From Social Activism to AI Innovation

Souvik's journey to global recognition began far from the world of artificial intelligence. Growing up in Kolkata, he became involved in initiatives addressing child trafficking and women's safety while pursuing his engineering degree. These experiences inspired him to build technology for social good.

"We developed AI-based systems that could detect harassment through CCTV footage. We also built Helpby, a mobile application designed to connect people in distress with nearby verified civilians who could provide immediate assistance," Souvik recalled.

His fascination with AI grew after discovering research from IIIT-Hyderabad's Centre for Visual Information Technology (CVIT), particularly the widely acclaimed Wav2Lip project. Unable to enter the institute through the conventional route, he first joined IIIT-H as a research assistant before enrolling in the MS by Research programme.

Reflecting on his early days at the institute, Souvik said:

"I came here and realized how little I knew about AI. It burst my bubble in the nicest possible way."

Building AI for Inclusive Education

At CVIT, Souvik specialised in multimodal artificial intelligence, developing systems that combine information from text, images, audio and video. His research spans speech generation from silent lip movements, subtitle alignment in the absence of audio, and other cutting-edge AI applications.

In 2024, he co-founded Cognitii with Jhillika Trisal and Falguni Shrivastava to address a critical gap in India's special education ecosystem.

The platform supports children with autism, ADHD, dyslexia and intellectual disabilities by enabling educators, healthcare professionals and government agencies to collaborate using AI-assisted tools. Cognitii helps institutions conduct early screening, create personalised intervention plans, monitor developmental progress and make informed decisions while ensuring that human expertise remains central to every recommendation.

Making Every Child Visible

One of Cognitii's core missions is to build a nationwide digital infrastructure that ensures neurodivergent children are not overlooked.

"We aim to build a digital data infrastructure layer for these children to have a unique identity, like Aadhaar did for India. Without this data, these children will remain invisible in policy discussions," Souvik said.

Today, Cognitii works with more than 20 schools and child development centres and is actively engaging with state governments to expand its impact.

Balancing Research and Entrepreneurship

Alongside publishing research papers at leading international conferences, Ghosh has managed the demanding responsibilities of building a startup, completing coursework, and collaborating with educators and policymakers.

His commitment to the cause is also deeply personal. As a child, he experienced speech-related difficulties that often made him feel excluded.

"Maybe that's one reason this work matters so much to me, because I understand how not being included in a system feels like."

Recognition with Purpose

Being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2026 list marks an important milestone, but for Souvik, it also reinforces a broader mission—to ensure that every neurodivergent child receives timely support and equal opportunities to learn and thrive.

As he completes his MS thesis at CVIT, IIIT-Hyderabad, Ghosh plans to continue advancing AI research while scaling Cognitii's impact across India, demonstrating how cutting-edge technology can be harnessed to solve real societal challenges.

The CVIT community congratulates Souvik Ghosh and the Cognitii team on this remarkable achievement and wishes them continued success in building a more inclusive future through artificial intelligence.