Rushi Vyas is an academic at UNSW Sydney, founder, and multidisciplinary educator whose work sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, higher education, sustainability, student belonging, and public-interest innovation. He focuses on helping institutions and individuals make practical, responsible, and human-centred use of AI.

His academic work at UNSW centres on AI fluency, responsible AI adoption, curriculum innovation, student experience, and assessment design. He is interested in how universities can build meaningful capability with AI while preserving critical thinking, creativity, authenticity, and ethical judgment. Rather than treating AI as a standalone technical trend, Rushi’s work frames it as a social, educational, and institutional shift that requires thoughtful design, cultural readiness, and a strong understanding of human needs.

Rushi’s work extends well beyond the university setting. As Founder and CEO of What’s On!, he has led products and initiatives designed to improve belonging, access, and opportunity for international students and migrant communities in Australia. His public-facing portfolio includes AI-enabled and community-focused work associated with higher education institutions, local government, international diplomacy, and public sector engagement. This has included work linked publicly with UNSW, ACU, the City of Sydney, the High Commission of India in Australia, and government-facing education and community initiatives.

Across these settings, Rushi’s work often focuses on a common set of themes: using AI to reduce friction, improve access to information, strengthen engagement, support student and community wellbeing, and help people navigate complex systems more confidently. He is particularly drawn to projects where technology can make institutions feel more responsive, more inclusive, and more empowering for the people they serve.

His background is intentionally multidisciplinary. In addition to his work in AI and education, Rushi brings experience in sustainability and ESG, and is a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) certified sustainability professional. He also draws on a background in animal behaviour, which has shaped his interest in empathy, systems thinking, behaviour change, and the design of environments that support trust and wellbeing. This combination of perspectives informs a distinctive approach to innovation: one that values not only efficiency and scale, but also inclusion, care, and long-term impact.

Whether working with students, educators, founders, community partners, or institutions, Rushi’s core interest remains the same: building better futures by making emerging technologies more useful, more understandable, and more human.