Chennai, Mar 27: Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) today announced a generous commitment from IIT alumnus Arvind Raghunathan to the Centre for Theoretical Computer Science. The newly established centre, named the Arvind Raghunathan Centre for Theoretical Computer Science (ARtCS), will advance the mathematical foundation of computer science through deep, curiosity-driven research and provide an enduring intellectual home for long-term theoretical inquiries.
Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras, expressed his gratitude saying, “The generosity of Mr. Raghunathan and his continued commitment to the students of IIT Madras through ARtCS will advance innovative research in the field of computational science at an exciting time in this field.”
Mr. Raghunathan said, “My transformative five years at IIT Madras fostered an unrelenting curiosity in me, and I hope that ARtCS will provide future generations with access to world-class professors and research in their intellectual pursuits in theoretical subjects.”
ARtCS will be formally inaugurated during a ceremony by Prof. Kamakoti. The centre is supported by a distinguished advisory board, including Prof. Shafi Goldwasser (MIT, Weizmann, UC Berkeley), Dr. Prabhakar Raghavan (Google), Prof. Venkat Guruswamy (UC Berkeley), Mr. Ashwin Mahalingam (IIT Madras), Mr. R Anand (Chartered Accountant) and Mr. Raghunathan, among others.
ARtCS will strengthen IIT and India’s representation in theoretical computer science, a field that forms the bedrock of all computational innovation, by fostering foundational research and nurturing students at the bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral levels. It will promote foundational research in cryptography, computational complexity, algorithms, graph theory logic and databases, theoretical machine learning, quantum computing and privacy in AI.
After earning a degree in electrical engineering from IIT Madras, Mr. Raghunathan went on to obtain his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. A brief stint in academia was then followed by a successful career in equity proprietary trading at Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, after which Mr. Raghunathan went on to found a number of businesses, including a large hedge fund, and, most recently two companies in the fintech / investment management and AI space.
