Siddha Ganju

(Forbes 30 Under 30)

4 November 2019 8 Min Read

Siddha Ganju: Revolutionizing Manufacturing with AI and Robotics

Siddha Ganju is a data scientist and AI expert whose work with self-driving vehicles at Nvidia has aimed to solve one of the world’s most challenging problems – making self-driving vehicles on the road safer and adapting this strategy into our daily lives.

Siddha’s introduction to technology began with her Bachelor of Technology, Computer Science and Engineering at the National Institute of Technology Hamirpur. Later, she completed a Master’s Degree in Computational Data Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Siddha’s exquisite line of work and effort earned her a place on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 US & Canada 2019: Manufacturing & Industry list.

It was an honor to talk to Siddha and hear about her background in technology, her motto, her experience working with artificial intelligence, and the obstacles the field brings. Join me and hear how Siddha discovered she was a Forbes 30 under 30!

The Logician

Hi Siddha, and welcome to this interview! Thank you for taking the time to be a part of this mission! Can you tell us more about who you are and what you do? How did you choose your current career path?

Siddha Ganju

Thank you for this opportunity!

I’ve been reading your interviews on Medium and they are very impressive and inspiring.

Currently, I’m a self-driving car architect at Nvidia.

It entails training and validating neural networks for autonomous vehicles.

We get to perform all sorts of experiments and simulate all possible scenarios to ensure our system can handle any situation it might encounter in the real world.

My journey in AI started out during my Bachelor’s. Back then I was an avid chess player, now not so much.

During our AI course, I learned about Deep Blue, the IBM supercomputer that beat grandmaster Kasparov.

I was stunned, to say the least. I simply could not digest how an algorithm could be so good at chess that it defeated one of the greatest minds in the field.

I spent a lot of time figuring out and implementing the algorithm. When I was finally done, it gave me a profound appreciation for algorithms. At that time, I also dabbled in robotics and machine learning.

Like most people, I learned a lot about machine learning from Andrew Ng’s Coursera course.

Then during graduation at Carnegie Mellon University, I had a full immersion in all things artificial intelligence.

I worked on a research project related to visual question answering, a field of AI in which a computer is expected to answer a question related to an image, such as “How many dogs are there in the picture?”.

Our research utilized weak supervision because we expect that as human-AI interaction starts to increase we would be able to take advantage of all that information and use it to make strides in the field.

Imagine being able to ask your phone “Where are my keys?”, or ultimately having AI describe an entire movie to a blind person.

Of course, this would not have been possible without the amazing mentors, family, friends, colleagues, and professors who supported me throughout my journey and encouraged me to pursue my interests. I owe them a lot.

The Logician

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on being among the Forbes 30 under 30 in the category of Manufacturing & Industry! Was this a dream come true? What do you believe most contributed to this success?

Siddha Ganju

Aha, this has a funny story behind it. It was early morning around 5 AM PST when my mailbox chimed “You’ve got mail”! It was from Forbes, amongst other congratulatory remarks, it said I was a Forbes 30 Under 30.

Hmm, okay, I honestly wasn’t sure if it was legit, at this point in time I was so used to spam that I simply moved to the next email.

I continued my day, went to work, then at lunchtime, I was checking out Twitter and the #forbes30u30 was trending, and I was like whoa! I read the email again, fact-checked the person who sent the email and looked at the Forbes website to make sure I was there.

Phew, the email was legit! I guess that’s when it set in. Looking back, I was probably still asleep when I read the email.

I’m certainly excited about Forbes. It’s not something that I imagined, and I am incredibly thankful for the honor. There was no one factor, instead, it was a culmination of a lot of factors.

The Logician

Since you have already found your passion in life, what would you advise everyone who struggles to find theirs? What are the things everyone should do to discover their calling in life?

Siddha Ganju

Passion is constantly evolving. I would advise people to keep learning, experimenting with different aspects to find what sticks, volunteering with different organizations, etc.

Microsoft’s CEO Mr. Nadella once said, “Don’t Be a Know-It-All, Be a Learn-It-All”. I think that’s an excellent motto.

Passion is not necessarily love-at-first-sight. Sometimes it takes a while and some struggle to find it.

