Principal Investigator

Dr. Chetan Singh Thakur

Associate Professor; Department of Electronic Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-560012

Adjunct Faculty; International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems, Western Sydney University, Australia

Associated with the following research clusters at IISc:

Brain, Computation, and Data Research Group

Initiative on Quantum Technologies

Artificial Intelligence Group (AI@IISc)

Microelectronics & VLSI Design

Dr. Chetan Singh Thakur (Senior Member, IEEE) received his Ph.D. in neuromorphic engineering at the MARCS Research Institute (Brain, Behaviour, and Development), Western Sydney University in 2016 with Prof. André van Schaik‬. He then worked briefly as a research fellow for Defence Science and Technology, Australia. He completed his MTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 2007. Dr. Thakur worked as a research fellow at Johns Hopkins University with Prof. Ralph Etienne-Cummings and Prof. Ernst Niebur for a year before joining IISc as an Assistant Professor. In addition, Dr. Thakur has extensive industrial experience. He worked for 6 years with Texas Instruments Singapore as a senior Integrated Circuit Design Engineer, designing IPs for mobile processors. He has been trained by world leaders in the field of neuromorphic engineering, and his research expertise lies in neuromorphic computing, mixed-signal VLSI systems, computational neuroscience, probabilistic signal processing, and machine learning. His research interest is to understand the signal-processing aspects of the brain and apply those to build novel intelligent systems. He is a recipient of several awards such as the Young Investigator Award from Pratiksha Trust, the Early Career Research Award by the Science and Engineering Research Board- India, the Inspire Faculty Award by the Department of Science and Technology- India, and the Abdul Kalam Innovation Award from the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE).

Editorial board member: Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering (IOP Publishing)

Associate Editor: Frontiers in Neuroscience (Neuromorphic Section)

Scientist/Post-Doctoral Researcher

Dr. S.C.G. Kiruba Daniel is a SERB – National Post Doctoral Fellow of NeuRonICS Lab. He has completed his Ph.D in Nanotechnology from Anna University in the year 2015 and completed his Post-Doc from Instrumentation and Applied Physics Department, IISc in the year 2016. He has been trained by Academia Industry Training (AIT) Camp in EPFL, Switzerland sponsored by Switzerland and Indian Government. He got Gandhian Young technology Innovator Award with his team for his work on melamine sensing from milk in 2017. He led his start-up JK Nanosolutions to win National Level Dev Tech award (2016) from DFID, UK and DST India, Elevate 100 Award (2017) with a grant of 25 Lakhs INR, Tata Social Enterprise Challenge Award (2018) and Titan Design Impact Award (2018) with a grant of 65 lakhs.. He has around 20 publications and 8 patents contributing to 1052 citations (Google Scholar) and h-index of 16. His research interests are in the development of low power and low cost nanotechnology based sensing devices.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-s-c-g-kiruba-daniel-a50a8940/

Kalipatnapu Shantharam is a Research associate in NeuRonICS Lab at IISc. He did his Ph.D from Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering of IIT Kharagpur. His research interests include VLSI Architectures for Error Correction Decoders, Signal Processing and Machine learning systems.

PhD Students

A. Lakshmi is a Ph.D. student in the NeuRonICS lab at IISc. She graduated in Electronics and Communication Engineering from University of Madras. In the early years of her career, she was working in the signal processing division of Naval Physical and oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), DRDO, Kochi. In NPOL, she has been working in array signal processing. Currently she is working as scientist in Intelligent Systems and Robotics Division (ISRD) in Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), DRDO. Her research interests include computer vision algorithms which includes image de-blurring, simultaneous localization and mapping, content based image and video retrieval, relevance feedback, pedestrian detection, object detection and anomaly detection.

