Ayush Bhardwaj, 25
Ayush Bhardwaj: The Research-Driven Innovator and Open Source Mentor
Ayush Bhardwaj is a graduate student at Politecnico di Milano (Class of ’25), an MLH Fellow, GSoC mentor and a prolific open source contributor with three patents and multiple research publications. Growing up in Saharsa, a small town in Bihar, India, with frequent power cuts, Ayush's coding journey began with a dusty C++ book and candlelit hours spent debugging. His first hackathon in college was a turning point, revealing that coding was about creativity, problem-solving, and empowerment. This realization has driven his active involvement in the global hacker community.
Ayush is the co-founder and CTO of Agentibus.ai, a European AI startup building intelligent agents for businesses. Agentibus is fully bootstrapped and client-funded, which Ayush and his co-founders take pride in as a sign of both strong product-market fit and robust technical execution. He is also the co-founder of HypnOS, a student-led technical community that has mentored over 500 students into open source. Under HypnOS, he has helped dozens of students get selected for Google Summer of Code (GSoC), MLH, and Outreachy through peer-led mentoring, technical bootcamps, and open hackathons. He was a two-time GSoC contributor before becoming a mentor and project maintainer, guiding students through complex open source contributions. He has been a finalist or winner at several national and global hackathons, where he’s built everything from mental health apps to AI-powered automation tools. Furthermore, he mentored at prestigious events like HackMIT and the UNESCO India-Africa Hackathon. Additionally, he has judged national competitions such as Toycathon, organized by the Government of India. As an active contributor to FOSSology, an open source license compliance tool, he maintains projects like Atarashi and Nirjas. During his MLH Fellowship with Meta, he contributed to AudioSeal, an AI-based audio watermarking tool aimed at improving media attribution and authenticity. He is currently conducting research at the intersection of LLMs and AI for high-stakes domains like healthcare and safety, aligning with his broader focus on responsible innovation and real-world impact. He believes his most significant impact comes from mentorship and community building, empowering beginners to navigate the tech world and cultivating an inclusive, welcoming environment.
Python is Ayush's all-time favorite language for its elegance and versatility, and open source is the backbone of all his tech endeavors. He stands out for his ability to bridge mentorship, research, and innovation, making the hacker journey more accessible. One memorable moment was when his team had to make a last-minute pivot at a hackathon after realizing they trained their AI model on the wrong dataset. Despite the setback, they still made it to the finals! When not coding or mentoring, Ayush enjoys writing poetry and music, recently publishing two songs titled “Tera Intzaar” and “Lost in the Echo.” A fun fact: he can make the perfect cup of chai while his code is compiling!
Quick Facts
Ayush Bhardwaj, 25
Ayush Bhardwaj: The Research-Driven Innovator and Open Source Mentor
Ayush Bhardwaj is a graduate student at Politecnico di Milano (Class of ’25), an MLH Fellow, GSoC mentor and a prolific open source contributor with three patents and multiple research publications. Growing up in Saharsa, a small town in Bihar, India, with frequent power cuts, Ayush's coding journey began with a dusty C++ book and candlelit hours spent debugging. His first hackathon in college was a turning point, revealing that coding was about creativity, problem-solving, and empowerment. This realization has driven his active involvement in the global hacker community.
Ayush is the co-founder and CTO of Agentibus.ai, a European AI startup building intelligent agents for businesses. Agentibus is fully bootstrapped and client-funded, which Ayush and his co-founders take pride in as a sign of both strong product-market fit and robust technical execution. He is also the co-founder of HypnOS, a student-led technical community that has mentored over 500 students into open source. Under HypnOS, he has helped dozens of students get selected for Google Summer of Code (GSoC), MLH, and Outreachy through peer-led mentoring, technical bootcamps, and open hackathons. He was a two-time GSoC contributor before becoming a mentor and project maintainer, guiding students through complex open source contributions. He has been a finalist or winner at several national and global hackathons, where he’s built everything from mental health apps to AI-powered automation tools. Furthermore, he mentored at prestigious events like HackMIT and the UNESCO India-Africa Hackathon. Additionally, he has judged national competitions such as Toycathon, organized by the Government of India. As an active contributor to FOSSology, an open source license compliance tool, he maintains projects like Atarashi and Nirjas. During his MLH Fellowship with Meta, he contributed to AudioSeal, an AI-based audio watermarking tool aimed at improving media attribution and authenticity. He is currently conducting research at the intersection of LLMs and AI for high-stakes domains like healthcare and safety, aligning with his broader focus on responsible innovation and real-world impact. He believes his most significant impact comes from mentorship and community building, empowering beginners to navigate the tech world and cultivating an inclusive, welcoming environment.
Python is Ayush's all-time favorite language for its elegance and versatility, and open source is the backbone of all his tech endeavors. He stands out for his ability to bridge mentorship, research, and innovation, making the hacker journey more accessible. One memorable moment was when his team had to make a last-minute pivot at a hackathon after realizing they trained their AI model on the wrong dataset. Despite the setback, they still made it to the finals! When not coding or mentoring, Ayush enjoys writing poetry and music, recently publishing two songs titled “Tera Intzaar” and “Lost in the Echo.” A fun fact: he can make the perfect cup of chai while his code is compiling!
