I’m Sandeep Jain, an AI technologist and computer scientist with a lifelong fascination for the intersection of intelligence, science, and computation. I am interested in how machines learn, what computers are capable of doing, and what the future of artificial intelligence and computation in general means for society. This website is where I share ideas, recommend books, and link to interesting sites.
I became interested in AI in 1986, in 12th grade, when I saw the catalog from Caltech advertising a "Computation and Neural Systems" department focused on studying how neurons compute. I resolved to go to Caltech. My teenage passion had been physics. I was admitted to a joint dual degree program between Pomona College, a liberal arts college based in Los Angeles, where I studied physics, and Caltech, where I got my degree in Engineering and Applied Science, having taken a selection of courses from the Computation and Neural Systems department. At Caltech, I was lucky enough to take courses from pioneers in neural computing, such as John Hopfield, who got the Nobel Prize in 2024 for his groundbreaking work in AI, Carver Mead, who helped create VLSI technology, the physical basis of modern computation, and later invented Analog VLSI Neural Systems (silicon chips that directly mimic biological neurons, in which I took my course from him), Christof Koch, an early pioneer in the scientific study of conciousness, David van Essen, from whom I studied neurobiology, and others. My research advisor and mentor was Professor Jerome Pine, for whom I built an electronic interface between a silicon well of biological neurons, and a laboratory computer which could then record from and stimulate the neurons directly. This was a precursor to the brain computer interfaces of today, as represented in Elon Musk's company, Neuralink. Memorable professors at Pomona include Catalin Mitescu and Tom Moore, who nurtured my love for physics, and Frank Tugwell, whose course on the politics of developing nations delivered in 1988 held insights about India that hold true today.
After college, I joined California Scientific Software, a company of Caltech graduates, in 1991, one of the first companies and probably then the most successful company in the world developing commercial neural network software, which is today called AI, or Artificial Intelligence. I worked on developing BrainMaker Researcher, a product for researchers to experiment with various neural network models, and helped customers of the company develop pattern recognition and prediction applications for their production BrainMaker product. While at the company, I helped put together the Handbook of Neural Computation as a member of the editorial board, published by Oxford University Press in London and the Institute of Physics in Philadelphia, one of the first comprehensive texts on neural computing in the 1990s. The owner of California Scientific Software was Mark Lawrence, from whom I learnt a great deal. He taught me how to program (computer programs should read like English). He found AI boring, though, and was focused on studying and trying to invent a theory of Quantum Gravity - the Grand Unified Theory of Physics.
I later got a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and became a Technology Consultant professionally, consulting in web and mobile computing, and then AI as it caught on. I learnt the Unified Modeling Language from Rational Corporation early in my career. UML is a visual language for modeling software before you start building it. "Modeling" and "Models" - simplified pictures of parts of interest of the world that capture its essential aspects - are the foundation of modern rationality as it applies to all its disciplines and modeling software brings order to the chaos of software development. I applied this knowledge in my web and mobile consulting engagements, mostly with small and medium sized companies on the East Coast and West Coast of the US, and a couple of large companies. The release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in 2022 was a landmark event for me - I certainly never imagined that the neural networks I had been playing with would come so far and become so capable. I am now experimenting with this technology. I've been working with a European ed-tech company exploring the viability of and developing proof of concepts of AI tutoring systems that teach programming to K-12 kids, I've worked with an IIT Kanpur intern to develop an AI partner for startup founders that researches startup ideas and makes recommendations to the prospective founder (inspired by a secretive project at MIT that has won rave reviews by those who have seen it), and have recently become interested in computing and AI for healthcare based on my own experiences as a consumer of healthcare services.
Reach me at sj [at] sandeepjain [dot] net
I became interested in AI in 1986, in 12th grade, when I saw the catalog from Caltech advertising a "Computation and Neural Systems" department focused on studying how neurons compute. I resolved to go to Caltech. My teenage passion had been physics. I was admitted to a joint dual degree program between Pomona College, a liberal arts college based in Los Angeles, where I studied physics, and Caltech, where I got my degree in Engineering and Applied Science, having taken a selection of courses from the Computation and Neural Systems department. At Caltech, I was lucky enough to take courses from pioneers in neural computing, such as John Hopfield, who got the Nobel Prize in 2024 for his groundbreaking work in AI, Carver Mead, who helped create VLSI technology, the physical basis of modern computation, and later invented Analog VLSI Neural Systems (silicon chips that directly mimic biological neurons, in which I took my course from him), Christof Koch, an early pioneer in the scientific study of conciousness, David van Essen, from whom I studied neurobiology, and others. My research advisor and mentor was Professor Jerome Pine, for whom I built an electronic interface between a silicon well of biological neurons, and a laboratory computer which could then record from and stimulate the neurons directly. This was a precursor to the brain computer interfaces of today, as represented in Elon Musk's company, Neuralink. Memorable professors at Pomona include Catalin Mitescu and Tom Moore, who nurtured my love for physics, and Frank Tugwell, whose course on the politics of developing nations delivered in 1988 held insights about India that hold true today.
After college, I joined California Scientific Software, a company of Caltech graduates, in 1991, one of the first companies and probably then the most successful company in the world developing commercial neural network software, which is today called AI, or Artificial Intelligence. I worked on developing BrainMaker Researcher, a product for researchers to experiment with various neural network models, and helped customers of the company develop pattern recognition and prediction applications for their production BrainMaker product. While at the company, I helped put together the Handbook of Neural Computation as a member of the editorial board, published by Oxford University Press in London and the Institute of Physics in Philadelphia, one of the first comprehensive texts on neural computing in the 1990s. The owner of California Scientific Software was Mark Lawrence, from whom I learnt a great deal. He taught me how to program (computer programs should read like English). He found AI boring, though, and was focused on studying and trying to invent a theory of Quantum Gravity - the Grand Unified Theory of Physics.
I later got a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and became a Technology Consultant professionally, consulting in web and mobile computing, and then AI as it caught on. I learnt the Unified Modeling Language from Rational Corporation early in my career. UML is a visual language for modeling software before you start building it. "Modeling" and "Models" - simplified pictures of parts of interest of the world that capture its essential aspects - are the foundation of modern rationality as it applies to all its disciplines and modeling software brings order to the chaos of software development. I applied this knowledge in my web and mobile consulting engagements, mostly with small and medium sized companies on the East Coast and West Coast of the US, and a couple of large companies. The release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in 2022 was a landmark event for me - I certainly never imagined that the neural networks I had been playing with would come so far and become so capable. I am now experimenting with this technology. I've been working with a European ed-tech company exploring the viability of and developing proof of concepts of AI tutoring systems that teach programming to K-12 kids, I've worked with an IIT Kanpur intern to develop an AI partner for startup founders that researches startup ideas and makes recommendations to the prospective founder (inspired by a secretive project at MIT that has won rave reviews by those who have seen it), and have recently become interested in computing and AI for healthcare based on my own experiences as a consumer of healthcare services.
Reach me at sj [at] sandeepjain [dot] net