Alumnus Awards

Prof. Sethuraman Panchanathan received his Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1986 after his bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science in 1984. He obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1989 from University of Ottawa, Canada. Currently, Dr. Panchanathan is the Executive Vice President for the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development and the Chief Research and Innovation Officer at Arizona State University (ASU).

Dr. Panchanathan’s career journey began as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Ottawa, Canada in 1989, where he founded the Visual Computing and Communications Laboratory. He moved to the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU) in 1997. Induced to address humanity’s complex problems through science and technology, he founded the ASU Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) in 2001 to design and build technologies and devices to empower individuals with disabilities. CUbiC’s flagship projects iCARE and Note Taker for visually-impaired individuals have received prestigious honors, including the Arizona Governor’s Innovator of the Year in Academia Award and the Microsoft Imagine World Cup. He also founded and led the School of Computing and Informatics (2006-2009), the Department of Biomedical Informatics (2005-2007) and the Institute for Computing & Information Sciences and Engineering (In CISE), 2003-2009. He co-founded two start-up companies, MotionEase Inc., and RehabDev LLC, with his students. Under his leadership, ASU’s research has quadrupled to half a billion dollars over the past 15 years.

He has authored more than 450 scientific papers including 80+ journal articles in refereed international conferences & journals, around 35 book chapters and has obtained a number of patents and copyrights. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), the Canadian National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). His sterling work received recognition from the then U.S. President, Barack Obama, who appointed Dr. Panchanathan to the U.S. National Science Board (NSB) in 2014 for a six-year term, the first Indian American to receive this honor. Dr. Panchanathan was also appointed to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship by the Secretary of Commerce.

For his praiseworthy commitment to excellence in technology, innovation and administration, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to bestow this award upon Prof. Sethuraman Panchanathan.

Intel Corporation, USA

Dr. Vivek De graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1985, and with an M.S. from Duke University, Durham in 1986. He obtained his Ph. D from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY in 1992. He is currently an Intel Fellow and Director of Circuit Technology Research in Intel Corporation. He is responsible for providing strategic technical directions for long term research in future circuit technologies and leading energy efficiency research across the hardware stack.

Dr. De’s career journey began as a Graduate Technical Intern at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center, NY in 1990. Prior to joining Intel, he was engaged in semiconductor devices and circuits research at RPI and at Georgia Institute of Technology, and was a visiting researcher at Texas Instruments. Dr. De has made pioneering contributions to circuit design at Intel over the past 20 years by leading research teams in the development of advanced circuits and design techniques for low-power and high-performance processors. Since 2013, he has served as Principal Investigator for a USD 13 million DARPA research program on Circuits for Resilient Systems (CREST). The techniques developed by Dr. De have been implemented on all Intel Core and Atom processors. He led a team that demonstrated the world’s first near-threshold voltage ultra-low-power Pentium processor powered fully by a solar cell. His work on fully integrated voltage regulators implemented in Intel Core based server and client processors received an “Intel Achievement Award (IAA)”, the highest corporate technical award in Intel.

In recognition of his contributions, Dr. De was appointed as an “Intel Fellow” in 2006, which represents the highest level of technical achievement within the company. He is one of only four IIT Madras alumni to achieve this distinction. Dr. De has 209 patents granted and 26 more patents filed (pending). He has published 250 technical papers in refereed international conferences & journals, and authored 7 book chapters. He has served as Associate Editor and Guest Editor for premier IEEE Journals. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.

For his exemplary accomplishments in Circuit Technology Research, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to bestow this award upon Dr. Vivek De.

Shri. Satish Pai graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1985. He took over as the CEO of Hindalco’s Aluminium Business in August 2013 and his main focus was the ramp-up of the three mega Greenfield projects that took alumina capacity to 2.7 MT and aluminium capacity to 1.3 MT. In February 2014, he became the Dy. Managing Director of the company and was entrusted with Hindalco’s copper business as well. Satish took over as the Managing Director of Hindalco in August 2016, a responsibility which includes the Novelis business.