The Logician

How challenging is it to be involved in a fast-growing industry such as the one for artificial intelligence? What would you say are the best and worst parts of it?

Siddha Ganju

Ah, keeping up with the literature is one of the hardest parts. We have all heard the saying “The only truth about change is that it’s constant” and that’s the same with artificial intelligence, a state of the art today is baseline tomorrow.

But that’s not it, using the new baseline in one’s field of work is also important. That’s where code releases and reproducibility are the main factors.

At the end of the day, you just have to keep at it. And it’s not possible for you to know everything, but it is possible to constantly learn and constantly improve. Keeping up with the times is where all the good old newsletters and paper reading groups come in handy.

Thanks to O’Reilly Media, AIDL, TwiML&AI, DeepAI, deeplearning.ai for keeping everyone on their toes. If anyone knows what’s happening, it’s these people!

Of course, the upside of all of this is that we keep learning about new and exciting developments in this field constantly. What was unthinkable as late as three years ago is now commonplace. Imagine what we will see in 2022!

The Logician

According to you, is AI an existential threat to humanity? Why? Please explain.

Siddha Ganju

We all have witnessed first-hand how AI has dramatically improved the lives of people, more so with those who have disabilities.

However, like any tool, it can do great things in the hands of the right people and not so great things in the hands of the wrong people.

So it is ultimately our job as a people to hold our political leaders and institutions accountable to ensure that this amazing tool is only used for good.

The Logician

What are five essential habits crucial for success in any field?

Siddha Ganju

That’s a very numerically pointed question! I don’t claim to know all of the answers, but I found the following guiding principles useful in my life.

Ambition — The will to succeed and make a difference is a fundamental driving force behind any endeavor.
Perseverance and Determination — Life is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. Perseverance is essential when things will inevitably get difficult along the way.
Grit and Fearlessness — Sometimes you just need to be bold and shameless. Only the deep sea diver gets the pearl.
Optimism — A healthy dose of optimism is necessary to keep the train going. The best is yet to come.
Empathy — All of this is ultimately futile unless tempered with compassion and empathy.

The Logician

Have you ever failed? If so, what are the best ways to cope with failure?

Siddha Ganju

Yes, I have failed. If I’m not failing, I’m not learning.

My motto is, “Have a goal, plan for it, when you fail, recalibrate.”

Without planning you’re not going to get anywhere. So plan. And don’t just plan for success, plan for failure too. Because you’re going to fail.

No matter what, no matter when, you will fail, so incorporate that buffer and have contingency plans, and recalibrate.

The Logician

What do you enjoy doing besides work? What matters in life? Can you share your definition of happiness?

Siddha Ganju

That’s deep! I wonder what happiness is, is it that I have the ability to know my heart rate at this minute with a smartwatch, or is just being blissfully unaware.

Is happiness learning the ancient Jedi techniques from Yoda, or seeing a neural network train nicely, or sleeping for 8 hours straight?

I am someone who can find happiness in little things and try to create positive energy for whatever I do, be it hiking while appreciating the beauty of nature, or doing the dishes (a chore I despise but am happy to do), all the way to writing a book on AI.

The Logician

Where do you see yourself and your work in the next 5–10 years? Do you have any milestones that you want to reach by then?

Siddha Ganju

I prefer to live life in the now and be fully present in what is happening right now.

That said, of course, I plan, or I should say at least try to plan for the future.

Personally, I would love to be a violin virtuoso sometime in the coming years.

The Logician

Lastly, what is the best life advice you can give anyone reading this interview? Why is it important?

Siddha Ganju

Show up! Throughout my career, showing up has proved to be half the effort, the other half is always working smartly to do the job.

Don’t be scared to ask questions, ask for help, and most importantly, don’t feel that you are under the imposter syndrome.

Share your knowledge, for it’s only when you teach someone, do you learn more deeply.

The Logician

Thank you, Siddha, for inspiring me to learn and improve. Hearing your thoughts on how AI can benefit our lives in the hands of the right people makes me incredibly excited to see what the future holds in the field! Highlighting the importance of showing up, seizing opportunities, and being brave to follow your passions is an incredible message to the world. I wish you the best of luck in all upcoming endeavors. Witnessing your love, innovation, and work ethic, it is clear that there is no limit to what you can do!

The Logician

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