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BIT WHO'S WHO
Prof. Rabi N. Mahapatra (Chairman, BIT)
Professor, Department of Computer Science, Texas A&M University, USA
Prof. Rabi N. Mahapatra Dr. Rabi Mahapatra is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Texas A&M University. He was a faculty at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur prior to his joining at Texas A&M University in 1995. He has also held visiting faculty position at IBM T.J Watson Research Center during 2001. Dr. Mahapatra received his PhD in Computer Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology in 1992. He directs the Embedded System Research Group at Texas A&M University since 2002. He is an Associate Editor of ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing and Intl. Journal of ICT. He is one of the cofounders of Orissa Information Technology Society (OITS) and founder of International Conference on Information Technology in 1998. Dr. Mahapatra was the Steering Committee Chair of ICIT during 2004 – 2005, and the Program Chair of IEEE Workshop on Embedded System Code sign. He served in the technical program committee of ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC) during 2005-2007; IEEE Intl Workshop on Large-scale Real-time Embedded Systems (2005, 2006), International Conference on Parallel & Distributed Systems (ICPADS) in 2004; International Conference on Parallel Processing (2004), Intl Workshop on System on Chip, and many other International events. He served as the Chairman of IEEE Kharagpur Section during 1994-95.

Dr. Mahapatra’s principal areas of research are Embedded Systems, System on Chip, Network Router Architectures, Low-power Design, and Cyber Physical Systems. He has published two books and more than 150 research articles in the refereed International Journals and Conference Proceedings. He has supervised 10 PhD dissertations, 30 MS thesis and currently supervising 10 more graduate students at Texas A&M University. His research has been supported by several federal agencies such as National Science Foundation, NASA, Department of Federal Aviation Agency (DoT), and industries like IBM, Boeing, BAE, Lockheed Martin, GE, Honeywell, Rockwell Collins and Xilinx Corp. Dr. Rabi Mahapatra is Ford Fellow, BOYS-CAST Fellow, Senior-Member IEEE Computer Society, and a Distinguished Visitor of IEEE Computer Society. Dr. Mahapatra served as ABET coordinator of Computer Science. He is serving the Committee on Academic Freedom, Responsibility, Tenure and Promotion (CAFRT) and is a Faculty Senator at Texas A&M University. He is also a member of Graduate Admission Committee in Computer Science and Engineering Department. Dr. Mahapatra received Undergraduate Teaching Excellence award in 2010.
Prof. Laxmi N. Bhuyan (Promoter,BIT)
Professor and Chairman, Department of Computer Science, University of California, Riverside, USA
Prof. Laxmi N. Bhuyan Dr. Laxmi Narayan Bhuyan is a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, Riverside since January 2001. Prior to that, he was a professor of Computer Science at Texas A&M University (1989-2000) and Program Director of the Computer System Architecture Program at the National Science Foundation (1998-2000). He has also worked as a consultant to Intel and HP labs.

Dr. Bhuyan received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from Wayne State University in 1982. His current research interests are in the areas of network computing, multiprocessor architectures, router and web server architectures, parallel and distributed processing, and performance evaluation. He has published more than 150 papers in these areas in IEEE Transactions on Computers (TC), IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS), Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing (JPDC), and many refereed conference proceedings. Dr. Bhuyan currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS). He is a past Editor of the IEEE TC, JPDC, and Parallel Computing Journal. He was the founding Program Committee Chairman of the HPCA in 1995, Program Chair of the IPDPS in 1996, General Chair of ADCOM-2001, and General Chair of HPCA-9 (2003). He was elected Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Computer Architecture (1995-1998).

Dr. Bhuyan is a Fellow of the IEEE, the ACM, the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), and the WIF (World Innovation Foundation). He has also been named as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Computer Science. He has received other awards such as Halliburton Professorship at Texas A&M University, and Senior Fellow of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station. He was also awarded the IEEE CS Outstanding Contribution Award in 1997.
Prof. Prasant Mohapatra (Promoter, BIT)
Professor and Chairman, Department of Computer Science, University of California, Davis, USA
Prof. Prasant Mohapatra Dr. Prasant Mohapatra is currently a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Davis. In the past, he was on the faculty at Iowa State University and Michigan State University. He has also held Visiting Scientist positions at Intel Corporation, Panasonic Technologies, Institute of Infocomm Research (I2R), Singapore, and National ICT Australia (NICTA). Dr. Mohapatra received his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 1993. He was/is on the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on computers, ACM WINET, and Ad Hoc Networks. He has been on the program/organizational committees of several international conferences. He was the Program Vice-Chair of INFOCOM 2004, and the Program Co-Chair of the First IEEE International Conference on Sensor and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks (SECON 2004), Program Chair of QSHINE International Conference (2006), and a Guest Editor for IEEE Network, IEEE Communications, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing and the IEEE Computer.

