a) Work Experience:

June 2020 - Present: Senior Specialist (Nokia Bell Labs, Naperville, USA)

In this role, Dr. Prasad combines his background in data science and analytics together with corporate finance to lead a multitude of projects related to 5G machine learning and artificial intelligence for physical and medium access control layers (L1/2) of wireless systems. He is also investigating the financial and technological viability of investing in advanced high-altitude Internet platform stations (HAPS), which could enable high-speed, on-demand, and low-latency connectivity to end-users.

June 2019 - May 2020: Sloan Fellow (MIT Sloan, Cambridge, USA)

At MIT, Dr. Prasad was part of the Sloan Fellows MBA program - the highly prestigious management education program for experienced professionals, where he was mainly focusing on the use of data analytics and machine learning for innovation, strategy and finance.

April 2018 - May 2019: Head of 5G Business Modeling & Analysis (Nokia Networks, Espoo, Finland)

In this senior management role, Dr. Prasad reports to the chief architect of Nokia, and is part of the end-to-end 5G leadership program. His key focus is on building business and financial models for disruptive 5G innovations and technology areas, leading to Nokia's leadership in value capture. Dr. Prasad also contributes to long-term technology strategy and business portfolio management of (Nokia's largest and most valuable) mobile networks business unit, while collaborating with Nokia's key customers.

June 2014 - March 2018: Senior Specialist, Radio Research (Nokia Bell Labs, Espoo, Finland)

Worked on 3GPP Radio Access Systems Group at Nokia Research, on 3GPP RAN2 related topics, as well as on European research projects related to 5G radio access networks, as a Senior Researcher in Nokia Technologies until April 2015, moved to Nokia Networks (formerly Nokia Siemens Networks / NSN), as part of an internal transfer. He was part of Nokia Bell Labs organization since Jan. 2016, after the acquisition of ALU. He was attending METIS-II meetings as a pre-standards delegate from Nokia, leading the synchronous control function design for 5G Radio Access Networks. He was also leading the 5G-Xcast project as the Technical Manager, developing disruptive end-to-end enabler for multicast / broadcast content delivery using 5G networks.

Dec. 2012 - May 2014: (3GPP) Standardization Engineer (NEC Laboratories Europe, Heidelberg, Germany)

Worked on system architecture (3GPP SA2) related topics such as: RAN User Plane Congestion management (UPCON), Proximity Service (ProSe), Group Communication System Enablers for LTE (GCSE). I am also responsible for Radio Access Network (RAN) related topics for my lab, such as Small Cell Enhancements (SCE) and Heterogeneous Network (HetNeT) mobility in RAN2 and Energy Saving Enhancements for E-UTRA (FS_Netw_Energy_enh_LTE) in RAN3. As part of my current work, I regularly attend 3GPP RAN2/3 and occasionally 3GPP SA2 meetings as a delegate from NEC. I also actively take part in academic activities, writing international conference and journal papers as well as playing the role of TPC and reviewer for various academic conferences and journals. I also work on Matlab/C++ based system level simulator to present simulation results as part of study/work items in standards, as well as for academic papers advertising my employers’ position on various topics at various academic and industrial forums.

April 2011 - Dec. 2012: Research Scientist / Consultant (Aalto University / Nokia Research Center, Finland)

Worked on mobility related issues of heterogeneous networks looking for standardization proposals beyond Release 12/13 of 3GPP LTE. The work is essentially still in a nascent stage, identifying potential areas of long-term future work, scientific publications and possible IPRs. I am also currently involved in development of simulator suitable for investigating the feasibility of the proposed ideas and enhance it to support further use cases in the future. The research work is funded by Nokia Research Center, Finland.

May 2010 - March 2011: Research Assistant / Consultant (Aalto University / Nokia Research Center, Finland)

Worked on my thesis in the area of Optimized Local Access concentrating on Dynamic Channel Allocation problem for a wireless Local Area Networks such as LTE-Femtocells. The problem involves finding an optimal channel allocation in a multi-channel environment in a distributed manner with minimal information sharing between the Access Points / Home-eNodeBs (Femtocells) maximizing the user throughput, prioritizing the lower percentile users in the user throughput CDF while doing the same. The project was funded by Nokia Research Center, Finland.

Sept. 2006 - July 2009: Software Engineer (Huawei Technologies R&D, Bangalore, India)

Worked on Application and Software (A&S) division of Huawei, on the charging component of fixed and wireless prepaid and postpaid systems. Also coordinated with a vast multitude of Huawei's customers' all over the world to analyze new requirements and converting them into design requirements and solutions.

b) Education:

2020: Master of Business Administration in Finance and Data Science, MIT Sloan School of Management

CGPA - 4.80 / 5

2018: Executive Education Program (LEAD Certificate) in Corporate Innovation and Management, Stanford University Graduate School of Business

2015: Doctor of Science (Technology) in Communications Engineering, Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering (Supervisor: Prof. Olav Tirkkonen)

CGPA - 4.25 / 5 (Studies in Research Field: Pass with Distinction)

2011: Master of Science (Technology) in Radio Communications, Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering

CGPA - 4.33 / 5, Graduated with Distinction

2006: Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering, University of Kerala - Sree Chithra Thirunal College of Engineering

Percentage - 78.9 %, Graduated First Class with Distinction