Thomas S. Anantharaman is a computer statistician specializing in

Bayesian inference Bayesian inference ( or ) is a method of statistical inference in which Bayes' theorem is used to calculate a probability of a hypothesis, given prior evidence, and update it as more information becomes available. Fundamentally, Bayesian infer ...

approaches for

NP-complete In computational complexity theory, NP-complete problems are the hardest of the problems to which ''solutions'' can be verified ''quickly''. Somewhat more precisely, a problem is NP-complete when: # It is a decision problem, meaning that for any ...

problems. He is best known for his work with Feng-hsiung Hsu from 1985 to 1990 on the Chess playing computers

ChipTest ChipTest was a 1985 chess playing computer built by Feng-hsiung Hsu, Thomas Anantharaman and Murray Campbell at Carnegie Mellon University. It is the predecessor of Deep Thought which in turn evolved into Deep Blue. History ChipTest was based ...

and Deep Thought at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

which led to his 1990 PhD Dissertation: "A Statistical Study of Selective Min-Max Search in Computer Chess". This work was the foundation for the IBM chess-playing computer Deep Blue which beat world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.

Life and career

Anantharaman obtained a B.Tech. degree in Electronics in 1982 from the Institute of Technology,

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU), formerly Benares Hindu University, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, ...

(now Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi). He got (in 1977) IIT-JEE rank (AIR) # 2. Anantharaman went to USA and joined Carnegie Mellon University as a PhD student where he worked on the chess playing computers ChipTest and DeepThought with Feng-hsiung Hsu. Anantharaman received his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree in 1990 and joined the field of biotechnology and Feng-hsiung Hsu joined IBM to design the Deep Blue IBM super-computer, which defeated Garry Kasparov in the historic chess match. In 1985, Carnegie Mellon University graduate students Feng-hsiung Hsu, Anantharaman,

Murray Campbell Murray Campbell is a Canadian computer scientist known for being part of the team that created Deep Blue; the first computer to defeat a world chess champion. Career Chess computing Around 1986, he and other students at Carnegie Mellon bega ...

and Andreas Nowatzyk used spare chips they'd found to put together a chess-playing machine that they called ChipTest. By 1987, the machine, integrating some innovative ideas about search strategies, had become the reigning computer chess champion. A successor, Deep Thought, using two special-purpose chips, plus about 200 off-the-shelf chips, working in parallel, achieved grandmaster-level play. Following this work, Anantharaman focused his attentions into the field of

biostatistics Biostatistics (also known as biometry) is a branch of statistics that applies statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experimen ...

and the application of Bayesian methods to the analysis of single molecule Optical Mapping technologies. He is currently a Senior Bioinformatics Software Engineer at BioNano Genomics,

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

References

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* * * American computer scientists Tamil scientists Carnegie Mellon University alumni American people of Indian Tamil descent Computer chess people Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi alumni Living people American people of Indian descent Banaras Hindu University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) {{India-scientist-stub Indian emigrants to the United States