Instructor Akshay Jagadeesh Applies Cutting-Edge AI Algorithms to Understand Vision, Perception and the Human Brain
RESEARCH IN AI
Akshay Jagadeesh is a 4th year PhD student at Stanford, working in the field of computational neuroscience, where he draws on techniques from artificial intelligence to model and simulate the function of the human brain. In particular, his research seeks to characterize the computations that the brain performs in order to give rise to visual perception and complex natural behaviors.
The field has discovered a lot about the correspondences between modern computer vision algorithms and the human visual system, but Akshay is particularly excited about understanding the ways in which the human brain outperforms state-of-the-art AI algorithms. He believes this understanding will help in developing more sophisticated human-like intelligent algorithms.
STUDENTS
Students are not only impressed by Akshay's domain expertise and background, but they also rave about his kindness, sense of humor, and teaching ability.
"He was very funny, smart, and gave me extra information about other things that I wished to learn about."
"I was fascinated by Akshay's understanding of neural networks and how he connected that to the functioning of the brain. He is a PhD scholar and yet so unassuming and down to earth that he was more like a friend than a teacher. Akshay is an inspiration for the kind of work he is doing and the humble person that he is."
HOW DID YOU DECIDE WHAT TO STUDY IN COLLEGE? WHEN DID AI BECOME A PART OF YOUR RESEARCH?
After having taken computer science courses in high school, I came into college really excited about the power of computational techniques as a framework for problem-solving. However, it was only after taking my first course in cognitive neuroscience that I realized the potential to use these techniques help us answer one of the most fundamental mysteries of nature: the question of how the brain gives rise to intelligence.
ADVICE TO STUDENTS?
Roll up your sleeves and get to work! The world of AI today is more accessible than ever before: the tools are open source and freely available, there are plenty of free computing resources if you look for them, and the numberof high quality open datasets is increasing exponentially everyday.
There are so many domains in research, industry, etc that can be profoundly impacted by AI that we have not even begun to work on, so you have a very powerful ability to choose an issue that you find important and find away to apply machine learning to improve the world.
AKSHAY ON TEACHING WITH INSPIRIT AI
There are so many things that I have loved about teachingwith Inspirit!
Getting to work with this team of instructors that bring together such diverse expertise—from genomics to cybersecurity to law and ethics—has beensuch a privilege. I am always learning so much just from interacting with my fellow instructors.
The curiosity and enthusiasm that our students bring to class continues to astound me, even after so many sessions. It is remarkable that 14 to 18 year olds are able to ask such intelligent questions and engage with such complex topics.
The international nature of Inspirit AI is really unique and has been one of the most unexpected benefits of the virtual classroom environment. I had never experienced leading a classroom containing students from India, China, the MiddleEast, and from all over the US at once.
