Rajiv Soundararajan received the BE degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India in 2006. He received the MS and PhD degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, USA in 2008 and 2012, respectively. Between 2012 and 2015, he was with Qualcomm Research India, Bengaluru. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He received the 2016 IEEE Circuits and Systems for Video Technology Best Paper Award and 2017 IEEE Signal Processing Letters Best Paper Award. He also received a Technology and Engineering Emmy® Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 2021 for the ‘Development of Perceptual Metrics for Video Encoding Optimization’. His research interests are broadly in image and video signal processing, computer vision, machine learning, and information theory.
Professor Soma Biswas
Soma Biswas is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. She received her PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2009. Then, she worked as a Research Faculty at the University of Notre Dame and as a Research Scientist at GE Research before joining IISc. Her research interests include computer vision, pattern recognition and machine learning. She serves as a Senior Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Image Processing and is a Senior Member of IEEE.
Professor Sriram Ganapathy
Sriram Ganapathy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, where he heads the activities of the Learning and Extraction of Acoustic Patterns (LEAP) lab. At the LEAP lab, his research interests include signal processing, machine learning methodologies for speech and speaker recognition, and auditory neuroscience. He is also currently a Visiting Research Scientist at Google Research India, Bengaluru.
Prior to joining IISc, he was a research staff member at the IBM Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights from 2011 to 2015. He received his PhD from the Center for Language and Speech Processing, Johns Hopkins University. He obtained his BTech from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum, and ME from IISc. He has also worked as a Research Assistant at the Idiap Research Institute, Switzerland from 2006 to 2008.
Over the past 15 years, Sriram Ganapathy has published more than 120 peer-reviewed journal/conference publications in the areas of deep learning and speech/audio processing. He serves as the IEEE Sigport Chief Editor, nominated member of the IEEE Education Board, and functions as subject editor for the Elsevier Speech Communication Journal. He is also a recipient of several awards including the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Early Career Award in India, Pratiksha Trust Young Investigator Award, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) Young Scientist Award, and Verisk Analytics AI Faculty Award. He is a senior member of the IEEE Signal Processing Society and a member of the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA).
Chair Visiting Professor – C Pandu Rangan
Chandrasekaran Pandu Rangan obtained his Master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Madras, Chennai and Doctorate degree from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He joined the faculty of Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in 1982. He has served as a distinguished Visiting Professor at the Information and Communications University, Deajon, South Korea. He joined the rank of Professors in 1995 and served as Head of Department from 1998–2001.
He was a member of the founding team for IIT Hyderabad (IITH) and served as Inaugural Chair to set up the computer science department at IITH (2008–2011). He has upgraded the unit of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Chennai to a Centre and served as Inaugural Chair for the ISI, Chennai Centre. He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) from 2006. He was honoured as Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman Chair Professor in 2017. He served at IITM until his retirement and superannuated in 2021. Since August 2021, he served at IISc, in the Department of Computer Science and Automation as Sathish Dhawan Visiting Chair Professor.
Pandu Rangan also served in the Board of Directors of the International Association of Cryptology Research (IACR), USA and in the Board of Directors of the Society for Electronic Transactions and Security (SETS), Chennai. He was also on the editorial board of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series published by Springer Verlag, Germany. He has developed special outreach programme-related lecture series and customised competency building lecture series at TCS, INFOSYS, IBM Research, Tokyo, Japan, SAMSUNG R&D, Seoul, South Korea. During his forty year-long academic life, he has taken special interest in promoting undergraduate research and many of his mentee are in top positions in academia and industry. He has pioneered the research in multiparty computation in India and emerged as the fourth most prolific researcher in the world among the ACM PODC community around 2015 (and first in India). Recently, just begore his retirement from IITM, he has initiated the research in blockchain technology at the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, IITM. His areas of interest include technology enhanced learning, algorithms, cryptology, discrete mathematics, puzzle based learning, and algorithmic thinking.
Visiting Professor – Viraj Kumar
Viraj Kumar is a Visiting Professor at KIAC. He completed his PhD (2007) in computer science and later taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was awarded the Rose Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Education (2011). Viraj Kumar’s primary research areas are in educational technology and computer science education, with emphasis on India-specific challenges. He serves as an elected member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) India Council (2021–24) and chairs its Educational Initiatives Committee. He has contributed to the development of the revised All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) computer science curriculum (2022) as well as the international CS2023 curriculum. Previously, he served as a consultant to the Kasturirangan Committee for drafting the National Education Policy (NEP 2020), and to the Ministry of Education’s committee creating the National Curricular Frameworks. At KIAC, Viraj experiments with novel forms of assessment in undergraduate and postgraduate courses. At present, his work explores responses to advances in machine learning (ML)-assisted code generation techniques such as GitHub Copilot. In addition, he conducts outreach programmes for training high school mathematics teachers and computer science faculty in higher education. For schoolteachers, his recent efforts include integrating computational thinking into IISc’s training programmes at Challakere. For faculty, he contributes as a Steering Committee member and course lead in Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi’s CSEDU Programme, and also offers shorter-duration training programmes at IISc.
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I joined the BTech programme in Mathematics and Computing at the Indian Institute of Science in 2022. My faculty advisor, Professor Viraj Kumar, has guided my academic journey, and I had the opportunity to work under his mentorship during the summer of 2024.
My academic interests focus on artificial intelligence and data science, and I am passionate about applying these technologies to solve real-world challenges and drive innovation in computing.
Looking ahead, I am eager to apply my skills in practical environments, contributing to impactful artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions across industries.
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I joined BTech at IISc in 2024.
My faculty advisor is Dr Shashi Jain.
I am interested particularly in artificial intelligence and data structures. I would like to explore the above fields and potentially make a career there.
