Covid To Cancer: How AI Is Being Used To Beat Deadly Diseases
Covid To Cancer: How AI Is Being Used To Beat Deadly Diseases
2
020 has been all about health- customised bionic arms as no two arms automatically does 90-95% job of the pound contract from the UK’s
care. Given the scale of the are similar. We then leverage ML to pathologist and produces a report health regulator – Medicines and
pandemic and the urgency it understand the signals/reflexes of a person Healthcare Regulatory Authority
necessitated, the use of tech- to design the arm in a way that it can Tathagato Rai Dastidar | CO-FOUNDER & (MHRA) – to use the tool to process
CEO, SIGTUPLE
nology in healthcare became inevi- perform multiple tasks the expected high volume of reports
table – in helping doctors quickly We have won a contract for adverse reactions to Covid-19
identify the more serious cases, to Pranav Vempati | CO-FOUNDER & CEO, vaccines. “When a vaccine finally
KAL BIONICS
from the UK’s health regulator –
monitor a patient’s progress, to gets distributed at scale and speed,
Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory
It is a great time
bring a vaccine in months, and not a technology solution will be need-
AI is as good as radiologists in Authority (MHRA) – to use our AI tool to
a decade that it normally takes. And ed to track batch and lot numbers
interpreting CT scans and X-rays, and process the expected high volume of
it has become increasingly clear to know where each dose is,” says
even better in detecting tuberculosis and reports for adverse reactions to Genpact CEO Tiger Tyagarajan. He
that technologies like artificial in-
lung cancer Covid-19 vaccines
robots in India
to develop fascinating solutions. the virus. That helps understand accuracy that sometimes even doc- mine the course of treatment.
Prashant Warier and Pooja Rao’s whether a patient needs hospitali- tors can’t promise,” says Manju- SigTuple, founded by Tathagato from a vaccine, and what kind of
Qure.AI has built technology that sation or ICU admission,” says nath. And because it’s non-touch, Rai Dastidar, Rohit Kumar Pandey, tweaks the drug itself may require.
can interpret chest X-rays, radiol- Warrier. Indian women in particular are a and Apurv Anand, combines AI Machine learning is even being
Qure.AI has tied up with Astra- lot more comfortable to do these and data science to automate the used to make smart prosthetic
YEAR END SPECIAL Zeneca to integrate AI solutions for examinations. manual review of a blood sample arms. Currently, prosthetic arms in Shilpa Phadnis & Sujit John | TNN
the early detection of lung cancer Dinesh Koka and Vikas Ra- under a microscope by a patholo- India are mostly cosmetic in nature
R
ogy images and CT scans to detect in patients across India, Latin machandra’s Onward Assist also gist. “We digitise the peripheral or are capable of only limited move- obots have been around a
some 30 abnormalities, including America and Middle East. The soft- uses computer vision for image blood smear slide, and then use AI ments. Hyderabad-based Kal Bion- long time. But the advanc-
strains of pneumonia, tuberculosis, ware has the ability to process processing that helps in identifying to analyse it. Our solution auto- ics is working on different complex es in software and hard-
Covid, lung cancer and even heart analog and digital chest X-rays in the location of tumours. “Machine matically does 90-95% job of the aspects of arms, such as grip, move- ware in recent years have dra-
failure. Behind this detection lie one minute, and can even point out learning then helps in processing pathologist and produces a report,” ment, and weight. They use 3D matically increased the applica-
algorithms which have been fed small lung nodules which could large amounts of data to offer bet- Dastidar says. printing to build customised bionic tions. That was the subject of
with data from 3.5 million X-ray have been missed in a cursory re- ter insights on classification of the Dr Anoop Amarnath, geriatric arms, since no two arms are simi- our webinar last week, and we
reports and processed by using view. tumour and its staging, among medicine consultant at Manipal lar. Co-founder Pranav Vempati had with us two entrepreneurs NOT ENOUGH TALENT
deep-learning techniques. “AI is as
good as radiologists in interpreting
scans,” says Warier.