Pratik Kumar is a Ph.D. candidate at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), NeuRonICS lab, Bengaluru, India. His work lies at the intersection of hardware-friendly Machine Learning algorithms, High-Performance Machine Learning Computational Architectures (Analog-Mixed Signal hardware), and Emerging Memory devices (for in-Memory/Near memory). As a part of his research, he has designed several novel computational systems for Machine Learning and Edge Computing tasks. Currently, his research aims to tackle the hardware challenges of Machine Learning and Edge Computing through the use of analog technology. He received his Master’s from Indian Institute of Technology, Dhanbad, specializing in Microelectronics and VLSI. He also has an industry experience of 2 Years in TCS Research. His profile can be found on https://sites.google.com/view/pratikkumar

Banhimitra Kundu has an industry experience of 10 years in HAL . He has completed his BTECH in 2008 in ECE from WBUT. Prior to joining IISC as a PhD Student , he has worked in HAL on development of mission computers(Level B) and control computers(Level A)for fixed wing and rotary wing platforms on both software and hardware front . In software ,he has hands on experience in developing of application softwares and device drivers with/without using RTOS.In hardware he has developed hardware for analog sensor conditioning and single board computers using SOC’s.His research interest lies in neuromorphic computing and its hardware implementation.

Prince Philip is PhD student in the Neuronics Lab. Prior to joining Neuronics Lab, he worked in the areas of analog/ digital integrated circuits in academia and industry. He taught UG level courses such as microelectronic circuits, analog and mixed signal IC design, control engineering and electrical circuits. In industry, he designed and developed OFDM based Transceiver Chip and several other circuits for wireless and biomedical applications. In addition, he worked as a consultant for a US based semiconductor company. He graduated in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University. His interests are in neuromorphic engineering, theoretical neuroscience, analog IC design and signal processing

Gitesh Kulkarni, a Senior Scientist from TCS Research joins us as a Ph.D. student. He is an accomplished designer of embedded systems design and a Maker at heart. He has completed his Master of Science in Electrical engineering from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, and a Bachelor of Engineering from Pune University. Gitesh has created embedded systems and systems products for leading technology companies in his career. In one of his pioneering works, he was the lead designer of the world’s first industrial safety watch for the TATA group. His research interests are at the cusp of edge computing, computer architectures, and sensing. He has filed and granted patents in edge computing and wearable devices. Gitesh is a member of IEEE and ACM. When not playing with Linux or a soldering gun, he is busy reading science fictions, comics, and musing about philosophy. He is a licensed Ham radio operator as well.

Ankita Nandi is a Ph.D. student in the NeuRonICS lab at IISc. She has completed her B.Tech. in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Meghalaya in 2018. She was awarded the prestigious President’s Gold Medal and the Institute Gold Medal for her performance in B.Tech. in 2018. She continued to pursue her education from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar and received her M.Tech. degree in 2020. At IIT Gandhinagar, she was attached with the nanoDC lab, where she explored approximate computing for the design of low energy compute circuits for image processing applications. She is familiar with MATLAB, Verilog, and C languages. Her research enthusiasm lies in the design and implementation of low power circuits using analog, digital, or mixed-mode approaches for neuromorphic systems. Further, she takes a keen interest in low power circuit design techniques for in-memory computing, signal processing, and error correction codes. Her profile can be found on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankita-nandi-603029191/.

Ketan Sanjay Chaudhari is a Ph.D student in the NeuRonICS lab at IISc. He has completed his B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati in 2021. He is familiar with Matlab, Verilog, VHDL and Python coding. His research interests include Digital VLSI design, Neural Networks and hardware implementation of Brain Inspired algorithms.

Madhuvanthi Srivatsav R is a Ph.D. student in the NeuRonICS lab at IISc. She has completed her Btech (Hons) and Mtech in VLSI and Electronics Systems Design from the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design, and Manufacturing, Kancheepuram. She is a GATE rank holder and was awarded the Institute Gold Medal for the All-Rounder of the Graduating Batch at IIITDM, in 2021. At IIITDM, her research work was in the field of Neuromorphic Engineering, and Low-Power VLSI design. In addition, she has worked for a year at SiFive, Bangalore in the domain of Physical Design. Her research interests include Machine Learning, Neuromorphic computing, Analog, and Digital IC design, and hardware implementation of AI.

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhuvanthi-srivatsav-r-906300155/

Shankaranarayanan H is a PhD Student in the Neuronics Lab at IISc. He completed his B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, and M.Tech in VLSI and Embedded Systems from Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune. During his Bachelor’s, his group received the prestigious TEQIP-III grant for carrying out research towards developing an Autonomous Agricultural Robot. He carried out his Master’s dissertation at the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology, Calicut, where he worked towards the algorithm development for beamforming techniques in Ultrasound Imaging Systems. He’s familiar with MATLAB, Verilog, and C programming languages, and his research interests include Signal Processing, Digital VLSI, and Algorithm Inference on FPGAs.

