Hi, I'm Kartik 👋
CS undergrad at DTU | AI Safety & Interpretability · LLMs · RL | Codeforces Specialist · LeetCode Knight | CTF Player
IndiaOpen to research & internship roles
KV

About

I build intelligent systems that are fast, reliable, and harder to break than they look.

I'm a Computer Science undergrad at Delhi Technological University (DTU) focused on AI research - AI safety, mechanistic interpretability, large language models, reinforcement learning, and representation learning. My goal is to help build reliable, aligned, and interpretable AI systems: understanding how foundation models reason, how their internal representations emerge, and how RL can improve capability without sacrificing safety or robustness.

My recent work centers on LLM safety and alignment - red-teaming, safety evaluation, RL-based safety optimization, prompt-rewriting systems, and multimodal safety benchmarking. As a Deep Learning Research Intern at the ML Research Lab, DTU, I also build low-light visual understanding systems spanning self-supervised learning, domain adaptation, vision transformers, and efficient architectures.

The thread across all of it is the same instinct: find the edge case, break the assumption, then build something that holds. Alongside research, I'm a competitive programmer (Codeforces Specialist, LeetCode Knight, 900+ problems solved) and Vice President at EHAX, DTU's cybersecurity society - where breaking things in CTFs is just safety research from the other side.

Work Experience

V

Visey
Founding AI Software Engineer Intern

Jun 2026 - Jul 2026
Founding AI Software Engineer Intern
Worked as one of the founding engineering interns building an AI-native operating system for entrepreneurs centered around the Small Context Model (SCM) architecture. • Developed production features across the Next.js frontend and FastAPI backend, delivering end-to-end functionality for the platform. • Designed and implemented the Small Context Model (SCM) Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline, including query understanding, retrieval planning, context assembly, and grounded response generation. • Integrated Google Vertex AI (Gemini) into modular AI services powering personalized and risk-aware workflows. • Built and deployed cloud infrastructure using Google Cloud Run, Docker, Cloud Build, Vercel, Firebase, and Firestore, configuring CI/CD, authentication, and production deployment. • Currently contributing to Visey's sovereign AI model, focusing on retrieval systems, model orchestration, and training infrastructure.
M

MLR Lab, DTU
Deep Learning Research Intern

May 2025 - Present
Deep Learning Research Intern
Working under Prof. Anil Singh Parihar on computer vision and low-light perception. • Designed a novel statistical low-light preprocessing pipeline achieving state-of-the-art 38.42% accuracy (scaling to 53.89%), outperforming prior neural baselines by +6.02% / +26.83% on ELLAR (ELL/LL splits); implemented custom up-projection blocks that improve feature reconstruction and stability over standard deconvolution in extreme low-light settings. • Evaluated ResNet, ViT, CLIP, BLIP, and Grounded DINO encoders for low-light representation learning with emphasis on semantic supervision, cross-task generalization, ablation analysis, and reproducibility; identified data scarcity and illumination bias as key limitations - ongoing work toward a research publication.
M

Moofli
App Developer

May 2024 - Oct 2024
App Developer
Engineered an innovative social media app that allows users to journal daily activities, providing personalized short content recommendations based on user input; engaged 100+ beta testers for feedback. Built a full-stack interface with Flutter, improving scalability and maintainability.

Technologies

Programming Languages

C/C++
Python
Dart
SQL

Web & Mobile Development

React.js
Node.js
Express.js
Flutter
TailwindCSS
FastAPI
WebSockets
AsyncIO

AI/ML & Data Science

PyTorch
TensorFlow
Keras
Scikit-Learn
OpenCV
Hugging Face
Transformers
GANs
LangChain
Pandas
Matplotlib
JAX

GenAI & Techniques

RAG
LLM Safety / Red Teaming
Agents
RL Environments (GRPO, LoRA)
Prompt Engineering
Chain-of-Thought
MCP
Evaluation Pipelines

Databases & Cloud

PostgreSQL
MongoDB
MySQL
Firebase
ChromaDB / VectorDB
AWS
Azure
Google Cloud Platform

Tools & Platforms

Git
GitHub
Docker
Linux
Postman
Vercel
Competitive Programming

Algorithmic Excellence

Proven problem-solving abilities through consistent performance across major programming platforms. 900+ problems solved with elite rankings.

