November 30, 2021
Welcome to #IamaGDE - a series of spotlights presenting Google Developer Experts (GDEs) from across the globe. Discover their stories, passions, and highlights of their community work.
In college, Krupal Modi programmed a robot to catch a ball based on the ball’s color, and he enjoyed it enough that he became a developer. Now, he leads machine learning initiatives at Haptik, a conversational AI platform. He is a Google Developer Expert in Machine Learning and recently built the MyGov Corona Helpdesk module for the Indian government, to help Indians around the country schedule COVID-19 vaccinations. He lives in Gujarat, India.
Meet Krupal Modi, Google Developer Expert in Machine Learning.
GDE Krupal Modi
The early days
Krupal Modi didn’t set out to become a developer, but when he did some projects in college related to pattern recognition, in which he built and programmed a robot to catch a ball based on the color of the ball, he got hooked.
“Then, it just happened organically that I liked those problems and became a developer,” he says.
Now, he has been a developer for ten years and is proficient in Natural Language Processing, Image Processing, and unstructured data analysis, using conventional machine learning and deep learning algorithms. He leads machine learning initiatives at Haptik, a conversational AI platform where developers can program virtual AI assistants and chat bots.
“I have been there almost seven years now,” he says. “I like that most of my time goes into solving some of the open problems in the state of natural language and design.”
Machine learning
Krupal has been doing machine learning for nine years, and says advances in Hardware, especially in the past eight years, have made machine learning much more accessible to a wider range of developers. “We’ve come very far with so many advances in hardware,” he says. “I was fortunate enough to have a great community around me.”
Krupal is currently invested in solving the open problems of language understanding.
“Today, nobody really prefers talking with a bot or a virtual assistant,” he says. “Given a choice, you’d rather communicate with a human at a particular business.”
Krupal aims to take language understanding to a new level, where people might prefer to talk to an AI, rather than a human. To do that, his team needs to get technology to the point where it becomes a preferred and faster mode of communication.
Ultimately, Krupal’s dream is to make sure whatever technology he builds can impact some of the fundamental aspects of human life, like health care, education, and digital well being.
“These are a few places where there’s a long way to go, and where the technology I work on could create an impact,” he says. “That would be a dream come true for me.”
COVID in India/Government Corona Help Desk Module
One way Krupal has aimed to use technology to impact health care is in the creation of the MyGov Corona Helpdesk module in India, a WhatsApp bot authorized by the Indian government to combat the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. Indian citizens could text MyGov Corona Helpdesk to get instant information on symptoms, how to seek treatment, and to schedule a vaccine.
“There was a lot of incorrect information on various channels related to the symptoms of COVID and treatments for COVID,” he explains. “Starting this initiative was to have a reliable source of information to combat the spread of misinformation.”
To date, the app has responded to over 100 million queries. Over ten million people have downloaded their vaccination certificates using the app, and over one million people have used it to book vaccination appointments.
Watch this video of how it works.
Becoming a GDE
As a GDE, Krupal focuses on Machine Learning and appreciates the network of self-motivated, passionate developers.
“That’s one of the things I admire the most about the program—the passionate, motivated people in the community,” Krupal says. “If you’re surrounded by such a great community, you take on and learn a lot from them.”
Advice to other developers
“If you are passionate about a specific technology; you find satisfaction in writing about it and sharing it with other developers across the globe; and you look forward to learning from them, then GDE is the right program for you.”
