UnMoored

Murali Annavaram is a Dean’s Chair Professor in the Ming-Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and in the department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California. He currently holds the Rukmini Gopalakrishnachar Visiting Chair Professorship at the Indian Institute of Science, Benguluru. He is the founding director of the REAL@USC-Meta center that is focused on research and education in AI hardware, and the co-PI on the DISCoVER NSF Expeditions center  focused on superconducting technologies as a post CMOS design alternative. He has been inducted to the hall of fame for three of the prestigious computer architecture conferences ISCA, MICRO and HPCA. He served as the Technical Program Chair for HPCA 2021, and served as the General Co-Chair for ISCA 2018, and the Computer Architecture Track Chair for HiPC-2016 and SBACPAD-222 conferences.  Murali co-authored Parallel Computer Organization and Design, a widely used textbook to teach both the basic and advanced principles of computer architecture. Murali received the Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2001. He is a Fellow of IEEE and Senior Member of ACM.

Prof. Navakanta Bhat is the Dean of the Division of Interdisciplinary Science and Professor in the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. He obtained his M. Tech. and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay and Stanford University respectively. His research interest spans nanoelectronics device physics, electrochemical biosensors, gas sensors and novel materials for CMOS and MEMS applications. Earlier, Prof. Bhat worked as a Senior Device Engineer at Motorola’s Networking and Computing Systems Group under Advanced Products R&D Lab (APRDL) in Austin, Texas until 1999. At Motorola, he worked on logic technology development and was responsible for developing high performance transistor design and dual gate oxide technology for PowerPC microprocessors. During 2015-16, Prof. Bhat was on sabbatical leave from IISc, to co-found a start-up, PathShodh Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., and served as the CEO of the company.

Pranay Kotasthane chairs the High-Tech Geopolitics Programme at Takshashila Institution. His current research interest is semiconductor geopolitics. He has written extensively on the intersection of semiconductors and India’s national security. Before Takshashila, Pranay worked as a chip design engineer. Pranay co-writes ‘Anticipating the Unintended’, a newsletter on public policy ideas and frameworks and co-hosts ‘Puliyabaazi’, a popular Hindi-Urdu podcast on politics and policy and technology. He has co-edited ‘India’s Marathon: Reshaping the Post-Pandemic World Order’.

Sanjay Palsamudram is a successful entrepreneur, technology investor and a mentor with more than 28 years experience in semiconductors, software and systems. His entrepreneurial and investment journey spans multiple product & services industry  verticals – automotive, biotech, semiconductor, AI, cloud, IoT etc. He serves on the board of several of these invested companies. He’s currently the Managing & General Partner of a Closed-end Mauritius Venture fund and COO/MD of AlphaICs, an AI co-processor company. He’s also a member of Investment Committee for Canbank Ventures.

Narayan Ramachandran is co-founder and Senior Fellow at the Takshashila Institution. His areas of interest span inclusive finance, public policy, science and the environment. He is the Chairman and CEO of KludeIn Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company listed on NASDAQ. He is lead independent Director and Chairman of TeamLease Services. He is on the Advisory Council of the Centre for Wildlife Studies. Earlier, Narayan was Chairman of RBL Bank and Country Head of Morgan Stanley India. Narayan received a B.Tech. in chemical engineering from the Indian of Technology Bombay and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan. He writes a fortnightly column titled ‘A Visible Hand’ for The Mint Newspaper.