Conference Speakers

Bhavik Bakshi holds the Wrigley Professorship at Arizona State University with appointments in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, School of Sustainability and School of Complex Adaptive Systems. He is also an emeritus professor at The Ohio State University and adjunct professor at IIT Delhi. He has also been a professor at the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai and Vice Chancellor at TERI School of Advanced Studies in New Delhi.

His research is developing systematic methods to ensure that engineering enables an effective transformation toward sustainability. This is resulting in novel solutions that respect nature’s limits, are socially just, and contribute to economic prosperity. He has received recognitions from the Computing, Environmental, and Sustainability divisions of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

His Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree is from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai, MS in Chemical Engineering Practice and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a minor in Technology and Environmental Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Mike Bergin’s general research focus is on the influence of air pollution on both climate and human health. His specific interest is particulate matter (PM), and he has done a wide range of studies on the emission, formation, deposition and impacts of PM. He has worked in both pristine regions of the world (Greenland and the Himalaya), as well as hazy regions (the Southeastern US, China, and India).

More recently, he has been studying the influence of PM on human health with an emphasis on determining the relative contributions of sources (such as biomass burning and vehicular emissions) to acute health impacts. He is also involved in developing and deploying the next generation of air quality sensors to inform citizens on the quality of the air they are breathing so that they can make informed decisions to improve their air.

In addition, his group is working closely with machine learning experts to develop and apply new approaches to sensor network calibration and maintenance, satellite image analyses, human sentiment evaluation, and solar energy production. His broad vision involves combining a multidisciplinary, multicultural approach to research and education that brings together researchers from around the world to collectively work together to make the air cleaner.

Neil Gaikwad is an Assistant Professor of Data Science and Computer Science at UNC Chapel Hill. He serves on the Faculty Advisory Council of the UNC Parr Center for Ethics and is a Fellow at the MIT Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values. Neil holds a Ph.D. in Society-Centered AI from MIT and is an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science.

Neil's scholarship, published in prominent AI and HCI conferences, has been recognized with several prestigious honors, including the Facebook Research Fellowship, MIT Engineering Fellowship, Human Rights & Technology Fellowship, MIT Graduate Teaching Award, and the Karl Taylor Compton Prize, MIT's highest student honor. Neil's work has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg, WIRED, and the United Nations. He has been recognized as a Rising Star by both Stanford University and the University of Chicago.

Translating research into real-world impact, Neil is a dedicated educator and mentor who has taught over 500 students throughout his career. He has guided more than 30 students to publish influential papers on AI safety, secure prestigious fellowships, and contribute to shaping AI policy through public interest research. Neil leads the AI Policy Initiative, a global collaboration uniting stakeholders from academia, industry, government, and civil society to shape socially and ethically responsible AI paradigms that align technological advancement with human values.

Before starting this position on September 1, 2022, Gill served as the World Bank’s Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions, where he helped shape the Bank’s response to the extraordinary series of shocks that have hit developing economies since 2020. Between 2016 and 2021, he was a professor of public policy at Duke University and non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development program.

Gill led the World Bank’s influential 2009 World Development Report on economic geography. His work includes introducing the concept of the “middle-income trap” to describe how countries stagnate after reaching a certain level of income. He has published extensively on key policy issues facing developing countries—among other things, sovereign debt vulnerabilities, green growth and natural-resource wealth, labor markets, and poverty and inequality.

Gill has also taught at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.

Rohit Lamba is an assistant professor of economics at Cornell University. He has previously held academic positions at the Pennsylvania State University, University of Pennsylvania and New York University Abu Dhabi. He did his PhD in economics at Princeton University. He was also an economist at the Office of the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India.

His research spans economic theory and economic development. Rohit is the co-author (with Raghuram Rajan) of a recent book Breaking the Mold: India’s Untraveled Path to Prosperity, published by Princeton University Press internationally and by Penguin Random House in India.

Professor Sandeep Sen is a senior Computer Scientist whose research interests lie in the areas of Algorithms and Theoretical Computer Science. His focus areas include randomized algorithms, dynamic graph algorithms, geometric algorithms and approximation, and memory hierarchy models where several of his algorithms are among the best known in the literature for the corresponding problems.

Prior to joining Ashoka University, he was a Professor of CSE in IIT Delhi where he held Chair positions and served in leadership roles like Head of the Department and Dean of Faculty. He had also been Dean, the School of Engineering in SNIOE.

Professor Sen had several stints in Industry research laboratories like Bell Laboratories, IBM Research and MSR. He holds a Ph.D. from Duke University, an M.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a B.Tech. in CSE from IIT Kharagpur. He is a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy.

Pramod Singh is an Executive in Residence at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, shaping AI education in the AIPI Master’s program. With over 25 years in analytics and data science leadership, he served as Chief Analytics Officer at Yodlee, led digital analytics at Hewlett Packard for 15 years, generating over $1B in revenue. Earlier, he built Walmart’s Assortment Planning system. Co-founder of Inquisite, an AI-driven research platform, he holds multiple patents, has authored numerous papers, and speaks at conferences on AI and analytics. With a PhD and Master’s in Mathematics from the University of Arkansas and an MBA from the University of Jammu, Pramod advances AI innovation and education.

