HYDERABAD: Giving life to a dream that was once cherished by their son, a couple donated Rs 20 lakh as a memorial endowment to a research institute in the city. In memory of their son’s interest in the field of cognitive sciences, Girija Kidambi and Uday Kumar Kidambi donated the amount on Tuesday, eight years after their son met death following a road accident in 2010.
K Vedant Kartik, the young researcher was part of IIIT-H research program in artificial intelligence, cognitive science and robotics at the time of his death. His research area was to design and implement artificial intelligence systems based on the architecture of the brain. Though he was not eligible to pursue research program with his undergraduate degree, he was roped in after one of his professor Dr Bipin Indurkhya, former faculty of IIIT-H saw Vedants’ work.
Explaining the thought behind the donation, Vedant’s mother, Girija says, “We, as his parents would like the young students of IIIT-H to be inspired by Vedant, who thrived at IIIT-H despite suffering from bouts of depression. We would also want them to know that he was a free-spirited person and knew no boundaries where subjects were concerned or between people and thought nothing of sitting down on a culvert to explain his project to a constable who flagged him down to inspect his licence!”.
“An evening spent in the company of wise learned men, in conversation about the matters affecting today’s society and life in general.We were talking about robots and computers, programs and circuits, but the real issue on the table was whether it is possible to understand what it means to be human,”
Vedant had written on his blog. For more details, his blog can beaccessed at vedantkidambi.blogspot.in