Fresh OFF The Lab

The MIT Media Lab is an interdisciplinary research laboratory at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology that fosters research at the intersection of technology and society.

- Benu Joshi Routh

ACHUTA KADAMBI

A few noteworthy innovations that have been developed at the Lab and are now being applied include e-ink, optogenetics, touchscreen, and Robotic Prosthesis. At the Media Lab, engineers, neuroscientists and designers have the freedom to explore without being encumbered by industry or academic biases. An expression the Lab uses to describe its unique culture is “imagine and realise”, which encourages students to never abandon their curiosity.

Forbes India takes a dive into the minds of four inventors of Indian origin who, at some stage, spent time in the Lab. From inventing a camera to photograph the invisible to designing wearables to ward off sexual predators, these masterminds are attempting to turn the seemingly impossible into reality.

Achuta Kadambi’s scientific disposition was shaped by his growing-up years in California and education at prestigious institutions like University of California, Berkeley, and MIT. And his background as a second-generation Indian-American, with roots in Bengaluru from where his parents emigrated to the US. When developing a technology, the 30-year-old often asks himself how he can design at scale, so that his innovations can impact the diverse socioeconomic realities of the world. “My connection to my country of origin has led to many scientific exchange visits to India, offering a firsthand experience.”

Kadambi invents cameras that photograph the invisible. His inventions are special because they blend the physics of light with artificial intelligence. For decades these topics were studied separately.

Today, his Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based cameras enable robots to see through smoke, fog, or even biomedical tissue. With Kadambi’s cameras, it may be possible for doctors to see inside the body without using X-rays, or driverless cars to avoid pedestrians shrouded in fog.