And from my rotting body, flowers shall grow. I am in them, and that is my eternity.
— Edvard Munch
Prachi Bhatia
A computer scientist by academic training, a sportsperson, a foster mom to many earthlings, an avid birder, and an aspiring professional champion of the natural world.
Research interests
Bioinformatics for biodiversity. I'm open to exploring a range of research questions in eDNA metabarcoding, phylogenetics, conservation genomics and wildlife forensics.
Whatever form my work takes, I want it to contribute meaningfully to conservation and to a better life for all flora and fauna.
The threads
I'm in pursuit of weaving together different parts of my life.
I’ve just finished my MSc in Computer Science at the University of Delhi, after a Bachelor’s in Computer Applications and Mathematics at Indraprastha College for Women. For my thesis I built HQ-EEGNet, a hybrid quantum–classical network that detects Alzheimer’s disease from EEG recordings with 92.13% accuracy.
Next, I want to study bioinformatics for biodiversity. The tools I sharpened on brainwaves, from deep learning and signal processing to statistics and careful evaluation, are the same ones needed to read DNA at scale. Add a birder’s eye and a heart set on forests, and I know exactly where I want to point them: eDNA metabarcoding, phylogenetics, conservation genomics and wildlife forensics.
NowMarketing Associate, The Real Elephant Collective
2026MSc Computer Science, University of Delhi
2026Monitoring & Evaluation Intern, Waste Warriors Society
2024Bachelor’s in Computer Applications and Mathematics, University of Delhi
2023Sustainability Research Intern, Carbon Mandal
2023Strategic Partnerships Intern, Waste Warriors Society
2018Exchange term, The Athenian School, California
02 · I speak code
From the human brain, outwards
For my thesis I built HQ-EEGNet, a hybrid quantum–classical network that reads EEG recordings for signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Next, I want to turn the same tools outwards: onto birdsong, animal movement and the genomes of the species I love.
92.13% accuracy, well ahead of classical-only and quantum-only versions
Built in PyTorch and PennyLane, on a 16-qubit circuit
Next: eDNA metabarcoding, phylogenetics and conservation genomics
03 · I follow wild beings
Six beings who walked into my life this year
A red-vented bulbul fledgling named Frida turned me towards the natural world. Since then I’ve cared for Mrida, a paralysed waterhen, and Socks, a puppy with jaundice, and fostered Ichi and Howl, with help from our senior dog, Ginger.
Frida flew her first inch and a half, from a bookshelf to my shoulder
20+ bird species logged from my city balcony, on eBird
Volunteered with Peedus People, visiting shelters, dairy farms and pet shops
04 · I read and write
A novel, twig by twig
I’m writing Bulbulnama, a children’s novel about a boy, a lost songbird and one of the rarest eggs on Earth. I read across English, French and Hindi, from Jungle Nama and Silent Spring to Premchand and The Little Prince.
Basketball took me to more than ten national championships and, in 2020, to selection for India’s under-18 team. Netball brought a national title with the University of Delhi. And I’ve loved running barefoot ever since my father timed my 200-metre sprints when I was four. Are you competitive enough to race me?
So far I’ve applied machine learning to the human brain. I want to turn the same tools outwards onto birdsong, animal movement and the genomes of the species I’ve learned, and am yet, to love.
01
The human brain
I finished my MSc in Computer Science at the University of Delhi in 2026. For my thesis I built HQ-EEGNet, a hybrid quantum–classical deep-learning pipeline that reads EEG recordings for signs of Alzheimer’s disease. I wrote it in PyTorch and PennyLane and trained it on the public OpenNeuro ds004504 dataset.
Frida changed what I want to point these tools at. After losing her, I studied ornithology, from bird anatomy to evolution and migration, and started birding. I’ve logged over 20 species from my city balcony alone, and I record what I see on eBird ↗.
03
Where I’m headed
I’m drawn to genomics as a way of reading life itself. A short stretch of DNA can tell one bird, beetle or orchid apart from its closest relatives, and traces of DNA left in water, soil and air can reveal which species live in a place without anyone having to see them.
I want to use computation to make sense of that data at scale: identifying species, mapping biodiversity, and tracking how life shifts as landscapes and climates change.
The latter half of 2026 has been extraordinarily giving. These are the birds and animals who walked into my life, and what they left behind.
Frida
Mrida
Socks
Ichi
Howl
Ginger
01
Frida
Into my life came a little fledgling whom I dearly called Frida. She was a red-vented bulbul who imprinted on me and flew her first ever inch and a half, from a bookshelf to my shoulder. As life would have it, she passed away in my care, as I was ill-equipped to raise a little bird.
Can you find Frida?
