AI Research
Studying how artificial intelligence systems intersect with learning, knowledge, and human decision-making at the institutional level.
FOUNDING MEMBER · PENTA MINDS
Vignesh Prakash
Student Research Lead
Building scalable AI research infrastructure for student-led innovation. Focused on AI literacy, educational technology, and the systems that shape how knowledge is created and shared.
Research Identity & Focus
My work sits at the intersection of AI systems, educational infrastructure, and student-led research. I am primarily interested in how knowledge moves - how students encounter AI without formal instruction, and how research ecosystems can be built to study and address that gap.
Educational Technology
Examining the infrastructure of digital learning and how tools shape pedagogy beyond their intended design.
AI Literacy
Building frameworks for critically grounded AI understanding across diverse educational contexts in India.
Digital Knowledge Systems
Exploring how information is organised, surfaced, and consumed in the age of large language models.
Research Infrastructure
Designing the operational and organisational scaffolding that makes sustained student-led research possible.
Student Innovation Ecosystems
Understanding the conditions that allow student collectives to produce credible, policy-relevant research outputs.
Mission
The fundamental goal is straightforward: make rigorous AI research accessible to students who are not enrolled in elite institutions, and build the organisational infrastructure to sustain that work. AI literacy is not a soft skill - it is a structural condition for equitable participation in a world increasingly organised by algorithmic systems. The research Penta Minds produces is designed to surface what is invisible: the informal, undocumented ways students are learning to navigate AI without guidance, and the policy gaps that follow from that invisibility.
Vision
The long-term vision is to build scalable student research ecosystems that can operate across institutions, cities, and disciplines. Penta Minds is designed as modular educational infrastructure: a place where research methods, AI literacy resources, field evidence, and experimentation-driven learning culture can be assembled into durable public outputs.
Philosophy
Research is not a credential exercise. It is a commitment to sustained attention on questions that matter. The work Penta Minds undertakes is designed to be durable: structured enough to produce credible outputs, flexible enough to follow evidence wherever it leads.
GPAI India Student Community
Global Partnership on AI - India Student Community
Community Membership
Active member of the GPAI India Student Community, an international network of student researchers engaged with AI governance and policy.
AI Grand Challenge 2026
Participated in the AI Grand Challenge, organised under GPAI and Inria (France), developing research on AI in Indian higher education submitted toward OECD policy frameworks.
Global AI Ecosystem Exposure
Through this community, working alongside student researchers across India on questions of AI governance, literacy, and responsible deployment.
Research Projects
Active initiatives and research contributions
Project 01
AI Grand Challenge 2026
GPAI India Student Community - AI in Indian Higher Education
The AI Grand Challenge is an international student research competition organised under the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) and Inria, France. Penta Minds is participating through the GPAI India Student Community, conducting original field research on how AI is understood, used, and encountered by students and faculty across Tier 1, 2, and 3 higher education institutions in India.
Research Direction
Investigating the informal learning of AI in Indian higher education - what students know, how they learned it, and what the gaps in formal literacy look like across institution types.
Contribution
Producing a structured survey dataset, field visit observations, a Policy Brief, and an AI Literacy Toolkit - all submitted to OECD through GPAI frameworks.
Ecosystem Relevance
This project is the founding research initiative of Penta Minds, establishing the team's credibility, methodology, and output standards.
GPAI India Student CommunityInria FranceOECD (Output Audience)
Timeline
March 2026Registration & Team Formation
April 2026Survey Launch & Institution Outreach
April-May 2026Field Data Collection
May 2026Data Compilation
June 2026Analysis & Final Report
Project 02
AI as the Hidden Curriculum
How Learning is Happening Through AI Without Being Taught
AI as the Hidden Curriculum is the core research initiative examining how students in Indian higher education are learning to use AI tools informally - outside any structured curriculum. The central question is: what does it mean when an entire generation of students is developing AI competency through trial, error, and peer learning, without institutional acknowledgment or guidance?
Objective
To document the informal AI learning behaviours of students across institution tiers, and identify the structural gaps between student AI use and institutional AI policy.
Methodology
Field surveys across 9+ institutions in Tamil Nadu, faculty interviews, institutional observation, and a nationwide online survey instrument.
Conducted as part of the AI Grand Challenge 2026 under GPAI India Student Community. Timeline follows the AI Grand Challenge research schedule above.
Research Interests
Penta Minds Ecosystem
Modular research infrastructure built for scale
Penta Minds
Student Research Initiatives
AI Learning Systems