipelines for classifying noisy scanned financial documents and key information extraction using transformer and CNN architectures with OCR and object detection.
Ph.D. Computer Science & Engineering
MS Research, Mathematics
BS Research, Mathematics
Research & Projects
Offline Black-Box Function Optimization
Developing uncertainty-aware Bayesian optimization algorithms for discovering optimal designs in large offline design spaces. Applications in molecule/therapeutic discovery, protein engineering, and material design.
Chromatic Number of Hypergraphs
Explored algorithmic complexity of computing chromatic numbers; analyzed approximation algorithms for maximum independent sets in geometric graphs. Applications in CV, information retrieval, and network routing.
Extremal Combinatorics: Ramsey Numbers & Sunflower Lemma
Studied exponential improvements on lower bounds of diagonal multicolour Ramsey numbers and improved bounds for the sunflower lemma via structured vs. pseudo-random approaches. Applications in circuit complexity and cryptography.
Translation Numbers & Quasi-homomorphisms on Automorphisms of the Circle
Showed translation numbers are conjugacy invariants via quasi-homomorphisms. Studied dynamical invariants on area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the disc from the signature knot invariant.
Quasi-homomorphisms and Dynamics
Studied dynamical invariants on the group of compactly supported area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the open unit disk, derived from the signature knot invariant.
Object Detection & Classification
YOLO-based object detection on traffic datasets; mood classifier and sign-language digit recognizer using Keras Sequential and Functional APIs.
Optimization & Game Theory
Markov chain web ranker, minimax adversarial search, BFS shortest path, and a logical inference knowledge-base solver.
Election Software
Simulates elections using plurality and STV (Droop quota) algorithms with system testing for robustness and process validation.
Skills
Awards & Honors
Awarded 2nd prize for poster presentation at the Research Computing Exhibition, University of Minnesota. · Apr 23, 2026
Prestigious national fellowship by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, India.
Government of India scholarship for top science students, awarded by the Dept. of Science & Technology.
National eligibility exam for lectureship and PhD positions in India. Qualified twice.
Eligible for scholarship and postgraduate admission to premier research institutes in India. Qualified twice.
Won individual and team events at the IISc open badminton championship multiple times.
Represented IIT Bombay at inter-IIT athletic competitions.
Medalist in several open tournaments at Vijna-Labs.
Professional Service
International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics.
Event Coordinator for the Computer Science Graduate Students Association, University of Minnesota. · Fall 2025 – Spring 2026
Organised and ran the Cryptography event at PRAVEGA, the annual science & technology festival of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. · 2014
Volunteered at DevFest MN, a community-organized developer festival. · Dec 6, 2025
Volunteered at the Twin Cities Marathon weekend. · Oct 4–5, 2025
Volunteered at the AI4Science Workshop at the University of Minnesota. · Aug 13–14, 2025
Conferences & Workshops
Presented a research poster and won 2nd prize. · Apr 23, 2026
Attended the SIAM UQ conference. · Mar 22–25, 2026
Attended the WE Disrupt conference at the University of Minnesota. · Feb 4, 2026
Attended the Women Innovators conference at the University of Minnesota. · Nov 11, 2025
Presented a research poster at the AI4Science Workshop, University of Minnesota. · Aug 13–14, 2025
Teaching
Taught container orchestration to engineering team members.
Taught Python to annotation team members to build technical proficiency.