Dr. Mohapatra's research interests are in the areas of wireless networks, sensor networks, Internet protocols and QoS. Dr. Mohapatra's research has been funded through grants from the National Science Foundation, Intel Corporation, Siemens, Panasonic Technologies, Hewlett Packard, and EMC Corporation. On the administrative side, Dr. Mohapatra served as the CTO of Polyphasic Corporation from 2001-2003, and has been serving the Chair of Graduate Group in Computer Science at UC Davis since 2003.
 
Mr. P. K. Mohapatra (Governing Board Member)
IAS, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Govt. of Orissa.
Sri Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra is a senior Civil Servant of the State from the Indian Administrative Service cadre. Besides serving in the Govt of India on important assignments, he also served as Commissioner-cum-Secretary of the Higher Education Department, Govt. of Orissa and as Collector of several Districts in the State. He currently holds additional charge as the Secretary, Science and Technology Department, Govt. of Orissa.

As the Secretary IT, in the last assignment, he has been instrumental in rolling out of a large number of e-Governance applications throughout the State and in furthering investment promotion into the IT & ITES sectors.

He has widely travelled across the globe including countries like US, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Japan and Singapore.

Mr.Mohapatra has a very bright academic career. He is a M.Tech from the Indian School of Mines and holds a Management degree from the Queensland University, Australia.
Er. Rabindra Gaan (Promoter, BIT)
Satellite Radio Broadband Consultant, Bell Labs, New Jersey, USA
Mr. Rabindra Gaan Mr. Rabindra Gaan graduated from IIT-BHU with B.Tech degree in Electronics & Communication during 1985 and obtained his Master Degree from PII, Eindhoven, The Netherlands in 1990. During 1985-89, Mr. Gaan worked with Bharat Electronics, at Bangalore on design, development and testing of VHF wireless .equipment for Indian Defense Forces. He was also responsible for development of encryption equipments for Indian Army on wireless communications. Subsequently, he joined with Punwire Wireless Communications and worked on Digital Multi Access Radio Telephone (DMART) for Indian Defense Forces (Army) as Principal Engineer during 1990 to 1992. Mr. Gaan was working with Shyam Telecom during 1992-1998 where he was a General Manager (R&D). He was instrumental in success of projects like MART (Multi Access Rural Telephony wireless), Optical Multiplexer, ATE (Automatic Test Equipment) and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) technologies.

Since 1999, Mr. Gaan has been working with Bell Labs at Murray Hill, New Jersey as a consultant with expertise on Satellite Radio Broadcast Systems. He has more than 21 years of experience in field of Communication Engineering and Technology that includes several innovations to his credits.
Mr. Prashant Kumar Dash (Promoter, BIT)
CMD, SS group of companies, India
  Mr. P.K. Dash has several years of engagement in teaching and education. He has founded several companies as a major enteprenuer in the state of Orissa. He has been successful in implementing new concepts in business that meaningfully impacts walks of life of common people. His enterprenurial spirit and imaculate business acumen has brought his organization to the forefront of leading business houses in Odisha and beyond. Apart from many operations, he is a pioneer in establishing Apollo Diagnostics in Odisha, which provides unmatched employment opportunities for thousands of people. technical and non-technical alike. His vision to ensure the success of BIT as a worldclass institution is a move in the positive direction for quality of education in the state of Orissa.
Mr. Binoy K. Dash (Promoter, BIT)
Cisco Systems, Sr. Architect, California, USA
Mr. Binoy K. Dash Mr. Binoy Dash is currently a Software Engineer in Cisco Systems at San Jose, USA. He graduated with a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Texas A&M University in 2006. Before joining Cisco Systems, he worked as an Engineering Intern in wireless technology giant Qualcomm Inc. for several months, where he worked in WCDMA Physical layer Software, specifically the Cell Searcher algorithm implementation on the wireless chipset. In academics, he was the scholarship recipient from Foundation for Excellence Inc., USA and Industrial Affiliates Program (IAP) in Texas A&M University.

