Total 33 years of experience – Industry and Teaching

Work Experience:

• Professor & Management Consultant, Saveetha Engineering College, Thandalam, TN (2015 – 2016)
• Advisor with Sundaram Clayton Limited – Till July 2014
• PRESIDENT, HARITA-NTI LIMITED – September 2000 – Till August 2012
• Accumulates more than 3 decades of professional expertise and has been associated with TVS Group throughout his tenure

Pradip is the CEO of Growtech Innovations which is an Innovative Start-Up that focuses on providing End to End Products and Solutions in the Idea to Market domain (I2M) by the right mix of Technology and Marketing Insights. He has an Industry experience of about 23 years. In his previous roles, Mr. Pradip was Director-Innovation and development (Philips India), VP at Global Value Innovation Centre (PepsiCo), Program lead (GE-Global research), Head R&D (L.G), Manager-Development(Hitachi), Manager Design (ABC Bearings Ltd) and Design Engineer (HMT Ltd).

He has numerous Publications and Patents in the field of Refrigeration under his name. Mr. Pradip has completed his Master’s degree in Applied systems engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from L.D College of Engineering, Ahmedabad.

Dr MP Maiya is a Professor at Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Madras. He also heads the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Laboratory since 1999. His research interests include:

• Thermodynamics
• Heating and Cooling
• Air conditioning and ventilation
• HVAC system applications
• Refrigeration

Dr Ranga Rao is a professor at Department of Chemistry, IIT Madras. His expertise include:

• Surface chemistry and spectroscopy
• Solid state electrochemistry
• Heterogeneous catalysis : new materials for catalysis and electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, environmental catalysis and energy storage applications
• Materials chemistry: synthesis and applications of new layered-, hybrid-, porous- and nano-materials

Mr Krishnamurti Rao is a senior IT Professional, with over 30 years’ work experience in India’s largest Software Companies, spread over multiple geographies and technologies. His expertise in business include customer and vendor Management, Systems’ Performance and Value creation for Business, Strategy, Process and Productivity.

Mr Rao holds an MBA from IIM Calcutta and a B.Tech in Electronics Engineering from IIT Madras.

Dr. Lalit Chordia, Ph.D., founded Thar Technologies, Inc. in 1990 and serves as its President. Dr. Chordia co-founded Suprex Corp. in 1981. He also founded Thar Technologies (formerly Thar Designs). He has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, researcher and engineer in the pharmaceutical and food markets. He has been the Chairman of Thar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. since 2010 and has been its Director since 2007.

He earned his PhD at Carnegie-Mellon University. He received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1980 and his doctorate in chemical engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1985.

Dr Lalit is one of our proud mentors of CZC teams. His expert mentorship has helped more than 10 CZC teams to pivot their prototype building from the technology aspect to a product that clearly satisfies market’s needs.

Dr Ravi Krishna’s expertise fall under the scope of Environmental Sciences and Engineering with specific focus on fate and transport of pollutants in the environment.

• Passive Release of Bioaerosols from different sources
• Behavior of Aerosols in Urban Environment
• Fate and Transport of NAPLs in Earthen Media
• Photocatalytic Treatment of Organic Wastes
• Contaminated Sediments – Remediation / Fate and Transport

Jagannath brings with him extensive experience in project finance and corporate banking gained through his 11 year stint with ICICI Bank as the zonal head of corporate banking business for the southern region. This gave him an opportunity to work with leading companies in the region for structuring financial solutions to their requirements.

Jagannath holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Osmania University in Hyderabad, India, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, in Lucknow, India. A self-confessed book worm who loves to explore a wide variety of books, he is also passionate about his weekend club that assists young adults to polish up their communication skills.

Dr Swarup is a renowned expert in the field of electrical engineering and power systems. His expertise include following research areas:

• Computer Modeling, Simulation, Analysis of Electrical Power Systems
• Numerical Optimization of Power Systems
• Digital and Numerical Protection of Power Systems
• Substation and Distribution System Automation
• Energy management Systems and SCADA

Dr Lelitha Devi is an Associate Professor in the Transportation Engineering Division at IIT Madras. Prior to this, she worked with the Texas Transportation Institute and was a Research Assistant at Translink Research Group. Her research interests include Traffic flow modeling, intelligent transportation systems and Traffic Operations and Management.

Dr Lelitha holds a PhD from Texas A&M University, Texas, USA.

Dr Vinu is an Asst Professor in Chemical Engg Dept, IIT Madras and a Chemical Engineer researching in the frontier areas of:

Lignocellulosic biomass conversion to valuable liquid intermediates via thermochemical conversion techniques
Liquid fuels from renewable feedstocks such as waste plastics, algae and MSW
Coal conversion using thermochemical techniques
Renewable materials/composites from lignin
Novel strategies for deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass

Dr Vinu holds a B.Tech in Chemical Engg from AC College of technology, Guindy and a PhD from Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

Dr. Anand Krishnasamy received his PhD from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India in 2010. He worked as Post Doctoral Research Fellow at Engine Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA for three years from 2010 to 2013 before joining IIT Madras.

His research interests includes experimental and numerical investigations on low temperature combustion engines, automotive fuel surrogate modeling and developing high efficiency, clean combustion engines through fuel modifications.

Dr Qadeer Khan has more than 15 years of Design, Development and Research experience in the field of Analog/Mixed Signal ICs/Systems with specialization in Power Management and User Interface which include DC-DC Converters (Buck, Boost, Buck-Boost), Charge-pumps, Motor Drivers, Haptics Drivers (ERM and LRA), LED Drivers, Smart Battery Interface and LCD/AMOLED display power supplies for Mobile Phones and Automotive Industry.

Dr Qadeer holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering with 16 U.S. Patents and 20 IEEE publications

Mr Krishnamurti Rao is a senior IT Professional, with over 30 years’ work experience in India’s largest Software Companies, spread over multiple geographies and technologies. His expertise in business include customer and vendor Management, Systems’ Performance and Value creation for Business, Strategy, Process and Productivity.

Mr Rao holds an MBA from IIM Calcutta and a B.Tech in Electronics Engineering from IIT Madras.

Vignesh is an energy professional with extensive experience in starting, sustaining and building new businesses and leading diverse, high performing teams in different global markets. He is passionate to work with people to solve problems, and create new opportunities. Leader with cross-functional stake holder management, internal and external, across equity partners, lending partners, execution and legal partners.

During his previous stint at Sunedison as Vice President, he was responsible for M&A and project development of solar PV projects in India, Thailand and South Africa, generating over $450 M in revenue, over $130 M in margins, and additional 450 + MWs of contracted cashflow for future pipeline.

Dr Abdus Samad is an Associate Professor at the Department of Ocean Engineering – IIT Madras, and teaches Ocean and Petroleum engineering subjects and works on several projects from different national and international bodies. Dr Samad holds several patents in the US and Indian patent offices and have contributed to more than 150 journal and conference articles. Dr Samad is a chartered engineer (CEng-MIMechE) and also an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems. Dr Samad was recently awarded the Young Scientist Award.

Dr Abdus Samad holds a bachelor’s (2001) and master’s (2004) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Aligarh Muslim University (India) and a PhD degree (2008) from Inha University (Republic of Korea).