Since then, she has become my guiding light or, as a friend mispronounced it, my Fareeda. I believe she came into my life as a reminder that I belong to the natural world, and that I have spent much time excusing my affinity for it.
It is with this newfound light in my eyes that I have decided that each action of mine will be taken in service of the Earth and her beings.
Besides enlightening me, Frida, and a friend, encouraged me to embrace veganism, a lifestyle I had long been contemplating.
It's often believed that all it takes to appreciate the bigger picture is some patience. Although Frida's loss tormented me, it led me to study ornithology, spanning bird anatomy, evolution and migration. It also led me to birdwatching. Surprisingly, I observed over 20 species of birds just from my city balcony!
Among all the birds that blessed my eyes, one happened to request inhabitation in my house! Early in June, my mother picked up a paralysed white-breasted waterhen on the roadside. Mrida, as we called her, was a hungry guest who feasted on earthworms throughout the day.
Mrida, mid-feast on an earthworm
Her journey to recovery was slow and steady. However, she passed away peacefully in her sleep before she could take flight again on mortal earth. She now rests in the shade of a karanj tree (Pongamia pinnata).
03
Socks
Mrida's quest for treatment led me to volunteer with Peedus People, a local NGO dedicated to animal welfare. Through them I visited slaughterhouses, pet shops, animal shelters and dairy farms, and spoke with wildlife officials about animal trafficking. The SPCA was especially horrendous.
But, as life would have it again, a little ball of sunshine caught my eye. Socks was a three-month-old puppy, ridden with jaundice, whom I asked to foster the moment I saw her. She was the bravest little girl, but her little frame was no match for the torturous disease, and she passed away only twelve hours after I brought her home.
Socks’ brief life out of the shelter
Having made Mrida's acquaintance in the brief hours she was at my home, Socks now snuggles beside her friend under the same karanj.
04
Ichi, Howl and Ginger
More recently, I have been fostering two four-month-old puppies: Ichi, who got into a scooter accident at only 15 days old and was too fragile to recover at the SPCA, and Howl, who miraculously showed up outside my home as if he came looking for me.
My sweetest girl Ichi
None of my fostering would have been successful without my ever so selfless senior dog, Ginger, who, even though he gets annoyed by the occasional commotion, is ever so cheerful and emotionally intelligent.
As I live each day, I grow eager to decipher the pattern this part of my life weaves into.
I write fiction and essays. I’m also building a children’s novel, twig by twig.
01
Bulbulnama
A six-year-old boy counts a small songbird among his closest friends. Half a world away, the egg of one of the rarest birds on Earth rolls loose from its island and is carried across continents by the wind, the water and the birds it meets, while its father calls for it through the night.
When the boy comes home to find his friend’s nest destroyed and the bird gone, he follows her trail across the sea, to a land where her kind is not welcome. The two journeys run side by side until they meet.
It is a story about losing what you love, and about the kinship between children and the wild world they are born close to.
02
All that I read in 2026
Here are the books that inspired me this year. I grew most fond of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, with his Letter to a Hostage coming in a close second.
Jungle NamaAmitav Ghosh
The Hungry TideAmitav Ghosh
The Uninhabitable EarthDavid Wallace-Wells
Speaking With NatureRamachandra Guha
Silent SpringRachel Carson
Braiding SweetgrassRobin Wall Kimmerer
Each Little Bird That SingsJayantika Davé
The Fall of a SparrowSálim Ali
The Temple Tiger and More Man-Eaters of KumaonJim Corbett
Le Petit PrinceAntoine de Saint-Exupéry
Lettre à un otageAntoine de Saint-Exupéry
GabanPremchand
Shmashan ChampaShivani
Gunahon Ka DevtaDharamvir Bharati
TamasBhisham Sahni
Saraswati, Diamond Jubilee special issue
The Old Man and the SeaErnest Hemingway
MetamorphosisFranz Kafka
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoevsky, tr. Constance Garnett
EmmaJane Austen
Silas MarnerGeorge Eliot
Half of a Yellow SunChimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Twelve Years a SlaveSolomon Northup
UntouchableMulk Raj Anand
Fire on the GangesRadhika Iyengar
As They Saw IndiaK. C. Khanna
The Importance of Being EarnestOscar Wilde
A Doll’s HouseHenrik Ibsen
In CustodyAnita Desai
The Folded EarthAnuradha Roy
And Then There Were NoneAgatha Christie
Phantoms in the BrainV. S. Ramachandran & Sandra Blakeslee
I have been fortunate enough to have beings around me who have always inspired me to partake in beliefs bigger than my own perspective of the world. Much of my learning has come from sport.
01
Basketball
Basketball took me places. I started out playing tennis at nine, but at fourteen I felt a strong pull towards basketball, and switching turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The game took me places, both geographically and intellectually. I travelled alone across more than 15 Indian states for tournaments, learning to make do with the patchy sports infrastructure and culture of a cricket-obsessed country.
