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Making Roads Safer by Making Drivers Better
A talk by Infosys Prize laureate Prof. Hari Balakrishnan, followed by a conversation with K Jairaj
Speakers
Can your smartphone make you a safe driver? The world’s roads see over 50 million injuries and 1.3 million fatalities every year. Road accidents are the leading cause of death among people between the ages of 15 to 30. As per a WHO estimate, without action, traffic accidents could become the seventh leading cause of death worldwide (moving from ninth) by 2030.
In this talk, Prof. Balakrishnan will discuss how mobile sensing (especially using smartphones), signal processing, machine learning, and behavioral science can improve road safety by making people better drivers. He will discuss several challenges in achieving this goal, as well as learnings from successful deployments in multiple countries. He will also talk about his inspirational journey from academic research to commercial practice.
In collaboration with
Speakers
Hari Balakrishnan
Hari Balakrishnan is the Fujitsu Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. His research is in networked computer systems, with current interests in networking, sensing, and perception
for sensor-equipped mobile devices connected to cloud or edge services running in datacenters. He has made many contributions to mobile and sensor computing, Internet transport and routing, overlay networks and
P2P systems, and data management. In 2010, based on the CarTel project, Balakrishnan co-founded Cambridge Mobile Telematics, a company that uses mobile sensing, statistical methods, AI, and behavioral science to make roads safer by making drivers better. Over the past few years, CMT has become the world’s largest and leading smartphone-centric telematics and analytics service provider, serving millions of users in over 25 countries via partnerships with insurers, cellular carriers, rideshare companies, and automobile makers.
Balakrishnan received his PhD in 1998 from UC Berkeley, which named him a Distinguished Alumnus in 2021, and a BTech in 1993 from IIT Madras, which named him a distinguished alumnus in 2013. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2015 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. His honors include the Infosys Prize for Engineering and Computer Science (2020), the IEEE Kobayashi Computers and Commnications Award (2021), Fellow of the ACM (2008), Fellow of the IEEE (2020), Sloan Fellow (2002), and the ACM dissertation award (1998). He has received several best-paper awards including the IEEE Bennett paper prize (2004), and six “test of time” awards for papers with long-term impact from ACM SIGCOMM (2011), SIGOPS (2015), SIGMOD (2016), and SIGMOBILE (2017, 2018), and SenSys (2019). He has also been honored for excellence in research and teaching at MIT: the Harold E. Edgerton faculty achievement award (2003), the HKN best instructor award (2018), the Jamieson award (2012), the Junior Bose teaching award (2002), and the Spira teaching award (2001).
K Jairaj
A member of the 1976 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Mr. K Jairaj retired as Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka. Mr. Jairaj has held key appointments in the Infrastructure, Energy, Transport and Urban Development sectors including Principal Secretary, Energy Department and Chairman, BESCOM; Managing Director, Bangalore International Airport Ltd.; Managing Director, Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd.; Managing Director, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation; Commissioner, Bangalore City Corporation (BBMP) for two terms; Commissioner for Commercial Taxes, Transport Commissioner and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Karnataka.
With Mr. NR Narayanamurthy as Chairman, Mr. K Jairaj helped establish the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), India’s first Greenfield Airport, on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis. Mr. Jairaj has served with the World Bank, Washington DC., USA, as Senior Public Sector Management Specialist. Mr. Jairaj‘s academic background is in Economics, Public Policy Management and Law. He has a B.A. Hons (Economics), Bangalore University; M.A. (Economics), Delhi School of Economics; M.P.A, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University & M.P.A, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He has a LLB Degree from Bangalore University. Mr. Jairaj was a Mason Fellow at Harvard University.
Mr. K Jairaj has served as President, All India Management Association (AIMA), Delhi; Member, Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Kashipur; Chairman, Advisory Board, TAPMI School of Business, Jaipur; Senior Fellow, Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore; Board Member, SDMIMD, Mysore. He is an Independent Director on the Boards of listed Companies; was Advisor, Ernst & Young and the Manipal Group. He Mentors Startups in the Digital Marketing, Hospitality, Retailing and Precision Engineering.
Mr. K Jairaj has a leadership role in Technical and Management Education, during 2012-18 as Trustee, BMS Educational Trust- Chairman, Board of Governors – BMS Institute of Technology & Management; BMS School of Architecture and Chairman, BMS College of Law.
He is associated with Not For Profit Organizations in Bangalore: President, Association for the Mentally Challenged (AMC); Working President, Sri Krishna Sevashrama Hospital-Chairman, Board of Trustees, Bangalore Gayana Samaja. In 2016-17 during the Centenary year he was President, Century Club, Bangalore, founded by Sir M. Visvesvaraya. Presently, he is Advisor, Dayananda Sagar Institutions.