Prior to joining the Aditya Birla Group Company - Hindalco, Satish worked with Schlumberger based out of Paris. Over the course of his illustrious career of 28 years with Schlumberger, where he was recruited from campus to begin his journey as a Field Engineer in 1985, Satish held various important positions, including “Executive Vice President - Worldwide Operations”, and was responsible for all aspects of operations for Schlumberger globally, including HSE, people management, input to R&D, and P&L performance.

Satish serves as a Director on the boards of Aditya Birla Management Corporation Pvt. Ltd. and ABB, Zurich. A life member of the Indian Institute of Metals, he is part of CII’s Task Force on China and is the Vice President and Chairman of the Government Affairs Committee of the Aluminium Association of India.

Satish is a passionate person who likes to participate and involve himself with the activities of his alma mater, having played a key role in the Silver Reunion fund-raising by his Class of ’85. His trail blazing work in the areas of leadership, people management and transformative growth has resulted in multiple forms of recognition and accolades.

For his exemplary leadership and commitment to excellence in industry, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award upon Shri. Satish Pai.

Shri. V. Shankar graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1981. He went on to obtain his Post Graduate Degree in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta in 1983. He founded India’s largest Mutual Fund platform – CAMS – and is presently focused on his public and angel investments.

Shankar’s career journey began in Pond’s India Ltd. (now a part of Hindustan Unilever Ltd.) in 1983. Shankar founded CAMS (Computer Age Management Services Pvt. Ltd.) in 1988 with the objective of providing platform-based services to the Indian financial industry, and was its CEO and thereafter on the Board till 2014. CAMS totally re-imagined Mutual Fund services delivery and developed a platform that remains, till date, the largest such in India. The company employs over 6000 staff and is today co-owned by NSE and HDFC. Shankar also serves as a Board member on several other Companies.

Shankar is acknowledged for his knowledge and rich operational experience of the Financial sector. Apart from being a voracious reader, Shankar is also interested in travel, music, angel investing/mentoring, and in charitable activity. His work in the areas of finance, leadership, people management and social activities has resulted in recognition including the Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year award by TiECON in 2012 and the Distinguished Alumnus Award by IIM Calcutta. In the last few years Shankar has also become involved with the promotion of Entrepreneurship through The Chennai Angels and TIE Chennai. Shankar is involved with charities for the old, health initiatives for the disadvantaged, education of the underprivileged, and higher education.

For his exemplary commitment to excellence in the finance industry and the entrepreneurial ecosystem, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award upon Shri. V. Shankar.

Shri. Venkat Viswanathan graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from IIT Madras in 1992, and with a postgraduate degree in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta in 1995. He is the Founder and Chairman of LatentView Analytics, founded in April 2006 along with co-founders Ramesh Hariharan (a fellow IITian) and Pramad Jandhyala. LatentView is now one of the world’s largest and fastest growing digital analytics firms. It provides a 360-degree view of the digital consumer, enabling companies to predict new revenue streams, anticipate product trends and popularity, improve customer retention rates and optimize investment decisions. Venkat’s career journey began as an Analyst, Chairman’s Office in Essar Group in May 1992 after which he worked as a Senior Consultant for 3 years at ICRA Limited. He then moved to Cognizant Technology Solutions where he was part of the Leadership team for 7 years with their Communications Practice, before founding LatentView.

LatentView Analytics, headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, works with Fortune 500 companies, analyzing data of all sizes and formats to arrive at actionable insights that aid decision making. Doubling in scale year on year, the company has offices in four countries, with a state-of-the-art Center in Ramanujan IT City, Chennai.

