DAA Recipients for 2008-09

Dr. Krishnaswamy Nandakumar
Received his B.E. degree in Chemical Engineering from RECT(NITT) in 1973. He obtained his M.Sc. from University of Saskatchewan, Canada and did his Ph.D. at Princeton University. He is GASCO Chair Professor in the Chemical Engineering Program at Petroleum Institute, UAE. He has had a distinguished academic career at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. He has been a Research Fellow in Erlangen, Germany, and a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore. He has given talks at various industrial laboratories around the world, including lectures on packed column modelling at Raschg Gmbh in Germany, Sulzer in Switzerland, BOC Gases in NJ, USA and Defence Science and Technology Organization, Australia. He has supervised 12 Ph.D. students. He is Elected Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada. He possesses APEGGA Excellence in Education award. He has published 127 papers in refereed International journals and 114 technical papers in International Conference Proceedings. He received $5.4 million worth research grants. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering.

Dr. John Mathews
Received his B.E. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from RECT(NITT) in 1980. He obtained his M.S. Electrical & Computer Engg. and did his Ph.D. at University of Iowa, USA. He is Professor in Department of Electrical Engg., University of Utah USA. He is a fellow of IEEE and has served as a member of the Signal Processing Theory and Methods Technical Committee, the Education Committee and the Conference Board of the IEEE Signal Processing Society. He was the Vice President (Finance) of the IEEE Signal Processing Society. He is a past associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, and the IEEE Signal Processing Letter and the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. He currently serves on the editorial board of the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing. He has served on the organization committees of several international technical conferences including as General Chairman of IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing. He is the author of the book Polynomial Signal Processing, published by Wiley, and co-authored with Professor G. L. Sicuranza, University of Trieste, Italy. He has published more than 125 technical papers. He has supervised 10 Ph.D. students. Professor Mathews’ contributions in the area of non-linear signal processing have been both seminal and comprehensive.

Dr. Vallabh Sambamurthy
Received his B.E. degree in Mechanical Engineering from RECT(NITT) in 1981. He did his M.B.A. at IIM Calcutta and finished his Ph.D. at University of Minnesota USA. He is Professor of Information Technology Management in Michigan State University USA and Executive Director of the Center for Leadership of the Digital Enterprise at the Eli Broad College. He has expertise in how firms leverage information technologies in their business strategies, products, services, and organizational processes. His work has been funded by the Financial Executives Research Foundation, the Advanced Practices Council (APC), and the National Science Foundation. His work has been published in journals such as the MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Decision Sciences, Management Science, Organization Science, and the IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals, including MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and the Journal of Strategic Information Systems. Currently, he is the editor-in-chief of Information Systems Research, one of the top journals for scholarly research on information systems. He supervised 11 Ph.D. students. He has authored nine books. He generated $2 million for his research.

Dr. Balasubramaniam Ramesh
Received his B.E. degree in Mechanical Engineering from RECT(NITT) in 1981. He received his M.B.A. at IIM, Calcutta. He obtained his M.Phil. degree and did his Ph.D. at New York University, USA. He is Board of Advisors Professor, Dept. of Computer Information Systems, Georgia State University, USA. Received numerous awards for teaching and research, including University System of Georgia Teaching Excellence Award - the highest faculty award in the State of Georgia, USA. His research has appeared in leading journals including the IEEE Transactions of Software Engineering, Annals of Operations Research, Annals of Software Engineering, MIS Quarterly, Journal of MIS, Journal of AIS and IEEE Software. Models and techniques developed by him have been incorporated in several leading computer-aided software engineering tools. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals including Decision Support Systems, Journal of the AIS, and Requirements Engineering Journal. His research has funded by several prestigious government and industry sources such as the National Science Foundation, DARPA and ONR.

Dr. Venkatachalam KL
Received his B.E. degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering from RECT(NITT) in 1981. He finished his M.D. at University of South California, School of Medicine, Los Angeles, USA. He is Senior Associate Consultant at Mayo Clinic, Florida, USA. After completing an undergraduate Engineering degree and working for over 10 years in the chosen field of Bio-medical Engineering for which he received Patents he under took the arduous task of learning a new discipline by studying medicine and cardiology over the next 11 years. He performs clinical work as a doctor for 80 % of his time working with cardio vascular patients while continuing his research to innovate new remedies for mankind. He has received 8 US Patents in the field of Bio-medical Engineering and has peer-reviewed publications in medical journals. He has obtained Board Certification in the field of medicine (American Board of Internal Medicine, ABIM Cardiovascular Disease, ABIM Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology). He got President’s achievement award for significant contributions to research and technology. He has contributed chapters in 3 books.

Dr. Nagarajan Ranganathan
Received his B.E. degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from RECT(NITT) in 1983. He obtained his Ph.D. at University of Central Florida Orlando, USA. He is Professor in Department of Computer Science & Engg., University of South Florida, USA. He has obtained 7 US Patents. He has received Sigma Xi Tampa Bay Chapter outstanding Faculty Researcher Award, USF Theodore and Venette Askounes-Ashford Distinguished Scholar Award, USF President’s Award for Faculty Excellence, and USF Division of Sponsored Research Outstanding Research Achievement Award. He has served as Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems and IEEE Liaison and Publications Chair. He is Associate Editor of ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems, IEEE Trans. on Circuits & Systems, IEEE Trans. on CAS for Video Technology, Pattern Recognition Journal and Editorial Board, International Journal of VLSI Design. He has six editorial articles in IEEE International journals. He is Co-PI, the IGERT SKINS Project. He has supervised 18 PhD scholars and authored 4 books and contributed chapters in 4 books. Has 75 international journal publications, most of them in IEEE transactions, and 168 papers in International Conference (IEEE) Proceedings. Got four Best paper awards. He has designed 34 VLSI chips.

Dr. Nambirajan Seshadri
Received his B.E. degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering from RECT(NITT) in 1982. He obtained his MS and PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA. He is Vice-President & CTO, Broadcom Corporation California, USA. He is Fellow of IEEE and received 53 US Patents. He is Co-inventor of Space-Time Codes, a fundamental coding and transmission technique used in all the major wireless standards. He held position as Head of Communications Research Department, AT&T Bell Labs, USA. He is the major contributor to the EDGE standard (Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution) including the proposal and development of the Hybrid ARQ protocol. He Provided Technology & Business Leadership in Wireless and Mobile Business. As the first member of Mobile and Wireless Business at Broadcom, he provided Technology & Business Leadership resulting in the business generating approximately $1.5 billion dollars of revenues annually.