Bio

shankar-profile3-sm

He is a professor in the CEECS Department and the Director of CSI.

His resume may be accessed here:   Long Resume  (Word),   Short Resume (Word).  Please also visit the pages on Research, Publications and Grants.  (Note: Mozilla may have PDF display issues)

Links to our collaborative websites, all based on open source tools,  are listed here:  Android App Development , Robotics for STEM , Semantic Web Apps, and Animation

 

Educational and Professional Experience

Dr. Shankar has a BS (’71) in Telecommunications Engineering from Karnataka university, Dharwar, India, MS (’77) and Ph.D. (’82) degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, and an MBA (2000) from the Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL. His areas of specialization for the Ph.D. were computer engineering and biomedical engineering. He joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Boca Raton, FL, in 1982, and has been a full professor with the Computer Science and engineering Department at FAU since 1991. The College of Engineering recognized his contributions by publishing a profile in their 1996 annual newsletter. During his MBA he consulted with several faculty members in the College of Business with the intent to chart out a viable growth plan for CSI and to incorporate lessons learned at other US universities. The goal has been to  develop a hotbed of innovation at CSI. Results may be seen in the collaborative websites that are listed above. These collaborations involve faculty members from the colleges of engineering and computer science, arts & letters, education, and business, and the Henderson school  (K-12). He is a senior member of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). Dr. Shankar holds Professional Engineering (PE) license in the State of Florida and is  a Fellow of the American Heart Assocition (FAHA). He has brought $4.31 M in research grants and royalties during his tenure at the university. He has 5 US patents.

During his first sabbatical leave in 1992, he led a team of 34 engineering and computer professionals on a biomedical project. The project and his US patents have yielded $1 M in royalties to the university. During his second sabbatical leave in 1998, he helped build the CSI (it was called “Center for VLSI and Systems Integration” at that time, in recognition of its emphasis on VLSI at that time) infrastructure and submit several proposals that brought together the colleges of engineering, business, and education, as well as several school counties, small businesses, and high-tech companies. During his subsequent leave of absence (2001-2002) he was with Cadence Design Systems, Inc., and held the position of TAM (technical account manager) responsible for the Motorola engineering design groups in Florida. Cadence is the leading company in the EDA (engineering design automation) industry. The interaction with Motorola engineers paved the way for a proposal to Motorola’s iDEN division in 2003 when he returned to FAU. The project was entitled OPP (One Pass to Production) and had the ambitious goal of developing a radical methodology to engineer a new cell phone in 24 hours. This may be compared to the then (in 2003) product development time of 18 to 24 months. Motorola approved and  funded our center (since then re-christened as the Center for Systems Integration, to represent the expanded scope of the center) at a total of about $1.1 million over 6 years (2003-2008). Significant progress was made in meeting the goal. More details are provided at our CSI website. Motorola’s internal evaluation indicates that our flow can potentially reduce their product development period to 3 months. This project was a highly cross-disciplinary project involving faculty members and students in several subdisciplines within computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering. Dr. Shankar, with his knowledge in many of these fields, and his management skills,  created a thriving cross-disciplinary community in an university setting that addressed a key issue of industrial competitiveness. The principles learned in this OPP project subsequently were applied for smart phone App development during 2009 under a grant from the SBA (Small Business Administration). This has led to developing, during the past 3 years, to three sets of courses, projects, and research that span the range of high school to graduate students in these areas: smart phone Apps, robotics, and semantic web.  These collaborations involve several colleges (engineering & computer science, education, arts & letters, and business) and schools (the Henderson school and  the Palm beach and Broward county school districts). He will be on sabbatical leave during the 2012-2013 academic year

Membership in Professional Societies:  IEEE (Senior Member), and AHA (Fellow).

Professional Registration: P.E. (Professional Engineer), State of Florida (1984-present).

Research Commercialization: He has 5 US patents. FAU’s first licensing contract was based upon Dr. Shankar’s research on Early and Non-invasive Detection of Atherosclerosis, signed March 1991.  Royalty payments worth a total of $1 Million have been received by FAU  Research Corporation through 2004.  This compares well with the total royalties received at FAU by all licenses, since its inception:  About $2 Million.

Continuing Education and Certification Efforts (Recent):

  • eLearning Designer/Facilitator Certification at FAU, passed with honors, May 2012
  • CITI (Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative) Certification obtained for both Biomedical Research Investigators (September 30, 2011) and Social & Behavioral Research investigators (September 28, 2011)
  • NIH, UMLS (Unified Medical Language System) 1-day training, Fall ‘07
  • Rhapsody, UML Tool for Real-Time, Motorola Funding, FAU, April 2004
  • NSF Sponsored Workshop on Biocomplexity, at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, July 2002.
  • Leadership Training, 3 day certification course during my stay with Cadence, The Client Partner, Aspen Consulting Inc., April 2002.
  • Position as Senior Consultant at Cadence, with focus in the area of SFV (Systems and Funcational Verification), during January 2001 to July 2002. SFV is the major area of challenges for system design and integration in this SoC (System-on-a-Chip) era. Several papers and internal documents were prepared.
  • Active support of Cadence tools and design flow, during January 2001 – 2003 at Motorola. Significant experience.

Professional Recognition (Recent):

  • Moderator, Industry Panel Session, Radical Productivity Enhancement, IEEE Systems Conferece, Honolulu, HI, Aprill 2007
  • Member, Panel Discussion on Education Alternatives for Combining Engineering and Management, IEMC, Newfundland, September 2005
  • Dean’s Faculty Award, Annual Award for Outstanding Faculty, College of Engineering, December 2003.
  • Plaque of appreciation, Presented by Mr. Jaime Borras, Corporate VP and CTO, iDEN, Motorola, for leadership in implementing ‘One Pass to Production’ and ‘Digital Six Sigma’ program, September 2003.
  • Leadership award, by Dr. Borko Furht, CSE Dept., FAU, for leading the department in establishing collaborative relationship with Motorola that has led to 3 grants and 3 potential grants to various faculty members, March 2003.
  • Member, Panel Discussion on Education Alternatives in Biomedical Engineering, Biocomplexity Conference, Dartmouth, July 2002
  • Team of the Year award to our Motorola Enterprise Team at Cadence Design Systems, Inc, January 2002. He was a senior member of the team.

University Service (Recent):

  • ABET Coordinator for Computer Engineering – A softcopy document developed for the first time,  based on the Motorola/OPP methodology, June 2008. Full ABET Accreditation received promptly for six years.  This was exceptional compared to other programs.
  • Academic Coordinator, MSTC (Master of Science in Technology Commercialization), a joint program developed by the colleges of science, engineering & computer science, and management, to help intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs with taking a concept to commercialization, Program Coordinator: Dr. Darab Unwalla, Professor Emeritus, College of Business, 2005-2006. Program withdrawn
  • Mentor (unofficial) for 6 faculty members and 3 PhD Students to evolve a long-term FAU-Motorola relationship, 2003. Now, part of the Motorola OPP project team.
  • Member, Executive Committee, Computer Science and Eingineering Department, 2003 – 2006, 2007- present.
  • Director, Computer Engineering Undergraduate Committee, CSE, 2003-2005. and 2007-present. Results: updated the curriculum, Defined the CE discipline, Streamlined and added courses on systems engineering &  made ABET On-Line feasible.
  • Developed the proposal for a BS in Bioengineering, in collaboration with the EE, CSE, and ME faculty in the college of engineering, and the Biology department and CMBB (Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology) in the college of Science, July 1999.  Implemented by the college in a different form.