Electrical Engineering and Computer Informatics B.Sc., University of Madras, India, 1981 B.E., Indian Institute of Science, India, 1984 M.Tech., Indian Institute of Technology, India, 1986 Ph.D., University of Ottawa, Canada 1989 |
Dr. Sethuraman "Panch" Panchanathan is the Senior Vice-President for the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development (OKED) at ASU and is responsible for advancing Research, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development activities at ASU. He is a Foundation Chair in Computing and Informatics in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, and the Director of the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) at ASU. He is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, an Affiliate Professor in the School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering. He was also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine, Phoenix. Panch was the Founding Director of the School of Computing and Informatics and was instrumental in founding the Biomedical Informatics Department at ASU. He was also the Chair of the Computer Science and Engineering Department.
Panch is research interests are in the areas of designing ubiquitous computing environments for enhancing quality of life for individuals with disabilities; human-centered multimedia computing; genomic signal processing; analysis and recognition of face, gait, emotions, events and activities; media processor designs; and haptic (touch-based) user interfaces. His research work has been funded by several federal and state agencies, foundations and industry. He has published over 430 research papers in refereed journals and conferences. He has mentored over 100 graduate students, post-docs, research engineers, and research scientists who occupy leading positions in academia and industry worldwide. Panch co-founded two start-up companies MotionEase Inc., and RehabDev LLC., focused on rehabilitative applications. CUbiC's flagship project, iCARE won the Arizona Governor's Innovator of the Year Academia Award in 2004. His team has also won other prestigious awards such as the Microsoft Imagine World Cup.
Panch was the editor-in-chief of IEEE Multimedia Magazine and is on the editorial board of twelve other professional journals. He has been a guest editor of special issues and chair of many conferences. He is a member of the executive committee of the Council of Research Programs and Graduate Education (CRPGE) of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU). Panch was a member of the US-India Business Council team that was part of President Obama's executive mission to India for exploring innovation and economic development opportunities. He was a member of the Electronic Health Steering Committee appointed by the Governor of Arizona to define the roadmap for the future of e-health. He was also part of a select team of experts invited by the Governor on her visit to Canada to explore academic, industrial and governmental partnerships.
Panch is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Society of Optical Engineering (SPIE).
Panch has a Bachelor's degree in Physics and Electrical Communication Engineering from the University of Madras and Indian Institute of Science, respectively. He has a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Ottawa, Canada.
He was appointed to the National Science Board in 2014.