Solutions to Grand Challenges Demand Innovation

In his talk, Panch considers the ever important question: How do we foster a culture of innovation?

Sethuraman Panchanathan is the chief research and innovation officer at Arizona State University. He is also the executive vice president of the ASU Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development, which advances research, innovation, strategic partnerships, entrepreneurship, global and economic development at ASU.

Panchanathan was the founding director of the School of Computing and Informatics and was instrumental in founding the Biomedical Informatics Department at ASU. He also served as the chair of the Computer Science and Engineering Department. He founded the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) at ASU, to develop person-centered tools and ubiquitous computing technologies for enhancing the quality of life for individuals with disabilities.

Panchanathan was appointed by President Barack Obama to the U.S. National Science Board (NSB) and is Chair of the Committee on Strategy. He has also been appointed by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE). Panchanathan is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) among other prestigious organizations. He currently serves as the Chair of the Council on Research (CoR) within the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU).

His research interests are in the areas of human-centered multimedia computing; haptic user interfaces; ubiquitous computing technologies; and machine learning for multimedia applications, medical image processing, and media processor designs.