Prithviraj Pramanik is the co-founder and CEO of AQAI, a UNICEF Office of Innovation–backed GeoAI startup focused on satellite-based air quality analysis, and he serves as a Data Scientist at the George Institute for Global Health. A Computer Scientist by training, he has pursued his PhD at the National Institute of Technology Durgapur, where his doctoral research is centred around cost-effective urban air quality measurement using multimodal data. As a Fulbright Climate Fellow, Prithviraj worked with Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Illinois System, the University of Chicago and the Discovery Partners Institute to pioneer city-scale air quality monitoring with low-cost sensor networks.

Driven by a passion for the intersection of technology and society, Prithviraj has led teams to develop open-source AI-based air quality quantification toolkits under UNICEF Office of Innovation funding. He is a serial entrepreneur who previously co-founded a startup recognised among India’s top ten disaster management ventures by the Government of India. Under his leadership, AQAI was selected among 30 global teams for the MIT Fuse 2023 program and received multiple grants from the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund. He has authored numerous publications in prominent conferences—such as SIGCHI, WWW, AGU, and PerCom—and journals, including Transactions of Sensor Networks and Knowledge-Based Systems. He also holds a pending patent on Crisis Mapping.

Recognised as a prominent voice in global forums, Prithviraj served as a panellist at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 78, where he highlighted the role of youth in shaping a digital future. His work focuses on building transparent, fair, and accountable AI systems to address critical global environmental health and resilience challenges. Currently, he is exploring the role of large language models to develop responsible chatbots that foster equitable health outcomes, further advancing his commitment to harnessing technology for societal good.