Ashmita Bhattacharyya

About Me

I am a 4th-year Engineering Science student at the University of Toronto, majoring in Machine Intelligence, with a strong interest in software development and AI Privacy. Currently, I am member of CleverHans lab, supervised by Prof. Nicolas Papernot. Growing up, I traveled extensively due to my dad's profession as a Ship Captain—I am Singaporean and have lived in Montreal, Dubai, Kolkata, and Toronto. These experiences have shaped me into an adaptable and globally-minded individual. For recreation, I enjoy visual arts, travel, yoga, and spending time outdoors.

Forged Training Distributions in Differential Privacy

• Research Intern at the Vector Institute for AI with CleverHans Lab (focus on ML Privacy, security and fairness) starting summer 2024.
• Implementing DP-SGD algorithms to investigate the uniqueness of machine learning training distributions.
• Co-authored paper accepted at TPDP & ICML 2025 on per-instance privacy.

Optimizing Perovskites with Machine Learning

• Research Intern at the National University of Singapore's Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) during the summer of 2023.
• Project involved optimizing perovskite solar cells using machine learning techniques.
• Implemented various deep learning models, including artificial neural networks (ANNs), random forests (RF), XGBoost, and stacked models, achieving up to 99.3% accuracy in predicting solar cell performance.
• Conducted SHAP analysis to identify the most critical solar cell attributes.
• Research was funded by the Engineering Science Research Opportunities Program (ESROP) and supervised by Prof. Erik Birgersson.

Awards and Honours

• Singapore Mathematical Olympiad, Gold Medalist, 27th National Rank, IMO Junior team qualifier.
• Kuper Academy High School, Governor General’s Academic Medal, Valedictorian.
• Vector Institute, $15 000 research grant.
• Donald C. Leigh Memorial Scholarship, U of T, $10 000 scholarship.
• Waterloo Maths Contests, Euclid (Distinction, School Champion Medal), Canadian Senior (Distinction, Top 7% Nationally).
• NUS MakerMania Hackathon, 1st Prize, Pitched a sensor-based waste management system, $3,000 prize.
• Junior Breakthrough Challenge, Top 5% Internationally, Produced a short video on Chaos Theory.