Pramod Abichandani Biography

Pramod Abichandani is an academic and a technology entrepreneur. He serves as the Director of the Second Year Engineering Curriculum and an Assistant Teaching Professor at the College of Engineering at Drexel University. He is the founder of LocoRobo Inc., an educational technology company whose mission is to introduce kids to programming using robotics. He received his Bachelors of Engineering (B.E.) degree in 2005 from Nirma Institute of Technology, Gujarat University, India, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Drexel University in 2007 and 2011 respectively.

His research interests are centered around optimal, multi-dimensional, data-driven decision-making, through the use of techniques from mathematical programming, linear and nonlinear systems theory, statistics, and machine learning. Specific technical areas include optimal decision-making for multi-robot systems under communication constraints, sensor fusion for naval ship monitoring, cognitive bias effects in handwriting forensics, and embedded systems design for data acquisition and control. Sponsors of his research include the National Science Foundation (NSF), Office of Naval Research (ONR), Will Eye Hospital Department of Reserach, Mathworks, Drexel ExCITe Center, and Drexel University's College of Engineering.

On the education front, he works on bringing innovation to the classroom by introducing novel course content, pedagogical methodologies, and evaluation techniques. He is leading research efforts that explore credentialing in engineering education, the scalability of engineering education innovations and technology, and engineering-specific learning theories for data analytics education. He has won several awards for his teaching, including the Continuing Excellence in Teaching (2010) award at Drexel University. In 2013, he was selected to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s fifth Frontiers of Engineering Education symposium in Irvine, California where he presented his Data Science education initiatives.

Source: http://www.pramod.co/biography.html