Dr. Viswanath Poosala (Vishy) is the Head of Bell Labs India. In his current role, he leads a world-class R&D team in delivering research breakthroughs and internal technology ventures, and helping to grow Alcatel-Lucent’s business. Vishy is passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation. He mentors startups in Bangalore and advises Indian companies in creating strong innovation practices. His current focus areas include creating novel applications and networking technologies, especially for the emerging markets. Vishy was the Founder and CTO of Geopepper, an Alcatel-Lucent venture delivering innovative location-based services. He has also started multiple websites, including alertpedia.com. Dr. Poosala is a recognized expert on the business and technical aspects of Mobile applications, Networks, Web 2.0, and Database systems. He has published over 20 technical papers, been granted over 40 patents, received the “Excellence in Innovation” award in India in 2010, and won the Bell Labs President’s Gold Award three times.

Dr. Poosala received his B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Madras, India, in ’92, M.S and Ph.D from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in ’97. He has been with Bell Labs and Alcatel Lucent Ventures in different roles – researcher, technical manager, CTO, and now the Head of Bell Labs – India. He was also an Adjunct Professor at New York University.