Rahul Panicker
Rahul Alex Panicker | |
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Born | Mavelikkara, Kerala, India |
Nationality | Indian |
Alma mater | B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), and M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University |
Occupation | President and Co-founder Embrace Innovations |
Known for | Co-founder at Embrace, and President and Co-founder at Embrace Innovations |
Rahul Alex Panicker (born 19 October 1980) is an entrepreneur, best known as President and Co-founder of Embrace Innovations[1] and Embrace, a social enterprise startup that aims to help premature and low-birth-weight babies, through a low-cost infant warmer.[2][3]
Panicker currently serves as the President of Embrace Innovations, a social enterprise that designs and brings to market healthcare technologies for the developing world, starting with an infant warmer. The Embrace infant warmer costs less than 1% of a traditional incubator, and is currently being distributed across clinics in India.[4] He is also a member of the FICCI Health Innovation Task Force in India.[5]
Early life and education
Panicker was born in Mavelikara, Kerala, India.[6] He attended Indian Community School, Kuwait.
Panicker holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), India. He is also an alumnus of the design school at Stanford.[7]
As part of his Ph.D. at Stanford, Panicker worked at the interface of machine learning and optics. His thesis work demonstrated a 10 to 100 fold increase in capacity of multimode optical communication systems. His work combined convex optimization, machine learning, adaptive optics and spatial light modulators.[8] His thesis advisors were Prof. Joseph M Kahn, Prof. Stephen P Boyd, and Prof. Shanhui Fan.
His Erdős number is 3 (Paul Erdős - Persi Diaconis - Stephen Boyd - Rahul Panicker).[9][10]
Career
Before starting Embrace, Panicker worked briefly at Infinera Corporation. While there, he worked in a team led by co-founder, President, and member of the Infinera Board, David F. Welch, Ph.D., in the new products group, working on ultra hi-speed optical telecom systems.
Panicker was chosen as a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year[11] in 2013. In December 2013, Panicker and the other co-founders of Embrace, Jane Chen, Linus Liang and Nag Murty received The Economist Innovation Award for Social and Economic Innovation.[12][13] He was also a Tech Award laureate in 2012,[14] and an Echoing Green fellow.
For his work, Panicker has also been awarded the INDEX: Design to Improve Life award in 2011,[15] International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), 2012,[16] and the Fast Company Innovation By Design Awards, 2012,.[17][18]
Embrace
and
In 2007, while studying at Stanford, Panicker and a few other fellow graduates were part of a class, Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability, at the d.school at Stanford University. They were asked to create a low-cost infant incubator that could be used in developing countries.[19] They designed an infant warmer that worked without electricity, was expected to be low-cost, and was designed for use even by rural mothers in developing countries. After the class, they co-founded Embrace (non-profit), a 501(c)(3) non-profit, in 2008 to bring their project to life.[20] In January 2012, Embrace, moved into a hybrid structure.[21] The non-profit entity, Embrace (non-profit), donates infant warmers to the neediest clinics, and the for-profit social enterprise, Embrace Innovations, sells the warmers[22] to clinics which can afford to pay for them. Embrace, believes that this type of "hybrid" structure allows it to most effectively achieve its mission: to supply its infant warmer to every baby in need.[23]
References
- ↑ Mischler, Michèle. "Social Entrepreneurs of the Year 2013". Schwab Foundation. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
- ↑ Dooley, Sean (Dec 17, 2010). "Embrace Infant Warmer Could Save Thousands".
- ↑ Ahmad, Samreen (April 9, 2012). "Spreading life-saving warmth". Tehelka.
- ↑ Deepa, Balakrishnan (September 12, 2012). "Portable incubators in 4 states a new lease of life". CNN-IBN.
- ↑ IANS. "National innovation council to build an ecosystem for healthcare products and services". health.india.com. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
- ↑ Sirnate, Vasundhara (3 October 2009). "Embrace of Life". Open Magazine.
- ↑ Bagchi, Shrabonti (September 19, 2011). "SAVING LITTLE LIVES". The Times of India.
- ↑ Panicker, Rahul (2007). Compensation of Modal Dispersion in Multimode Fiber Systems Using Adaptive Optics Via Convex Optimization. Stanford University: Stanford University. p. 76. ISBN 0549355774.
- ↑ Panicker, Rahul; Joseph M Kahn; Stephen P Boyd (15 May 2008). "Compensation of Multimode Fibre Dispersion Using Adaptive Optics Via Convex Optimization". Journal of Lightwave Technology 26 (10): 1295 to 1303. doi:10.1109/jlt.2008.917324.
- ↑ Boyd, Stephen; Persi Diaconis (2004). "Fastest Mixing Markov Chain on a Graph". Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics 46 (4): 667 to 689. doi:10.1137/s0036144503423264.
- ↑ Mischler, Michèle. "Social Entrepreneurs of the Year 2013". Schwab Foundation. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
- ↑ Quarterly, Technology (November 30, 2013). "Innovation awards And the winners are…". The Economist.
- ↑ "Bangalore-based startup founders win Economist Innovation Award". The Economic Times. November 6, 2013.
- ↑ Thorpe, Devin (September 30, 2012). "28 Award Winners Highlight Innovation in Social Entrepreneurship". Forbes.
- ↑ The Daily News Staff. "Embrace, Stanford enterprise, wins Index Award". The Stanford Daily. Retrieved September 27, 2011.
- ↑ OZLER, Levent. "Best in Show of the 2012 International Design Excellence Awards". Dexigner. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
- ↑ Wilson, Mark. "The 11 Winners Of Our 2012 Innovation By Design Awards". Fast Company. Retrieved October 17, 2012.
- ↑ Kuang, Cliff. "Why Good Design Is Finally A Bottom Line Investment". Fast Company. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- ↑ "Embrace: A low cost infant warmer". Retrieved April 18, 2012.
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in Authors list (help) - ↑ Platoni, Kara (January–February 2012). "Baby, It's Cold Outside". Stanford Alumni.
- ↑ Abudheen, Sainul K. "Infant warmers maker Embrace raises funding from Khosla Impact, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, others". VCCircle. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
- ↑ Assainar, Raina (June 2013). "Embracing new born lives in a warm cuddle, Embrace Innovations". YourStory.
- ↑ Chen, Jane (February 1, 2013). "Should Your Business Be Nonprofit or For-Profit?". Harvard Business Review.