Geetha Manjunath and Nidhi
Mathur’s Niramai uses a non-
touch, non-invasive, radiation-free
other things. Our teams have built
algorithms which help in this task,”
says Koka. Four of Onward Assist’s
Hospitals, says the institute is run-
ning a clinical trial for AI diagnosis
of Helicobacter pylori bacteria in-
says they then leverage ML to un-
derstand the signals/reflexes of a
person to design the arm in a way
who have built amazing robot-
ics companies – Balaji Viswana-
than of Invento Robotics, and
A akash Sinha said his
conversations with
robotic companies indicate
Such technologies are immense- technique to do a thermal mapping analytics tools are undergoing fection in the stomach. Currently that it can perform multiple tasks Aakash Sinha of Omnipresent that there are jobs in the
ly useful when thousands or lakhs of the breast surface, and then uses clinical trials currently and the it is done by a rapid urease test by way of different grips. “Through Robot Tech. industry, but not enough
of scans have to be looked at, as an AI-based diagnostics engine to company expects to publish results (RUT). The aim is to use AI and IoT, our bionic arm can also be con- Viswanathan said Covid-19 people to take them up. He
during this pandemic. “Covid is an detect breast malignancy from by May next year. Koka says such convolutional neural networks nected to mobile applications has dramatically increased op- suggested to students that
infection of the lungs and our tech- thermal variations. The sensors tools can make the task of an on- (CNN) through which the network through which we can continu- portunities for robotics, espe- they take up a project and
nology, which sits on top of the identify 17 different abnormal ther- cologist much simpler, given that begins to identify the infection ously generate data on how the cially in healthcare. “We are
build something of their own.
digital X-ray machines, determines mal patterns and a probability she otherwise would need to look through images rather than having hand is performing and then im- automating the task of medical
“Then contact one of us and
the percentage of damage that has model is generated. “We are at 94% at huge volumes of data – biopsy, a biopsy and RUT. prove its functioning,” he says. assistants in many of the hospi-
try for an internship. Some of
tals that enables far better data
collection. Our robots use the our interns have gone on to
INTELLO LABS USES AI TO GRADE & SORT FRUITS, VEGETABLES
Byju’s co-founder
power of voice and vision to de- do companies of their
liver strong conversation experi- own,” he said.
ence to collect vitals with on- He said the key is to
board sensors, and push the data develop expertise in at
T
here is symmetry in a snail, multiplication is nothing but repeat- for the last Chandrayaan mis-
This is done in C++. Then
geometry in building blocks, ed addition. Children need to under- sion, which crash landed on the
there’s the user interaction
and fractions in that pizza you stand the connection between con- moon. “We have also built
share with your pals. And the crick- cepts. There should be the process drones. Over the last 2-3 years, subsystem, which his
et scoreboard could double as a math of enquiry and learning shouldn’t 90% of our business has come company does on iOS – things
blackboard too. feel like a chore,” she says. On the through drones,” Sinha said. like speech to text, computer
Mathematics is beyond books and app, the best testimonials Divya and Intello Labs founders (L-R) Devendra Chandani, Milan Sharma, Nishant Mishra and Himani Shah These are used in oil refineries, vision, conversation flow. And
rooted in things around us, and for her team get are when children say to keep the facilities secure, go finally, there’s the part where
Milan Sharma, Nishant Mishra, Himani Shah and Devendra Team Intello Labs
every child we need to find a hook they have grown from hating to lov- into tanks to check for corrosion; data is collected, algorithms
Chandani’s Intello Labs uses AI tools, such as computer
that’ll get them hooked to the world ing numbers. they are used to map vast areas. are trained. This uses a
vision and deep learning, to grade and monitor the quality of
of numeracy, says Divya Gokulnath, To prepare kids for the unseen “In Amaravati, we mapped 2 lakh Python Django based system.
jobs of tomorrow, they need to be
fresh fruits, vegetables, and cereals. The venture is part of acres and made it into one single
co-founder of education technology Viswanathan said people
giant Byju’s. Math is crucial in rap- taught “how to learn” and not “what Nasscom’s DeepTech Club image,” Sinha said. can focus on any one of
idly growing areas like AI/ML, to learn”, says Divya. “…Because Milan, Nishant and Himani knew each other from their Viswanathan urged young these areas. “One need
blockchain, cryptography (used in studies suggest that for kids in pri- under-graduation days at IIT Bombay. Milan went on to head entrepreneurs to take up robot- not do all three. If you are
cybersecurity). mary school today, 63% of their jobs pricing analysis at Snapdeal. Nishant worked at Amazon. ics development and manufac- a web developer, you can
Divya is a BTech in biotechnology aren’t even defined. We need to pre- Himani was head of corporate planning and strategy at turing. Robotics, he said, is going build chatbots, engagement
from RVCE, Bengaluru, and a VTU pare them and that’s possible only if PeopleStrong HR Services. Devendra was the head of Customers include supermarket chains, to be far bigger than the comput- interactions,” he said.
