1986 - M.Tech - Electrical Engineering Chair Professor and Executive Vice President @ Arizona State University, Arizona, USA
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.
