Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine
Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance
Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust
Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine
Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History
Luxembourg Centre for European Law
Luxembourg Centre for Socio-Environmental Systems
‟ How do you differentiate yourself among people who have all achieved perfect scores?”
Meet Prateek Gupta, a researcher whose journey spans a decade in Bangalore’s fast-paced tech scene, to cutting-edge AI innovation in Luxembourg. Now pursuing a PhD at SnT, he focuses on applying AI to build smarter, more sustainable transport solutions. Driven by perseverance, his work bridges industry experience and academic insight, tackling real-world challenges while advocating for better data quality and inclusivity in AI systems.
Relive the conversation – transcript below!
What is your background and what brought you to Luxembourg?
I spent around ten years in Bangalore working in e-commerce and banking as a machine-learning engineer. During that time, I worked on many practical problems, especially in logistics and transportation. I wanted to apply AI on a broader scale, beyond isolated use cases, which led me to pursue research. After completing my Master’s at Georgia Tech, I received an offer to start my PhD at SnT, and I’ve now been in Luxembourg for three years.
What is your research about?
My research focuses on AI in transport. We work with an industrial partner to develop next-generation transportation solutions that can leverage AI and machine-learning. Instead of solving problems individually, we use historical data and trends to create cost-efficient and sustainable solutions, including, for example, reducing CO₂ emissions.
What word best describes your approach to research?
Perseverance. Because even when you want to solve a very difficult problem, it is not a one-step process. It requires a lot of reading, understanding, writing, and then new ideas will come.
‟ People often think researchers remember everything they read. That’s not true. Research is about synthesising information over time.”
What is something unexpected you’ve learnt during your PhD?
One surprising thing is how important high-quality notetaking is. I already took notes during my Master’s, but during my PhD I realised that to retain knowledge from many research papers, you need to take an even more structured and consistent approach to note-taking.
What is a common misconception about researchers?
People often think researchers remember everything they read. That’s not true. We read a lot, but we constantly rely on notes and revision. Research is about synthesising information over time. We have to read a lot, remember a lot, and then write a lot. And during this writing, new ideas emerge, and this is how we move ahead.
Who or what inspires you?
A quote from the movie The Social Network inspired me – “How do you differentiate yourself among people who have all achieved perfect scores?” It’s about being driven to improve yourself, going beyond rules, and identifying your own path.
‟ When more people generate the data, the AI – when it matures – will take into consideration the needs of all sections of societies. And hopefully no group will be underrepresented.”
If you could solve one problem in your field instantly, what would it be?
I would remove bias from data. Machine-learning models learn from data, and if the data has biases like gender or demographic bias, the models will reproduce them going forward. Better, more representative data would lead to higher-quality AI systems.
How does diversity relate to AI and data?
AI depends on the data people generate: images, text, audio. So, moving ahead in this new age of AI, we would want all sections of society to generate data. When more people generate the data, the AI, when it matures, will take into consideration the needs of all sections of societies. And hopefully no group will be underrepresented.
What has your experience been like adapting to a new environment?
When I first joined the lab, I felt I didn’t fit in because I only spoke English and none of the other European languages. And our department is quite diverse. But the lab was very open. Over time, I made a lot of friends, and now I have more European friends than Indian friends in Luxembourg, which I didn’t expect.
What do you enjoy doing outside of your research?
I enjoy playing video games. It’s about daily improvement. When you lose, it’s because you made a mistake; when you win, it means your practice paid off. I also have a cat named Neo, who sleeps in my arms every day. We even play together early in the morning. She’s the apple of my eye and I love her.