Roorkee: Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-R) alumnus Dr Sunil Kumar Vuppala has won the prestigious Zinnov Award 2020 for his contribution to the field of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics. Vuppala was from 2004 batch of Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering of IIT-R. The objective of the award is to recognise the contribution of individuals as well as the organisations that enable business innovation along with diversity. Vuppala, a data scientist, is currently serving as the Director of Data Science at Ericsson. "I am elated to have received the award. The tech-driven education at IIT Roorkee laid the foundation for my strong fundamentals in the emerging technologies domain," said Vuppala.

There are multiple ways to learn data science, machine learning and deep learning concepts. You can watch videos, read articles, enroll in courses, attend meetups, among other things. I have personally learned a LOT from interacting with data science experts and industry thought leaders. Their experience in managing end-to-end machine learning and deep learning projects, their thinking when building a data science team from scratch, how they managed tough projects and overcame hurdles, etc. – we simply cannot learn all of these in any course. So, I am thrilled to present an exclusive interview with one such data science expert and industry thought leader – Dr. Sunil Kumar Vuppala!