Rahul Baburajan
We happily welcome Rahul Baburajan as a new PhD Research Fellow at SFI Visual Intelligence's hub in Tromsø.
We happily welcome Rahul Baburajan as a new PhD Research Fellow at SFI Visual Intelligence's hub in Tromsø, Norway.
By Petter Bjørklund, Communications Officer at SFI Visual Intelligence
Baburajan joined Visual Intelligence in February 2026. Originally from India, he is passionate about the intersection of foundational AI research and real-world impact, particularly within energy and sustainability.
Baburajan holds a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Aberdeen. His thesis focused on conditional language modeling for creative writing—exploring how large language models can be guided to produce structured and controllable outputs for creative writing applications.
During his undergraduate studies, Baburajan worked on deep learning models for computational imaging. In industry, he has built and deployed NLP systems for large-scale customer service automation. He has also worked on AI initiatives connected to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and the National Decommissioning Centre in the UK.
Baburajan's PhD project sits at the intersection of foundational AI research and energy applications. While AI systems such as ChatGPT and Claude have become mainstream in recent years, he says that many high impact domains including energy remain underexplored from an AI perspective.
"My research aims to develop intelligent models that can help extract, interpret, and reason about complex scientific and industrial data in the energy sector. More broadly, I am interested in building robust, interpretable AI systems that can contribute both to operational efficiency and to fundamental scientific discovery within energy," he adds.
Baburajan is particularly excited about collaborating with the researchers at Visual Intelligence and contributing to high quality AI research in the global north.
"Building and strengthening an AI research community here is something I find deeply meaningful. On a larger scale, I am motivated by the idea that advances in AI can accelerate progress in energy systems. If we think of the journey from energy to chips to AI and now AI back to energy, there is something deeply meaningful about closing that loop. Even incremental improvements in how we understand and manage energy systems can have long term global implications," says Baburajan.
Forskere har utviklet KI til å forutsi risikoen for å få brystkreft innen ett til fem år (Norwegian popular science article on forskning.no).
We congratulate PhD Fellow Suaiba Salahuddin, who will start as new Head Engineer at the Climate-Ecological Observatory for Arctic Tundra (COAT)
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Researchers at Visual Intelligence have developed AI to predict the risk of getting breast cancer within one to five years. It can help detect more cases of breast cancer earlier.
Visual Intelligence researchers contributed with various activities during Forskningsdagene 2026: Norway's annual research festival.
100 researchers, user partners and invited guests gathered in Oslo, Norway for the Visual Intelligence Days: the centre's annual conference for sharing knowledge and updates on the latest research and innovations.
Why should we think twice before using AI as a therapist, romantic partner, or to help out with homework? AI expert Elisabeth Wetzer explains (Popular science article on sciencenorway.no / forskning.no).
Associate Professor Kristoffer Wickstrøm was interviewed by Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK) about the ongoing debate on whether to halt current and future AI development
Representatives from the Research Council of Norway came to Visual Intelligence's hub in Tromsø for a site visit meeting.
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Harald Lykke Joakimsen, a PhD Candidate at Visual Intelligence's hub in Tromsø, will compete in Forsker Grand Prix: Norway's national popular science competition.
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Congratulations to Centre Director Robert Jenssen, who was appointed as a new fellow of the International Associaton for Pattern Recognition (IAPR).
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Why should we think twice before using AI as a therapist, romantic partner, or to help with homework? AI expert Elisabeth Wetzer explains.
Athinoulla Konstantinou is a PhD student at the University of Aberdeen. She visited Visual Intelligence's hub in Tromsø to work with equivariant modelling.
Visual Intelligence gathered experts from Norwegian politics, research council, industry, the public sector, and academia to discuss the value of Norwegian AI competence and Norwegian-developed models.
Visual Intelligence researchers are attending two AI-oriented events at Arendalsuka 2026: Norway's largest annual political festival.
Visual Intelligence hosted over 45 international AI researchers for the DL2026 workshop at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Visual Intelligence will be well represented at MICCAI 2026, one of the leading AI conferences on medical imaging and computer assisted intervention, with two accepted research papers.
Visual Intelligence co-organized and attended the "Foundations of Arctic AI and Generative Forecasting": an inaugural workshop in the P1 Arctic AI program.
PhD Candidates Solveig Thrun and Christian Salomonsen attended the Datacloud Global Congress' Talent in Tech programme, which invited emerging talent to a unique programme designed to inspire, educate, and connect young professionals with senior leaders from global tech giants.
We warmly welcome Georgios Leontidis as a new Professor at SFI Visual Intelligence's hub at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Centre Director Robert Jenssen was interviewed by Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK) about the Japan-Norway AI Innovation Forum in Tokyo, Japan.