Category: 2021

Billionaires At Play: Stay Clear Or Get Engaged In Spacetech?

July 20, 2021

Having made enormous fortunes on Earth, billionaires are now racing each other to space. Former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the richest person on the planet was one of four “space tourists” on his private space company Blue Origin’s inaugural human spaceflight that successfully completed on July 20, 2021, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Virgin Galactic owner Richard Branson to speed up his own planned space trip and launch himself into space, nine days before Bezos on July 11th .

Fellow tech billionaire, and third richest person on Earth, Elon Musk is often the most vocal about his space company, SpaceX, and his plans to make humans an “interplanetary species.” Bezos, however, is just as obsessed with outer space as the Tesla founder is. The billionaires concur that it is humanity’s destiny to settle the stars. And, without much real public debate, private space corporations appear to have settled the matter: space will be humanity’s next frontier.

As exciting as it is to see private entrepreneurs blast off for space, the burgeoning race between billionaires Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk has its fierce detractors. Proponents say these efforts will whet the public’s appetite, help expedite technological advancements and pave the way for economies of scale that will make such journeys relatively affordable. Let’s dig a little more into both sides of the argument.

Affordability and Economics : According to Jon Cowart, a longtime chief engineer and mission manager with NASA who’s now a systems director for the Aerospace Corporation, the price per pound of getting to orbit has decreased tenfold in the past 50 years. Projecting that pace to pick up considerably, Cowart envisions trips to space becoming affordable for the general population by 2060. According to Mory Gharib, director of the aerospace program at the California Institute of Technology, competition from commercial entities seeking to cash in on the new market, technologies of scale and enhanced computational power will drive prices down. Per Garib, people who can afford to fly first class around the world would be able to afford a space flight. The estimated costs will be between $20,000 to $50,000. The Swiss investment banking firm UBS projects space tourism to generate almost $4 billion in yearly revenue by 2030.

The current estimated cost for a 4 minute space ride is around $300,000.

Benefits: Space travel is starting an industry that doesn’t exist right now, so there are economic benefits, jobs, technological advancements, motivation for kids to study and being a part of it. It is inspirational. They could spur new developments that may enhance airline travel and considerably shorten flight times. There’s going to be research conducted and scientific discoveries, so there is a lot of hidden potential as a by-product of space travel.

Carbon footprint : Next two decades are very material for climate change. We lack technologies for low-carbon flying, shipping and concrete. Large parts of the Amazon rainforest now emit more carbon dioxide than they take in, according to a study in the journal Nature. We address this now, or we enter feedback loops that may make much of Earth too hot for humans. For every space flight, the carbon it generates is equivalent to carbon produced running a car (non-electric) for a couple of centuries. Though Bezos argues that within two centuries earth would lack the necessary resources to fulfil all needs and space will be the answer, it might be worth spending effort using natural resources such as sun and wind to fulfil the needs.

Regulations: According to popular magazine Politico, many space policy experts and members of oversight committees in Congress are concerned that the government isn’t prepared for it — especially the office at the Federal Aviation Administration that is responsible for regulating the new industry, but is widely viewed as overworked and understaffed. Whether ensuring public safety, managing growing space traffic, safety of passengers or mitigating environmental hazards, there is no framework for regulating private space travel. One of the challenges facing the FAA is also the lack of knowledge of these new vehicles. Regulations can only be formed when they have enough data on these vehicles.

Call to Action: It’s turning out to be a healthy space race, one not compromising safety so that a commercially viable commercial tourism product can be delivered. Successful spaceflights by the two companies will also help set operational and safety protocols for both the commercial operators and the regulators.

But the challenge will be ironing out the numerous details, large and small. Time will tell if commercial space travel can be accomplished by not tampering with the atmosphere or through other economical and environment friendly means. For now, we can sit back and enjoy the billionaires carving out a new era in private space travel.

