Janavi Gupta
I am a fourth-year undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University, studying Computer Science with a minor in Human-Computer Interaction. I am passionate about building technologies that help people, especially at the intersection of caregiving/healthcare.
I am an undergraduate researcher at the Robotic Caregiving and Human Interaction Lab, working with Professor Zackory Erikson on software and hardware development and evaluation of assistive robotic interfaces for people with motor impairments. One of my papers won a Best Paper Award at the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Conference 2024. I also serve as Undergraduate Coordinator for the lab.
I was a Software Engineering Summer Analyst at Goldman Sachs, where I worked on AI tools integrated into an internal Banker Copilot for Mergers and Acquisitions under their Investment Banking Engineering division. Before that, I was a Software Engineer Intern at Palo Alto Networks on the AI Runtime Security team, where I worked on guardrails to ensure the safety of LLM-integrated applications.
I am a trained Indian classical dancer and currently serve as Senior Advisor for CMU Abhinaya, Carnegie Mellon University's competitive Indian classical dance team. I have previously served as Captain and Assistant Captain.
Find me: Email | LinkedIn | GitHub | Google Scholar
Press features: The Tribune Review | Pittsburgh Post Gazette | CMU News
Publications
*authors contributed equally
WAFFLE: A Wearable Approach to Bite Timing Estimation in Robot-Assisted Feeding
Akhil Padmanabha*, Jessie Yuan*, Tanisha Mehta, Rajat Kumar Jenamani, Eric Hu, Victoria de Léon, Anthony Wertz, Janavi Gupta, Ben Dodson, Yunting Yan, Carmel Majidi, Tapomayukh Bhattacharjee, Zackory Erickson
Under Review, 2025
Towards an LLM-Based Speech Interface for Robot-Assisted
Feeding
Jessie Yuan, Janavi Gupta, Akhil Padmanabha, Zulekha Karachiwalla, Carmel Majidi, Henny Admoni, Zackory Erickson
ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) Adjunct 2024
VoicePilot: Harnessing LLMs as Speech Interfaces for Physically
Assistive Robots
Akhil Padmanabha*, Jessie Yuan*, Janavi Gupta, Zulekha Karachiwalla, Carmel Majidi, Henny Admoni, Zackory Erickson
ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) 2024
Akhil Padmanabha, Janavi Gupta, Chen Chen, Jehan Yang, Vy Nguyen, Douglas J. Weber, Carmel Majidi, Zackory Erickson
ACM/IEEE Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Conference 2024
Best Paper Award in Systems
[ PDF | Website | Code | IEEE Spectrum | CMU News | Pittsburgh Post Gazette | Arduino]
Detecting Anaemia Using Machine Learning and Computer Vision
Janavi Gupta, Reetu Jain, Mohan Kshirsagar, Shekhar Jain
Journal for Software and Hardware Research in Engineering, August 2021
[ PDF | Code ]
CMU Abhinaya
cmu's competitve indian classical dance team!! check out the slay instagram <3
2025 - 2026 | Senior Advisor
Dances: Draupadi: Then and Now playing Duryodhana (15 mins), Jiya Jale x Inkem Inkem (2 mins), Leela Nidhi He (5 mins)
Advise the Executive Board on critical decisions that impact the whole team and provide guidance and feedback on their functioning.
2024 - 2025 | Captain
Dances: Ramayanam playing Lakshmana in the Fall and Ravana in the Spring (14 mins), Aigiri Nandini (2.5 mins), Basant Pallavi: an Odissi piece (5 mins)
Fostered a more close-knit team culture, improved logistics and financial management. Led the executive board in planning and executing a two-hour showcase featuring performances by both team members and guest student groups, and raising 350$ in donations through ticket sales.
2023 - 2024 | Assistant Captain
Dances: Elements of Nature (4.5 mins), Ananda Tandavam (5 mins)
Developed the team’s first Fall theme showcasing multiple Indian classical dance styles, enabling members to choreograph in their own styles while learning from others. Introduced open workshops to engage non-classical dancers and broaden exposure to Indian classical dance forms within the community.
2022 - 2023 | Member
Dances: Story of Karna (2.5 mins), Classical-Bollywood Fusion (4 mins)
Got recruited as the first-ever Odissi dancer on the team only to learn Bharatnatyam for the first time after doing almost 13 years of Odissi. Got to do my first-ever Bharatnatyam performance for Diwali!
Projects
my brief foray into hardware
18-095 Final Project
Hardware Used: 16x32 Adafruit RGB Matrix Panel (x1), Arduino UNO (x1), Arcade Style Buttons (x5)
Built with an Arduino UNO controlling a 16×32 RGB matrix panel for the display and five arcade buttons wired for movement, rotation, and game control. Developed in Arduino C, with code handling piece generation, rotation, collision detection, line clearing, and scoring to fully replicate classic Tetris.
18-095 Midsemester Project
Hardware Used: Infrared Sensors (x2), Arduino UNO (x1), LEDs (x2), LCD 16x2 Display (x1), Servo Motors (x2)
Arduino UNO connected to two infrared sensors for touchless input, LEDs for feedback, a 16×2 LCD display for status output, and two servo motors to simulate elevator movement. Programmed in Arduino C to detect hand gestures over the sensors and trigger the corresponding LED, LCD message.
Conferences
The ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST)
October 2024 | Pittsburgh, PA
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)
March 2024 | Boulder, CO | Student Volunteer
Last Updated: October 2025