Siddhesh Salfale

I am currently in the final year of my Dual Degree (Bachelor's + Master's) program at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, majoring in Industrial & Systems Engineering with a minor in Computer Science and a specialization in Medical Imaging, Neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence. During my undergraduate studies, I have been fortunate to conduct research at Caltech and Australian National University, working on projects at the intersection of Computational Neuroscience and AI. In Summer 2023, I worked with Prof. Eduardo Eyras at the Computational RNA Lab on developing AI models for cancer diagnostics and drug discovery. I have also worked with Prof. Anima Anandkumar and Dr. Bahareh Tolooshams on interpretable machine learning and AI methods for neuroscience. I am also a recipient of the IndiaAI Fellowship under the IndiaAI Mission, awarded to a select group of undergraduate researchers in India, supporting my Bachelor’s and Master’s thesis research.

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Research

My research focuses on the intersection of AI, Computational and Systems Neuroscience, with the goal of developing algorithms that uncover interpretable computational principles of brain function. I am particularly interested in learning structured representations from neural data (e.g., EEG, iEEG, fMRI, fUSI and fNIRS) to understand how information is encoded and processed in the brain. My recent work explores self-supervised learning, sparse representations, and multimodal neural data modeling to build models that can reveal latent neural mechanisms rather than only making predictions. More broadly, I aim to develop Neuro-inspired AI systems and mechanistically interpretable learning frameworks that bridge biological intelligence and AI, enabling new approaches for understanding brain dynamics, cognition, and next-generation neurotechnology.

News

[April 2025] — Awarded Caltech SURF Fellowship 2025 to conduct cutting research at Caltech in AI for Neuroscience.

[March 2025] — Awarded Charpak Lab Scholarship 2025 by Embassy of France, India.