Department of Engineering / News / Nandini Shiralkar – Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Award winner

Department of Engineering

Nandini Shiralkar – Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Award winner

Nandini Shiralkar – Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Award winner

Nandini Shiralkar

Second-year Engineering undergraduate Nandini Shiralkar has been announced a winner of the Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Awards 2021/22.

I hope to do as much good as I can for the betterment of humanity – the Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Award brings me a step closer to doing just that.

Nandini Shiralkar

Nandini is the founder of the Cambridge Existential Risks Initiative (CERI) – a network of academics and students at Cambridge and beyond, working to mitigate risks that threaten the future of humanity.

The Awards are organised by Cambridge Hub – a student-led group offering practical volunteering, skilled placements, project incubation and events – with the support of the Vice-Chancellor’s Office. The Awards recognise and celebrate exceptional achievement in social impact amongst University of Cambridge students.

Nandini (Trinity College) was in her first year of university when she founded CERI, with the aim being to create opportunities for students and young professionals across the world to pursue impactful research in existential risk mitigation on causes such as artificial intelligence (AI) safety and extreme climate change mitigation.

One of her goals has been to improve the junior research career pipeline, and last year, with the help of funding, she led a virtual Summer Research Fellowship programme for promising students from seven countries, enabling them to conduct high impact existential risk mitigation research under the guidance of a CERI mentor. A 10-week Summer Research Fellowship programme is set to run this year, after CERI secured £550,000 funding from Open Philanthropy.

“Participants gain support via mentorship from CERI’s network of researchers, policymakers and grant makers, whilst contributing to actual existential risk research,” said Nandini. “I plan to drive forward the strong growth that CERI has seen in just over a year after its establishment, but most of all, I hope to do as much good as I can for the betterment of humanity – the Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Award brings me a step closer to doing just that.”

She added: “Engineering is an interdisciplinary subject which boasts some of the greatest achievements of all time. As engineers, we are often very used to focusing heavily on finding solutions to complex problems – at the heart of it, we love problem solving. From my time at Cambridge, I have also developed a deep understanding of just how ill-defined most problems are. This is especially true with existential risk research, but if you take that same engineering skillset and apply it to tackle extreme threats to humanity such as future pandemics or risks from advanced AI, you could be safeguarding many more future generations. I feel intrinsically motivated to ensure that we have a flourishing future, and tackling existential risks might just be the only way to make that happen.”

CERI, which began life in Nandini’s bedroom, has now grown to a team of 12 working on various projects. As a result of founding CERI, Nandini says she feels “empowered” to explore start-up ideas as a future career.

“I have learned that I am very entrepreneurial,” she said. “Over the past year, I have done everything from designing CERI T-shirts to writing grant applications to eventually securing £550,000 to support our programme. Developing this versatile set of skills is perfect preparation for a career in entrepreneurship.

“Cambridge has helped me find my purpose, and although my career plans will undoubtedly evolve over time, I have never felt more focused on what I want to achieve in my life, as I do right now.”

Adapted from a Cambridge Hub article.

Nandini (front row, centre) with the 2022 cohort at the CERI Summer Research Fellowship launch event. Credit: Graham CopeKoga.

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