Karnav Popat

I write code, and about code

I'm currently a fourth-year undergraduate at Ashoka University. I studied Computer Science (and Economics), and wrote my thesis on climate modelling and flood forecasting under Prof. Sandeep Juneja. I'm currently working on research projects at the Centre for Digitalisation, AI & Society and interning at Lightspeed VC.

My research interests are in digital public infrastructure, computational social science, AI safety & interpretability, and satellite imaging.
I've previously worked with Amuse Labs, Samagra, CEDA, and TCPD.
In my free time, I write, rollerblade, and support Chelsea FC.

My Stack

(Tech I've worked with)

Projects (in tech)

India Cadastral

Using DILRMP data, I created a geospatial dataset of all land plots and ownership in India.

Open Link
Economic Voting

I used nightlights to explain how the condition of the economy affects voter behaviour in India.

Open Link
Privacy in India

I replicated Narayan & Shmatikov (2006) to prove privacy concerns with Indian EHRs.

Open Link
Better xG

I used XGBoost and an LSTM to improve goal predictions and interpretability in football.

Open Link
Recourse

I built a (now-defunct) API, website and browser extension using course reviews and grades at Ashoka.

Open Link
Roundtable

A toy compiler and interpreter based on Robert Nystrom's Crafting Interpreters.

Open Link
Verily

A tiny, custom-built static site generator and template engine for blogging sites.

Open Link

Projects (other)

Bloom Hotel Group

As a strategy intern with Bloom, I investigated new market opportunities.

Open Link
Koita Foundation

For my winning entry in the IEEE-Ashoka Datathon, I researched biases in healthcare.

Open Link
FarMart

As a strategy intern with Farmart, I worked on ESG in agricultural logistics.

Open Link
Policy GPT 2023

For my winning entry in the Equilibrium Datathon, I studied interventions in rural India.

Open Link

Recent Writing

Recent Talks

Teaching