One among thirty international fellows selected for the fully funded Cambridge ERA:AI Fellowship, IIIT-H student Nanda Rajiv walks us through her two-month tenure as a Technical AI Governance Research Fellow, where fresh insights and new direction was gained amidst blooming daffodils and ancient stone buildings.

Did Nanda Rajiv manifest a second visit to Cambridge University? When the fifth year student of CHD (B. Tech in Computer Science and Master of Science in Computing & Human Sciences by Research) was chosen from 3000 candidates globally for the eight-week Cambridge ERA:AI fellowship, it was doubly special for the scholar who had visited the Wolfson College four months prior to present her research paper.

The Cambridge ERA:AI Fellowship
The 8-week immersive experience held between Feb 2nd and March 27th 2026 seeks to shape responsible technology for the future, by empowering researchers like Nanda with independent thinking capabilities. It offered three application tracks (Technical AI Governance, AI Governance, and Technical AI Safety), to work in core areas such as AI safety or tech-policy, as well as interdisciplinary research, explains Dr. Aakansha Natani, Nanda’s advisor at IIIT-H’s Human Sciences Research Centre.

Nanda’s choice of technical AI governance fit in well with her CHD background. “Our cross-disciplinary curriculum combines very technical computer science concepts, projects and courses along with core abstract concepts in philosophy, history and literature”. The five-year dual degree bridges that epistemological and methodological gap between computer science and social sciences. The intention is to produce a new genre of student-researchers to lead specialized areas like AI ethics, digital society, etc., using computational methods to solve social science problems.

“The three-stage application process for the fellowship first constituted a written stage of research proposal and short essays on our approach to different frameworks and problems,” she explains. An asynchronous interview to test technical knowledge was followed by a formal online interview, where the research problem was stress-tested, and general technical aspects of the field were discussed.

Given her natural oratory skills as a school and college level debater, the former IIIT-H Debate Society coordinator found Cambridge to be “a really cool experience”. A regular 10am to 5pm office day was packed with talks by experts, workshops and paper presentations for the cross-cultural cohort from various nations including USA, Malaysia, Singapore, Czech Republic, UK, Poland, and India. Each fellow worked on a solo project, supervised by an in-house manager and an external expert mentor, with regular reviews of key learnings and findings.

Nanda’s Project on Estimating AI Chip Lifecycles
Her project on estimating AI chip lifecycles – from design, fabrication to decommissioning was a gateway to learning about hardware enabled mechanisms, manufacturing, supply chains and compute governance, a prominent area in technical AI governance.

In compute governance, the focus is on controlling AI through hardware especially high-performance chips like GPUs and TPUs. This is a very exciting and current research topic, reveals Nanda. “I really enjoyed looking at compute and AI because my thesis work with Dr. Aakansha combines international relations and technical policy.”

“A working document summarizing the findings was my deliverable at the end of the fellowship, that I presented at a research symposium in London along with other fellows’ presentations”, adds the scholar.

Gaga about Cambridge
Evenings at Cambridge were about networking and enjoying the fun icebreaking events hosted by the ERA team. Forging deep connections happened over karaoke, board games, guided campus tours of its historical colleges, and of course punting in the river, a very Cambridge thing. “Our reading sessions over dinner would lead to animated discussions on papers ranging from national security and legal AI to reinforcement learning, all very interesting and most memorable. Each of us worked on independent projects, but feedback, collaborations and frequent interactions made the experience really amazing,” she states. Every conversation cut through trivialities and zoned immediately into deep topics. Part of getting very close very quickly was the underlying awareness of the ‘looming eight-week deadline’.

The beautiful university town hums with youthful energy, gushes Nanda. There were a number of unique experiences, including attending organ recitals at the Trinity College chapel, visiting nearby towns like Ely, taking winding walks by the river Cam along the flowers, and having the iconic Jack’s gelato by the historical Eagle pub. “Arriving at the end of their winter meant experiencing the famous cloudy-rainy English weather. By the third week of February, the seasons changed. Spring unlocked slowly and as the rains reduced, the daffodils came out, followed by tulips and other flowers, unleashing new colors every three days. It was a magical experience”.

The CHD Program as a Unique Confluence
Nanda Rajiv’s advisor Prof. Aakansha Natani elaborates that “Nanda’s current research is focused on locating structural dependencies in the global digital economy through analysing technical, policy and regulatory standards in cross border data-flows and data governance regimes”. A Dean List 1 awardee for the last 4 consecutive semesters in college, the student’s work was earlier presented at the 2025 International Conference on ‘Nations, Networks, and Narratives’ at Wolfson College University of Cambridge, the IPSA World Congress 2025 South Korea, IIT Bombay’s IPPN conference 2024, and at the AWL Humanities Initiative International Symposium 2025 at IIIT Delhi.

The CHD vision is to train students in technical aspects and in abstract ideas of the humanities and social sciences, points out Nanda, a UGEE fourth rank-holder. “Going from lectures in automata theory to philosophy of technology, and from political science essays followed by technical computer science code; these cross connections are special experiences that unlock the brain in weird ways”.

“I worked with Dr. Raman Saxena on a project in my second year on formulating policy for metaverse devices. That cross-cutting tech policy project and his LoR definitely helped my application to the fellowship” mentions Nanda. Her electives span the spectrum, from developmental economics, cognitive science, experimental design, internet and democracy, international relations, EU related courses, philosophy of technology to natural language processing related courses. Her interest in social science and technical topics starting from school made the CHD program the perfect fit. Now more than ever, it is a pretty useful skill to connect topics from different areas, she believes.

Football and Oggy’s Penguins on a cool campus
Music and football are twin passions for the youngster who took online guitar classes for younger children during the pandemic lockdown. As a member of Oggy & the Penguins, the IIIT-H band has won multiple Battle of the Bands competitions. She was also judged the most valuable player in the inter-house and inter-batch football tournaments for four years in IIIT-H. The football player also enjoys tennis and running.

“Apart from being my advisor, Dr. Aakansha Natani showcases many attributes to model oneself on, to strengthen your work ethic,” remarks the grateful student who points out that beyond the ‘typical’ advisor-advisee aspects of research and working together, her mentor demonstrates how to have a long horizon vision, and organise yourself to work towards that. “She sets up an environment for students to excel within our research group, through sharing opportunities with us and regular check-ins on all aspects (be it academics, TAship, internship, career, etc.), which was extremely valuable”.

In a world racing ahead with AI, Nanda Rajiv left Cambridge with more than a fellowship. And now as the CHD degree draws to a close, Nanda looks forward to the next chapter.