Javed Tapia is an entrepreneur, investor, and business leader with a diverse portfolio spanning technology, real estate, renewable energy, and fintech. As the Founder and Chairman of the Clover Group of Companies, he has played a pivotal role in shaping industry landscapes through innovation and strategic leadership.

Javed is also recognized as a pioneer in open-source technology adoption in India. In 2000, he partnered with Red Hat Inc. to launch Red Hat India, spearheading its expansion across South Asia and accelerating the enterprise adoption of open-source solutions.

Javed holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, where he remains deeply engaged as a Board of Visitors and India Regional Advisory Board member. In recognition of his contributions to business and innovation, he was honored with the "Alumni Impact Award" by Duke University in 2006.

Ravi is the Chief Digital Officer at Digital Bharat Collaborative, a part of the Piramal Foundation. Previously, Ravi was the Managing Director of Digital Agriculture at The/Nudge Institute. Before that, he worked as an Indian Administrative Fellow in Agriculture with the Secretary of Agriculture for the Government of Karnataka.

Ravi founded PushEngage.com, a prominent web push notification platform with customers in over 150 countries, which was acquired in 2020. As an angel investor, he has made 9 investments and exited 3 successfully. Earlier in his career, Ravi was a Principal at Southeast Interactive Technology Funds, an early-stage venture fund based in North Carolina, USA, and an Equity Analyst at Bank of America in New York. He began his professional journey as a Software Engineer at Hewlett-Packard.

He holds an MBA from Duke University and an MS in Computer Science from IISc Bangalore. He also serves on the Global Alumni Council of Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.

Chintan Vaishnav is a socio-technologist, an engineer trained to understand and build large- scale systems that encompass both human and technological complexities. He is motivated to create solutions that overcome constraints fundamental to improving the human condition. He has pursued this quest by working on technology, development, and policy: starting with pure engineering research at the Bell Laboratories, followed by action- oriented teaching and research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and, most recently, by heading the Government of India’s ‘Innovation Office’, Atal Innovation Mission.

In 2023, Chintan chaired the creation of the Startup20 Engagement Group during India’s Presidency of the G20. He is trained broadly across arts, engineering, policy, and systems.

Wilima Wadhwa is the Director of the ASER Centre. She has been associated with ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) since its inception in 2005 and is the architect of the ASER survey and other primary research studies currently being undertaken by ASER Centre. ASER's unique approach to measuring learning outcomes has been recognized nationally and internationally and has also been adapted by several other countries in Asia and Africa.

Dr. Wadhwa earned her undergraduate degree, with Honors in Economics from Delhi University, MA degrees in Economics from Delhi University and University of California, and her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California.

Dr. Wadhwa has been published extensively and teaches statistics and econometrics at the University of California (Irvine), and the Indian Statistical Institute (New Delhi). She has also been a member of various government and international committees, including the Questionnaire Expert Group for PISA and PISA-D. Dr. Wadhwa’s other research interests include development and economics of education.

Sonam Wangchuk was born in the trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh in J&K, India. Though a Mechanical Engineer by education, he has been mostly working in the field of education reform for more than 30 years. In 1988, just after he finished his engineering studies he founded SECMOL (Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh) www.secmol.org, with the aim of supporting Ladakhi children and youth in educationally challenging and culturally confusing times.

In 1994 he was instrumental in the launch of Operation New Hope, a triangular collaboration of the government, village communities and the civil society to bring reforms in the government schools system. The programme involved formation of Village Education Committees to take ownership of state schools, training of teachers in child friendly ways and re-writing and publishing localised text books for Ladakh. As a result the pass percentage at 10th grade (matriculation) rose from the dismal 5% to 55% in seven years and 75% these days.

For students who still failed in their state exams he founded the SECMOL Alternative School Campus near Leh, a special school where the admission criteria is failure in exams and not high grades. However with the supportive and creative environment at the school, the so called failures have excelled in their chosen fields and risen to international acclaim as entrepreneurs, film makers, politicians, teachers and so on. This experiment in school education has now been extended to an Alternative University called Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL www.hial.edu.in ) which seeks to engage youth in solving problems in their climate context while engaging in higher education.

As an engineer Sonam Wangchuk has been teaching innovation at the SECMOL Alternative School and HIAL, where together with the students he designs and builds solar heated buildings that are low cost, made of earth/mud but maintain +18 C even in – 18 C in Ladakhi winters.

In order to solve the water crisis facing mountain regions due to climate change and fast melting glaciers he invented the Ice Stupa artificial glacier which stores the unused stream waters in winter in the form of giant ice cones or stupas and releases the water in late spring as they melt... just when farmers need water.

Sonam Wangchuk was granted several awards and titles, such as : Magsaysay Award from Philipines (Asian version of the Nobel Prize), 2018; The GQ Men Of The Year Award for Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 in India; Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, Paris 2017; The Rolex Award for Enterprise 2016 in Hollywood USA; The Terra Award 2016 for World’s best Earth Buildings in Lyon France; The UNESCO Chair for Earth Architecture for India in 2014; Real Heroes’ Award by CNN IBN Channel in 2008; ‘Green Teacher’ Award by Sanctuary Asia Magazine in 2005; Ashoka Fellowship by Ashoka: Innovators for the Public in 2002; ‘Man of the Year’ by The Week magazine in India in 2001; the Governors Medal by the J&K State Government in 1996 and Honorary doctorates PhD honoris causa from five universities.