About Prof Raja Kumar

Vast experience of 39+ Years as Professor of IIT Kharagpur, Director of IIT Bhubaneswar and VC of RGUKT.

Prof Ratnam V Rajakumar was born in Machilipatnam, India. He received his BE degree topping all branches of engineering in 1980 from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, and MTech and PhD degrees in 1982 and 1987 respectively from IIT Kharagpur, all in Electronics and Communication Engg.

He has been serving as a professor of Electronics and Communications engineering at IIT Kharagpur, starting his career early as a member of the faculty in 1984. During 2015-2022, he served as the 2nd Director of IIT Bhubaneswar, and carried on the founding and establishing pursuits with the objective of creating an institution of global class standards. The endeavor was embarked upon through the creation of unparalleled standards on all fronts including a very constructive, vibrant and 'Sports are for All' student culture. He personally provided the master plan and architectural elements and about 80% of the campus infrastructure (seen by June 2023) was built under his leadership in exceptional standards, quality, and clean, green and wellness ambiance. The institute was recognized with "University of the Year" award in 2021 for its uncompromised education in the best of standards in the country, during Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier from 2010-15, he served as the first Vice-chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (RGUKT), Hyderabad, and successfully met the challenges of building this new University into a unique model for quality education, despite its unparalleled annual intake of 6000 rural students, through several unique personal innovations. Creating and implementing a unique blended education system, raising of quality faculty from across the nation, and a vibrant and responsible student culture were very exceptional innovations. The university won awards for its innovative ICT based pedagogical system. He also served as the Dean of Academic Affairs of IIT Kharagpur from 2003 to 2006, as the Chairman of the G S Sanyal School of Telecommunications, a school of excellence for research in Telecommunications till 2005 and headed the Vodafone Essar - IIT Center of Excellence in Telecommunications from 2007 to 2010, besides other assignments. He made a perspective plan for the growth of IIT Kharagpur, where subsequent developments took place significantly as per the same, and also was responsible in bringing important academic reforms in academics. He also served at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1988 on a visiting assignment. He has also been serving on the governing and advisory boards of IIT's, AIIMS, IISER's, NIT's, IIIT's, Central and other universities erc., and numerous national committees of government departments and organizations and has been helping by sharing vision and providing active guidance. He was also instrumental in the initiation of the INDEST Consortium.

His areas of research interest include Digital Signal Processing, Wireless Communications, Detection & Estimation and VLSI design. He has around 170 research publications in reputed international journals and conferences. He taught several courses, supervised the theses of over 160 students at different levels and authored three video courses. His current research interests include, Green radio, Cognitive radio, and MIMO detection systems. Education too is a subject of his interest, he made very significant contributions therein, served on the boards of studies of several institutions and contributed in curricular design exercises.

Prof. Raja Kumar made significant contributions to technology development through prestigious national projects. Designing a sonar homing system for the first ever torpedo developed by India, designing communication systems and detection systems for DRDO, initiation of the development of Cognitive Radio, designing subsystems and IC's for WiFi, WiMax etc., are a few of the many similar contributions made by him. The BOYS-CAST research grant from the Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India in 1987, the Baroda Chapter national award of ISTE in 2007, the best student paper award in the 1984 IEEE Region 10 (Asia & Pacific) Graduate Paper Contest, and Yuva-Shakti Puraskar are a few of the numerous awards and distinctions held by him. He was an active member of the prestigious academic delegation that accompanied hon'ble President of India on his state visit to China from 24th to 27th May 2016. He was also instrumental in organizing several National and International Conferences serving as general chair, TPC chair and other Committees.