Tell me something about yourself?
I’m Manu Gond, I grew up in Kolkata, India. I have completed my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Calcutta. After my Master’s, I worked as a research engineer at ‘Must B2B Matchmaking & Virtual Exhibitions platform’ on both research and back-end development.
Applied machine learning, computer vision, and computing on edge devices have always sparked my interest. I developed these interests when I worked on my Master’s thesis which was a ‘Hybrid Recommendation System’ that used sentiment analysis from social media, and also when I got into two scholarship programs by Facebook AI & Intel Edge AI which focused on using deep learning and optimizing deep learning models on edge devices for computer vision.
Why did you apply to the PLENOPTIMA project?
I have always liked the research ideas which have a direct impact on our lives when they get implemented into applications. All the projects under PLENOPTIMA are based on that, and to me, the ESR11 project really stood out. Also, the PLENOPTIMA itself consists of everything a researcher can ask for, for example, training school, workshops, and the opportunity to communicate with other ESRs from different cultural backgrounds working on challenging research problems. It is a great opportunity to expand my knowledge base, learn new concepts, and also experience different cultures by traveling to different countries. All these factors contributed to my decision to apply for the project, and I’m glad to be a part of this network.
What kind of expectations do you have for your research project and the upcoming network training?
I expect that my research project will result in some major contributions in the scientific field and that the developed algorithm will enable users to remotely perform their domain-specific task confidently and efficiently. With the training network, I expect to gain expertise in the field along with communication and scientific presentation skills which will enable me to contribute to the scientific community as a researcher in the future. Meeting and communicating with other brilliant ESRs will help me understand complex problems and exchange ideas.
What hobbies do you have?
Hiking, Cycling, Gaming, Cricket
Manu works as Early Stage Researcher Mid Sweden University (MIUN), Sweden, and his research topic is “Augmented Telepresence for Interactive Remote Actions”.