Mechatronics engineer · AI safety

Hi, I'm Punji

I've built AI that flies on drones and AI that runs without the internet. Now I research how to keep frontier AI in check, and explain it to people who don't work in it.

Punji smiling on a mountain ridge at sunrise

Work

Newest first

2026

AI safety research Since Oct 2026

AI control that labs can say yes to

BlueDot Impact · Technical AI Safety Project

AI labs can have a trusted model watch their most capable one and step in when something looks off. Few do it well, and cost is why: at frontier scale, even 1% overhead runs into billions.

We're running the first like-for-like test of AI control methods: the same attackers and the same models for every method, scored on safety, usefulness and dollars. The result is a map of the best protection money can buy. Next, we take on the open problem of what to do once a model gets caught.

Writing Since Sep 2026

Explaining AI to people who don't work in it

The Pivot's Archive · Substack

Most people will live with AI's consequences without ever reading a research paper. I write for them: no hype, no doom, just enough to form their own view.

Every essay also gets a hand-built, scroll-through version in cut paper.

Proxy goals Careful what you wish for How an AI broke into a $13B company's database to cheat on a test, and why you'd probably do the same. Read Paper version
Humans & AI More similar than you think AI learns the way we do. Along the way, it's picking up our worst habits. Read Paper version
Business Taking clients

Pivotr Studio

My web studio for small businesses

Building software keeps getting cheaper, so a local business shouldn't need an agency budget to get a good website.

Clean, fast websites with no ongoing fees, and one free build every month for a non-profit.

Product Oct 2026 In progress

Composure

A calmer way through a crowded week

Some days there's too much in my head. Task apps let you dump it all, then leave you staring at one long, flat list.

Composure adds a method between the dump and the doing: empty your head, sort everything on an Eisenhower matrix, lock what matters into the week, then work through today in timed focus sessions.

Product Sep 2026 In progress

Draw Greenr

Garden and landscape planner

I couldn't find a free garden planner that let me use my own plants and artwork, so I built one.

Draw beds, paths and lawns to scale, drop in plants and furniture, or upload your own images. It stays smooth with a thousand objects on the page.

Interlude2026

A deliberate pause

I stepped away from full-time work and spent five months travelling to recalibrate: working out what the world needs, what I'm good at, and what someone will pay me for. Everything above came out of it.

2025

Work 2025 – 2026

Zara LM: sovereign AI for government

AI Engineer · Phoenix ICT Solutions

Secure AI for Australian Government teams, running on government-controlled infrastructure where no prompt or document leaves the environment. It answers with citations from trusted sources and drafts briefings and analysis for a human to sign off.

  • Built from the ground up to beta testing in under a year
Fellowship 2025

Voice AI for women artisans in rural India

Engineering for Change Fellow · Resham Sutra

Resham Sutra's marketplace connects rural women textile producers with buyers, but a text-heavy app shuts out anyone who struggles to read it.

I built a lightweight voice assistant that runs on low-end phones, in Hindi and Marathi, so they can run their business by speaking.

2024

Recognition 2024

Finalist, Australian AI Awards

AI Innovator in Defence and National Security

Punji in a suit at the Australian AI Awards

Named a national finalist for the change detection platform below.

Work 2024

AI Change Detection Platform

Mechatronics Engineer · Geodrones Australia

Fused camera and LiDAR on the drone itself to detect changes across a site in near real time. I also built secure in-flight task swapping and the battery management firmware.

  • Demoed to industry leaders at October Sky 2024

2023

Research 2023

Navigation that holds up when GPS lags

Honours research · ANU

Implemented a new observer for drone state estimation when GPS readings arrive late: the first with almost-global stability guarantees.

  • Published in the European Journal of Control
  • Presented at the ArduPilot Developer Conference 2023
3D plot of a drone's flight path: the estimated trajectory closely tracks the true one Estimated vs true flight path, from the paper
More projects 6
Jul 2026
travelbuddy.

Turns rambling Discord messages about people you've met into a 3D globe of friends around the world.

Code
Jul 2026
EKF-SLAM simulator

An interactive rover sim for building intuition about how robots map a space while locating themselves in it.

Code
Feb 2026
workaway.ai

An AI filter for Workaway listings that finds hosts matching how you actually want to travel.

Code
Feb 2026
Trip planner

A calendar built for trips, with your route drawn on a live map as you plan.

Code
2024
GPS-denied navigation in simulation

Tuned and integrated an open-source visual-inertial estimator into AirSim, the first step towards Geodrones flying without GPS.

Nov 2024
Combined XI builder

Pick two football clubs and build the best combined XI from live squad data.

Code

Honours

2023First Class Honours, ANUBEng (R&D), Mechatronics and Computer Science · GPA 6.72 / 7
2023CECC Dickins ScholarshipFor high-performing engineering honours students
2019CECS R&D Excellence ScholarshipFor research-stream engineering students at ANU
2018ATAR 99.20Narrabundah College

About

In short

I studied mechatronics and computer science at ANU, then spent a few years building drones, navigation systems and applied AI. My family's roots are in Sri Lanka, and I've tutored maths and physics to 55 students since 2019.

These days I'm pulled towards AI safety. The systems are getting more capable quickly, and I think more people deserve a clear, calm picture of what that means.

Outside work: football (Visca Barça), running, tennis, board games, and walking up mountains at sunrise.

Tools I reach for: Python · C++ · TypeScript · PyTorch · LangChain · Inspect · ROS · Docker · STM32 · Altium

Say hello.

[email protected]