Skill-Lync launches autonomous driving course in India

Chennai-headquartered online learning startup Skill-Lync has launched a special master’s course for autonomous driving, which it says is a unique course designed to give students a hands-on approach to learn and develop model-based control strategies for driver-assist systems.  The startup provides job leading courses for Mechanical, Electrical, Civil and Computer Science Engineering students in India and across the world.

According to the company, the new course will offer a good experience to the students following a balanced approach with both in-depth theoretical and on-hand practical knowledge. It will help them get comfortable with control strategies for driver assist systems and teach them how to develop those strategies in a simulated environment. The program is divided into five modules, each one of which is accompanied by projects to add on to the practical approach, which will give a better understanding to the students of what they are learning. The modules are as follows –

• Applying computer vision for autonomous vehicle
• Practical artificial intelligence for autonomous vehicle
• Localisation, mapping and SLAM
• Path planning and trajectory optimisation
• Autonomous vehicle controls

Commenting on the course Surya Narayanan, co-founder and CEO, Skill-Lync Said, “As a whole, the automotive industry is shifting to develop futuristic vehicles that inculcate concepts like autonomous or driverless cars, and fully electric cars, but sadly there are no educational institutions in India or across the world that are focused on teaching the technical aspects specific to such domains. At Skill-Lync our goal is to empower students with technical skills that are required for the future.” “Companies have started looking for engineers who have inter-disciplinary skills. Our master’s course in autonomous driving has been designed taking into account the needs of these companies. Engineers from Computer Science, Mechanical, Electrical and Electronics engineering can take this course and understand different aspects of the autonomous vehicle development process. The course is designed by leading industry experts in the field of ML, AI, and driverless car development in order to aid students with relevant interests helping them get equipped for the future,” added Narayanan.

Officially founded in April 2018 by Sarangarajan V (CTO) and Suryanarayanan P (CEO), Skill-Lync was earlier started out as a YouTube channel to share engineering tips, but today it is an online training course for mechanical engineering candidates. It operates three different types of courses, ranging from one-off modules to full-time curriculums.

The company claims interestingly there is no other platform in the world that focuses on teaching in-depth technical skills to non-software engineering students for autonomous driving. With this course, the students will have complete hands-on experience to develop an ADAS system from Level 1 automation to Level 3.

The focus of the course is to make the students finish the projects as a part of each module. The whole Master coursework consists of 10 projects and 30 assignments spread across an 8-month period. Apart from the on-demand videos that the students can access, they are provided live 1-1 video conference sessions with the instructor in order to get their doubts clarified. As a part of the course, students also end up working on projects with the aid of industry-oriented software tools such as Python, Tensorflow, Kras, MATLAB-Simulink, Carmaker and experience different control strategies within their projects, such as LQR, Rule-based, PID and state-flow among others.

Sarangarajan said: "Any student in a Mechanical engineering, electrical and electronics engineering or computer engineering curriculum can take this course. Apart from this, working professionals who would like to shift their career path towards autonomous vehicles or anyone with a desire to work in the automotive controls domain can also take up this course. In addition to the 5 modules that are currently present in the curriculum, we are planning to add 3-4 additional modules that will cover the next wave of driverless car development."

Skill-Lync is backed by global investors including Better Capital’s – Vaibhav Domkundwar, YCombinator and Founder of Gmail & YC Partner – Paul Buchheit.

Also read: Skill-Lync's online EV design and simulation course attracts industry