;

mukund-padmanabhan-the-chronicleGenerous Contribution by Mukund Padmanabhan ('87) to fund seven research fellowships

IITKGP Foundation (April 5, 2021)

A generous contribution from alumnus, Mukund Padmanabhan ('87) under the name of Guru Krupa Foundation (GKF), will establish seven research fellow positions within the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur's (IITKGP) Academy of Classical and Folk Arts (ACFA). The Guru Krupa Foundation (GKF) is a non-profit organization that was created by Mr. Padmanabhan.
A portion of the grant will fund two research fellow positions at the Academy. The Fellows will conduct research on analyzing Indian ragas, applying concepts from Computer Science, Signal Processing and AI, and support the recording/production studio of the Academy. Additionally, five short-term visiting fellowships will be established which will enable visiting scholars of music and culture to spend time at the Academy, teach a short course and interact with the students of the Academy.
The ACFA, which is a branch of the Science and Heritage Initiative (SandHI), aims to introduce IITKGP architecture and engineering students to the classical and folk arts, and encourage use of such artistic talents to supplement the highly competitive technical education.
GKF has been a benefactor of the ACFA since its inception a little over two years ago. Past contributions helping to spur the creation of a new music auditorium, several Folk Arts workshops, and the engagement of teaching fellows. Outside of the ACFA gift(s), GKF has also created ten summer student fellowships that supported five incoming students to KGP and five outgoing students from KGP. The internships were open to all undergraduate or graduate students, including PhD's and could be from any department, school, or center of IIT-Kharagpur with an additional criterion that one of the recipients had to be chosen from the Department of Electronics and Electrical Communications, Mr. Padmanabhan's department of study while at IIT-Kharagpur. They were selected using a merit cum means based model. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic many of those selected were unable to travel during the 2020 award year; however, if the students still fit all criteria when travel becomes available, they can still avail of the scholarship.

“I feel privileged to be an alumnus of IIT KGP and am grateful for this opportunity to give something back to the institute”, said Mukund. “Besides, ACFA represents such a unique cross-pollination experiment, between culture and technology, between the ancient and the modern, and I’m very happy to be able to support it.”
Padmanabhan is an expert in the domain of finance specializing in statistical financial modeling. In addition to obtaining his B.Tech. in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from IIT-Kharagpur, he also received Masters and Doctoral degrees from UCLA in electrical engineering.
Thank you to Mukund and the Guru Krupa Foundation for their continued support of both the ACFA and IIT-Kharagpur!