LatentView has consistently been in the spotlight for its exceptional growth and quality of work. It has the unique distinction of being featured in the “Deloitte Technology Fast 50” for eight consecutive years. Frost & Sullivan named LatentView the “Company of the Year” in Analytics in 2015. It is the only firm from India to be on the exclusive list of Advanced Consulting Partners to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Venkat mentors budding entrepreneurs on business and data analytics, and on entrepreneurship. He has won numerous awards and accolades including the "Entrepreneur of the Year" in 2014 by CII and “CEO of the Year” in 2014 by INFOCOM. He is a member of IIT Madras Incubation Cell and an active donor member of the IIT Alumni Industry Interaction Centre. He is also a Charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Chennai Chapter.

For his exemplary leadership and commitment to excellence in digital analytics, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award upon Shri. Venkat Viswanathan.

Dr Aravind Srinivasan graduated with a B.Tech. degree in Computer Science from IIT Madras in 1989, before completing an M.S. and Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1993. Ever since, he has pushed the boundaries of the field with his work in probabilistic methods, algorithms and networks. With its roots in fundamental research, his work has increasingly shifted to the use of computing in the service of society. In the years following his Ph.D., he has held various positions, including with the Institute of Advanced Study (Princeton, USA), National University of Singapore (Singapore) and, more recently, the University of Maryland (Maryland, USA). He also served a brief stint as a Member of Technical Staff in the Mathematics of Networks and Systems Research Department of Bell Laboratories between 1998 and 2001, filing several patents related to innovation in network algorithms.

Dr. Srinivasan has held various positions of responsibility. He has held visiting positions at various institutions including IIT Madras, MIT and Cornell (USA), Max-Planck Institute (Germany), University of Melbourne (Australia), University of Venice (Italy), Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) and Center for Mathematics and Computer Science (Netherlands). His commitment to guidance of research scholars is evident in the multiple awards and accolades received by his doctoral students at various international forums.

As a researcher, Dr. Srinivasan is an academician par excellence. With over 175 papers in various forms including refereed journals and conferences, book chapters and invited articles, his mastery in the ever-evolving field of Computer Science is unquestionable. He has been named an ACM Fellow, AAAS Fellow, and IEEE Fellow in recognition of his contribution to research in the field. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the 'ACM Transactions of Algorithms' (TALG), Managing Editor of 'Theory of Computing', and an Associate Editor of 'Networks'. His algorithm for hypergraph colouring has been hailed as having "...a number of subtle and beautiful steps that took more than thirty-five years to find."

In recognition of Dr. Aravind Srinivasan's sustained and path-breaking research in the field of Computer Science, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer on him this award.

Dr. Chandra R. Bhat graduated with a B.Tech. degree in Civil Engineering from IIT Madras in 1985, and proceeded to receive a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Northwestern University. His Ph.D. dissertation won the inaugural Milton Pikarsky Memorial Award for best North American transportation dissertation. He is currently the Adnan Abou-Ayyash Centennial Professor and a University Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin). He also serves as the Director of the Center for Transportation Research and as Adjunct Professor of Economics at UT-Austin.

As a researcher, Dr. Bhat has to his credit more than 180 refereed journal publications and more than 25 book chapters. He has made fundamental contributions in examining the inter-linkages among human behavioral dynamics and activity-travel choices, transportation systems, and built environments. At the same time, he has also been a pioneer in the formulation of innovative analytic methods that are widely used in many different fields. He is among the most highly cited researchers in the field of transportation and Civil Engineering. Dr. Bhat has won several teaching awards, and was inducted in 2010 into UT-Austin's Academy of Distinguished Teaching. He has mentored numerous students over the course of his academic career, many of whom now hold leading positions in the transportation field.

Dr. Bhat's recent research awards include the 2013 Humboldt Award from Germany and the 2015 Frank M. Masters Transportation Engineering Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers. He has received both the top engineering research and teaching awards at UT-Austin. Dr. Bhat has also held (and continues to hold) leadership positions in such organizations as the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research, the Transportation Research Board of the United States, and the American Road Transportation Builders' Association (ARTBA)'s Research and Education Division

Dr. Bhat is a dedicated educator, mentor, and researcher, who has made a definite and profound impact on transportation education, research, and practice. In recognition of his pioneering contributions to the field of transportation and urban policy, and for his steadfast commitment to producing the next generation of leaders in his profession, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award upon Dr. Chandra Bhat.

