Professor Karthik Ramani elevated to Donald W. Feddersen Distinguished Professor by Board of Trustees on Friday (Feb. 7). Below is Distinguished Professor Karthik Ramani’s statements at the February 7th Board of Trustees meeting about Purdue, the Convergence Design Lab, Students, Family, Life and Work at the University and its impact on the world:
"I want to thank all of the people who have supported me. All of the people around me. My colleagues. Often times, our productivity is limited by who you work with, where you work, and everything around you that makes things happen. I want to thank my wife, Sujatha, who put up with all of the time that I have spent here on campus. It takes a lot to do good things here. Making work here fun. Thanks to the Deans, Heads of School, and most importantly the late Don Feddersen whose vision lives in our lab.
Our last two grants from NSF were on the future of work and our current research is transforming this space. What we need to learn is changing today. The nature of learning is changing. The skills that we want to have to be effective at work are changing.
Particularly our manufacturing base in Indiana and our rural economy is very much integrated into our lab's work. We want to take our technology and make it more useful and accessible to people, including substantially improving the condition of the human while they work with technology. That is our base theme. Currently, we have 20 Ph.D. students working on all aspects to make things better for both our state and our nation, to be competitive as we move along into the future.
I want to thank my father who got me into computing when I was in high school. And my mother for introducing me to the art of education and skills. Her name is Vidya which in Sanskrit means skills, learning, and knowledge - this is what our current research is about. I am in mechanical engineering, while we are also applying concepts in human-machine interaction, geometric computing, and machine learning to mechanical engineering.
Thank you so much. To the Board of Trustees. And for Mitch [Daniels, President of Purdue] for making things really move."
For more information, please visit: https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2020/Q1/purdue-trustees-ratify-distinguished-faculty,-posthumous-degree.html