P. V. S. Rao

P. V. S. Rao
Born 17 July 1936
Spouse(s) Vijayalaxmi
Parent(s) Venkata Suryanarayana Rao
Ramalakshmiamma
Awards Padma Shri
Vikram Sarabhai Award
Om Prakash Bhasin Award
VASVIK Industrial Research Award

Paranandi Venkata Suryanarayana Rao is an Indian computer scientist, known for his researches in the fields of speech and script recognition and is credited with contributions for the development of TIFRAC, the first indigenously developed electronic computer in India.[1] He is a recipient of awards such as Vikram Sarabhai Award, Om Prakash Bhasin Award and VASVIK Industrial Research Award.[2] The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1987.[3]

Biography

P. V. S. Rao was born on 17 July 1936 to Venkata Suryanarayana Rao[4] and Ramalakshmiamma Paranandi in Berhampur, in the Indian state of Odisha.[5] He graduated in science from Utkal University in 1953 and secured a master's degree in science from Banaras Hindu University in 1955.[5] After obtaining a doctoral degree in speech research and computer architecture form the University of Mumbai, Rao joined Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in 1972 as a senior research scientist at the R&D department for computers.[1] He worked there for 43 years and at the time of his retirement in 1998, he was serving as the senior professor and the head of the Computer Systems and Communications Group.[6] During his tenure at TIFR, he also worked as the Project Director of a sponsored project (1972–84), Professor and Head of the Speech and Digital Systems Group (1978–83) and Professor (G) and the Head of the Computer Systems and Communications Group (1980–90).[1]

Rao was involved in the development of TIFRAC, the first electronic computer developed in India in 1955.[6] After its commissioning in 1957, he was involved with computer research activities at the University of Illinois and took part in the development of ILLIAC II, in areas related to memory elements, which was commissioned in 1962.[7] Later, he was associated with the development of OLDAP, another TIFR computer project.[1] He served two government agencies, the R&D Council and Telecommunication Commission under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Technology Development Council of the Electronics Commission of the Government of India.[1] He also sat on the governing council of the Indian Statistical Institute and the board of CMC Limited and served as a member of the editorial committees of journals such as IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals of Electronics and Journal of Computer Science and Technology.[1] He was the editor of three books, An introduction to Computer Programming in FORTRAN and other Languages (1980), BASIC Elementary, Standard and Enchanced (1989) and Trends in Computer Architecture: An Indepth Perspective (1991) and contributed a chapter to another book, Data Conversion Principles.[1]

Awards and honours

Rao is an elected member of the Indian Academy of Sciences,[8] the Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Sciences (India),[9] Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers and the Acoustical Society of India.[1] He received the Vikram Sarabhai Award from the Hari Om Ashram, Gujarat in 1976.[5] Three major awards reached him in 1987, the Om Prakash Bhasin Award from O. P. Bhasin Foundation, VASVIK Industrial Research Award from Vividhlaxi Audyogik Samshodhan Vikas Kendra and the civilian honour of Padma Shri from the Government of India.[2][3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "INSA Profile". Indian National Science Academy. 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Perspectives in Computer Architecture". PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  4. ↑ "Parnandi Venkata Suryanarayana Rao". All Company Data. 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 "Paranandi Venkata Rao". Prabook. 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  6. 1 2 "TIFRAC, India's first computer - A retrospective". Springer link. 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  7. ↑ H. C. Brearley, Jr. (June 1965). "ILLIAC II-A Short Description and Annotated Bibliography" (PDF). IEEE Transactions 14 (3): 399–403.
  8. ↑ "Indian Academy of Sciences fellow". Indian Academy of Sciences. 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  9. ↑ "National Academy of Sciences (India) fellow". National Academy of Sciences (India). 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, December 09, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.