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Tigran Shahverdyan is a highly successful scientist and engineer who has made original contributions in several fields ranging from discoveries in theoretical physics to building self-driving vehicles. His results in theoretical physics received the Republic of Armenia PresidentialAward, he led the scientific operations at a private lunar rover company, competing for the international Google Lunar X Prize, and co-founded a company building autonomous vehicles for industrial and warehouse environments, where he led the R&D department. His expertise is sought in top companies and startups to develop highly innovative self-driving vehicles of all sorts. In an interview to Armenian News - NEWS.am Tigran Shahverdyan talks about passion for science, robotics, self-driving cars and his future plans. 

Hi Tigran, thanks for taking the time from your busy schedule for this interview.

Hi, thanks for this opportunity to interview with you. It is my pleasure.

Just to start off how did you first become interested in science?

Most of my first memories are related to science and technology. For this I’m hugely grateful to my first mentor - my grandfather Avetis Berberyan, who facilitated and encouraged my interests and always found a time to answer my “strange” questions about nature when I was a kid. One of my earliest memories is when he took me to Yerevan Computer Research and Development Institute to a large room housing a huge computer. It filled the entire room with numerous racks and an enormous number of wires. There was a small green screen within one of the racks. He sat before the screen, put me on his knee and started showing me how to type letters and symbols, and how to draw some simple figures using symbols, almost like making figures using matchsticks. He says that after showing me how to use it, I asked him to leave me so I could “draw”. He used to interest me with electric circuits even before I went to school. He would show me how small lamps, LED lights, electromagnets, electric motors, etc, work when you connect them to a battery. And it was fascinating. From kid’s perspective this is something that can ignite an interest, it’s like magic, you see that thing happening and you want to explore more, know more. I was intrigued, ready to listen and absorb. When I was 7 or 8, he helped my me build my first device - a decimal to binary converter. At the time he was teaching me about binary code. The device had a keyboard with numbers from 0 to 9 and 4 LED lights for displaying binary code. When a number was pushed, corresponding LED lights switched on to show the number’s binary equivalent. These are just a few of many examples of how he got me interested in science and technology. Because of him I started loving math and physics.

In an era when children have multiple entertainment options, how can parents inspire them to spend time on STEM-related activities?

It requires time, patience and also sometimes the willingness to learn something new for themselves. Children may become inspired and energized by a field which is different than the profession of their parents. And I think that it is in the best interest of the children for parents to try and engage them in different topics. There are a lot of interesting games, books, constructors, kits, etc. out there that can be very inspiring for children. Parents can play with children, engage them with the topic, make them wonder about things and enjoy learning together. The most important thing for parents on this matter is to make sure that children don’t lose curiosity at every stage of their development. If a child’s natural tendency to explore and learn is not facilitated, they will most probably stop being curious about the world when they grow up. That is very bad, especially in a world with ever smarter automation technologies causing job redundancies in numerous fields.

Shahverdyan in Armenian Youth Aerospace Society’s classroom.

While studying, how did you choose the disciplines you wanted to specialize in?

Because of my strong interest in the sciences, my parents sent me to Physics and Math Special School (PhysMath) in Yerevan. This was a new and challenging environment because there were a lot of really smart kids there. While studying at PhysMath I started attending the Armenian Youth Aerospace Society’s weekly courses. The courses were led by Avetik Grigoryan and he had a huge impact on my development. I learned Astronomy, Physics, Astronautics and participated in designing and launching sounding rockets. Avetik spent a lot of time preparing me for the International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) in 2000, where I won a prize. I also got involved in an advanced physics circle led by Dr. Gagik Grigoryan and participated in the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO). The greatest skill I learned was to solve problems by utilizing the basic principles and laws of physics without relying on rote learning. I received the first medal ever for independent Armenia at IPhO because of his coaching. Because of this prize I was accepted to the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) without having to take an entrance exam. MIPT has several departments. I specifically chose the Department of General and Applied Physics. It was considered the most challenging department and closest to my core interests.

Shahverdyan with the President and Vice Chair of X Prize foundation, the organizer of Google Lunar X Prize international competition.

Why did you choose industry instead of academia?

I find tremendous joy in applying science to tackle big challenges. For me, the best environment to do this is in industry, although it took me some time to come to this understanding. At first, after graduating from MIPT, I was doing research on the Venus magnetosphere and designing space instruments in the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI RAN). I worked with Dr. Oleg Vaisberg at the Space Plasma Physics Laboratory. However, at the same time I became interested in space startups and the New Space movement. There was only one team called Selenokhod from CIS countries participating in the international Google Lunar X Prize competition to send the first private lunar rover to the Moon. I was invited to join the team from its early days as its Chief Science Officer and Systems Engineer. This was my first experience in a startup environment. Working in IKI RAN was fun and interesting for me because I could combine working on fundamental science and design advanced instruments for use in space. However, I wanted a more dynamic environment. In the summer of 2012, I participated in the International Space University’s summer program in Florida. Those two months were the most dynamic period of my life. The number of things we managed to learn, number of people we met, and the places we visited was awe-inspiring. The experience also pushed me to make the decision about transitioning to industry. When I returned to Moscow I left IKI RAN and joined Selenokhod as a full-time employee. Then I decided to go further and together with Sergey Maltsev and Dmitry Smirnov co-founded RoboCV to design and build industrial autonomous vehicles.

