{{Short description|Indian-American computer scientist (born 1960)}} {{BLP sources|date=August 2009}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Ashwin Ram | image = | image_size = 140px | caption = | birth_date = {{birth-date and age|July 27, 1960}} | birth_place = New Delhi, India | death_date = | death_place = | field = Artificial intelligence, cognitive science | work_institution = PARC, Georgia Tech, OpenStudy | alma_mater = {{ubl|Yale University|University of Illinois|Indian Institute of Technology Delhi|Mayo College}} | doctoral_advisor = Roger Schank | doctoral_students = <!-- Mark Devaney, Anthony Gerald Francis, Kenneth Moorman, Juan Carlos Santamaria, Michael Thomas Cox, Saurav Sahay, Manish Mehta only if notable or cited --> | known_for = | prizes = | footnotes = }}
'''Ashwin Ram''' (born July 27, 1960) is an Indian-American computer scientist. He was chief innovation officer at PARC from 2011 to 2016, and published books and scientific articles and helped start at least two companies.
==Biography== Ashwin Ram was born in New Delhi, India, on July 27, 1960. He is a great-grandson of Sir Ganga Ram and is the eldest of three children. He grew up in New Delhi with a brief stint in Bombay, and attended one of India's oldest boarding schools, Mayo College.{{Citation needed |date= August 2013}}
Ram received his B.Tech. in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, in 1982, where he received the President of India's Gold Medal for best undergraduate performance. He then traveled to the US, graduating with his M.S. in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984. He received his Ph.D. degree from Yale University for his dissertation on "Question-Driven Understanding: An Integrated Theory of Story Understanding, Memory, and Learning" in 1989, under advisor Roger Schank<ref>{{Cite web |title= Question-Driven Understanding: An Integrated Theory of Story Understanding, Memory, and Learning |work= Yale Technical Report 710 |date= May 1989 |url= http://www.cs.yale.edu/publications/techreports/tr710.pdf |access-date= August 23, 2013 }} (Dissertation for Ph.D.)</ref> and Gerald DeJong.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ashwin Ram - The Mathematics Genealogy Project |url=https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=78246 |access-date=6 November 2019}}</ref>
===Georgia Tech=== He joined the faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in 1989.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Technology Entrepreneur Profile |work=Today's Engineer |date=April 2011 |url=http://www.todaysengineer.org/2011/apr/profile1.asp |access-date=August 23, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110919092215/http://www.todaysengineer.org/2011/Apr/profile1.asp |archive-date=September 19, 2011 }}</ref> He was associate professor in the School of interactive computing in the College of Computing, an associate professor of cognitive science, an adjunct professor in the School of Psychology, and an adjunct professor in math and computer science at Emory University.{{When|date=August 2013}}
In 1995 Ram co-edited (with David B. Leake) a book on goal-oriented learning.<ref>{{Cite book |title= Goal-Driven Learning |editor= Ashwin Ram |editor2=David Leake |publisher= MIT Press/Bradford Books |year= 1995 |isbn= 9780262181655 }}</ref> He co-edited (with Kenneth Moorman) a book on natural language understanding.<ref>{{Cite book |title= Understanding Language Understanding: Computational Models of Reading |editor= Ashwin Ram |editor2=Kenneth Moorman |publisher= MIT Press/Bradford Books |year= 1998 |isbn= 9780262181921 }}</ref>
Ram founded Enkia Corporation in 1998 (which was purchased by Sentiment360 in 2011).<ref>{{Cite news |title= Northern Ireland Spinoff Buys Georgia Tech Company |work= Global Atlanta |date= January 5, 2011 |author= David Beasley |url= http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/24486/northern-ireland-spinoff-buys-georgia-tech-company/ |access-date= August 23, 2013 }}</ref> He then co-founded Inquus Corporation, which operated OpenStudy, an online social learning network for students and faculty,<ref>{{Cite web |title= About us |work= OpenStudy web site |url= http://openstudy.com/about-us |access-date= August 23, 2013 }}</ref> and medical information company Cobot Health Corporation.<ref>{{Cite web |title= Cobot Health Corporation |work= Company Overview |publisher= Bloomberg Business Week |url= http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=98341266 |archive-url= https://archive.today/20130823182113/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=98341266 |url-status= dead |archive-date= August 23, 2013 |access-date= August 23, 2013 }}</ref><!-- defunct? --> OpenStudy was acquired in 2016 by Brainly.<ref>{{Cite news |title= Social Learning Platform OpenStudy Joins the Brainly Community |work= Press release |date= June 14, 2016 |url= https://finance.yahoo.com/news/social-learning-platform-openstudy-joins-130000652.html |access-date= October 3, 2016 }}</ref>
Ram directed the Cognitive Computing Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology starting around 2006.<ref>{{Cite web |title= People |work= Cognitive Computing Lab website |url= http://home.cc.gatech.edu/ccl/2 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060305115509/http://home.cc.gatech.edu/ccl/2 |archive-date= March 5, 2006 |access-date= August 23, 2013 }}</ref> He led research in artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive science. His projects focused on AI for computer games and virtual worlds, consumer health and wellness, and educational technologies. Topics included knowledge-based machine learning, case-based reasoning, cognitive modeling, and natural language processing.
