Hi. I am Abira Sengupta

About Me

Hi, I am Abira Sengupta, a researcher and educator driven by a passion for leveraging Artificial Intelligence to solve real-world challenges. I recently completed my PhD defense in Information Science at the University of Otago, New Zealand, where my research focused on developing computational models to address complex problems in multi-agent systems. My work bridges AI, logical reasoning, and data-driven approaches to tackle a variety of issues across domains, including but not limited to climate science. Currently, my research delves into Explainable AI (XAI) for climate-related challenges, particularly wildfire behavior, spread prediction, and post-wildfire and methane emissions. I am an Affiliated Researcher and Visiting Scientist at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and collaborate with international teams to enhance the reliability and transparency of AI-driven climate models. My work integrates multimodal systems and advanced machine learning techniques to predict and understand complex phenomena like greenhouse gas emissions and extreme weather events. I am a proud member of IEEE, CAIPP, SINZ, and AIRA, and an enthusiastic tutor at the School of Computing, University of Otago. I have a rich teaching history spanning subjects like machine learning, data science, and software development. My pre-doctoral research emphasized computer vision and deep learning for biometrics, including face recognition and postal automation. During this period, I served as a lecturer at renowned Indian institutions.