Professor S Sadagopan Retires from IIIT Bangalore: Here’s a Look at the Illustrious Career of the Legend

Professor S Sadagopan, after almost 22 years, has retired from IIIT Bangalore as director. Professor Sadagopan has handed over his responsibilities to Dr Debabrata Das, who has taken over as director of IIIT Bangalore from 30 June 2021. As the first director of IIIT Bangalore, Professor Sadagopan has been responsible for envisioning, planning and executing the growth of the institute, which is now recognised as one of the premier institutes in India.

Professor Sadagopan has led several key initiatives such as setting up the Myanmar International Institute of Information Technology, Mandalay (MIIT), which is an institute sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Government of Myanmar. Furthermore, the professor has also led various important projects such as the Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP).

Apart from IIIT Bangalore, Professor Sadagopan consults extensively to some of the largest private and public sector corporations in India across domains such as computing, communications, software, automotive, oil and power industries as well as the social sector. He is a member of the Board of Directors of several private and public sector corporations and is also a member of the Board of Studies of several Universities.

About Professor S Sadagopan

Professor Sadagopan obtained his MS and PhD degree from Purdue University, USA in 1979 and BE Honours Degree from Madras University, India in 1973. Prior to joining IIIT Bangalore, the professor has taught students at IIT Kanpur from 1979 to 1995, and at IIM Bangalore from1995 to 1999. The professor is also a Fellow of the UK's IET (formerly IEE), Computer Society of India and Institution of Engineers (India).

Apart from that, he is a Senior Member of the IEEE and ACM. Professor Sadagopan's research work has appeared in several international journals including IEEE Transactions, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Naval Research Logistics, Simulation and Decision Support Systems.

Awards Won by Professor S Sadagopan

While the professor has won various notable awards during his tenure for his extensive contributions to the field of education and research, the names of some of the awards are as follows:

• Fulbright Fellowship (1995)
• Champion of humanity, Award of Hindustan Chamber of Commerce (2009).
• Rotary Honor of Vocational Excellence by Rotary Northwest Bangalore District 3190 (2013).
• Engineering Watch "Campus Preparedness" Award (2015).
• Cisco NDTV "Digital Pioneer" Award (2016).

Professor S Sadagopan’s Association with Dataquest

Professor Sadagopan had chaired DQ Deep Tech, the largest virtual event on deep technologies hosted by Dataquest last year. As the chairperson of the DQ Deep Tech virtual event held on 16 September 2020, the professor has said that Deep Tech has arrived in India that now is the time to take a step back and take a look at things holistically.

He was also a keynote speaker at the event along with Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, MeitY. In the session, moderated by Pradeep Gupta, chairman, CyberMedia Group, Professor Sadagopan had called upon the faculty, students, researchers, tech industries, venture capitalists, government bodies as well as mainstream and social media to play a constructive role in the establishment of the ecosystem.