Danville Student Presents Research At MIT Conference

DANVILLE, CA — Athenian School student Vaishnav Anand, 17, presented his work on using AI to detect deepfakes at the IEEE Undergraduate Research Technology Conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anand was one of the few high school students to present his research, and he shared the stage with undergraduate researchers from UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, and Georgia Tech.

Anand presented research on using AI diffusion models to detect manipulated satellite imagery. He was able to train advanced AI systems to identify distortions with up to 99 percent accuracy, work that will be valuable for improved cybersecurity, national defense, and geospatial data integrity.

Vaishnav isn’t just sharing his work at MIT. He has also released two books in his "Tech Demystified" series: one on cybersecurity, and the other on AI and Deepfakes. He hopes that these books can help make these topics accessible for younger readers. The books offer real-world examples, simplified technical explanations, and practical tips.

“My goal is to remove the intimidation factor from technology,” he told Patch in a statement. “Too many people think cybersecurity or AI is something only experts can understand. I want to show that anyone, whether they are students, parents, or educators, can grasp these concepts and use them to protect themselves and engage in informed discussions about our digital future.”

Vaishnav has also been invited to present at the Esri International User Conference in San Diego, (the world's largest GIS gathering) and at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in front of Nobel Laureate Dr. Thomas Cech.