Opportunities for technologists as well as entrepreneurs are just opening up. If you are still doubtful and skeptical, think twice how your commute is easier today – is it not because of the GPS technologies that had origins in the Space exploration and Satellite programs from 50 years ago? What about all those location based apps that have become so used to ..think Uber, Lyft, Airbnb etc etc ..none of those would have been possible as one technological innovation stands on the shoulders of the other. That said, Space is indeed the next frontier and the sky is not even the limit !

This article is based on conversations Aditya Guthey, an ASEI Silicon Valley chapter member and a career coach has had with Sania Jain for ASEI Youth Corner. A short excerpt is here ASEI has a partnership with MoonshotJr – a Silicon Valley based startup that accelerates youths’ path from STEM education to entrepreneurship. Click to avail special offers for ASEI community.

Mentoring Corner: Do You Have The Passion For Engineering Or Are You Just Doing A Job?

July 18, 2021

Part1: Do you have the Passion for Engineering or are you just doing a job? By Dilip G. Saraf

Summary: Many professionals wait their entire life trying to uncover their passion to find out what career they should choose to engage that passion. Engineer turned Career Coach Dilip Saraf’s experience with successful clients shows that they have it backwards: Passion is the outcome of a meaningful engagement and effort, and not the cause. Once you embrace this notion, you’ll change how you look at your career and how you manage it! In this first part, he explores the distinction between having a passion versus just doing a job.

“Success causes passion more than passion causes success.”—Scott Adams

Having now worked with more than 7,000 clients in hundreds of careers and in 23+ countries I have come to the conclusion that most professionals miss out on pursuing a purposeful career because they maunder through jobs and their lives wondering what their true passion really is, and, often, not finding it, yield themselves to a life of mediocrity, false expectations, and regret as they eke out their regular paychecks, often in discomfiture.

This is particularly true for those in engineering, and especially those in high-tech jobs such as software, hardware, and systems design, later in their careers. This is mainly because the pace of technology evolution is fierce in these areas, and it is difficult to keep up with advances and compete in the job market with the younger crowd. My experience with those in engineering as they advance in their tenure, without keeping up with their professional growth in these technology specialties, surrender to becoming project or program manager, which can start their downward career spiral. Don’t get me wrong here, some intentionally pursue this path as they keep their technical edge to expand their career repertoire and become successful, applying their technical edge to become awesome project and program managers.

On the flip side of this scenario, after seeing many successes with clients who first came to me not knowing what their true calling really was, imploring me to help them uncover their inner passion for them to pursue a great career using that passion, I have come to realize that most disillusioned engineers use their continued lack of engagement in their jobs to their inability to engage with passion, and not to their ability to compete as they fall behind in their skills, which often is the underlying cause.

They rationalize their lack of engagement to their apparent lack of passion, which if they uncover, would change their life. I can almost hear them muttering to themselves, “If only someone could point out to me my true passion, I’d be leading a different life.”

Nothing could be further from the truth!

The successes of many of clients that belong to the other camp, who went on to achieve C-level roles in major companies, engaging in their dream jobs, now tell a different story that is almost universal: Waiting to uncover your passion for something to pursue, hoping that it would change your life is a delusional pursuit.

On the contrary, if they view passion as the effect and not as the cause of success in one’s career, it flips on its head that whole idea of having to wait for someone to help them uncover their passion to engage with purpose. I have now come to realize that passion results from pursuing something that stems from your inner gifts (your genius—aptitude in everyday vernacular) and then harnessing one of those gifts in a systematic way to make an impact on the world, which helps you achieve a certain level of actualization. It is this actualization that drives your passion, and not the other way around.

To explain this contrarian view I have developed a model that embodies several factors and their interplay in how one achieves a unique position in their endeavors; an interplay of these forces results in developing their unique brand that can be viewed as their actualized reality. If this view of how to pursue a career, deeply engaging in your work without knowing what your real passion is from the get-go, and then whetting your passion as you get more and more engaged in your work is metaphorically akin to eating an appetizer before a meal.

This model is shown in accompanying Figure and will be explained in detail in the Part-2 of this article.

