Professor Rajat Moona takes over as Director of Indian Institute technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) on Monday. Professor Amit Prashant, the acting director of the institute, handed over the responsibility to Professor Moona on Monday morning.
This brief formal ceremony was followed by a mass reception and an interaction session between him and the IITGN community, which served as a medium to learn more about Prof Rajat Moona, his work so far and his interests. The session was also lined with heartfelt welcome messages from friends and former colleagues of Prof. Moona, including Founding Director of IITGN and current Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, Prof. Dheeraj Sanghi, Vice-Chancellor, JK, Prof. Sudhir Jain. Students of Laxmipat University, Jaipur and IITGN.
Speaking to the institute community on joining IITGN and sharing anecdotes from his vast work experience, Professor Moona said, “I am grateful to all of you for such an encouraging welcome. Working on various projects so far, Whether leading some major technical projects or running academic/administrative activities, my philosophy has been never to shy away from making mistakes, as it is natural for human beings to make mistakes.But, I also firmly believe that learning is a must. Natural is a human quality and if you don’t learn from your past experiences, it’s an error. Never let the fear of making a mistake get to you. Our motivation should be to keep doing things that we can , and this will ultimately lead us to success. I am privileged to work with teams that have helped make various path-breaking projects a success, and I am sure that together we can take IIT Gandhinagar to greater heights. But will take
Prof. Moona holds a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur (1981–1985) and a PhD in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore (1985–1989). His research area extends to embedded computing, computer security, VLSI design and operating systems.
Prior to joining IITGN, Professor Moona served as Director of IIT Bhilai and Director General of Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). He is also a Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kanpur since 1991. He, along with his students and colleagues, has authored 18 patents, several research papers and books.
He was instrumental in defining some of the major applications for the country like Smart Card Driving License, Vehicle Registration, E-Passport, Electronic Toll Collection, Mobility Card etc. He is an active member of the Technical Committee. Election commission India For EVMs and has been instrumental in defining EVMs and VVPATs. He has also contributed in defining the National Voters Service Portal and National Electoral Search for Voters.
Prof. Moona is the recipient of several awards and honors including Indo-US Science technology Fellowship, Poonam and Prabhu Goel Chair Professorship, Vasvik Award for the year 2010, IESA Techno-Visionary Award 2014, Fellowship of Maharashtra Academy of Sciences 2015, Election Commission of India 2016 National Award for Best Electoral Practices, and most recently , a special award for IT initiatives by the Election Commission of India in 2022.
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