Rating

1982

Rank

Knight

Problems Solved

600+

View Profile
Codeforces logo

Codeforces

@Kartik_vats

Rating

1535

Rank

Specialist

Problems Solved

200+

View Profile
CodeChef logo

CodeChef

@k3tikvats

Rating

1636

Rank

3 Star

Problems Solved

50+

View Profile
My Projects

Check out my latest work

I've worked on a variety of projects, from simple websites to complex web applications. Here are a few of my favorites.

SafeGen Arena - RL Environment for Image-AI Safety

Built an OpenEnv-compliant RL gym that trains Qwen2.5-1.5B + LoRA as a prompt-rewriting safety layer for diffusion models, with a 3-way action space (allow / transform / reject). GRPO training improved reward from −0.05 → +0.33 over 1,300 steps with zero mode collapse. Designed a 4-term reward combining Llama Guard 3, a CLIP concept-arithmetic intent residual, a NudeNet/Q16 visual judge, and an over-refusal penalty. Top 100 of 5,000+ teams at the Meta × OpenEnv Hackathon 2026.

GRPO
LoRA
OpenEnv
CLIP
Llama Guard 3
Diffusion Models
RL
PyTorch

LLM Safety - Red Teaming & Mitigation

Engineered a DistilBERT safety classifier (87% F1 across 3 classes) with batch inference and confidence scoring, plus an end-to-end red-teaming pipeline (500+ adversarial prompts, 3 harm categories, 3 mitigation agents) that reduced unsafe generations by 42%. Built an observability suite - confusion matrices, per-class metrics, and JSON/visual exports - for real-time monitoring and drift detection in production LLM safety workflows.

PyTorch
Hugging Face
DistilBERT
Red Teaming
CoT
Evaluation
Python

SAR → EO Image Translation (CycleGAN)

Translating 2-band SAR imagery into 13-band multispectral EO images using CycleGAN while preserving semantic and spectral consistency across domains. Focused on stabilizing adversarial training and faithful spectral reconstruction for remote-sensing data.

CycleGAN
GANs
PyTorch
Computer Vision
Remote Sensing
Image Translation
Quantamind - Mental Wellness Companion

Quantamind - Mental Wellness Companion

Collaborated on a mental wellness companion application using MERN stack, recognized as a top project by Google Developers Club Delhi. Designed responsive UI with React and TailwindCSS, integrated Firebase analytics and MongoDB for secure data management. Prepared stress analysis techniques using sentiment analysis and mouse tracking with 92.71% accuracy.

TailwindCSS
React
JavaScript
Node.js
EJS
PostgreSQL
Firebase
MongoDB
InquireAI - AI Search Assistant

InquireAI - AI Search Assistant

Built a real-time, cross-platform AI search assistant with Flutter and FastAPI. Created a custom ranking algorithm using sentence transformers achieving 85% accuracy in source ranking, with WebSocket streaming for live responses and a RAG pipeline combining the Gemini API with Tavily Search for accurate information synthesis.

Flutter
VectorDB
WebSocket
Sentence Transformers
FastAPI
Tavily API
Gemini API
BidNet - Real-Time Bidding Model

BidNet - Real-Time Bidding Model

Innovated a raw-to-dense feature pipeline, transforming raw bid data using contrastive embeddings & autoencoders, followed by an ANN-based feature compression for efficient representation. Devised a low-latency RTB model predicting bid price and bidding decisions within 5ms per request, optimized via Grid Search & Adaptive Learning Rate Scheduling. Achieved 82% classification accuracy, scaling to handle 100K+ bid requests per second in large-scale ad exchanges.

Sentence Tokenizers
AutoEncoders
Contrastive Learning
Representation Learning
Feature Engineering
NLP
Python
Market Regime Detection System

Market Regime Detection System

Prepared an ML-based system to identify distinct market states from high-frequency financial data. Engineered 20+ custom features from order book data, consolidated 3 clustering algorithms achieving 87% silhouette score. System successfully identified 4 distinct market regimes with 92% classification accuracy, reducing strategy drawdowns by 15% through adaptive position sizing. Analyzed 500,000+ data points across multiple timeframes to enable real-time regime classification within 50ms.

