ACM India Elects Meenakshi D'Souza as President

July 2, 2024

ACM India Council elects President, Vice-President & Secretary/Treasurer for the term July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2026.

Meenakshi D'Souza is elected as President

Meenakshi is a Professor and the Head of the Department of Computer Science at IIIT-Bangalore where she teaches a variety of courses including Automata Theory and Computability, Algorithms, Software Testing and Graph Theory. Meenakshi's Software Testing course is offered on the NPTEL platform since 2017 and more than 57000 learners have enrolled for this course over these years. Her primary research interests are on Formal Methods and Software Testing focusing on embedded safety critical applications, she has been working on several sponsored projects in this area. Meenakshi did her PhD from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai and worked for Honeywell, Bangalore, prior to joining IIIT-Bangalore.

Meenakshi has been serving on the ACM India Council since 2018 and was the Secretary cum Treasurer of ACM India from July 2022 to June 2024. During her tenure, Meenakshi was on the Steering Committees of ARCS, CTiS and Annual Event, has co-organized three summer schools, two Grad Cohort events, and has worked on several operational aspects of ACM India.

Prof. Ponnurangam Kumaraguru ("PK") is elected as Vice President

Prof. Ponnurangam Kumaraguru ("PK") is a Professor of Computer Science at IIIT-Hyderabad. He is an Adjunct Faculty at IIT Madras & IIIT Delhi. PK is a Serial Academician with formal appointments (Adjunct/Visiting) in India and across the world, including Brazil, Europe, and USA. He is a senate / academic council member at IIIT Una, JKLU, and LNMIIT Jaipur. PK was inducted as an ACM Distinguished Member in 2021. PK is an ACM India Council Member since July 2020. PK is a TEDx and an ACM Distinguished & ACM India Eminent Speaker. PK received his Ph.D. from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). His Ph.D. thesis work contributed in creating an award-winning startup - Wombat Security Technologies, which was acquired in March 2018 for USD 225M.

Sachin Lodha is elected as Secretary/Treasurer

Sachin Lodha is a Chief Scientist at TCS and heads its Cybersecurity and Privacy Research that is working on diverse problems pertaining to trustworthy AI, de-risking cloud, quantum resilience, privacy by design, and human aspects. He has a special interest in data privacy and related topics. His efforts on that front have led to award-winning innovations that are available as commercial TCS products. He is the first recipient of the TCS Distinguished Scientist Award for his sustained and high-impact contributions to research and business. Sachin Lodha graduated with a B.Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay and received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rutgers University, USA. Sachin Lodha is an ACM India Council Member since July 2022, and also an ACM India Eminent Speaker.