Prahlad Vadakkepat is a researcher in the field of robotics and is the founder and general secretary of the Federation of International Robot-soccer Association (FIRA) and in 2013 is its general secretary. He is an associate professor at the National University of Singapore.Robotics not receiving the attention it should in India: scientist - The Hindu His research is in the areas of Humanoids, Neuro-Fuzzy Controllers, Distributed robotic systems, Biomorphic Robots, Intelligent Control techniques and Frugal Innovation.
Early life and education Vadakkepat grew up in the Palghat District of Kerala,Robots to share and care - The Hindu India.
Vadakkepat received B.Tech. from NSS College of Engineering in electrical engineering (1986), M.Tech. (1989) and PhD (1996) degrees from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He was with the Regional Engineering College Calicut National Institute of Technology Calicut, India as lecturer (1991–96).
Vadakkepat pursued postdoctoral studies (1996–98) at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology KAIST. He is a recipient of the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation KOSEF fellowship. In 1999 he moved to the National University of Singapore.
Career Vadakkepat's work in FIRA has led to several start ups in robotics and embedded systems.India’s top scientific brains join hands to ignite scientific passion in students | India Education Review He has toured Europe, Asia and India to popularize FIRA and robotic competitions. He was the general chair to the FIRA RoboWorld Cup and Congress in Singapore, 2005, in Incheon, and in Bangalore 2010.Robot World Cup commences in Bangalore
Vadakkepat is the founder and director of Robhatah Robotic Solutions in Singapore and Bangalore.Spirit of Enterprise - Nominees He initiated the international conference on Computational Intelligence, Robotics and Autonomous Systems. Vadakkepat is an associate editor of the International Journal of Humanoid Robotics. His Humanoid robotGulf Daily News » Local News » Robots 'can play key role' and robot soccer teams have won several international prizes: first prize and overall championship in Humanoids at the FIRA Robot World Cup (Germany 2006, Singapore 2005 and Austria 2003),Fascinating and Living up with Robotics - The Economic Times First Prize in open category in Singapore Robotic Games (2004) and Second prize in FIRA 2004.
Vadakkepat is a member of the Confederation of Indian Industries National Committee on Robotics since 2009.
Vadakkepat has served as the secretary to the IEEE Singapore Section for the year 2005 and as technical activity coordinator to the Region 10 (Asia-Pacific) in 2001–2002. He has been a senior member of IEEE (USA, since 2005). He is a fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineers, India.
Vadakkepat is actively involved in Frugal Innovation, for which he visits and promotes projects at the grass-root level. He has taken his students to rural hospitals in Maharashtra to simplify medical treatment processes. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Springer Journal for Frugal Innovation. He runs the 'Ideas for Life' social innovation challenge which seeks design innovations which are simple, novel and useful.
Vadakkepat is featured in a number of newspapers and TV shows in several countries (India, Singapore, USA, Korea, Spain, China and France). He has publications in several international journals.Google Scholar report
He is the founder of the Grama Samskrithy Foundation Palakkad.
Vadakkepat is a trustee to the Aryanet Trust which manages Aryanet Institute of Technology, Palakkad, Kerala.
References Top scientists to ignite scientific passion among students | Kerala IT News Decennial celebrations at MCET begins - IBNLive June | 2014 | Imprint Mohandas College of Engineering and Technology gulftoday.ae | Kalam, Swaminathan join ‘Igniting Minds’ move
External links Dr. Prahlad Vadakkepat's homepage Federation of International Robotsoccer Association Robhatah Robotic Solutions http://www.ece.nus.edu.sg/staff/bio/pv.html Computational Intelligence, Robotics and Autonomous Systems