Prithu Pareek

I was born with SEPN1 congenital myopathy — an ultrarare neuromuscular condition that most people, including most doctors, have never heard of. Growing up with it taught me early to notice what the rest of the world often overlooks: which systems work for everyone, and which only work for some. That's what drew me to engineering, science, and advocacy — long before I knew those were career paths.

That path started in a lab at Boston Children's Hospital, researching treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It led me to Carnegie Mellon, where I studied Electrical and Computer Engineering and built robots designed to safely guide people with visual impairments. And it took me to the Naval Research Laboratory, developing motion planning algorithms for dual-armed robots operating in some of the most demanding environments — land, sea, and space.

Today, I work as a motion planning engineer at Aurora, helping build the intelligence behind self-driving vehicles. Autonomous driving isn't just a technical challenge — it's one of the most significant accessibility breakthroughs on the horizon, with the potential to give independence and mobility to millions of people who can't drive today.

Redesigning systems isn't only about technology — it's about who gets to do the redesigning. As president of CMU's Undergraduate Student Senate, I pushed for changes that gave people more power over their own lives: raising the minimum wage for student workers, securing parking accommodations for students with disabilities, and establishing Democracy Day. Today, I extend that work through YPO's Social Impact Network, where I co-created and produce the Impact in Action podcast.