Master's student develops ADAS skills through SIMCenter projects

While pursuing his master’s in mechanical engineering, Shanthan Kumar Padisala has expanded his modeling and simulation skills at the SIMCenter. 

Padisala, a second-year master’s student, is from Hyderabad, India, a south-Indian city known for its famous Indian food but moved to Ohio to study at Ohio State. He chose Ohio State for its world-class automotive research, beautiful campus and fast-paced, urban environment. 

Padisala was inspired to pursue a career in engineering by his father, who is also an engineer. Padisala said his father has always been a role model for him and encouraged him toward academic areas such as math, science and physics from a young age. Now, when Padisala isn’t playing volleyball, hiking or learning about new cultures, he can be found working on projects of his own at the SIMCenter alongside his studies. 

One of Padisala’s main simulation and modeling interests is Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, which he was first exposed to through his work at the SIMCenter and the Ohio State EcoCAR team. Currently, Padisala is working on an ADAS-oriented project to quantify the sensitivity of semantic segmentation algorithms in varied environmental conditions. Alongside, he is also developing a traffic simulation framework to simulate weather-dependent traffic system and is planning on extending it to a connected fleet level. 

“After I came to OSU, I started liking the areas of connected autonomous systems and advanced driver assistance systems due to the constant evolution of these areas at an exponential rate and the challenges one faces in implementing them in the real world,” Padisala said. “It was through the exposure that I got at OSU I was able to narrow down my interests and work in the fields I truly enjoy”. 

Although the past year has been challenging due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Padisala feels that he gained many skills from the experience. Padisala said that the pandemic has made him more resilient and allowed him to develop his skills working on projects in new areas. In addition, the pandemic has reminded Padisala of the importance of familial support during hard times. 

After he graduates this summer, Padisala is excited to begin pursuing his Ph.D. at Penn State University.