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About me: Vikrant Singh Tomar, Ph.D.

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Profile Summary

  • Currently building Autonomique: Autonomous versatile social robotics. Autonomique is building a robotic intelligence framework that systematically addresses the core challenges of autonomy: perception, reasoning, and dexterity.

  • I am an experienced, driven, and entrepreneurial professional with extensive background in building and leading artificial-intelligence/machine-learning organizations.

  • Built Fluent.ai inc. from zero into a well-known provider of on-device/offline speech recognition solutions.
    • Led the research and tech roadmap, patents and IP growth/acquisition plan, business as well as tech partnerships, and overall strategy of the company.
    • Led the development of tiny (≈ 40KB) deep learning models for speech recognition on low-power edge devices.
    • Filed, acquired, and licensed 15+ patents; several of which have been granted.
    • Built and grew partnerships with various chip manufacturers partners, such as, ARM, CEVA, DSPG, Ambiq, NXP, DSPC etc.
    • Contributed to sales and business development. Negotiated OEM/ODM deals.
    • Helped raise investments from angels and VCs over multiple rounds.
  • PhD in speech and AI.
  • Active research in AI/machine learning, deep learning, tinyML.

More details

Currently focused on building Autonomique. At Autonomique, we are creating an integrated framework for robotics that combines Generative AI for high-level planning with Reinforcement Learning for precise, low-level control. Our team has strong background in both AI and Robotics, and consists of experienced second-time entrepreneurs. With driving factors such as labor shortages, safety and increased efficiency, robotics and physical automation is potentially one of the most impactful opportunities in near future.

Previosuly, I founded Fluent.ai and grew it, in my role as Founder and CTO, from zero to a well-known provider of speech recognition systems. At Fluent.ai, we developed cutting-edge machine learning techniques for offline, on-device voice user interfaces targeted at tinyML, low-power embedded devices, smart-home devices, and wearables. We used a unique end-to-end spoken language understanding system. Unlike conventional speech recognition systems [speech --> text --> intent], these models do not require the intermediate text step and are able able to directly go from speech to intent, much like humans.

My research interests are in the general area of artificial intelligence, language, robotics, generative networks, reinforcement learning, etc. I completed my PhD from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. I was associated with the speech and language research group supervised by Dr. Richard Rose [now at Google].

Education

Work Experience Summary

  • Autonomique Inc., | CoFounder & CEO
  • RaceRocksRaceRocks., Vancouver, Canada | Head of Technology | May 2023 -- Sept 2023
  • Fluent.ai Inc., Montreal, QC, Canada | Founder and CTO | May 2015 -- Oct 2022
  • Nuance Comm. Inc., Montreal, QC, Canada | Research Scientist | Sept 2013 -- Feb 2014
  • Vestec Inc., Waterloo, ON, Canada | Research Scientist Consultant | May 2012 -- Dec 2012
  • McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada | Teaching Assistant and Lecturer | 2010 - 2013 [various]
  • IIT Bombay, Mumbai India | Research Scholar | July 2008 - Dec 2010

Research Interests

  • General Artificial Intelligence
  • Reinforcement Learning, Imitation Learning
  • Speech and language processing including acoustic modeling, NLU, etc.
  • Generative AI, Transformers, Vision + Language + Action Please refer to my recent publications for more details about my current area of work.

Awards and Grants (from student life era)