Dr. Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Ph.D.
Prof. Venkatesh Balasubramanian is a Professor in the Department of Engineering Design where he heads the RBG Labs which works on addressing societal problems through Data-Driven Systems approach to Road Safety, Public Policy, Human Factors, New Product Development and Lean Processes.
He also serves as the Head of Centre of Excellence in Road Safety (CoERS) at IIT Madras, funded by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
Prof. Balasubramanian mentors and advises Governments, technology-based start-ups, SMEs and automotive industries in strategic management, disruptive and sustaining innovations, new product development and productivity improvement.
Some of the technological innovations from the lab include:
1. Suzhal Management System (SMS), a methodology to disruptively innovate to develop new products and implement lean operations.
2. Transport Safety Framework (TSF), a data-driven systems approach to improving road safety.
3. Tamil Nadu Accident and Emergency care Initiative (TAEI), a Unique & Comprehensive A&E Program based on decades of learnings from process improvement and lean manufacturing.
4. Intelliseat™, Auto Component of the Year 2018 winning product that uses IoT to ubiquitously monitor driver behavior and performance.
5. Indigenous Biological Scaffold and tech transfer into a Startup – SynkroMax and “STEM IMPACT Awards 2022”.
6. Shira Clamp – Revolutionizing Anastomosis and award winning tech transfer to Shira MedTech.
7. Painless indigenous dental composite.
8. Non-invasive patient Vitals Analyser (NOVA) – Bedside Patient Monitoring System
Working with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, he conceptualized and designed the Integrated Road Accidents Database (iRAD). iRAD integrates multiple stakeholders in road safety, such as police, transport, road-owning agencies, and hospitals. It is one of the few programmes which is implemented and live in all 36 States/ UTs in India.
He is the Head of the Centre of Excellence for Road Safety (CoERS) at IIT Madras, funded by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Government of India, to drive evidence-based integrated approach to Road Safety. CoERS works on various aspects of human factors engineering, road engineering, vehicle engineering, emergency care and education to bring about improvements in road safety globally. CoERS also advises various stakeholders and Governments to bring about a data-driven systems approach to road safety.
He serves as an Advisor for Road Safety in Governments of Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Haryana and Tamil Nadu.