Dearest to me, though, is what it taught me about instinct: that when a decision feels right despite the odds, even if I can’t quite explain why, it often is.
Growing up, I captained my school's junior and senior basketball teams. I was also part of the starting line-up for Chandigarh at more than ten national championships. My big break came in 2020, when I was invited to represent India's contingent at the FIBA Asia U-18 Championship in Australia. However, as fate would have it, the pandemic took over.
I soon moved to Delhi for college, where I played for both the junior and senior teams at the state and national level. Players here showed much more competitiveness and rigour than I was used to. However, with the right company on court, I was able to sail through the challenges.
Gold with my college team at the technical universities’ championship, IIT Delhi, 2024
I also spent a spring term at the Athenian School in California as part of the Round Square student exchange programme. Knowing how much I loved the game, my kind host family surprised me with tickets to Game 5 of the 2018 Western Conference Semifinals between the Golden State Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans.
Playing for Delhi at the 37th National Games, Goa, 2023
02
Netball
Interestingly, college also introduced me to netball, a slower-paced but more strategic game than basketball. I played Wing Defence for the University of Delhi at the All India Inter-University Netball Championship 2023, where we lifted the cup as the number one team in the country.
All India Inter-University Netball Championship 2023
03
Running barefoot
I have loved running around barefoot for as long as I can remember. My father often timed my 200-metre sprints at a local park when I was only four years old.
Even today, my imaginative notion of freedom comes from running barefoot in a lush meadow.
This sprouted into my love for long-distance running throughout my teenage years. I ran my first half marathon only at the age of 22, and I aspire to break more mental barriers through the sport.
An early-morning run to India GateMy first half marathon, at 22
Alzheimer’s quietly rewires the brain years before memory fails. HQ-EEGNet listens for it in a resting brainwave recording — no scanner, no tracer, no needle — using a deep network that hands its final decision to a 16-qubit quantum circuit.
Accuracy
92.13%
Specificity
97.01%
F1-score
90%
Quantum classifier
16 qubits
Alzheimer’s disease vs healthy controls, 65 people from the public OpenNeuro ds004504 EEG dataset, thesis results.
01
Why brainwaves
Alzheimer’s is usually confirmed with MRI or PET scans: expensive, slow, and out of reach for most of the world. EEG is the opposite. It is cheap, portable and painless, a cap of electrodes that records the brain’s electrical rhythm. The catch is that the signal is faint and buried in noise from blinks, muscles and the room itself.
So the real question was: can a model find the disease inside that noise reliably enough to matter?
02
How it works
Clean the signal. A band-pass filter, artefact rejection and independent component analysis strip out blinks, muscle twitches and drift, leaving genuine brain activity.
See it three ways. Each recording becomes three images: a spectrogram, a scalogram and a Hilbert spectrum. Each one catches patterns the others miss.
Learn from each view. Three convolutional networks study one image type each, and an attention layer decides which moments of the recording matter most.
Distil. The three views are fused and compressed from 384 numbers down to 16.
Go quantum. Those 16 numbers are encoded onto 16 qubits, where a trained quantum circuit uses entanglement to weigh how features interact, then makes the call: Alzheimer’s or healthy.
Every part, from the convolutional networks to the quantum gates, is trained together end to end, so each stage learns what the next one needs.
03
The quantum circuit
Each of the 16 qubits is rotated by trainable angles, then linked to its neighbours by entangling gates, twice over. Entanglement lets the circuit model how features relate to one another all at once, rather than one pair at a time.
04
Why hybrid wins
I built the same pipeline three ways. Neither half on its own came close to the two working together.
Classical only66.71%
Quantum only46.20%
HQ-EEGNet (hybrid)92.13%
On the same task and dataset, it also outperformed the three published approaches I compared it against.
Model
Accuracy
Specificity
Sensitivity
Zanola et al.
79.70%
–
–
Vo et al.
80.00%
82.50%
81.30%
Miltiadous et al. (DICE-Net)
83.28%
–
–
HQ-EEGNet
92.13%
97.01%
83.80%
05
Getting it right
A strong number is only worth something if it holds up. Before taking this to a journal, I audited my own evaluation and found that a single small test split and some threshold choices could flatter the results. I’m now re-running it with stricter, repeated subject-level splits, so the paper reports what the model can really do.
06
What’s next
Expand from two classes to four, adding mild cognitive impairment and frontotemporal dementia.
Combine EEG with other biomarkers such as MRI, PET and genetics for a fuller picture.
Try learnable Ising coupling gates so the circuit can tune how strongly qubits entangle.
The paper and code will be linked here once it’s published.
