Subhash Kak

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Subhash Kak
Kak vaxjo2.jpg
Subhash Kak at Foundations of Quantum Mechanics Conference, Växjö, Sweden
Born
Academic background
Alma materNIT Srinagar, IIT Delhi
Academic work
DisciplineComputer Science
Sub-discipline
InstitutionsOklahoma State University–Stillwater
Notable works
Notable ideasInstantaneously trained neural networks

Subhash Kak (born 26 March 1947, Srinagar) is an Indian-American computer scientist. He is the Regents Professor of Computer Science Department at Oklahoma State University–Stillwater,[1] an honorary visiting professor of engineering at Jawaharlal Nehru University,[2] and a member of the Indian Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).[3]

Kak has published on the history of science, the philosophy of science, ancient astronomy, and the history of mathematics.[1] Kak has also published on archaeoastronomy, and advocated the idea of Indigenous Aryans.

In 2019, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri,[4] the fourth highest civilian award in India,[5] for his contributions on the history of mathematics, science, ancient astronomy and philosophy of science.[6]

Early life and education[edit]

Kak was born to Ram Nath Kak, a government veterinary doctor and Sarojini Kak in Srinagar, India.[7][8] His brother is the computer scientist Avinash Kak and his sister is the literary theorist Jaishree Odin.[9]

Kak received a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Regional Engineering College, Srinagar (now the National Institute of Technology, Srinagar) and a Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 1970.[10]

Academic career[edit]

During 1975–1976, Kak was a visiting faculty at Imperial College, London, and a guest researcher at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill. In 1977, he was a visiting researcher at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay.[11] In 1979, he joined Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, where he was appointed the Donald C. and Elaine T. Delaune Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In 2007, he joined the Computer Science department at Oklahoma State University–Stillwater.[12]

He was featured as one of the pioneers of quantum learning in the journal NeuroQuantology edited by Cheryl Fricasso and Stanley Krippner.[13] Kak had proposed an efficient three-layer feed-forward neural network architecture and developed four corner classification algorithms for training it.[14] Despite being criticized for scalability issues; it invoked attention within the electronic hardware community.[14] Kak has argued that there are limits to artificial intelligence and that it cannot equate the biological equivalent.[15] Kak has been critical of the generalization of the quantum computing on commercial scale who argues error correction is a significant challenge for scalability although it's fundamental to multi-purpose computing.[16]

Kak is the Regents Professor of Computer Science Department at Oklahoma State University–Stillwater[1] and an honorary visiting professor of engineering at Jawaharlal Nehru University.[2] He is also an honorary visiting professor of media studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.[17]

On 28 August 2018, he was appointed member of the Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) in India.[3]


Reviewed works[edit]

Archaeoastronomy – The Astronomical Code of the Rigveda[edit]

In the book, Kak proposes that the organization of hymns in the Rig Veda was dictated by an astronomic code concerning the courses of planets—length of solar year and lunar year, the distance between sun and earth et al. He prepared the section on archaeoastronomical sites in India for the thematic study on Heritage Sites of Astronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the context of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention prepared for UNESCO by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU).[18]


In Search of the Cradle of Civilization[edit]

Kak co-authored In Search of the Cradle of Civilization with Georg Feuerstein and David Frawley, equating the Vedic Aryans with the Harappans and thus, participating in the political controversy around the "indigenous Aryans" theory.[19][20] The chronology espoused in this book is based on the archaeoastronomical readings obtained by correlating textual references and archaeological remains.

A review by Indian archaeologist M. K. Dhavalikar over Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute noted it to be a "beautifully printed" contribution that made a strong case for their indigenous theory against the supposed migratory hypotheses, but chose to remain silent on certain crucial aspects which need to be convincingly explained.[20] Guy Beck showered glowing praises on the book in his review over the Yoga Journal.[21] Klostermaier et al. praised the book.<ref>"Reviews". www.ece.lsu.edu. Retrieved 22 March 2019.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Akella, Usha (21 December 2013). "The Renaissance man". The Hindu. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  2. 2.0 2.1 "School of Engineering JNU: Associated Faculty". Jawaharlal Nehru University. Archived from the original on 25 June 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2021 – via Wayback Machine.
  3. 3.0 3.1 "New committee formed to advise PM on science, tech-related policy issues". Thehindubusinessline.com. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  4. VK, Anirudh (5 June 2019). "Meet Subhash Kak, AI Visionary & Inventor Of Quantum Neural Computing Who Won The Padma Shri".
  5. "Padma Awards conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind | DD News". www.ddinews.gov.in. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  6. Zutshi, Vikram (9 January 2020). "Computers, yoga and the science of consciousness: A conversation with Subhash Kak". The Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 30 May 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  7. Kak, S. The Circle of Memory. Mississauga, 2016
  8. Sharma, Swati (10 February 2019). "A Renaissance man". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  9. Kak, Ram Nath. Autumn Leaves. Vitasta, 1995.
  10. PTI (4 June 2019). "Padma Shri handed over to Dr Subhash Kak in US". The Economic Tiems. Archived from the original on 22 May 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  11. "Short Biography" (PDF). Ece.okstate.edu. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  12. "Kak, Subhash, Ph.D. – School of Electrical and Computer Engineering". Ece.okstate.edu. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  13. Fracasso, Cheryl; Krippner, Stanley (11 September 2011). "Pioneers Who Have Changed the Face of Science and Those That Have Been Mentored By Them". NeuroQuantology. 9 (3). doi:10.14704/nq.2011.9.3.446.
  14. 14.0 14.1 SHORTT, A; KEATING, J; MOULINIER, L; PANNELL, C (4 March 2005). "Optical implementation of the Kak neural network" (PDF). Information Sciences. 171 (1–3): 273–287. doi:10.1016/j.ins.2004.02.028. ISSN 0020-0255.
  15. Kak, Subhash. "Will artificial intelligence become conscious?". Theconversation.com. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  16. Subhash Kak (3 December 2019). "A quantum computing future is unlikely, due to random hardware errors". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 14 July 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  17. "CMS Faculty".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. Kak, Subhash (2010), "India", in Ruggles, Clive; Cotte, Michel (eds.), Heritage Sites of Astronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the context of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention: A Thematic Study, Paris: ICOMOS / IAU, pp. 99–107, ISBN 978-2-918086-07-9
  19. Edwin Bryant, The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate. Oxford University Press, 2001.
  20. 20.0 20.1 M. K. Dhavalikar (1996). "Untitled [review of In Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India, by Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak, & David Frawley]". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 77 (1/4): 326–327. ISSN 0378-1143. JSTOR 41702199.
  21. Beck, Guy (September–October 1996). "Origins of Yoga [review of In Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India, by Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak, & David Frawley]". Yoga Journal. 130 (130): 116–117. ISSN 0191-0965.


External links[edit]

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