Sravan Puttagunta – CEO, Civil Maps – California, USA

Think big geospatial data—very big geospatial data. When people dream up digital worlds of interactive 3D, virtual reality, and augmented reality, they often overlook the next step: dealing with massive amounts of data.  Civil Maps, a relatively young company, has decided to slay some big data dragons.  Civil Maps CEO, Sravan Puttagunta, has an image-processing background and has done extensive research building large-scale, real-time vision-processing systems for automatic content recognition. The algorithm he developed is currently deployed in about 30 million smart televisions.

At Civil Maps, Sravan is formulating the strategy and vision to make on-demand perception and actuation a reality. They have already applied their research to handling massive imaging data sets and developed automated feature recognition for the rail industry. He says the most daring thing he has ever done is “betting it all” on his company. “I think it’s really important to find something you are passionate about and give it your best. Working for that passion instead of the fruit of your efforts is one of the most intoxicating company cultures.”