Internship Highlight: Abhishek Malreddy

Materials Science and Engineering graduate students are getting hands-on experience this summer as they gain a better understanding of how their classroom experiences will translate to the workforce.

Abhishek Malreddy, who is pursuing an MS in Artificial Intelligence in Engineering, is working as an AI Engineering Intern at Vigilant Inc., an AI-powered personal safety platform. Vigilant provides real-time threat alerts, embedded safety training, end-to-end encrypted messaging, and secure location tracking for individuals, families, and organizations.

Abhishek’s work has specifically focused on integrating large language models into Vigilant’s mobile safety app to personalize user alerts and filter out duplicate safety-related news articles pulled from multiple public and private sources—capabilities that align with Vigilant’s Intel feed, which aggregates real-time safety signals from more than 10,000 sources. The chance to work at a startup was an opportunity he was eager to take when considering the options available to him.

The work is meaningful and blends technology with public impact

Abhishek Malreddy, Graduate Student, CMU Materials Science and Engineering

“This internship has been a unique chance to apply cutting-edge AI to real-world safety challenges,” he said. “The work is meaningful and blends technology with public impact.”

During his time at Vigilant, Abhishek has already seen the impact his work has made, as the integration of machine learning APIs into the real-time alert system has affected how users receive and interpret safety information through personalized, context-aware notifications.

He credits courses such as Systems and Tool Chains for AI Engineers, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning with providing a foundation to contribute in a fast-paced software development environment, and this experience has made him well-positioned to continue his studies.

“This role has strengthened my systems thinking and sharpened my problem-solving approach,” he noted. “The skills I’ve developed are directly supporting my master’s research project, where I’m working on AI-based applications in materials science.”