Ramana Prasad dons several hats – heads a tech firm, educational institution and earlier a manufacturing firm. A common among these is, the institutions he handles have always been ahead of the curve. As the chairman of Meritus AI, he envisions to spread the knowledge of AI, ML and data science among kids.
The World Economic Forum has identified top 5 skills that students of today need to develop, to face the future. Among them, digital skills and knowledge of AI and ML top. Ramana Prasad and his team identified this quite early and have been vouching to introduce robotics at school level. To propel this further, Meritus AI was launched. The company has two divisions, one is where they manufacture STEM and robotic products and the other is where they teach AI related curriculum.
Robotics for all
“The STEM and robotic products are designed and manufactured in-house and developed to suit various age groups with ranging complexity,” explained Ramana Prasad. The products are focussed at helping students learn basic concepts either at home or at school. A latest offering is the CV Pro that offers a unique way to learn about autonomous vehicles. While these vehicles will become our future, there is a need to create manpower that is exposed to this technology.
The basics of autonomous vehicles
Meritus AI have developed a kit that is suitable across various ages, right from senior school students to auto enthusiasts who like to upskill themselves. “CV Pro is quite powerful and at the same time we are trying to keep the costs low. It can be used by children to learn basics or can be used by companies to train their employees in this latest technology,” said Ramana Prasad. CV Pro is to be launched in Kickstarter, a crowd funding platform based out of US by September this year. “A 3 kit pack costs just about Rs 17,000. Car manufacturers can purchase this to train their man power in the latest technology. This gives a good understanding of the basics and have much advanced features to work upon,” highlighted Ramana Prasad.
A student team is to take the CV Pro to the World Robotics competition in Panama to test it against other teams from across the world. With a team of 60, Meritus AI designs and manufactures all products inhouse. “Right from the colour scheme, touch, sensory, tactile perception, our products take several aspects of design and usability into account. We design screen free products for until kids of grade 5,” explained Ramana Prasad. Thanks to technologies like 3D printing, their process from idea to product has become quite efficient and faster.
Shifting learning to digital mode
The pandemic that brought a slow grind to education, provided an alternate route for Meritus AI. They ventured into an online learning platform to teach the concepts of AI, data science, neural networks, etc, to school children. It starts with training 9-year-olds and the concepts are dealt in detail and depth as the course extends till students of 18 years. The course can be opted as self-learning or tutored and any student across the globe can access this.
Training for IITM BS course
Extending this further, Meritus AI have ventured to train students to crack the qualifier test for IIT-M’s recently launched BS in Data Science course. Their existing courses cover all the fundamentals of AI, ML and data science and they have tweaked it to suit the IITM’s curriculum. With a duration of 200 hours, the course can be taken either online or offline at the convenience of the student. “Out of the 11 lakh students who take the JEE exam, a mere 17,385, just 1.6 per cent, successfully secure admission to IIT! This data science course provides many the opportunity to enter IIT,” highlighted Ramana Prasad and continued, “Especially women on a career break looking to enter workforce can benefit much from this. Even if not IIT, with these acquired skills they can apply for a job anywhere,” rightly pointed Ramana Prasad. The course is designed for students in 11th or 12th and for adults from 18 to 75 years who have a basic degree.
Divorce has an impact on kids
Ramana Prasad himself an IIT-M alumnus, is on the board of Department of Engineering Design and the governing council of the Centre for Innovation at IIT Madras. Apart from AI and robotics his interest extends to education. He is the managing trustee of BVM Global schools and takes immense passion in equipping children with latest technology. “I think our children are on par with their peers across the globe. They are very bright and all that they require is a chance and opportunity,” said Ramana Prasad and cautioned on a worrying trend. “I think the rate of divorce is increasing in the society. This does have a significant impact on the kids. As educationalists, we see it in our schools. Experts need to study and address this immediately.”
Technology for the good
With his experience in cutting edge technology, the next natural question to him was on AI and its impact on jobs and humanity in general. Ramana Prasad said, “any new technology will disrupt but at the same time enable people. I think we should measure a technology on how much good it does to humans. If AI and ML can be used to detect a life harming disease way ahead of its symptoms and save a patient, it must be used for that. Technology must be treated as a co-pilot to humans.”
He described about an important meeting with Dr Edith Eva Eger, a holocaust survivor. Eva had stated Dr Josef Mengele to be the best doctor in the world and the Germans to be the best engineers. The reason being, while several were burnt to death in the gas chamber, not a single accidental gas leak had killed one German then. But the use of all that knowledge of engineering and medicine was for destruction. “So, she said, the only thing you will have to teach, in addition to your subjects, is how to be a good human being. I think AI is a fantastic field. And children must learn to further it for the benefit of the people,” concluded Ramana Prasad.
