Schovia in a Nutshell
About Us
The Schovia program is led by three founders with exceptional depth and expertise in both industry and academia. Together, our leadership team has over 40 years of professional experience in technology, having served in executive roles in public companies and startups, founded four companies, and with over 200 patents and over 100 research publications.
Mission
Artificial Intelligence is a dynamic force reshaping today’s professional landscape. Our mission is to equip individuals of all backgrounds with the essential knowledge and skills to navigate this AI-driven world. As AI becomes woven into the fabric of industries, from healthcare to finance, our dedication lies in cultivating AI fluency that surpasses technical know-how by nurturing an understanding of AI’s strengths and vulnerabilities, we empower individuals to confidently shape its integration within their work, policies, and communities. Our aim is to enable professionals to be informed, proactive, and visionary leaders in an AI-powered future.
Vision
Our vision is that business professionals at all levels learn these critical technologies and in the near term use them to help their own future. In the longer term, we hope to play a role in empowering all individuals to understand, manage and apply these skills and their own creativity to envision the future.
About the Leadership
40+
Years of professional Experience in Tech
4
Companies Founded
200+
Patents Filed
100+
Research Publications
Dr.Nisha Talagala - CEO
Nisha has significant experience in introducing technologies like Artificial Intelligence to new learners from students to professionals. Previously, Nisha co-founded ParallelM which pioneered the MLOps practice of managing Machine Learning in production for enterprises – acquired by DataRobot. Nisha is a recognized leader in the operational machine learning space, having also driven the USENIX Operational ML Conference, the first industry/academic conference on production AI/ML. Nisha was previously a Fellow at SanDisk and Fellow/Lead Architect at Fusion-io, where she worked on innovation in non-volatile memory technologies and applications. Nisha has more than 20 years of expertise in enterprise software development, distributed systems, technical strategy and product leadership. She has worked as technology lead for server flash at Intel – where she led server platform non-volatile memory technology development, storage-memory convergence, and partnerships. Prior to Intel, Nisha was the CTO of Gear6, where she designed and built clustered computing caches for high performance I/O environments. Nisha earned her PhD at UC Berkeley where she did research on clusters and distributed systems. Nisha holds 75 patents in distributed systems and software, over 25 refereed research publications, is a frequent speaker at industry and academic events, and is a contributing writer to Forbes and other publications.
Dr. Sindhu Ghanta - Co-Founder & Head of Machine Learning
Sindhu received the M.S. degree from Texas Tech University in 2010 and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Northeastern University, Boston, USA, in 2014. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow with BIDMC and the Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, where she was involved in detection and classification of features from histopathological (breast cancer) images. She worked as a research scientist with Parallel Machines on monitoring the health of machine learning algorithms in production and has many publications on ML innovations and is currently the Head of Machine Learning for AIClub and Schovia.
Dr. Amit Gupta - Head of Products
Amit has 20+ years of expertise in large-scale distributed systems design and development, and he was previously co-founder and CTO at Andale and Jasper Wireless, acquired in 2016 by Cisco Systems. Prior to Jasper Wireless, Amit co-founded Andale, a provider of auction services. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley where he did research on networking technologies, and has over 100 patents covering various aspects of Computer Networking, Distributed Systems, Security, and Internet-Of-Things. Amit also serves on the leadership teams of various startup incubators and accelerators, advising the next generation of software entrepreneurs.
Mr. Atul Dubey - Instructor
Atul has extensive experience as a technologist, entrepreneur, and researcher specializing in the application of deep technology—particularly the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)—to solve complex, real-world problems. He is the Co-Founder and CTO of DataTurtles LLP, a deep-tech consultancy that delivers solutions for clients ranging from startups to corporations. Atul’s expertise in enterprise-grade IoT was also honed as an engineer at CyberEye Research Labs, where he developed smart city solutions and consulted companies like Bosch and Capgemini in IoT deployments. He is a dedicated educator, serving as a Hardware, IoT, and AI Educator for AIClub (California) and as a Regional Mentor of Change for the Indian government’s Atal Innovation Mission (NITI Aayog) since 2017. Atul earned his B.Tech. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT). He is a prolific researcher with multiple peer-reviewed publications in IEEE and ACM conferences on applied AI, and has personally trained and mentored over 5,000 students and professionals while completing more than 300 IoT/AI projects.
Dr. Vani Kandasami - Instructor
Vani is an influential educator and computer scientist specializing in applied artificial intelligence and machine learning. She is a key mentor at the AIClub Research Institute, where she has an exceptional track record of guiding pre-university students to produce and publish peer-reviewed research in prominent international forums like IEEE and SPIE. Vani previously served for a decade as an Assistant Professor at PSG College of Technology, teaching advanced courses in Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Social Network Analysis. Her research expertise spans foundational work in recommender systems and data privacy to high-impact applications of deep learning in medical diagnostics, environmental science, and precision agriculture. Vani earned her PhD in Information and Communication Engineering from Anna University.
Dr. Smriti H. Bhandari - Instructor
Smriti is a seasoned technology leader with over 30 years of experience in Computer Vision, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. She currently serves as the Head of Engineering and Data Science at Autharva Inc., a US-based company specializing in identity security operations.With a distinguished academic career, Smriti has previously served as Professor, Head of the Department of Computer Science, and Chairperson of the Board of Studies at Walchand College of Engineering and Annasaheb Dange College of Engineering. As a Principal Investigator, she has successfully led multiple nationally significant projects funded by India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST), culminating in a patent for an AI-based human monitoring system.She is a recipient of the prestigious Women Scientist Fellowship and Young Scientist Fellowship from the Government of India. Smriti holds a PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from Shivaji University and is a recognized educator who has designed and delivered numerous professional programs in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
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