About the author:

Dilip Saraf is a highly sought after career coach who keynoted at ASEI’s 33rd Annual Convention last year and seeing the value ASEI provides, joined as a professional member of our SiliconValley chapter. An IIT and Stanford alum, he has leveraged his experience going through five different careers to establish a career coaching practice, which enjoys global clientele. www.Dilipsaraf.com

Lessons From Engineering Tales #5 Featuring Bv Jagadeesh, An Engineer Turned Venture Capitalist

June 27, 2021

In the Engineering Tales Episode #5 , we had BV Jagadeesh inspire us with his journey from a small village to a Silicon Valley startups to venture capital to his philanthropy activities. BV was awarded Engineering Entrepreneur of theyearaward byASEI in 2016 for his entrepreneurial acivities and leading “Billion Dollar Babies” initiative byTiE to encourage Indian startups to become hyper growth “unicorns”

Jagadeesh grew up in a small village with one bus that went to a major city (Bangalore).

He went to school in Bangalore and managed to live by himself while going to school and college. Ability to manage his own affairs at a young age really gave a leg up when he moved to US in later years.

After an engineering degree from Bangalore, Jagadeesh got his MS from Bombay. One of the major critical events for him happened when instead of going back home between semesters, he decided to work for a small electronic company. The practical training and guidance he got while working for a company in India opened his eyes to the possibility to future entrepreneurship. He made connections at IEEE that opened avenues later in life.

After working in multiple startups, where he learnt tremendously from other people, Jagadeesh co-founded a company called Exodus. Exodus went public and was handling 40% of ALL US internet traffic at one point. It was recognized as a US National asset by White House ( as per President Bill Clinton)

After Exodus, Jagadeesh started another startup, NetScaler, which was sold to Citrix.

As he had worked for and invested in multiple startups, Jagadeesh has a keen sense on what to look for in entrepreneurs. His theory can be summed up in three letters, CPS. Consistency, Persistence and Self-Driven. If an entrepreneur has these 3 qualities, they will succeed.

Jagadeesh currently is Managing Director at KAAJ Ventures which is an Angel Investor in multiple companies. He has been a philanthropist as well and working on solving water issues in India through an organization called OVBI

For full session please see here

*** Contributed by Amrish Chopra from Silicon Valley chapter of ASEI ***

Social Entrepreneurship And Mentoring (An Article By Reena Kapoor)

June 9, 2021

Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” If you have served as an executive mentor at Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, then you’ll appreciate the truth of those words. More importantly, you’ll know what a privilege it is to be a small part of the impact that GSBI social entrepreneurs are having the world over! Did you know that Miller Center has accelerated more than 1,000 social enterprises since 2003? These collectively have improved, transformed, or saved the lives of over 400 million people in 100 countries.

I have had this privilege for nearly 4 years now, having mentored social enterprises of all kinds — for/non-profit in education, economic empowerment, last-mile health, and energy independence, in India, Mexico, Africa, the US! Each of these enterprises and their founders brought incredible smarts but also passion and uncommon commitment to their work. It is hard to find a sharper group as dedicated to a higher cause, driven by passion, and dazzlingly creative in solving problems! Mentoring these enterprises, seeing them implement plans and make a difference to lives and regions we too easily forget, has been rewarding beyond what I could have imagined.

People often ask me what it’s like to be a social enterprise mentor. I tell them that the mechanics of mentoring are not hard but it requires some thought and planning. No, we don’t just show up to offer “free advice”. Over the years as a product executive in Silicon Valley, I have advised and coached multiple software start-ups but being an executive mentor for a social enterprise requires a slightly different mindset, both because it involves mentoring the entrepreneur — not simply advising the business — AND because the whole endeavor is driven by a social mission. In addition to Miller Center’s vast resources, I like to tell the entrepreneur (and remind myself) of a few aspects that I pay attention to in my mentoring work knowing that my goal is to become a trusted advisor. I offer them here with the hope that they can be of some use to other mentors:

