March 25-26, 2013
National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore

Speakers

Donald R. Sadoway

John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The author of over 145 scientific papers and holder of 18 US patents, Don Sadoway's research is directed towards the development of rechargeable batteries for grid-level storage and environmentally sound technologies for the extraction of metals. In 2012 he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Bradley D. Olsen

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Olsen’s research expertise is in materials chemistry and polymer physics, with a particular emphasis on molecular self-assembly, block copolymers, polymer networks and gels, and protein biomaterials. In addition to his academic appointments, Olsen has worked at Dow Chemical and W.R. Grace Construction products on the development of extruded polymer foams and pressure-sensitive adhesives, respectively.

Omid Farokhzad

Associate Professor, Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard Medical School

Farokhzad directs the Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Biomaterials at BWH and is a faculty member of the Cancer Research Center and Regenerative Therapeutics Research Center of the Brigham Research Institute. He has extensive experience with development of therapeutic nanoparticle technologies and has pioneered the high-throughput development and screening of multifunctional nanoparticles for medical applications.

Dakshina Murthy V Kolluru

President, President, International School of Engineering (INSOFE)

Murthy has extensive experience in bits and atoms. He has a Ph.D. from CMU and research experience in materials development for missiles and other high temperature mission critical components. Murthy has been an important part of teams that created highly successful products in e-learning, financial risk and CRM. He consults with Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing and Financial industries in Analytics adoption. His passion is engineering education and he spends most of his time teaching engineers high-end technologies at International School of Engineering that he co-founded.

Zia Saquib

Executive Director, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC)

In the capacity as Executive Director, Zia Saquib has initiated a number of research projects such as modular software router, intrusion detection system based on human immunity, cyber-security for critical national infrastructure, fingerprint biometrics and iSCSi-based storage networks. Most of this work has culminated into transferable technology and is deployed in projects under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of Government of India.

Ashwin A Gumaste

Associate Professor, Computer Science & Engineering, IIT Bombay

Gumaste's work on light-trails has been widely referred, deployed and recognized by both industry and academia. His work on the high-speed indigenous router has been adopted by tier-1 service providers and also resulted in the largest ever acquisition between any IIT and the industry. Ashwin has 20 granted US patents and over 30 pending patent applications.

V Premnath

Head, NCL Innovations

Dr V Premnath is currently the head of NCL Innovations, the group within National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) charged with the responsibility of championing the cause of technology innovation within NCL. Premnath is also the Founding Director of the Venture Center – a technology business incubator on NCL campus. A scientist at Polymer Science & Engineering Division at NCL is has led technology development for biomedical products.

Kumarasamy Thangaraj

Principal Scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB, Hyderabad)

Biologist Kumarasamy Thangaraj finds himself treading the turf of historians. Principal scientist at CCMB, Thangaraj has been using genetic material from ethnic and caste communities from across India to piece together the social and migratory history of its people.

Murali Sastry

Director, DSM India Innovation Centre Gurgaon, India

Dr. Sastry is counted among India’s leading nanotechnologists and brings with him close to 25 years research experience in the field of materials chemistry with a focus on nanotechnology. An interdisciplinary scientist, he moved to TATA Chemicals as Chief Innovation Officer in Sept. 2005 after creating a Centre for Nanotechnology funded by the Department of Science and Technology at NCL Pune. At Tata Chemicals, he set up the Innovation Centre that delivered the low cost water purifier, Swach, and a nutraceuticals business. In Nov. 2011, he moved to DSM India, where he is Director of the India Innovation Centre that will incubate new businesses for DSM in areas on national relevance. Author of over 360 international publications, 10 chapters in books and inventor in 20 Indian and US patents, Dr. Sastry has a number of national and international awards to his credit including India’s most prestigious award in science, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Chemistry (2003). Dr. Sastry’s current research interests include interfacing biologicals with inorganic nanomaterials; understanding biological process at nanodimensions; developing new industrially relevant renewable materials and green processes and ethical issues in application of nanomaterials.

Sriram Krishnamoorthy

Director, Global Analytics, Hewlett-Packard Company

Sriram has been leading the Global Analytics Delivery teams since Oct 2011. He leads a 1100 member team with advanced degrees in statistics, mathematics, economics, industrial engineering, management and having proven experience in forecasting, segmentation, optimization, key driver analyses techniques. Sriram has around 21 years of work experience with stints in GE, Gecis/ Genpact, ITW Signode, Tata Chemicals and ConnectM Technology Solutions.

Nikhil Jaisinghani

Director, Mera Gao Micro Grid Power

Nikhil Jaisinghani is the director of Mera Gao Micro Grid Power, Value Development Initiatives (VDI) Group. The company aims to build and operate low-cost solar-powered microgrids that can provide clean light and charge phones. MIT Technology Review selected the village-scale DC grids as one of the Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2012.

Michal Depa

CTO, Jana Care

Michal is the CTO of Jana Care, a health technology startup based in Bangalore that is in the business of reversing "Diabesity" - the twin epidemic of diabetes and obesity, by embedding mobile phones with diagnostics and proven behavior change science to empower people to lead healthier lives. Previously, Michal was a researcher at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, where he worked on image analysis algorithms for medical imaging applications. He holds a MS degree from MIT in computer science and a BS from McGill University in electrical engineering.

Shankar Venkatagiri

Assistant Professor, Quantitative Methods & Information Systems, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) - Bangalore

An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and University of Southern California, Prof. Shankar Venkatagiri believes that technology can be judiciously used by education to overcome problems of scale, while retaining effectiveness. His research areas include Technology-mediated learning; Software project management; and Open source practices.

Kesav Nori

Professor, IIIT Hyderabad and IIT Hyderabad

With rich experience in academics, Prof. Nori ventured into industrial R&D. He joined the R&D Division of TCS as Vice President. With time, he transitioned into leadership roles at TCS where he was EVP and CIO. Prof Kesav Vithal Nori is one of the pioneers of the company's computer-based adult literacy programme, voices his views on literacy, role models and learning from life.

Sumitesh Das

Chief, Global Research Programmes, Tata Steel

Sumitesh’s mission is to develop economically viable and environmentally friendly technologies through integrated research. Sumitesh presently heads the Global Research Programs at Tata Steel and is also involved in developing alternate energy sources like solar, water and waste management systems using nanotechnology. He is also leading the development of prefab homes for under $750 (Rs 32,000).

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