Do you feel you had to compromise your scientific interests to pursue an entrepreneurial path?

Not at all. Of course, science, at its core, is about uncovering new knowledge about nature. On the other hand, entrepreneurship is about solving actual problems for society by building companies. I find joy in combining these two endeavours. However, I should add that in my entrepreneurial activities, I am focused on creating new scientific knowledge and technology to solve problems, not just creating businesses for the sake of it.

President of Armenia awards Shahverdyan with Presidential Award.

You received an award from the President of Armenia for a breakthrough discovery. What was it awarded for?

During 2012-2014, when I was working in Selenokhod full time and then at the first 1-2 years of working on RoboCV, I spent time in parallel doing research in theoretical physics. I was working remotely with Dr. Artur Ishkhanyan’s team in the Physical Research Institute of the Armenian Academy of Sciences. Our study had huge implications for understanding effects in quantum systems and in other branches of physics as well. We published a series of articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. For me it was an interesting and fun thing to do and I obtained very cutting-edge results, which won the Presidential Award in 2016.

RoboCV won Best Technological Startup and Best Startup of Moscow awards by HSE{Inc} in 2013.

You founded an award-winning company called RoboCV. How did you decide to start it?

In 2013 self-driving cars were not as hyped as they are now. People mostly knew about Google’s project. I saw the potential for similar technologies for industrial and warehouse environments. One of my co-founders, Sergey Maltsev, had considerable experience with robotics and was working on the computer vision system for the lunar rover in Selenokhod. He started a separate project to build a navigation system that could be used for any kind of robots, but had issues with making the system universal. At the end of the day different autonomous systems require different combinations of sensors and algorithms. We met Dmitry Smirnov at the beginning of 2013 and founded RoboCV to design and build autonomous vehicles specifically for industrial and warehouse environments.

RoboCV’s autonomous vehicle working in the distribution center.

What issues is RoboCV solving?

RoboCV is creating autonomous vehicles, fleet management and task optimization systems for warehouses and distribution centers to automate mundane and dangerous tasks. For example the latest solution that we created consists of autonomous forklifts and fleet management system that allows distribution centers to automate a considerable part of their internal logistics.

Team members of RoboCV with their autonomous vehicles.

What were some of the challenges and successes you had at RoboCV?

Building the autonomous forklift was a huge challenge. We spent a lot of resources on researching and developing cutting-edge artificial intelligence modules that powered the final product. This robot was more complex than the ones we built before. We struggled a lot to plan the design and development of it. And the biggest success was that we managed to do it. We even built a system for several robots to collaborate on performing a complex task. This was a huge success for us.

How will your experiences at RoboCV impact your career going forward?

It is a very exciting time for the self-driving industry right now and I want to transition my experience there. In RoboCV I was leading the team of researchers and engineers that was designing and building autonomous vehicles. There are some small differences between autonomous systems for indoor and outdoor environments, but the industries have a tremendous overlap.

Do you have plans for working in academia in the future?

I am definitely going to work with academia and scientists on cutting-edge scientific and engineering issues. I was working on my PhD thesis based on the results that won the

Presidential Award, but RoboCV started requiring my full attention and I put that on pause. I am planning to allocate time to defend the work I have done as part of my PhD thesis. At this point my scientific work is more concentrated on autonomous systems and their applications. I am also interested in Quantum Computing and keep a close eye on the advancements in the field.

What do you feel is the future of artificial intelligence? Will AI ever truly match or surpass human intelligence?

I think that artificial general intelligence (AGI) will be the most disrupting technology that our society will face. I am sure we will be able to create intelligence surpassing human intelligence, because there is nothing in physics that would prevent it. It is still uncertain when this will happen, yet I have no doubt that it will become a reality. So, one thing that we as humans definitely need to make sure of is that the AGI that we create has goals aligned with humanity’s goals. This is a very complex issue and has recently been attracting huge attention. There is a movement of experts who advocate the creation of guidelines for the development of AGI.

Is there any modern technology that didn’t exist when you were younger and could only dream about having?

Virtual reality (VR) headsets and gloves for interacting with VR objects. When I was a kid I could only dream about it. In high school I was very determined to create a prototype, but I chose to concentrate more on learning math and physics. Now you can buy VR headsets for few hundred dollars and there are several types of controllers for manipulating objects in VR.

What device or technology does not yet exist but that you think will be commonplace in the next couple of decades?

Fully autonomous self-driving cars, trucks, stores, buses, and the like will definitely be commonplace. Another set of technologies where we will see huge advancement is personalized medicine based on human DNA.

What is your career plan over the next few years?

At the moment my expertise is sought out by companies in the US and I have several invitations to work in the self-driving vehicles industry. There is a huge need in robotics scientists and engineers in this industry, which is mostly located in US. Two applications of this technology are getting a lot of attention now: passenger and big cargo transport. However there are other applications also. For instance, there is a startup building self-driving grocery stores. Some companies are developing teleoperation systems for remote piloting of vehicles on the public roads. Others are building small delivery vehicles. All of these applications still require a lot of research and engineering. I aim to get into this space over the coming years.

Thank you so much for your time Tigran, it was a pleasure speaking with you.

The pleasure was all mine.

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