(Visvesvaraya Technological Univer- they can learn, unlearn and relearn,” customer and marketing analytics at KPMG. All of them came e-grocers, growers, and aggregators. ing industry. “The computing
sity) rank-holder. She fell in love with she adds. Divya thinks engineers and together in 2016 to found Intello Labs in Gurgaon Reliance Fresh, and Dole Asia of Singapore industry created over 50 compa- costly to operate. Many entrepre-
math after she started attending Byju technologists of the future will only are among its users. The systems help nies with a market cap of $100 neurs there are looking to invest
Raveendran’s aptitude classes in 2007- be of better quality, as they’d all be About $500 billion of fruits and vegetables are wasted billion. Robotics can create even here. This is a time for India to
them reduce risk, wastage and increase
2008. “At that time, Byju was just digital natives, a born advantage. every year. Intello Labs’ solutions seek to reduce that. Several more. Industry 4.0 can create get into manufacturing aggres-
revenues by delivering better customer
starting off. I got to know about him Ask her about the big buzz proprietary artificial neural network algorithms are used to well-paying jobs that are far sively,” he said.
satisfaction. They can understand which
around coding today, and Divya says extract features from a food sample. And these get better more impactful than IT and soft- Viswanathan said about 60%
locations have better quality, which
NATIONAL the topic is not too far from making
it into mainstream education, espe-
with each data point. Mobile-based Intello Track is an AI
supplier’s quality is deteriorating
ware,” he said.
India, he said, can do high-
of a robot is software and 40% is
hardware. Sinha said more and
platform that objectively grades based on colour, size and
MATHEMATICS DAY cially with the New Education Policy visual defects and integrates with the customers’ existing IT Has over 150 employees. Has received end manufacturing and we have more innovation in the future
also underscoring it. “Just that it’s systems. Intello Deep is a handheld scanner that can measure $8.5 million in funding from Saama Capital, a cost advantage over China. will happen in software, while
National Mathematics Day is
not in the timetable yet,” she says. moisture and pesticide residues in food products GROW (Singapore) and SVG Ventures “China is increasingly becoming hardware will tend to stabilise.
celebrated every year on She thinks coding today is how com-
December 22 to recognise the
S
plex looking problems would be amsung is one of the top pat- themselves like to play with – patents (SEP) have coaching and mentoring. And are also being filed in other glob-
solved just using common sense. My It is crucial for parents ent filers in the world. Includ- camera, multiple cameras on a come out of Samsung India. then we provide advanced inven- al locations. “Many standard es-
perception about the subject com- and teachers to ing in India, where it has just phone, social camera for instant SEPs are essential to tive step training – to help them sential patents (SEP) have also
pletely changed,” says Divya. understand that children aren’t completed 25 years. Its R&D cen- sharing, selfies, avatars, small implement specific industry understand how to structure come out of India,” De says. SEPs
From a learner, Divya became a born fearing math. We must tres in Bengaluru and Noida have video clips. Smart homes, and al- standards, and they will be their claims, to help them broad- are those that are essential to
teacher. She joined Byju, the founder help children filed 3,200 patents to date. gorithms to measure health & fit- used by many companies. They en their horizon, if implement specific industry
of the company and now her better approach the The patent filing culture has ness on watches are other areas provide big they have an idea for standards, and therefore used by
half, and started teaching math and over time become so institution- of patent interest. Among tech- mobiles, can it be many companies. SEPs imply big
subject by recognition globally
data interpretation and reasoning to alised and broadbased that in the used in wearables, recognition globally, they could
students, who were barely three-four
relating it to last five years, 80% of filers have PATENTING CULTURE Aloknath De | CTO, SAMSUNG in TVs,” De says. even earn the company signifi-
years younger to her. Divya’s first everyday things. been first time creators. Many nologies, AI, IoT and 5G are the R&D INSTITUTE INDIA Patent filers cant royalty.
class had about 100 students. “To look It’s a useful skill who join from campuses file with- focus areas in India. receive awards, There’s been a surge in pat-
more teacher-like, I’d often wear a to have in the in their first three years. Around 2012, Samsung’s India ripe for patenting. Freshers are the amount vary- ents filed in India in the last three
sari to class,” laughs Divya, who now game of life “Initially, they may be co-in- unit set up a specialised IP (intel- encouraged to explore the portal. ing depending years. “And now, 25% of the high
tutors students of classes 4-7 in math ventors. But many become inde- lectual property) team, and a por- “We then provide basic invention on the quality patents filed are being
Divya
and 8-12 in biology, on the Byju’s app. pendent inventors often in five tal that provided details of past creation training – there are dif- quali- commercialised, a big jump from
The phobia around math, says
Gokulnath | years or less,” says Aloknath De, patents, where these are used, the ferent techniques for how to ty of four years ago. Patent filing will
CO-FOUNDER,
Divya, is often because of the way CTO of Samsung R&D Institute company’s Hall of Fame of patent ideate, methods like design t h e be key to our mission of power-
kids learn the subject. “In many BYJU’S India. filers, emerging areas that are thinking, Triz (the Russian pat- ing digital India,” De says.