Kaustubh Ponkshe

I am a researcher at the CERT-Lab in Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence , where I work with Prof. Praneeth Vepakomma. My research aims to push the frontier of machine intelligence, and make it democratizable. My current focus is on -

• Making adaptation of foundation models efficient
• Tackling memorization, safety and privacy concerns in LLMs
• Enabling large-scale distributed and collaborative learning

In Fall 2025, I will begin my PhD in Computer Science (EDIC) at EPFL, Switzerland.

Previously, I graduated from IIT Bombay with a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering
and a Master’s in Artificial Intelligence. At IIT Bombay, I led the Path Planning and Controls subdivision for IIT Bombay Racing, building India’s first driverless racecar.

Outside of research, I love traveling (24 countries and counting!) and enjoy playing tennis.

Feel free to explore my publications or visit the full list on my Google Scholar.