He was program chair and conference co-chair of the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci) in 1994,<ref>{{Cite book |title= Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society |editor= Ashwin Ram |editor2=Kurt Eiselt |publisher= Psychology Press |year= 1994 |isbn= 9780805818031 }}</ref> conference co-chair of the Third International Conference on the Learning Sciences (ICLS) in 1998,<ref>{{Cite web |title= The Third International Conference on the Learning Sciences |work= Call for papers |year= 1998 |url= http://www.cc.gatech.edu/conferences/icls98/call-for-papers.html |access-date= August 23, 2013 }}</ref> and program co-chair of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition in 2008.
===PARC=== Ashwin Ram became an innovation fellow at PARC (formerly Xerox PARC), around September 2011, and then chief innovation officer.<ref name="parc">{{Cite web|title=Ashwin Ram |work=Corporate profile page |publisher=PARC |url=http://www.parc.com/about/people/2603/ashwin-ram.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111113094620/http://www.parc.com/about/people/2603/ashwin-ram.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 13, 2011 |access-date=August 24, 2016 }}</ref> His team created social computing technologies to augment human cognition in application areas including health and wellness. He was program co-chair of the International Conference on Case-Based Reasoning (ICCBR) in November 2011, with Nirmalie Wiratunga.<ref>{{Cite book |title= 19th International Conference on Case-Based Reasoning Research and Development |editor= Ashwin Ram |editor2=Nirmalie Wiratunga |publisher= Springer |date= November 2011 |isbn= 9783642232909 }}</ref> In June 2013, he was interviewed on Australian radio about the trends toward finding medical information on the Internet,<ref>{{Cite web |title= From Dr Google, to Dr Facebook, and beyond... |work= Health Report |publisher= ABC Radio |url= http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/healthreport/from-dr-google2c-to-dr-facebook2c-and-beyond/4760756#transcript |date= June 17, 2013 |access-date= August 23, 2013 }}</ref> and was invited as a keynote speaker at the Amplify Festival.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Intelligent Web: Shaping behaviour at the intersection of health, wealth and choice |work=Keynote video |url=http://video.amplifyfestival.com.au/?v=xko1gkxomcbt |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130823202502/http://video.amplifyfestival.com.au/?v=xko1gkxomcbt |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 23, 2013 |access-date=August 23, 2013 }}</ref>
==Amazon== In May, 2016, he joined the Amazon Alexa development team as head of artificial intelligence.<ref>{{Cite web |title= Amazon nabs AI boffin from Xerox PARC: Ashwin Ram will lead AI R&D department |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/06/amazon_nabs_ai_boffin_from_xerox_parc/ |date= May 6, 2016 |author= Katyanna Quach |work= The Register |access-date= August 24, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title= Amazon nabs cognitive computing expert Ashwin Ram to head up AI efforts |url= http://siliconangle.com/blog/2016/05/09/amazon-nabs-cognitive-computing-expert-ashwin-ram-to-head-up-ai-efforts/ |date= May 9, 2016 |author= Mike Wheatley |work= Silicon Angle |access-date= August 24, 2016 }}</ref>
==Google== In 2018 he left Amazon and joined Google as technical director of AI for Google Cloud.<ref>* [https://qz.com/1217188/amazon-alexas-head-ai-researcher-has-left-for-google/ Amazon Alexa’s head AI researcher has left for Google]</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120616060124/http://www.ic.gatech.edu/people/ashwin-ram Ashwin Ram at Georgia Tech] * [http://cognitivecomputing.wordpress.com Ashwin Ram's Research Blog]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ram, Ashwin}} Category:Living people Category:1960 births Category:American computer scientists Category:Indian cognitive scientists Category:Georgia Tech faculty Category:Yale University alumni Category:Artificial intelligence researchers Category:IIT Delhi alumni Category:Scientists at PARC (company) Category:Indian emigrants to the United States Category:American academics of Indian descent Category:People from New Delhi