The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Suresh Golconda ‘vrooms’ ahead

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Thursday, Dec 27, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Suresh Golconda ‘vrooms’ ahead

His team, which developed a car which runs without a driver, would be featured in the Discovery channel shortly

A file photo

Brilliant feat: Suresh Golconda with the model car which participated in the Darpa race.

HYDERABAD: Imagine yourself pitted against top researchers of ‘artificial intelligence’ from various American universities and standing up to their challenge.

To make a full-scale model car run without a driver is no mean task and to compete with other such models engineered by brainiest of them all is one heck of a challenge.

Facing up to such challenges and holding his own, a PhD scholar doing research in artificial intelligence at Louisiana University, Suresh Golconda, who is back for a while in his native Hyderabad, says that it was an opportunity of a lifetime.

His team, which participated in the recently held Darpa race, a Pentagon-supported race to develop self-directed full-scale vehicles, had reached semi-finals.

The team competed with the likes of Stanford University, whose research on the subject is considered to be path-breaking.

“The organisers introduced new rules this year that says that roads could be partially blocked; so we had to modify our system at the last moment before the race actually started. This was a very good experience for me so that I can perform better in the next year’s race,” Mr. Suresh informed.

His team would be featured in the Discovery channel shortly.

“The Discovery team spent a week with us and recorded our work. It would be telecast soon.

Apart from that, in some way or the other I am willing to spread the knowledge to students here. I am talking with several people and even Government agencies and hopefully something good will come out before I head back to the U.S.,” Mr. Suresh explained.

After completing his under-graduation at Muffakhamjah Engineering College, Mr. Suresh pursued his masters and PhD at Louisiana University.

“Artificial intelligence is still at a nascent stage in India. So, I had to move out to learn the tricks of trade. The car developed by our team has the potential to perform better than a normal individual, when faced with sudden obstructions while driving,” Mr. Suresh added.

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