In his role as a Software Engineer in Cisco Systems, he is involved in the Design and Development of different applications and protocols that provides routing and switching infrastructure in IOS-XR Microkernel operating system, which drives the high end routers.
Major General P Pinak Das (Promoter, BIT)
Ex- Advisor DRDO Defense Research, New Delhi, India
  Maj Gen P.P. Das was commissioned into the Indian Army in June 1969 having been trained at The National Defense Academy (NDA). In the early stages of his career he took part in the 1971 INDO-PAK operations, in the state of Sikkim. He later went on to complete the Post Graduate program in Maintenance and Industrial Tribology at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

After a decade of service in the Army he was selected by the then Scientific Advisor to the Raksha Mantri to be part of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). During his tenure in the DRDO he worked in the specialized areas of satellites, electronic warfare, missiles and corporate governance. He spearheaded some projects to successful completion in the capacity of Project Director. He served as the interface of DRDO to promote Services’ interaction with a view to develop and design precision equipment to augment the actual requirements of Armed Forces under the Ministry of Defense and Corporate India as an Industry partner.
Mr. Ashok Mahapatra (Chief Operating Officer , BIT)
B.E. Comp. Sc. (NIT, Rourkela), MBA (Rutgers University, USA), Ex- GM (Target Corp., USA)
Mr. Ashok Mahapatra joined BIT as the Chief Operating Officer after serving in senior leadership positions in Fortune companies in the USA for about 18 years. He holds a MBA degree from Rutgers University, USA and a B.Tech in Computer Science from NIT, Rourkela. Prior to joining BIT, Mr. Mahapatra was the GM for Target Corporation, USA. He is known for his Management philosophy and contribution to Supplychain and Logistics in Target Corp., UPS and CP Ships USA. He has left remarkable impressions in grooming future leaders and developing effective strategies and efficient IT systems architecture for AT&T, United Health, ICICI, TCS, Fujitsu, Target, UPS and CP Ships.

During his schooling Mr. Mahapatra held the 7th position in Orissa Board. He believes in grooming and holistic teaching philosophy, while he himself was a college blue from NIT, Rourkela, where he excelled in Tennis, Badminton, Table Tennis, Dramatics, Music, Group Discussion types of activities. His experience and passion for impactful higher technical education makes him a suitable management leader in BIT.
Prof. Sushil Kumar Sen (Director, BIT)
Ph.D. Calcutta University
Prof. Sushil Kumar Sen came from Calcutta University where he was involved in research and teaching at various levels of graduate and honours programs in the Chemistry Department. As an UNESCO Fellow, Prof. Sen held postdoctoral research positions in J. Heyrovsky Institute at Prague, Czechoslovakia. He has presented a number of research papers in National & International events and published numerous papers in International Journals. Prof. Sen is a Fellow of Indian Chemical Society and a member of the Royal Chemical society, London. Currently, he is a professor of Chemistry and holding Interim-Director position at BIT.
Prof. Sunil Sarangi (Governing Board Member)
Director, NIT, Rourkela
Prof Sunil Kumar Sarangi is the first director of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela, the erstwhile Regional Engineering College (REC). Prof Sarangi was educated at Ravenshaw College. After studying mechanical engineering at IIT, Kharagpur, he joined the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1970 and was awarded PhD in Radiative Heat Transfer. Later in 1977, he joined Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad and then went on to join IIT, Kharagpur as a faculty. His areas of interests are cryogenic Processes and Equipment, Heat Exchanger, Compression and Expansion Machines. He was a professor and head of the Cryogenic Department for a long time before joining as the NIT director. Prof. Sarangi is well known for his scholarly contributions and able administration.
Prof. Gopal Nayak (Governing Board Member)
Director, IIIT-Bhubaneswar
Prof. Nayak graduated from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur in electrical engineering. He obtained Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from IIM Bangalore followed by a PhD from IIT, Kharagpur. Prof. Nayak has spent several years in industry such as Nelco and NTPC prior to joining academics. He is one of the founding Professors of Xavier Institute of Management (XIMB), Bhubaneswar. As the Professor of Information Systems, he was instrumental in transforming XIMB into the most technology intensive campus in India. He held important positions at XIMB such as the Dean (Academics). Prof. Nayak joined as the first director of the IIIT Bhubaneswar since 2007.
Mrs. Sumita Panda (Managing Trustee, BIT)
Women Empowerment, Social Activist, Environmentalist
Mrs. Sumita Panda Mrs. Sumita Panda with a Masters degree in Arts from the Sambalpur University in 1984 has been directly and indirectly engaged in a number of social projects relating to poverty alleviation, adult education and awareness creation on environmental issues. She takes active interest in woman empowerment by inspiring and helping formation of Self Help Groups among rural and semi urban women from lower economic strata. She is a yoga exponent and an active member of the movement for vegetarianism. Mrs. Panda hails from a reputed Oriya family of freedom fighters and social workers." She is married with two children.