Bring your dispassionate business sense… with a large dollop of passion: As a mentor, ask your mentee — the social entrepreneur — critical business questions: Does the business model make sense? Do the unit economics work? Are hidden costs taken into consideration? What will scaling entail for your supply chain? Will your channels and partners be reliable at scale? These are important aspects where a social entrepreneur may encounter blind spots or may never have subjected their plans to this kind of business rigor. At the same time, remember the enterprise and its founder(s) are fueled by a passion for impact. And as a mentor, you need to help them employ a dispassionate approach to evaluating the impact side as well. What is the nature of the impact and will/can it work? (How) can the impact scale? Can it be replicated? For for-profit enterprises, how to balance profit margins (stakeholders have come to expect) with impact? Better yet, how to wrap a business model that supports the impact model so there doesn’t have to be a choice between impact versus profits? Social entrepreneurs’ passion will get them far, but to have sustained impact it’s important for them to evaluate, refine, and augment their potential for impact. As a mentor, you must help them evaluate and optimize both aspects!
Utilize Socrates’ secret sauce: One of the key skills for success as a mentor is listening. The founder/entrepreneur knows best their target market, the enterprise’s strengths, and the challenges they face. As a mentor, you have a lot to learn from them before offering guidance. Yet an equally important aspect of a mentor’s job is asking critical questions about the enterprise and understanding underlying assumptions. In fact, the Socratic method describes the ideal process — a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions. Asking why, how, based on what, often helps the entrepreneur uncover their own assumptions and weak points. They can then offer (sometimes find) evidence to support their thesis or temper their assumptions. This listening while questioning and asking for evidence while respecting passion and instinct requires a fine balance and is where the secret sauce of mentoring lies. So ask a lot of questions, ask for evidence, and supporting data, yet also listen carefully to the answers and respect the entrepreneur’s instinct and passion.
Leverage Miller Center’s frameworks, resources, expertise: At Miller Center, mentors are strongly supported in the form of training, resources, and frameworks for mentoring; and well established best practices (communication, regular updates, on-time delivery, etc.) are built into the programs. Help your mentee make ample use of the resources, especially the framework-driven, modular approaches that Miller Center offers for its various programs. These frameworks bring discipline to the process and keep the social entrepreneur working towards deadline-driven outcomes. At the end of the day, you want to make sure there is a structured, tangible output and defensible plan arising from all the analysis and discussion. This may be in the form of a solid investor pitch, a plan to scale the business (Scaleout Masterclass, Replication Program), and/or a plan to bring the business back on track after a setback such as Covid-19 (GSBI Alumni Bounceback Program). Miller Center hosts a trove of training and other resources — including generously sharing expertise across programs. For example, on a venture where I was a mentor, Miller Center connected us with an expert on supply chain issues. Similarly, I have offered advice to other ventures on B2C e-commerce challenges and mobile app development considerations.
Do check in with Reality… often: Note the social enterprise and its founders are fueled by passion. They want real impact, they want it big, and they want it now! But intentions alone, however good, are rarely enough. Measurement of output — business and impact — is a way to make sure that all the energies, resources, funding are poised to make a difference for the cause the enterprise wants to serve. Make sure you address impact metrics as well: What impact metrics make sense? How will they be calibrated and collected? What do they mean, actually measure? Remember they should be measures of outputs (counting the delivery of a product or service) and outcomes (the impact of delivering the product or service). Play devil’s advocate. Investors will want to be convinced that KPIs on impact are well thought through and that their investment will make a difference.
Pay attention to the PEOPLE: Last but most certainly NOT least is making a genuine connection with your social entrepreneur (and even their teams, as possible and appropriate)! This can make all the difference. I usually begin any mentoring relationship by asking the founder(s) about themselves, their lives before and after, what brought them to this work, and what has shaped them. Remember you are helping them develop themselves and their capabilities. Often they are moving water uphill and knowing that the mentor “gets them” and is there to help them find a better way can be invaluable. The road can be lonely and the going tough especially at times where much is outside their control e.g., COVID times. Not only does the enterprise suffer but the founder(s) watch a lot of their hard work going down the tubes. They may even be more distressed than they realize. As part of Miller Center’s new Bounceback Program, one of the things we are watchful for is founder burnout or even PTSD! Don’t underestimate these aspects.

