Harish Kumar Sardana
Director & Professor
Computer Science & Engineering Department
Introduction
Dr. Harish Kumar Sardana has been Director, IIIT Raichur since 1 December 2022. Under his leadership, the Institute has transitioned to its permanent campus at Wadavatti, secured a Rs. 61 crore HEFA-financed 674-bedded hostel, and established ARIA, a Rs. 12 crore AI Centre of Excellence positioning IIIT Raichur as a regional AI hub for North Karnataka.
He was previously a Member of the Arunachal Pradesh Pvt Edu Inst Regulatory Commission (APPEIRC), Itanagar, from May 2022. Before that, he served as Chief Scientist at CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIR-CSIO), Chandigarh, which he joined in December 1982, completing a 39-year scientific career there.
He was Founding Coordinator and Professor at the Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research (AcSIR-CSIO), Chandigarh, from 2009, and served as Chairman, Board of Studies, from 2009 to 2017. In this role, he helped formulate AcSIR's Ph.D. (Science) and Ph.D. (Engineering) programmes, and personally taught Research Methodology to more than 300 Ph.D. scholars across both streams. He continued as Professor at AcSIR-CSIO until his superannuation in November 2021.
Research Interests
His research interests include image processing, signal/image processing, pattern recognition, and machine intelligence in Medical/Strategic/Safety/Security/Agro sectors, with current interests extending into computational methods and physics-informed neural networks.
Education
He started his career in 1982 after completing his graduation in Electronics and Communication Engineering from REC (now NIT) Kurukshetra. During his career, he accomplished an M.E. from PEC Chandigarh and a Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham, the UK, in 1989 and 1993, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. in the UK under the Nehru Centenary British Fellowship (FCO) scholarship during 1990–93 in the area of image processing and pattern recognition. In 2001, he completed his MBA in Human Resource Management and Organisation Behaviour. He obtained merit in the CSIR Leadership Development Programme for middle to senior scientists in 2007 and has since been a faculty member for the same.
Experience
Research Experience
39 years at CSIR-CSIO, Chandigarh, rising from Scientist to Chief Scientist
Teaching Experience
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Adjunct Professor at IIEST, Shibpur, for administering and coordinating MTech (Mechatronics), May 2007 – Nov 2021
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Founding Coordinator and Professor, AcSIR-CSIO, Chandigarh, Sep 2009 – Nov 2021; Chairman, Board of Studies, 2009–2017
Outputs
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Courses taught: Research Methodology, Research Publication & Ethics, Digital Image Processing, Signal Processing, Statistical Analysis & Machine Intelligence, Soft Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Integrated Manufacturing
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Publications in National Journals and Conferences: 14+24
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Publications in International Journals, Conferences-Abroad, and Conf-Held in India: 68+24+16
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Number of Books / Chapters Published: 5
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Presentations made in National and International Fora: 150 National, 8 International, 34 on YouTube
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PhDs Guided: 19 completed, 2 in progress; PG Guided: 24+
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Patents Filed: 29, Patents Granted: 26, Copyrights Filed: 2
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Team Awards: 5
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Expert Member (IES), UPSC
Sponsored Projects
Dr. Sardana has led 27 sponsored R&D projects worth over Rs. 92.8 crore over the last two decades. In addition, he was a consultant for two industry projects and undertook more than 15 projects as Mentor/Co-PI.