Pradeep Kumar Gautam has completed his B. Tech in Electronics and Communication engineering from NIT Jaipur. He is working as a Scientist with DRDO. He was part of DRDO’s Processor design center (ANURAG) and is currently working at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence (CAIR). He has worked on Processor design and development involving design of multi-core network processors. His expertise is processor customization and architecture development for embedded applications. Currently he is working on development of hardware implementation of Machine Learning algorithms for fast and energy efficient inference. His research interests are hardware assisted application accelerators, processor architecture and machine learning algorithm inference on FPGAs.

Satyapreet Singh Yadav is a PhD student in the Brain and Artificial Intelligence program at IISc. She has a Master’s degree from IISc and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication from the National Institute of Technology Calicut, Kerala. She has 8 years of experience in the aerospace and space sector, having worked as a scientist at Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Her research interests include brain-inspired computing, machine learning, embedded systems, and radar signal processing.

Bishal Paudel is a PhD candidate in NeuRonICS lab at Indian Institute of Science (IISc). In 2023, he successfully earned his Master’s degree in RF and Microwave Specialization, E&ECE department from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. He has worked in high frequency circuits during his time in masters. He has a deep interest in Analog/Mixed-Signal and High frequency circuit design. His technical skill set includes proficiency in Cadence virtuoso, MATLAB and HFSS. Currently, his research revolves around cutting-edge areas such as Brain-Machine Interface and Neuromorphic Sensing Systems, reflecting his commitment to exploring the intersections of electronics and neuroscience.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bishalpaudelofficial/

MUTHIAH S is a Ph.D. candidate in the NeuRonICS Lab at IISc. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai. Following this, he pursued and obtained his M.Tech. degree in Electronics Systems Design from the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design, and Manufacturing (IIITDM) in 2022. At IIITDM, his research focused on the field of low-power Analog VLSI Design. During his time at IIITDM, he was honored with the Institute Gold Medal for being the best post-graduate student of the graduating batch, and additionally, he was awarded the Institute Silver Medal for achieving the highest CGPA. These accolades were presented to him by the Honorable Finance Minister, Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman. Prior to embarking on his research journey at IISc, he worked as a Software Systems Engineer 2 in the Analytics and Advanced Computing Lab at HP Inc. (R&D), Bangalore for a little over a year. His research interests include Neuromorphic Computing, Mixed-signal IC Design, Low-power Circuit Design, and the Hardware Implementation of Machine Learning Algorithms.
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/muthiah-sankarasubramanian-672911176/

Master Students

Viraj J. Kotak is currently pursuing an MTech in Artificial intelligence at IISc Bangalore. He completed his BTech in electronics and communication at Dharmsinh Desai University, Gujarat. He worked as a project intern at SAC ISRO Ahmedabad. He’s currently working on memory-efficient algorithms for training large-scale Spiking neural networks under Prof Chetan Singh Thakur. His interests are Machine Learning, Neuromorphic Computing, Reinforcement Learning, and Natural Language Processing.

Souradeep Das is a MTech student pMicroelectronics and VLSI Design in DESE, IISc. He completed his B.E. with Honours in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from Jadavpur University in 2022. His interests are in RTL Design, ASIC/FPGA implementation of digital systems, computer vision, Image Processing. He is a KVPY fellow and has received NTSE scholarship.

Abhishek Chaudhary is currently Pursuing an M.tech in Microelectronics and VLSI design at IISC Bangalore(2023-25).He completed his B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering at NIT Jalandhar. He is currently working on the development of the Sub-Block of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Neural SOC. His Interest lies in Analog/RF circuit Design.

Lakshya Sharma is currently pursuing M. Tech in Microelectronics and VLSI Design at IISc Bangalore (2023-25) . He completed his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from Bundelkhand Institute of Engineering & Technology, Jhansi(2019-23). He is currently working on developing Brain Computer Interface (BCI) Neural SoC under Prof. Chetan Singh Thakur.

Interests: Analog and RF IC design.

Skills: Verilog , C, Analog and RF circuit design in cadence.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lakshya-sharma-3bba7624b/

Rahul Reji is a final year M.Tech student in the Microelectronics and VLSI Design program. He completed his B.Tech from National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal in 2021, following which he worked as a Digital Design Engineer at Texas Instruments. He is interested in designing electronic systems that have an impact on people’s lives.