Ultimately mentoring is about helping founders and social enterprises help themselves by developing their capabilities, sharpening their focus, and avoiding possible pitfalls. Hope some of the guidelines I present above are helpful to your efforts as a mentor. I would love to hear about your experiences and other nuggets you discovered. Happy mentoring!

*************************************************************************************

Reena Kapoor is a seasoned software product leader with hands-on experience building online and mobile applications for B2C, SaaS, and enterprise businesses for close to 20 years. She spoke at the ASEI Women’s Day Special Event earlier this year (Blog and Recording available here ) This article has been adapted from “Socrate’s Secret Sauce and other Mentoring Advice” published by her at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University.

She brings deep functional expertise in product management, innovation, Agile development practices, and go-to-market planning and execution. Reena advises and works with technology clients to find product-market fit by helping them define, build, and launch products and roadmaps with both proven and experimental business models. Reena’s early career includes brand management and new products at Procter & Gamble and Kraft Foods, which she credits with teaching her principles of general management and marketing. Additionally, Reena is an active executive mentor, at Santa Clara University’s Miller Center – the largest and most successful university-based social enterprise accelerator in the world. She also serves as a director on the board of several non-profits. Reena has a B.Tech in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi and a Master’s degree from Northwestern University.

Celebrating Us Independence Day & July 2021 Newsletter

June 7, 2021

Happy Independence day to all in the US as we celebrate the 245th Independence day on July 4th with fireworks in the sky and barbeque with friends and family or road trips during the long weekend

The July 2021 edition of ASEI Newsletter was sent last week to all those who are on our mailing list till June end. Here is the web version. Happy reading and catching up on all that happened in the last month and what lies ahead with your society! ASEI is a volunteer run professional organization and we welcome your involvement. We request feedback and especially welcome any articles, blogs or ideas you would like to contribute. Please be in touch with anyone from the content/editorial team.

In case you are not receiving our emails, please check your spam/junk or promotions folder and change the settings in your mailbox to deliver ASEI emails in your in-box. If you still did not find our newsletter please send an email to [email protected] for us to investigate.

Happy Pride Month! June Newsletter Features Engineering Tales, Youth Corner And Solution To Space Debris And More

June 4, 2021

The June 2021 edition of ASEI Newsletter was sent to all those who are on our mailing list till April end. Here is the web version. Happy reading and catching up on all that happened in the last month and what lies ahead with your society!

ASEI is a volunteer run professional organization and we welcome your involvement. We request feedback and especially welcome any articles, blogs or ideas you would like to contribute. Please be in touch with anyone from the content/editorial team.

Stem Success Story : Nidhi Mathihalli

May 24, 2021

Nidhi is a sophomore from the Silicon Valley who joined ASEI as a student member after being awarded the ASEI Silicon valley Emerging Technology Award at the 2020 Synopsys Championship. Our Silicon valley chapter has been sponsoring and encouraging promising students in this manner since inception in 2015. Through ASEI, she has been able to see what technological opportunities there are for Indian girls such as herself.

She is very passionate about helping others and does so by using her skills with programming and hardware to create products that help those in need. Some of her projects include the Money Reader for the Visually Impaired and a device called Start2Run aimed at helping athletes, specifically runners, manage their workouts without overstressing themselves.

She has won first place in Synopsys Science fair twice, and was the recipient of the ASEI Silicon Valley Emerging Technology Award twice as well in 2020 and 2021. Additionally, she won the second prize in ASEI Silicon Valley Budding Engineers Talent Showcase (BETS) in August last year and received top prize at the Youth Technology Exposition (YTE 2020) organized as part of ASEI’s 33rd National Convention in December 2020. Additionally, She has recently won the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing as a Bay Area Winner.

In addition to creating projects, she is an avid math competitor, who has won awards in nationally recognized contests, and has recently qualified for the 2021 USA Junior Math Olympiad. In her free time, she likes to read, play the piano, and work on robotics.

We are very proud of Nidhi’s accomplishments and volunteer spirit and on behalf of entire ASEI, wish her the very best as she advances her STEM journey in high school and beyond.

Exploring The Final Frontier And Engineering Solutions To Space Pollution Issue

May 23, 2021

Exploration is an innate desire of human beings. For centuries, humans have looked to space and the stars for answers. The fascination is more than philosophical—it’s coupled with the need to solve problems here on Earth. In the past 100 years, humans have landed on the Moon, built an International Space Station, and successfully landed multiple Rovers on Mars.

Today, there are seemingly countless benefits and applications of space technology. Satellites, for instance, are becoming critical for everything from internet connectivity and precision agriculture, to border security and archaeological study.

Where the original space race was a nationalistic competition between Cold War rivals, the new space race is collaborative and commercialized.

Today, international cooperation allows for the deployment of satellites, as well as space-based science. Before SpaceX, NASA and the other space agencies that operate the International Space Station had been reliant on Russian Soyuz rockets for hundreds of missions.

With the success of its famed reusable rockets, SpaceX is on track to reduce launch costs by as much as US$6 million per flight—which is likely to support the proliferation of satellites in the coming years.

Right now, there are nearly 6,000 satellites circling our tiny planet. About 60% of those are defunct satellites—space junk—and roughly 40% are operational. Over the coming decade, it’s estimated by Euroconsult that 990 satellites will be launched every year. This means that by 2028, there could be 15,000 satellites in orbit. With improved technology and commercial partnerships, all signs point to a crowded orbit.

What are Space Debris:

Space debris includes any nonfunctional human-made object in space, including rocket parts that have been abandoned in orbit after having completed their mission, defunct satellites, fragments from unintentional and intentional orbital collisions and items released during operations. These sources have multiplied to create a large amount of space debris orbiting Earth. According to NASA, there are over 30,000 objects larger than a softball in orbit, traveling at speeds up to 18,000 miles per hour.

This debris is spread across all three of the main regions of space around Earth: low-Earth orbit (LEO), medium-Earth orbit (MEO) and geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO). As its name suggests, LEO is the closest to us, extending up to 2,000 km from the Earth’s surface.

It is the most crowded region of the three and, in addition to hosting the International Space Station, it is the region where SpaceX, OneWeb and other well-funded companies are currently sending tens of thousands of new satellites as part of their constellations. Perhaps not surprisingly, LEO is the region with the most debris. As a result, it tends to be the focus of much of the discussion around the issue.

Issues caused by space debris

The existence of space debris is concerning for many reasons, with physical collisions being the most obvious. The possible risk caused by space debris is magnified by the incredible speed at which debris typically travels. According to NASA, there are over 30,000 objects larger than a softball in orbit, traveling at speeds up to 18,000 miles per hour. At that speed, any one of these objects is capable of completely destroying a spacecraft.

Space junk poses other challenges as well. Astronomers lament that light pollution from objects in orbit hampers observation of the night sky. The reliance of observatories — often involving equipment costing hundreds of millions of dollars — on long exposures makes debris particularly problematic.

Solution

In view of the constant increase in space-traffic, we need to develop and provide technologies to make debris prevention measures fail-safe. In parallel, regulators need to monitor the status of space systems as well as global adherence to debris mitigation under their jurisdiction more closely.

NASA and other commercial players in the space are working on various technological improvements that will help in solving the issues related to space debris. NASA created a material that can heal itself in less than a second from hurtling space debris.

One group that is often overlooked, but that has the potential to strongly affect the future path toward the sustainable use of space, is comprised of end users of space-based services. This encompasses anyone from telecommunications customers to users of imaging data to transportation companies relying on satellites to track their ships and planes. If end users demand sustainability like other sectors, it would likely force launch providers and satellite operators to act.

Finally, there is a new stakeholder that is trying to solve the challenge of space debris. Startups such as Astroscale and D-Orbit are making progress toward commercializing the removal, or at least mitigation, of space debris. Another example is LeoLabs, a ground-based space mapping provider, whose phased-array radars are capable of tracking debris as small as 2 cm.

