# Anik Sahai

> AI & robotics researcher in Boca Raton, FL. Junior at Florida Atlantic University High School, dual-enrolled at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). Works on robot navigation and policies (VLA models), embodied AI safety, and AI in healthcare. Founder & CEO of AuthAI; co-founder of The Ethics Lab.

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## Pages

- [Home](https://aniksahai.com/): intro, current research, experience
- [About](https://aniksahai.com/about): bio and story
- [Projects](https://aniksahai.com/projects): every project with status
- [Awards](https://aniksahai.com/awards): awards, press, experience, education
- [Contact](https://aniksahai.com/contact)
- Case studies: [GAIN](https://aniksahai.com/case-study/meridian-health), [Who Do You Think You're Talking To?](https://aniksahai.com/case-study/stylebook), [Self-driving golf cart](https://aniksahai.com/case-study/homestead), [The Ethics Lab](https://aniksahai.com/case-study/north-light)

## Experience

- AI Research Assistant, Center for Connected Autonomy and AI (CA-AI), FAU (May 2026–present). Robotics, VLA systems and embodied AI with Dr. Minghan Wei.
- AI Research Lead & MPCR Fellow, MPCR Labs (Nov 2025–present). AI alignment, safety and embodied intelligence with Dr. Hahn.
- Research Fellow, Non-Trivial (Jun–Aug 2026). AI safety and healthcare research.
- AI Engineer, LVNG.AI (Aug 2025–Jan 2026).
- Digital Health Investment Research Analyst Intern, Canvas Prime (formerly Canvas Ventures) (Apr–Sep 2025).
- Clinical Operations Intern, Spine & Orthopedic Center (Jun–Aug 2024).
- Founder & CEO, AuthAI: automates prior authorization inside existing EHR systems. Student Track runner-up, FAU Business Pitch Competition 2026.
- Co-founder, The Ethics Lab (ethicslabs.ai), Nov 2025–present: student-led nonprofit making AI education free and classroom-ready.

## Projects

- GAIN: Grounded Active Interactive Navigation (Jul 2026–present, in progress; targeting IEEE ICRA 2027). First author, with Dr. Minghan Wei at FAU's SIMA Lab. A robot that works out it has to open a door or call an elevator, then does it. Isaac Sim: 90.8% door and 86.7% elevator success (vs 41.7% for a plain VLM), 85% on long missions. Runs on a Ranger Mini 3 with an xArm6. https://github.com/AnikS22/utp_robot
- aperion (Oct 2026). Quantum-assisted ultrasound brain imaging; 3rd place, IBM Quantum Hackathon (Florida Qiskit Fall Fest). 0.58% error for the ideal circuit, 78% less pressure error on IBM hardware, up to 135 qubits. https://github.com/AnikS22/IBM_Qiskit_Fallfest
- PhysMent (published). Benchmark where language models run physics experiments in a live MuJoCo simulator. Third AI for MATH Workshop at ICML 2026. Co-author. Paper: https://aniksahai.com/paper/physment
- Who Do You Think You're Talking To? IRB-approved study (60 college students, three sessions over two weeks) with Vito Borio: people rated the same chatbot warmer and more trustworthy when told it was human.
- Self-driving golf cart (active, from Apr 2026). Converting a 2018 GEM e4 into an autonomous vehicle with Dr. Hahn at FAU.
- BMAA × TDP-43 flies (planned). Whether a Florida cyanobacteria toxin pushes ALS-model fruit flies into motor decline, and whether L-serine blocks it. Proposal: https://aniksahai.com/paper/bmaa-flies
- LarvaTrack (built). Measures fruit-fly larva crawling from phone video. https://github.com/AnikS22/larvatrack
- MidasMap (archived). Detects immunogold particles in electron-microscope images of synapses. https://github.com/AnikS22/MidasMap
- FLARE (2025, rejected). Probe on frozen VLA policies (OpenVLA, ACT) that flags failures in under 1 ms per step. First first-author paper. Paper: https://aniksahai.com/paper/flare
- Feeling the Frequency (2024). Activity classification from EEG and smartwatch motion, ~85% mean validation accuracy across 31 subjects. https://github.com/AnikS22/EEG-Signal-CoLabs
- The Nose Knows (2023). Low-cost electronic nose that tells coffee from air. https://github.com/AnikS22/nose-knows

## Awards

- IBM Quantum Hackathon, 3rd place (Oct 2026)
- Diamond Challenge, 1st place (Feb 2026); International Finalist (Apr 2026)
- Congressional App Challenge winner, FL-23 (Dec 2025), for SunGuard, a skin-cancer screening app
- FAU Business Pitch Competition, runner-up (2026)
- DECA ICDC qualifier
- NSDA National Tournament qualifier (Jun 2026); Tournament of Champions competitor; Harvard National Speech & Debate Tournament quarter-finalist
- Best in Show, Junior Division, Palm Beach Regional Science & Engineering Fair (2023); 1st in state, Florida middle school science fair, for a diabetic-retinopathy screening app (covered by the Associated Press)
- Eagle Scout

## Press

- Inc., "America's Startup Boom Just Hit a Record High" (2026)
- The Step One Podcast, "Can AI Be Trusted? Healthcare, Ethics, and Entrepreneurship" (Sep 2026)
- GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab (2026)
- Florida Weekly, "Spotlight on Success" (Aug 2026)
- Venture Tech Chronicle, FAU 2026 Business Pitch Competition (Apr 2026)
- Associated Press via CS Monitor (May 2024)

## Contact

- Email: aksahai07@gmail.com
- Book a call: https://aniksahai.com/meet
- GitHub: https://github.com/AnikS22
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniksahai/