The Institute - September 2020 - TI15

PREETHI KRISHNASWAMY

profile

out our expectations for the students and provide CAGE's methodology while giving the students
some overall background in the
e-sports scene," Williams says.
Most content after the beginner
class is hands-on. The 200-level
series is about preparing to get
ahead before playing by conducting research and developing strategies. The 300-level classes cover
the student's playing style. The
400- and 500-level topics are still
being developed, Williams says.
CAGE courses will total 131 credit
hours, he says. The cost of the program has not been determined.
"Our worst fear is that the
classes won't provide students
with the skills they're looking
for," Williams says. That's why
for almost a year CAGE has been
undergoing a pilot phase in which
experts evaluate each course.
"We don't want to teach our content until we know we are delivering value in each class," Williams
says. "We want to make sure we
can get students into the professional scene as soon as midway
through our curriculum."
He expects the academy to
launch its first classes next
month, with the material hosted
on Microsoft 365.
The platform will enable the
training teams a variety of new
teaching paradigms, he says.
And it lets remote and on-thego learners feel like they are in
an actual classroom.
Williams says that even during
the COVID-19 crisis, learning is
ongoing. In fact, he says, it's at
an even more accelerated pace.
-KATHY PRETZ
This article originally appeared
online as "A New Academy Helps
E-Sports Players Go Pro."

Sampathkumar
Veeraraghavan Puts His Tech
Skills to Humanitarian Use

hen Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan [below] was an
undergraduate at Anna University, in Chennai, India, he met with
local families to see how technology could
improve their quality of life. Many had children with autism, the IEEE senior member says, but because the parents were
poor, the kids didn't receive the medical
care they needed. In some cases, the parents didn't know much about the developmental disorder.
For his undergraduate dissertation, Veeraraghavan created software that helps
screen children for autism.
He completed the early-screening system
in 2004. Parents answer a series of questions about their child's motor skills, and
social and language development. Using an
inference engine to evaluate the answers,
the system determines whether the child is
reaching the correct developmental milestones. It then generates a report stating
whether the child demonstrates developmental delays. If so, the screening system
provides a list of nearby specialists.
The screening tool can detect developmental delays in children as young as
18 months.

The system, which was deployed in more
than 20 Indian schools and health care
clinics, spearheaded the creation of other
early-intervention programs for children
with autism in rural areas.
After Veeraraghavan graduated in 2005
with a bachelor's degree in computer
science and engineering, he launched
another technology-based humanitarian
program: Brahmam Innovations. In Sanskrit, brahmam equates to knowledge. The
program aims to improve the living conditions of underserved communities.
Veeraraghavan does all that while holding
down a full-time job as a senior technical
program manager for Amazon in Boston.
For his humanitarian work, he is this
year's recipient of the annual IEEE Theodore W. Hissey Outstanding Young Professional Award, which is sponsored by IEEE
Young Professionals and the IEEE Photonics and Power & Energy societies.
"This award is special to me because it
recognizes both the technical and leadership contributions I've made to humanitarian efforts," Veeraraghavan says.
SOLVING PROBLEMS

Veeraraghavan has a long association with
IEEE. His undergraduate thesis advisor
suggested that by joining IEEE he could
improve his system through networking
with other engineers.
"Joining the organization helped me find
like-minded people who have a passion for
developing technology and for humanitarian work," Veeraraghavan says.
While he was developing his screening
system as a student, he presented a paper
about it at a conference in 2005. He won
Best Paper and was approached by the chair
of the IEEE Madras Section about featuring
his screening technology in an article in the
section's newsletter, IEEE MAS Link. Some
THE INSTITUTE

SEP 2020

TI- 15

https://www.annauniv.edu/ https://www.annauniv.edu/ https://www.aboutamazon.com/ https://www.ieee.org/about/awards/recognitions/ieee-theodore-w-hissey-outstanding-young-professional-award.html https://www.ieee.org/about/awards/recognitions/ieee-theodore-w-hissey-outstanding-young-professional-award.html https://www.ieee.org/about/awards/recognitions/ieee-theodore-w-hissey-outstanding-young-professional-award.html https://yp.ieee.org/ https://yp.ieee.org/ https://www.photonicssociety.org/ https://www.photonicssociety.org/ https://www.ieee-pes.org/ https://www.ieeemadras.org/ https://www.ieeemadras.org/ieee-mas-link/

The Institute - September 2020

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