Bangalore-based Dr Sunil Kumar Vuppala, an IIT Roorkee alumni and currently the Director of Data Science, Ericsson as won the prestigious Zinnov Award 2020 in recognition of his contributions to the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics. He has been conferred the award in the Technical Role Model - Emerging Technology - AI & Big data analytics category in a virtual ceremony on July 31 2020.

“The tech-driven education at IIT Roorkee laid the foundation for my strong fundamentals in the emerging technologies domain. Equally relevant is the role of the faculty at IIT Roorkee, who has been a constant pillar of support,” said Vuppala.

Dr Vuppala is from the 2004 batch of IIT Roorkee’s Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering. Along with working with Ericsson, he is also serving as the co-chair of the Industry Engagement at IEEE Bangalore Section.

The award, presented by Zinnov, a leading global management consulting firm, recognises the contribution of individuals as well as organizations that have enabled business continuity driven innovation along with diversity. Other notable recipients of the 2020 Awards included Manish Bhide, Chief Architect, IBM Watson OpenScale, and Shibi Panikkar, Distinguished Engineer from Dell Technologies.