AI Engineering student finds passions through exploration

For Yash Sakhale, a mechanical engineering master’s student, the chance to explore his many different interests is what drew him to pursue Carnegie Mellon’s M.S. in Artificial Intelligence Engineering - Mechanical Engineering program. 

Sakhale, who initially enrolled in the M.S. in Mechanical Engineering - Advanced Study program, hit a crossroads when the time came to choose a concentration*. 

“Unlike students who know exactly which topic area they want to specialize in, I still wanted to check out other areas, like robotics, perception engineering, and generative AI,” he said.

Sakhale is currently working as an AI Engineering intern at Vigilant Inc, an AI-powered safety platform. The Vigilant app provides tools, intelligence and training to keep individuals and organizations safe, connected, and prepared across the globe by aggregating real-time safety signals from more than 10,000 sources. 

The AI Engineering - MechE program lets me build on bits and pieces of the fields I’m interested in.

Yash Sakhale, master's student, Department of Mechanical Engineering

In his role, Sakhale is working to develop AI components of the app, including developing Machine Learning pipelines and testing Large Language Models. He has been part of the team advancing the app’s Chatbot that allows travelers to ask questions and submit information about locations. What are the safest places to visit? How would I get a Visa? What is the significance of the building in this photo?

He credits his experiences at Carnegie Mellon with helping him discover the areas he is most passionate about. His interest in robotics and perception engineering grew from his time as a student researcher in Kenji Shimada’s CERLab. There, Sakhale worked on a project which was building an automated wheel loader which could be deployed on construction and mining sites. Specifically, he worked on mitigating the effects of dust particulates in the point cloud map of lidar sensor for wheel loader navigation. 

“The AI Engineering - MechE program lets me build on bits and pieces of the fields I’m interested in.”

Sakhale will graduate this December and hopes to work in AI development for robotics.

*Students in the M.S. in MechE -Advanced Study program acquire depth in a technical concentration area of their choice: design and manufacturing of mechanical systems, energy and thermal fluid systems, robotic and control systems, or biomechanical engineering and medical devices.