References:

https://spacenews.com/u-s-satellite-destroyed-in-space-collision/

https://www.space.com/3415-china-anti-satellite-test-worrisome-debris-cloud-circles-earth.html

https://www.space.com/india-anti-satellite-test-significance.html

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/visualizing-easrth-satellites-sapce-spacex/

http://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Space_Debris/The_current_state_of_space_debris

*****This Article was Contributed by Santosh Ankola, Member ASEI Silicon Valley *******

Happy May Day! New Month And We Are Ready With Asei May 2021 Newsletter

May 1, 2021

The May 2021 edition of ASEI Newsletter was sent to all those who are on our mailing list till April end. Here is the web version. Happy reading and catching up on all that happened in the last month and what lies ahead with your society!

Ai Summit – Authors, Policy Makers, Executives And Entrepreneurs Deliberate On Doing Good For Society With Artificial Intelligence

April 29, 2021

On April 24th, the American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) convened an AI Summit with a number of researchers, authors, speakers and experts covering Artificial Intelligence from multiple perspectives: Augmented Intelligence with Data, AI/ML Solutions for social benefit and Artificial Intelligence Applications for the enterprise & AI Ethics

Opening the summit, Divya Ashok, who serves as VP of Innovation and Strategy at Salesforce, introduced the AI Summit Chair Piyush Malik who has been working in the Data & AI domain for over 25 years, currently as the Senior Vice President at SpringML, a Google partner startup in Silicon Valley. Piyush gave a bird’s eye view of the AI landscape, the real life and enterprise application opportunities as well as set the stage for the plenary segment where the theme was AI for Society. He recognized the contributions of AI pioneer technologists and Turing awardees over the past 7 decades including Prof Raj Reddy, the first Asian and the only Indian origin person to have won the Nobel prize of computing (i.e. Turing Award for AI) in 1994 long before the current euphoria over AI was

Vilas Dhar, President and Trustee of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation (PJMF), gave a message of support from PJMF to ASEI as we work towards our shared vision for AI – powered yet human-centric ethical endeavor for the benefit of society as we explore the future of meaningful work through youth empowerment. PJMF is a 21st century philanthropy advancing artificial intelligence (AI) and data solutions to create a thriving, equitable, and sustainable future for all. Vilas, a biomedical engineer by initial training is an entrepreneur, technologist, and human rights advocate with a lifelong commitment to creating more robust, human-centered social institutions. His message of support for AI for social benefit and data philanthropy fostered through interactions with ASEI leadership was complemented by the next speaker Dr Sundar Sundareshwaran, AI Fellow at the World Economic Forum (WEF) where PJMF is a supporter.

At WEF, Dr Sundar is co-creating a governance framework with a multi-stakeholder community for the use of Chatbots in healthcare amongst other initiatives which he talked about in detail having an impact in the COVID era. Sundar represents Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation in his role at WEF’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He is a seasoned technologist with research, development, P&L and executive leadership experience. With a Master’s degree in Natural Language Understanding and a PhD in Computer Vision, Sundar has made numerous research contributions in robotics, neural networks, human computer interaction, virtual/augmented reality and autonomous vehicles. His plenary talk at the AI summit gave a broader view of the Policy impact AI is having at the World stage and he welcomed the opportunity for ASEI members to join hands in making the world a better place through fair use of AI rather than fearing from it. On behalf of ASEI, Piyush portrayed the excitement of being able to work with evangelists, policymakers, data and AI professionals and social changemakers at the WEF and PJMF.

In the next section of the summit three authors spoke about their respective work and the impact each of them are having in the field of AI. Anyone who has tried to learn GCP or machine learning with Google technologies would have seen Dr Valiappa (Lak) Lakshmanan in action via his Coursera lessons and courses. Lak as he is popularly known, serves as the Director for Data Analytics and AI Solutions at Google Cloud. Previously as a Director at the Climate Corporation, he led a team of data scientists building probabilistic estimates of past, current and future weather. Currently with his team he builds software solutions for business problems using Google Cloud’s data analytics and machine learning products but he is very passionate about AI for Social good on which he spoke at length. Real world proof points and examples in the field of flood control, agriculture, healthcare etc were shared with the summit audience which resulted in a lot of interactive chats and Q&A.

