ACM India Chapter Summit 2025

Prof. Suhas Joshi

Director, IIT-Indore

Prof. Suhas Joshi is the Director of IIT Indore and a Fellow of INAE, NASI, and ASME. Previously, he was Rahul Bajaj Chair Professor at IIT Bombay, where he also served as Dean of Alumni and Corporate Relations and Head of Mechanical Engineering. His research focuses on physics-based modeling to improve productivity and quality in multi-scale machining processes, with applications in aerospace, nuclear and defense sectors. He received the Dr. P. K. Patwardhan Technology Development award (2008) and the Best Faculty award of Mechanical Engineering Department (2007) at IIT Bombay. Prof. Joshi has led over 35 sponsored projects, established advanced research infrastructure, and was the founding Principal Investigator of the National Centre for Aerospace Innovation and Research. He has held international research roles as a Research Affiliate at Georgia Tech and Visiting Faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. With over 360 publications and supervision of 22 Ph.D. scholars, he has also served on editorial boards of leading journals, including ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, Machining Science and Technology, and International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture.

Prof. Sashikumaar Ganesan

Professor, IISc Bangalore & Founder
Zenteiq Aitech Innovations

The Scientific Foundation Model: Neural Approaches to Engineering Problems 

Abstract:

This talk addresses the “Scientific AI Gap,” highlighting the inability of current Large Language Models (LLMs) to perform necessary scientific inference and physics-based reasoning for complex engineering problems.

We present the BrahmAI Scientific Foundation Model (SFM), a paradigm shift based on advanced neural approaches. This STEM-native Foundation Model is engineered with a fundamentally different architecture, unifying core techniques: Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs), Fourier Neural Operators (FNOs), Scientific Machine Learning (SciML), and traditional numerical methods (FEM/FVM/FD).

Trained on multimodal Scientific Datasets (PDEs, sensor data, numerical data) , the SFM gains the capability to make scientific inferences , drastically reducing simulation time from hours to minutes and accelerating design cycles.

This sovereign SFM, supported by a major commitment from the IndiaAI Mission , is poised to become the defining model for Science and Engineering, driving Industry 5.0.

Bio:

Prof. Sashikumaar Ganesan is a distinguished academic and entrepreneur, serving as a Professor in the Department of Computational and Data Sciences (CDS) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, and Founder & Chief AI Officer of ZenteiQ AiTech Innovations Pvt. Ltd. He earned his Ph.D. in Computational Mathematics from Otto-von-Guericke University, Germany, and held research positions at Imperial College London and WIAS Berlin.

He joined IISc in 2011 and served as the Chairman of CDS for six years (2018–2024). With over 15 years in academia, he has mentored 25+ research students and trained 1000+ professionals in AI and ML. His research spans Finite Element Analysis, HPC, Data-Driven Modeling, Scientific Machine Learning (SciML), AI and GenAI. Prof. Ganesan leads the AI for Research and Engineering eXcellence (AiREX) Lab at IISc and has published 60+ peer-reviewed works.
His deeptech startup ZenteiQ has been selected by IndiaAI, MeitY, to build the Scientific Foundation Model for science and engineering R&D.

Dr. Srinivas Padmanabhuni

Co-founder, testAIng, Bangalore

Topic: Testing Agentic AI 

Abstract

Agentic AI is an emerging area in AI which envisages the working of a system in terms of collection of autonomous AI agents. These agents by themselves could be fulfilled by an LLM or a smart ML based system. Testing these systems us complex due to the autonomous and workflow driven nature. We will cover key tests which needs to be considered including tests for autonomy, workflow testing , ethics testing, testing for transparency and finally specific functional testing based on relevant evaluation metrics for agents.

Bio:

Dr. Srinivas Padmanabhuni is a technologist and AI strategist, whose expertise spans AI, Machine Learning, Software Engineering, and Cybersecurity. He co-founded CityMandi.com, an AI-enabled B2B AgriTech startup, and served as Chief Mentor at Tarah Technologies, an AI consulting firm.

He is a former President of ACM India, and previously served as Principal Research Scientist and Associate VP at Infosys, where he led university innovation and research initiatives. He has authored a book published by Wiley, holds seven granted patents, and has over 100 refereed publications. He has delivered 400+ invited talks across eight countries, taught 15,000+ students, and contributed to four startups.

He was recognized as an Eminent Engineer by the Institution of Engineers (IEI) for his contributions to the computing profession, and has received accolades, including the Infosys Excellence Award for Innovation, University of Alberta Research Excellence Award, and Merit Award from IIT Kanpur. He holds a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Alberta, Canada, and degrees from IIT Kanpur (B.Tech) and IIT Bombay (M.Tech in Computer Science).