From Childhood Coding to Developing Next Generation AI at Amazon
Surya Sai Brahmendra Ramoju, MS’24, data analytics engineering, landed a role in Amazon’s Artificial General Intelligence division while simultaneously launching two successful startups.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Rich McKay. Main photo: Northeastern graduate Surya Sai Brahmendra Ramoju, finds comfort in coding. He works at Amazon, plays his own music and created two startups. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
Codes don’t lie. A Northeastern graduate finds success and comfort from writing computer software.
He tooled around with computers as a kid. Now he’s working on next-gen AI.
Even as a 12-year-old in his native India, Surya Sai Brahmendra Ramoju was so fascinated by computers that he, one time, cracked his big brother’s Microsoft computer open and dismantled its internal components to see what made it go.
He risked a big scolding if his parents saw the mess he made with circuit boards and wires strewn across the floor, and he wasn’t able to make the computer work again.
It worked after all his tinkering and he reassembled it with his big brother’s help before the adults saw. But he wanted to learn more.
“What drew me in was the idea that there was a language you could learn to actually speak to it, to communicate with it,” said Ramoju, 27. “That felt like magic to me as a kid, and that curiosity never left.”
That computer fascination beat out his youthful aspiration to be a pop star, like Justin Bieber, and ultimately it led him from his native coastal city of Visakhapatnam, a port city on the Bay of Bengal, to Northeastern’s Boston campus.
In 2024, he earned a master’s degree in data analytics engineering from Northeastern’s College of Engineering. He said that Northeastern was the only university he applied to, after doing a careful study of the courses offered, along with the reputation and rankings.
Ramoju now works in Amazon’s Artificial General Intelligence division in Boston, developing AI computer programs designed to operate digital interfaces in the real world, such as the Alexa home aid that, among other things, plays your favorite song on command or tells you the weather forecast.
Read full story at Northeastern Global News