ASEI Michigan chapter president Muthu Sivanantham introduced and facilitated discussion with the next two speakers. Dr Raj Ramesh, a TEDx speaker who happens to have a doctorate in AI was the next author to speak. He has broad experience with digital transformation and helps organizations bring together complementary strengths of machines and humans to effect grand change. His talk featuring interesting doodles and interactive audience participation surveys was patterned on his recent book, “AI & You” and he advised how to co-exist with machines by sharing how to think, thrive, and transform in an AI driven future.

“AI will present a lot of opportunities in the future. Sure, some jobs will be replaced, but each of us can leverage our knowledge, passion, and experience to position ourselves at the forefront of this cognitive revolution” – Dr Raj Ramesh at the ASEI AI Summit

The next speaker Ashish Bansal with his cool demeanour brought to light an example of how rubber meets the road in AI though Models in Natural Language Processing. NLP is a topic of increasing attention given the recent popularity of Open AI’s GPT3 model and discussions of “AI creating AI”. Ashish has previously worked in AI/ML & Recommendation systems for Twitter and Capital One and currently is a Director at Twitch. His recent book Natural Language Processing with Tensorflow was discussed in brief as well.

Final section of the AI Summit was the “Women in Data & AI” segment facilitated by Vatsala Upadhya and featured a lively and colorful “Ethics in AI” discussion between Dr Sindhu Joseph, CEO of Cognicor with 6 Patents in AI, and Bala Sahejpal, SVP at DataRobot with Piyanka Jain, President and CEO of Aryng moderating.

Issues of bias, reproducibility , transparency and equity and inclusion in data and AI from people of color perspective was discussed as well as importance of governance and building checks and balances in the development and testing of AI systems was deliberated

Bala is an accomplished leader with over 25 years of experience and a proven ability in leading cross functional global teams for building Data and Analytics solutions delivering enterprise success while securing multimillion-dollar savings for diverse business functions. She shared what made her interested in AI infused automation and drove her towards joining DataRobot after stints at Cisco/Appdynamics, Juniper and Netapp.

Piyanka has two Master’s degrees, with her thesis involving applied mathematics and statistics. Before founding Aryng, she was the Head of Business Analytics at PayPal-North America.She happens to be a bestselling author of “Behind every Good Decision” and a regular contributor to Forbes, HBR, InsideHR, TDWI, Experian, Modern Workplace, Predictive Analytics World, etc. Her efforts over the years have driven $1b+ in business impact for her clients. Injecting her 20+ years of Data & Analytics experience during the panel discussion, she said “As AI becomes more prevalent, AI literacy for leaders and AI governance are two ‘must-haves’ to truly capitalize on the power of AI to drive significant business value while staying clear of AI fiasco like Tay”

Recounting the challenges that are faced in the adoption of ethical AI, Dr. Sindhu Joseph, founder, and CEO of CogniCor, which provides a digital assistant platform for financial services, said – “AI is not just scaling solutions, but amplifying the historic biases embedded in our society. Given that the most popular branch of AI namely ML/DL learns its models from historic observations, our inherent biases make their way into the data sets, making a small, select, and often homogeneous group of developers, organizations as guardians of fairness.”

This session underscored the need for diversity in organizations and in startups developing AI algorithms and attention and investment in branches of AI that have the potential to bring about fairness.

The interactive Q&A sessions and chat texts continued to buzz throughout the nearly 4 hour conference with an engaged audience. The most interesting audience questions and some early bird participants won 10 books courtesy the three authors and publishers. Proposing the vote of thanks, Raju Sreewastava, CEO of Big Data Trunk announced the list of winners.

The AI Summit showed the attendees the depth of AI/ML experience and thought leadership amongst Indian diaspora & ASEI members and gave a glimpse of the richness of its collaborations with national and international professional bodies.

As is evident from recent events and newsletters, ASEI has had a fantastic 2021 so far with a large number of activities and new programmes such as MentorConnect, UniversityConnect and YouthPrograms to serve its members’ interests and build the next generation of engineers and technologists.