An Eye for the Future

Photos by Brandon Parigo, Strategic Marketing and Communications

Meet alumnus Riddhiman Das, product architect at EyeVerify

Get to know our alumni, and you’ll discover what UMKC is all about.

Riddhiman Das, ’12
Job title:
Product Architect at EyeVerify
Program: Bachelor of Science with emphasis in Computer Science
School: School of Computing and Engineering
Hometown: Guwahati, India

EyeVerify is a UMKC success story. How did it come to be? What’s your role there?

Like any startup, there’s a massive chance you will fail, but we were one of the lucky ones. It started as a research project for Dr. Reza Derakhshani in the School of Computing and Engineering. He had been fascinated by neural networks and biometrics. So he patented the idea, recruited students to work on it and — when it started to look like a real product that could be commercialized — it went through the UMKC Tech Transfer program, which allowed him to transition the technology to a startup and license the patents and intellectual property. It allowed us to build a company off of it.

I’ve been with EyeVerify, creator of EyeprintID, a patented mobile eye verification technology, since the beginning. My official title is Product Architect, but that is kind of a hybrid role. I am a liaison between the product and the technical teams.

EyeVerify became part of the Alibaba family (in 2016). We have, in my opinion, the opportunity of a lifetime ahead of us. Up until the acquisition, we had about 3 million users. Now we have a total user size of a little over a billion, likely going to 2 billion users by 2020.

We are bringing about real change in the lives of people in India, in China, the Philippines, Thailand and a lot of other countries where people do not have secure financial services. They do not have a birth certificate so they can’t go to a bank and open an account — any financial services they have access to are predatory. EyeVerify helps solve that problem.

Why did you choose UMKC?

I think UMKC has one of the most underrated computer science programs. You cover the same material – if not more – from really knowledgeable professors as you would at any top-five university in computer science. But the class sizes are a lot smaller, so you have more chances to interact with faculty.

The Kansas City community was just blossoming at that point. We weren’t where we are today, but we had just enough to make things interesting.

Being in Kansas City and being at an urban university allowed me to play a part, not just in academic circles, but also in the startup and business world. It helped me develop a network that, upon graduation, served me very well.

How does your UMKC education help you in your day-to-day work?

At UMKC, I studied computer science, mathematics, entrepreneurship and innovation. So that gave me broad exposure to not just the technical work, but also questions like “How do we identify market need?”

What is it about startups that appeals to you?

I have a two-pronged answer to that. A tidbit I heard that I’m going to reuse here is, “If you want 20 years of experience squeezed into five, go work at a startup.” Because you’re wearing so many hats and you’re involved in so many different functional areas of the business – especially for someone straight out of school – you grow a lot faster. You’re not restricted to, “This is what I do and this is what I will continue to do.” You explore different things and get a feel for what it is you like and what it is you don’t.

The other part is, I think a startup allows you to take bold bets. You’re making a bet that a product or a service is going to be valuable to the world. Sometimes it ends up being that and sometimes it doesn’t end up being that, but the experience is great regardless.

What was your favorite thing about UMKC?

What I particularly enjoyed was how the different schools worked together. As a computer science student, I came in thinking I would just do computer science. Then it became apparent that I could easily add on mathematics as a minor, and then I got into the entrepreneurship program. That was my favorite thing – I got a very broad education. I went very deep into the areas I wanted.

Because the computer science department is so small in terms of number of students at the undergraduate level, I was able to do directed readings with professors, which is something you would not be able to do at a bigger school. A directed reading is when you spend one-on-one time over a semester learning something of your interest with the professor of your choice. Obviously the professors are passionate about what they’re researching and what they know best. The directed readings allowed me to do almost an integrated program, where I did a little bit of math, a little bit of computer science, a little bit of entrepreneurship.

The entrepreneurship program gave us spaces to work out of, it was a real company we founded while we were still in college; we hired students and built a product. Those resources were very valuable, and they weren’t restricted to me because I wasn’t in the Bloch school.

What did you learn about yourself at UMKC?

I came to school very introverted and very reserved. It was the UMKC experience that helped me get out of that shell. I was able to capitalize on opportunities – I was an orientation leader, I was a student ambassador, I was an ambassador at the School of Computing and Engineering, which is how I ended up meeting my wife!

Who was the most influential person to you at UMKC?

Dr. Reza Derakhshani – he’s been a mentor and an advisor to me in many ways – academically, professionally and personally. He invented the Eyeprint technology we’re building and commercializing at EyeVerify, and even five years after I’ve graduated, I continue to work with him every day.

What are your goals for the future?

I’m still figuring some of that out. I tend to think of life five years at a time. The next five years are an incredible journey for us in what we do at EyeVerify; I’m really committed to that. I think, as I said, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime and being part of the Alibaba family gives us very deep resources, as well as the ability to bring real and measurable change to people’s lives.

At some point, I think I would like to go on and build something from scratch. I think there is a lot of innovation going on right now as it relates to artificial intelligence and cryptography – and the intersection of the two – and quantum computers that I think I could play an interesting role in.

What is your greatest fear?

That robots will do everything I can do someday, and that I will have played a part in building them!

 

Our outstanding alumni are pursuing their passions in Kansas City and beyond. We are delighted to share some of their remarkable stories through our new project, Inspired Beginnings. Great Journeys. Want to be a part of the story? Let us know!

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