Biography
Short Bio:
Dr. Thyaga Nandagopal is the Division Director of the Division of Innovation and Technology Ecosystems in the Directorate of Technology, Innovation and Partnerships at the National Science Foundation. In this role, with an annual budget of over $350M, he oversees NSF investments in convergent and translational research in emerging technologies and in building inclusive innovation ecosystems around the country. Dr. Nandagopal is the co-chair of the NSF-wide Quantum Leap Steering Committee, that coordinates NSF investments in inter-disciplinary research in quantum computing, communications and sensing. He also serves on the NSF-wide Semiconductor Steering Committee that coordinates NSF investments in semiconductors, microelectronics and packaging. Prior to his current role, he was the Deputy Division Director of the Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF) Division in the Directorate of Computer & Information Science and Engineering (CISE) at the NSF, where he oversaw the division's investments in the theory and foundations of computing systems and communications technologies, with an annual budget of nearly $200M. His current interests are in research policy, partnerships, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and advanced wireless networks (beyond 5G). He has brought in over $150M from external partners into NSF-funded research programs. He previously served as a Program Director at the NSF in the Networking Technologies and Systems (NeTS) program where he started the Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research program, a $100M effort over the 2017 - 2024 timeframe involving 30+ industry partners. He holds over 30 patents on software-defined networks and wireless technologies. He is an IEEE Fellow, and holds a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Long Bio:
Dr. Thyaga Nandagopal is the Division Director of the Division of Innovation and Technology Ecosystems in the Directorate of Technology, Innovation and Partnerships at the National Science Foundation. In this role, with an annual budget of over $350M, he oversees NSF investments in convergent and translational research in emerging technologies and in building inclusive innovation ecosystems around the country. Dr. Nandagopal is the co-chair of the NSF-wide Quantum Leap Steering Committee, that coordinates NSF investments in inter-disciplinary research in quantum computing, communications and sensing. He also serves on the NSF-wide Semiconductor Steering Committee that coordinates NSF investments in semiconductors, microelectronics and packaging.
Prior to his current role, he was the Deputy Division Director of the Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF) Division in the Directorate of Computer & Information Science and Engineering (CISE) at the NSF, where he oversaw the division's investments in the theory and foundations of computing systems and communications technologies, with an annual budget of nearly $200M. His current interests are in research policy, partnerships, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and advanced wireless networks (beyond 5G). He previously served as a Program Director at the NSF in the Networking Technologies and Systems (NeTS) program where he started the Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research program, a $100M effort over the 2017 - 2024 timeframe involving 30+ industry partners. He holds over 30 patents on software-defined networks and wireless technologies. Between 2014 and 2023, he served as the co-chair of the Wireless Spectrum Research and Development Interagency Working Group (WSRD IWG), which co-ordinates spectrum-related research and development activities across the Federal government.
Dr. Nandagopal is keen on partnerships, bringing other public and private partners with aligned research interests to work with the National Science Foundation. He is directly responsible for over $150M in external funding that has flowed into NSF programs since 2016. He has worked with an array of over 30 companies with interests in 5G/6G networks, quantum computing and artificial intelligence and has been instrumental in the creation of over 6 research programs. He has a great understanding of the issues of research integrity, intellectual property protections and the tradeoffs between short-term development priorities and long-term research investments.
Prior to his service at the NSF, Dr. Thyaga Nandagopal was at Bell Labs, the research arm of Lucent Technologies which later became Alcatel-Lucent in 2006 (and is currently part of Nokia). He was a Member of Technical Staff at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, in the Networking Research division for 10 years. During his time at Bell Labs, his diverse research interests spanned Wireless Mesh Networks, RFID systems, Networking in the Cloud, Energy-efficient Networks and Software Defined Networks. In this role, he helped pioneer the development of the first commercial carrier-grade Software Defined Network Platform (ALU 9980 AINP) between 2006 and 2008, with industry-leading features such as service-chaining, and network function virtualization. This product emerged from the cutting-edge research on SDNs done in the Networking Research lab back in 2004. He received the Bell Labs President's Award twice on account of his work on this product.
Dr. Nandagopal received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002. He has Masters degrees in Applied Mathematics and Computer Engineering from UIUC in 2000, and 2002. His undergraduate institution is the College of Engineering, Guindy, from where he earned a B. Engg. in Electronics and Communication Engineering in 1997. He is a resident of Northern Virginia. In 2016, he received the Young Alumni Achievement Award from the ECE Department at the University of Illinois. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Senior Member of the ACM.