Dr. Chandramouli Visweswariah graduated with a B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1985 before going on to complete an M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering in Carnegie Mellon University in 1986. Following this, he completed his Ph.D. from the same University in 1989. After the completion of his doctoral thesis, he has gone on to work in the field of Design Automation for high-performance integrated circuits, and today is considered a pioneer in the field of circuit analysis and optimization. His techniques have significantly impacted three generations of processors, gaming and ASIC chips. Currently working as the Director of the Smarter Energy Research Institute (SERI), and as an IBM Fellow in Smarter Energy and Environmental Science, he is one of only 95 active IBM Fellows (out of 400,000 employees) and one of only 267 employees in the history of the company to be awarded the Fellowship.

Perhaps best known for perfecting the technique of statistical timing analysis, Dr. Visweswariah invented a method to reduce pessimism in chip performance prediction, influencing the consumer experience of thousands of end-users of IBM chips. For this, he was recognized as the 'Innovator of the Year' by EDN magazine (2006). Academically, he has held visiting and voluntary posts at various institutions including Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands), University of Coimbra (Portugal) and Carnegie Mellon University (USA). His continued innovation and creativity is evident in the 94 patents to his name. Furthermore, he has authored over 100 publications in refereed journals, and as book chapters and invited articles. Apart from the numerous 'Best Paper' awards and accolades, Dr. Visweswariah is also an IEEE Fellow, and has chaired various panels and sessions on a range of subjects in the field.

Dr. Visweswariah is actively involved in social work. Selected for the IBM Executive Service Corps in 2010, he volunteered to provide consulting to the City of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) on the needs of urban sustainability. This association with community service reverberates throughout his work in education, healthcare, accessibility for the disabled, environmental efforts and child nutrition.

In recognition of Dr. Visweswariah's dedication to academia, revolutionary work in industry and commitment to social causes, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer on him this award.

Dr. Kumar Ganapathy graduated with a B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1987, receiving the Siemens Gold Medal for his work. He went on to complete an M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1989, then a Ph.D. in the area of novel computing architectures for Digital Signal Processing from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1994. After receiving his doctorate, Dr. Ganapathy served as a Rockwell Fellow and Distinguished Engineer at Rockwell Semiconductors, working with technologies such as the 56K bit modem, GSM baseband processors, DSP processors and ADSL modems. By 2013, he had co-founded two successful start-ups (VxTel and Virident), which were both acquired for a combined net worth of over .2 billion. Following the acquisition of VxTel by Intel, Dr. Ganapathy served as the Director of Architecture in the Ultrawideband Networking Operation and Edge Access Division, as well as in the Chief Technology Officer at Intel. After the acqusition of Virident by Western Digital, Dr Ganapathy served as Vice-President of Products and Strategy for Flash Platforms Group at HGST (a WD company).

Apart from his career in industry, Dr. Ganapathy also has over fifty patents along with twelve research articles. This rich academic background, coupled with his expertise in subjects such as cloud computing, SaaS, flash memory, enterprise storage and ASICs, is reflected in more than 20 years of entrepreneurial and leadership experience across start-ups and larger organizations.

Both as a student and as a successful entrepreneur, Dr. Ganapathy has shown an active interest in professional networking, participating in societies associated with fault tolerant computing, digital signal processing, computer architecture and high-performance storage. As a business leader, he is dedicated to the idea of start-ups for disrupting large markets, using the platform of entrepreneurship to create global impact.

For his multifaceted and illustrious career and commitment to technology and innovation as the driver of change, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award upon Dr. Kumar Ganapathy.