Two power-packed days of expert talks, live demos, and Q&A — bookending a full week of building. Every session is moderated by Ashwika Tipparaju.
Ashwika is a high school junior at Rutgers Prep School and the founder of Youth Code Foundation — a nonprofit helping young people see AI as an opportunity rather than a threat. She's organized speaker series, community events, and now YCFxAI: a weeklong online hackathon and summit. Ashwika is passionate about accounting, data science, and building spaces where high schoolers can learn from real practitioners. She will host both days, deliver opening remarks, showcase vibe coding tools, and share how AI fits into a high schooler's life.
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Praveen Sake is a Staff Software Engineer and Technical Lead for AI/ML at Meta. With experience building at one of the world's largest technology companies, Praveen brings a front-row perspective on how AI is transforming software development, what it means to build in an era where AI writes code alongside you, and what skills will matter most for the next generation of developers.
Praveen will share insights on the future of development and what young builders should be paying attention to right now — from AI-assisted coding to the evolving skillsets that matter most in tech.
Sruthi is a fourth-year PhD student at Columbia University advised by Carl Vondrick and Richard Zemel. She completed her B.S. in Computer Science at Georgia Tech, where she worked on Algorithmic Fairness. She has interned at Microsoft Research and spent three summers as a Software Engineering Intern at Bloomberg and Microsoft.
AI systems learn from data made by humans — which means they can inherit all our biases. How do we find them before the biases hurt people? Sruthi will lead with the fairness topic since it hits the summit's mission head-on (AI as opportunity, not threat), and close with a teaser of her Dreamitate/robot work — showing both the responsibility side and the exciting frontier side of AI research.
Umashankar Kotturu is the Global Practice Lead for Digital Engineering at Apexon, with 20+ years leading digital transformation across cloud, AI, and enterprise modernization. A Wharton Executive Education alumnus with leadership roles at Tech Mahindra, Infosys, and his own healthcare IT startup (G1 Health), he leads the development of AgentRise — Apexon's next-gen Agentic AI platform.
Uma will connect macro-level industry shifts directly to the hackathon tracks, helping participants see the real-world stakes behind what they're building. He'll also share tips for successfully completing the hackathon — a practical send-off as Build Week begins.
Six days to hack, build, and ship. Teams work on their projects across the five hackathon tracks using Devpost for submissions and Discord for collaboration, mentorship, and community support.
Berto Mill is the founder of MakersLounge — a Toronto community of 700+ founders, developers, artists, and investors who build things together. He helps people build things that thrive through strong community and the right connections. Berto is also a hackathon regular and loves to train for Hyrox fitness races around the world.
Berto will bring the perspective of a builder and community leader, plus a live look at Open Claw — an open-source AI tool reshaping accounting and creative tooling. Expect a hands-on demo and insights on how AI is changing what accountants and creators build with every day.
Titia Long-Nickens is a Senior Vice President and Senior Technology Manager in Global Technology at Bank of America and a member of the senior leadership team. She is an inspiring and empowering leader who sets a high standard for quality, accountability, and impact. Titia fosters a culture of innovation and resilience, while championing the thoughtful adoption of AI and automation to drive operational efficiency, elevate user experience, and enable teams to perform at their very best.
"Why Leadership, Communication, and Empathy Are AI's Most Underrated Skills" — Titia's session gives every student a door into the AI economy. This directly counters the "AI will take jobs" fear by showing that the people directing AI projects at major institutions are valued for distinctly human skills. AI is creating entirely new careers that didn't exist 10 years ago, and most of them need people who can lead, not just code.
Jubain Joshi is a Tax Partner at KPMG US focused on Banking and Capital Markets. He holds a Master's in Accounting and Finance from SUNY Buffalo and brings years of experience advising financial institutions on complex tax matters.
Jubain will dive into the fundamentals of accounting and finance — covering the branches of accounting (Tax, Audit, Assurance), company formation, and state and federal tax implications. He'll provide guidance specifically tailored for high schoolers and handle Q&A on how AI is impacting enterprise accounting and the finance world.