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I am currently pursuing a BTech, having joined in 2024. With a keen interest in programming, I strive to enhance my skills in this dynamic field. My goal is to secure a rewarding job with a competitive salary in the future.
I am guided by my faculty mentor, Professor Prateek Sharma, who supports my academic and professional aspirations.
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I joined the Bachelor of Technology in Mathematics and Computing programme at the Indian Institute of Science in 2023. I am interested in quantitative finance and the dynamics of stock markets, especially in understanding the complex math and computational models that drive them. I am fascinated by how data-driven strategies influence investment choices and manage risk in real time.
Looking ahead, I aim to build a career in investment strategy and risk analysis, where I can apply my skills to drive informed, impactful financial decisions.
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I am thrilled to be at IISc, the beating heart of excellence in science and engineering in India, and an ecosystem where great challenges meet enterprising minds. IISc is also a wonderful platform that facilitates personal learning and growth in myriad ways.
While my love for science and the zest for academic excellence brought me to IISc, I have also been an elite athlete and a mountaineer. I also enjoy literature and classical music.
I am excited to be a part of a generation of young researchers on whose shoulders rests the responsibility of innovating at the emerging frontiers of computing, artificial intelligence, and data science. Through my undergraduate years in the BTech Mathematics and Computing programme, I hope to dive deep into these disciplines, as well as boldly traverse their intersections with evolutionary theory, computational biology, and the way the human mind works. I hope to explore novel paths that open up opportunities for creating deep tech solutions that serve the emerging needs of society and our planet.
I am delighted to have been selected for the KIAC Kotak scholarship programme and the mentorship of Professor Pandu Rangan, my faculty guide.
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I joined The BTech programme in the academic year 2024-25. I am excited to explore various fields of technology in my time at the Institute and continue my pursuit beyond .
Though I have not narrowed down any field of research yet, I aim to make full use of my time at IISc to explore various areas and find out where I wish to establish my niche.
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Surbhi Shaw joined the postdoctoral programme at the Kotak IISc AI-ML Centre in July 2024, working under the mentorship of Professor C Pandu Rangan. Her research focuses on post-quantum cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs, exploring advanced cryptographic protocols that can secure digital systems against quantum computing threats.
She obtained her BSc in Mathematics from Scottish Church College, Kolkata (2016), an MSc in Pure Mathematics from the University of Calcutta (2018), and recently earned her PhD from IIT Kharagpur in 2024. She is passionate about advancing cryptographic techniques and aims to continue her career in academia, aspiring to join an institute as an assistant professor.
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Akash Pareek joined as a KIAC postdoctoral researcher, hosted by Professor Arindam Khan, in August 2024. Before this, he did his PhD at IIT Gandhinagar under the mentorship of Professor Manoj Gupta, following a Bachelor's degree from Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, Belur.
His research mainly focusses on online algorithms, data structures, combinatorics, and learning augmented algorithms. His current and future work primarily focusses on designing beyond worst-case algorithms using predictions.
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I joined the BTech programme in 2024. My faculty advisor is Professor Viraj Kumar. I am interested in computer science and would like to do research in computer science in the future.
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Anmol Gill pursues the MTech (Artificial Intelligence) programme at IISc, in the Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber-Physical Systems (RBCCPS), under the guidance of his faculty adviser Pushpak Jagtap.
He is from Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan and has completed his Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering from Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Punjab in 2024.
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Himanshu Jain pursues the MTech (Artificial Intelligence) programme at IISc, in the Department of Computational and Data Sciences (CDS), under the guidance of his faculty adviser K Sekar.
He is from Hansi, Haryana and has completed his Integrated Bachelor and Master of Science degree in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, Punjab in 2024.
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G Pavithra pursues the MTech (Artificial Intelligence) programme at IISc, in the Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber-Physical Systems (RBCCPS), under the guidance of her faculty adviser Ravi Prakash.
She is from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and has completed her Bachelor of Technology (Honours) in Computer Science and Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu in 2023.
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Gaurav Kumar pursues the MTech (Artificial Intelligence) programme at IISc, in the Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber-Physical Systems (RBCCPS), under the guidance of his faculty adviser Pushpak Jagtap.
He is from Patna, Bihar and has completed his Bachelor and Master of Science dual degree in Mathematics from the National Institute of Technology Agartala, Tripura in 2021.
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Shashwat pursues the MTech (Artificial Intelligence) programme at IISc, in the Department of Electrical Engineering (EE), under the guidance of his faculty adviser Chandra Sekhar Seelamantula.
He is from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh and has completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science and Engineering from Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Punjab in 2024.
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Vedantam Srikar pursues the MTech (Artificial Intelligence) programme at IISc, in the Department of Computational and Data Sciences (CDS), under the guidance of his faculty adviser Deepak N Subramani.
He is from Hyderabad, Telangana and has completed his Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering with Mathematics and Computing as second major from the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Telangana in 2024.
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Pukhrambam Akash Singh pursues the MTech (Artificial Intelligence) programme at IISc, in the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering (ECE), under the guidance of his faculty adviser Prathosh A P.
He is from Naranseina Awang Leikai, Bishnupur, Manipur and has completed his Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Manipur, Manipur in 2023.
I joined the BTech programme in Mathematics and Computing at the Indian Institute of Science in 2022. My faculty advisor, Professor Viraj Kumar, has guided my academic journey, and I had the opportunity to work under his mentorship during the summer of 2024.
I joined BTech at IISc in 2024.
I joined the BTech programme in 2024. My faculty advisor is Professor Viraj Kumar. I am interested in computer science and would like to do research in computer science in the future.
Anmol Gill pursues the MTech (Artificial Intelligence) programme at IISc, in the Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber-Physical Systems (
