JOIN USA professor at the University of Pennsylvania, USA hailing from Bengaluru, has been granted the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
The PECASE is one of America’s most prestigious research awards.
Rahul Mangharam, the awardee is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is the only Indian citizen among this year’s PECASE class.
President Barack Obama personally celebrated the PECASE winners’ achievements at a private ceremony at the White House in May 2016.
Mangharam studied in several city schools such as Vidya Niketan School, Frank Anthony Public School and Mallya Aditi International School. He went on to pursue his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Carnegie Mellon University. He also received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the same university.
PECASE recognised Mangharam’s work for inventing a new formal methodology in verifying the correct operation of implantable medical devices such as cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators.
Malfunctions in such devices can be immediately life threatening.
The engineers must therefore build strong technological assurances that they can only behave within well defined safety parameters.
Besides this award, Mangharam has been recognised with many other honours, including the IEEE Benjamin Franklin Key Award in 2014, the National Science Foundation Career Award in 2013 and the Intel Early Faculty Career Award in 2012.