ESP Biography



ESHA MAITI, '18, Mathematical and Computational Sciences



Major: Math & Computational Science

College/Employer: Stanford

Year of Graduation: 2018

Picture of Esha Maiti

Brief Biographical Sketch:

I'm a junior studying under the Mathematical and Computational Sciences program.

I attended California High (Bay Area represent!). In high school, I explored my passion for solving important problems in cancer diagnosis by performing original computational research, for which I was recognized as an Intel STS and Google Science Fair finalist.

I have continued to take an interest in computational science at Stanford, branching out into proteins and biochemistry.

Nikhil and I can't wait to share our excitement about computational approaches applied to interdisciplinary problems with you all at SPLASH this year!



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

M5891: From Code to Consciousness: The Quest for Artificial General Intelligence in Splash Spring 2017 (Apr. 22 - 23, 2017)
In a time when buzzwords like “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning” are tossed around frequently, why don’t intelligent agents like Siri and Amazon Alexa seem very … well, intelligent? Sci-fi media has long promised worlds with true AI beings, like JARVIS in "Iron Man" and HAL in "2001: A Space Odyssey". But our current reality is much tamer, and it seems like such technologies are a long way off. Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, is the study of how computers can be made to be truly as intelligent as (or more intelligent than) a human being. What is the state of AGI today? Why is it such a hard problem? What does the future hold? And is AGI really something we should strive for, anyways? In this interdisciplinary overview, we traverse neuroscience, computer science, and philosophy to explore the fascinating topic of AGI. We start from the inception of “thinking machines” and watch how the field has progressed to the current state-of-the-art. We take a look at the human brain, how it works, and what amazing feats it can perform. Finally, we ponder what current and future AI technologies mean for us and, indeed, for our species.