Dimensionality Reduction
Volatility Estimators
Regime Transition Analysis
Feature Engineering
Unsupervised ML
Backtesting
HDBSCAN
KMeans
GMM
UMAP
PCA
TimeScaleDB
Achievements

Proven Excellence

Throughout my journey, I've achieved recognition in 12 major competitions and milestones. From hackathons to programming contests, academic excellence to cybersecurity competitions - each achievement represents dedication, skill, and continuous growth in technology.

  • G

    Goldman Sachs India Hackathon - Rank 1808

    Programming Competition

    Ranked 1808 in the CS track of the Goldman Sachs India Hackathon.
  • M

    Meta × OpenEnv Hackathon - Top 100

    AI/ML Hackathon

    Placed in the Top 100 of 5,000+ teams at the Meta × OpenEnv Hackathon 2026 with SafeGen Arena - an OpenEnv-compliant RL gym that trains a prompt-rewriting safety layer for diffusion models via GRPO.
  • H

    Hack IIT Kanpur CTF - 3rd Place

    Cybersecurity / CTF

    Secured 3rd place at Hack IIT Kanpur, an offline CTF, winning a ₹1 lakh prize.
  • E

    EHAX - CTF Team Highlights (India Rank 7)

    Cybersecurity / CTF

    As Vice President of EHAX, DTU's Ethical Hacking & Cybersecurity Society, co-organized a global CTF with 3,000+ participants and helped the team reach India Rank 7 / World Rank 33 on CTFtime. Team placements across national and international CTFs: 1st at h4ck0n-CTF, 2nd at Cryptonite CTF, 4th at 07 CTF, 8th at Apoorv CTF, 11th at AceCTF, 15th at BITS CTF 2025, 20th at Pragyan CTF, and 41st at Backdoor CTF.
  • M

    Meta Hacker Cup 2025

    Competitive Programming · Issued by Meta

    Secured a global rank of 1345 in Round 2 of Meta Hacker Cup 2025 (1321 in Round 1), placing among the top 2000 participants worldwide and earning an official Meta T-shirt.
  • A

    Amazon ML Challenge 2025 - Under 500

    AI/ML Competition

    Ranked under 500 among 20,000 teams in the Amazon ML Challenge 2025.
  • N

    NCIIPC-AICTE Pentathon 2025 - Grand Finalist

    Cybersecurity Competition

    Grand Finalist - ranked 12th out of 10,000 teams in the NCIIPC-AICTE Pentathon 2025, a national cybersecurity competition. Built a comprehensive threat detection and automated incident response solution.
  • C

    Competitive Programming - Specialist & Knight

    Competitive Programming

    Codeforces Specialist (1535), LeetCode Knight (1982), and CodeChef 3★ (1636). Ranked 1677 in Codeforces Round 1034, 972 in LeetCode Weekly Contest 462, and 535 / 515 in CodeChef Starters 171 & 172 (among 25,000+). 900+ problems solved across platforms.
  • V

    VisionXAI Hackathon - 2nd Position

    AI/ML Hackathon

    Secured 2nd position at the VisionXAI Hackathon, held during Invictus, DTU's annual techfest.
  • I

    IICON-CTF'25 - Individual Winner

    Cybersecurity / CTF

    Individual winner (1st place) of IICON-CTF'25.
  • I

    IEEE Xtreme 18.0 - 4th in University

    Programming Competition

    Ranked 4th in university and 723rd worldwide in IEEE Xtreme 18.0, a global competitive programming contest among 9,500+ teams.
  • S

    Smart India Hackathon - Semifinalist

    Hackathon

    Cleared the internal college rounds of the Smart India Hackathon (SIH), advancing as a semifinalist.
Contact

Get in Touch

Want to chat? Just shoot me a dm with a direct question on discord and I'll respond whenever I can. I will ignore all soliciting.