Manish Kumar Singh is pursuing an M.Tech. in Electronics System Design from IISc. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University. He is from Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), working as a Scientist with 15 years of experience in the aerospace industry. He has worked on the design, development, testing, integration, and certification of various systems for Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). His research interest includes Embedded System design, Sensor Fusion and machine learning algorithm inference on FPGAs.

Narayanan Nampoothiry is an M.Tech student in Electronic Systems Engineering at IISc. He completed his B.Tech from National Institute of Technology, Calicut in 2016. He joined ISRO as a Scientist at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram where he was working on the Avionics Systems of ISRO Launch vehicles. Under the ISRO-IISc collaboration program he is presently associated with the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering (DESE) at IISc. His research interests include VLSI, Hardware architectures and Embedded Systems.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/narayanan-nampoothiry-v

I am Guhan Rajasekar. I graduated with a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy,Chennai in the year 2020. Post completion of my undergraduate degree, I worked as an Embedded software engineer in Caterpillar India from October 2020 to Jan 2023 and at HBT India from Feb 2023 to July 2023. My personal interests are in Analog and Digital VLSI Circuit design.

Sriya R G is an M.Tech student in AI at IISc. She graduated in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology. In her early career, she worked as a hardware design engineer at Aadyah Aerospace Pvt. Ltd. She is currently working on energy-efficient transformers in the NeuRonICS lab under the guidance of Dr. Chetan Singh Thakur and Dr. Chiranjib Bhattacharya.

Sai Krishna is an M.Tech student in Electronic Systems Engineering(2023-25) at IISc Bangalore. He completed his B.Tech in ECE from the National Institute of Technology Puducherry, Karaikal, in 2023. His interests include exploring analog VLSI design and digital system design. Currently, I am working on ReRAMs for ARYABHAT-1.

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedda-pullannagari-sai-krishna-6730a81a9

Research Assistants

Shreyas K has completed his BE in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from SJEC, Mangalore. He is currently working under Dr Chetan Singh Thakur and Mr Haresh Dagale on system design for “Tiny Brain” an ultra-low-power FPGA based cognition machine. He has worked as a System Design Engineer with Fluxgen Engineering Technologies and was an active member of Terrorbull Robotics. He is an enthusiastic Maker who managed Make at CFAL, a makerspace in Mangalore. His interests include electronics design, product prototyping and creative design.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shreyaskulur/

Vignesh Ramanathan, a Principal Research Staff, works on Neuromorphic Computing and tinyML. He has designed novel perception and localization algorithms for event-based cameras and efficient architectures for general machine perception. His long-term research goal is to design robotic systems that behave closely to biological organisms. He has completed his Bachelors in Electronics and Communication Engineering and worked in the automotive sector at Robert Bosch for three years.

Adithya MD is an alumnus of N.M.A.M. Institute of Technology, graduating with a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering. He has worked as a design engineer in IXE Tronics, developing solutions that bring consistency, dependability, and sustainability to post-harvest crop management. His core competencies are in hardware prototyping and embedded firmware development. Currently, he is working under Dr. Chetan Singh Thakur, developing systems that enable the deployment of machine learning algorithms on constrained hardware.

Guha H has completed his B.E in the department of Electronics and Communication, Ramaiah Institute of Technology. He is working as research assistant on ultrasound imaging system at NeuRonICS lab, Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He has worked on a project titled “Non-intrusive apiary management system for the analysis and prediction of beehive conditions” and has published papers in International Conference on Data Science and Information System (ICDSIS-2022) and International Conference on Data Science and Information System (ICARES-2022). His field of interests are digital VLSI, analog and mixed signal VLSI, digital signal processing.

Shreyansh Anand serves as a Research Assistant at the NeuRonICS Lab, located at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, which he obtained from Vellore Institute of Technology. During his undergraduate studies, Shreyansh Anand was chosen to participate in the MITACS Research Internship program. During this internship, he collaborated with the WiS lab to contribute to the development of Wireless Time-Mode Impedance Sensors. His primary research interests revolve around novel sensing modalities, biomedical instrumentation and embedded systems.

Mtech Student

Perika Hima Snehitha

Mtech Student

Srikanth Nandyala

Mtech Student