Ravindran Kannan ( ta, ரவீந்திரன் கண்ணன்; born 12 March 1953,

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Tamil Nadu, the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and territories of India, Indian state. The largest city ...

) is a Principal Researcher at

Microsoft Research Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technologi ...

India, where he leads the algorithms research group. He is also the first adjunct faculty of Computer Science and Automation Department of

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute was ...

. Before joining Microsoft, he was the William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Computer Science and Professor of Applied Mathematics at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. He has also taught at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, CMU and

IISc The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute was ...

. The ACM Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory (SIGACT) presented its 2011

Knuth Prize The Donald E. Knuth Prize is a prize for outstanding contributions to the foundations of computer science, named after the American computer scientist Donald E. Knuth. History The Knuth Prize has been awarded since 1996 and includes an award of U ...

to Ravi Kannan for developing influential algorithmic techniques aimed at solving long-standing computational problems.Microsoft Researcher to Receive ACM SIGACT Knuth Prize
He also served on the Mathematical Sciences jury for the

Infosys Prize The Infosys Prize is an annual award given to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists of Indian origin (not necessarily born in India) by the Infosys Science Foundation and ranks among the highest monetary awards in India to re ...

in 2012 and 2013. Ravi Kannan did his B.Tech at

IIT, Bombay The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay or IITB) is a public research university and technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is considered as one of the best engineering universities in India and is top ranke ...

. He received his PhD in 1980 at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

under Leslie Earl Trotter, Jr. His research interests include Algorithms, Theoretical Computer Science and Discrete Mathematics as well as Optimization. His work has mainly focused on efficient algorithms for problems of a mathematical (often geometric) flavor that arise in Computer Science. He has worked on algorithms for

integer programming An integer programming problem is a mathematical optimization or feasibility program in which some or all of the variables are restricted to be integers. In many settings the term refers to integer linear programming (ILP), in which the objective ...

and the

geometry of numbers Geometry of numbers is the part of number theory which uses geometry for the study of algebraic numbers. Typically, a ring of algebraic integers is viewed as a lattice in \mathbb R^n, and the study of these lattices provides fundamental informatio ...

random walks In mathematics, a random walk is a random process that describes a path that consists of a succession of random steps on some Space (mathematics), mathematical space. An elementary example of a random walk is the random walk on the integer n ...

in ''n''-space,

randomized algorithm A randomized algorithm is an algorithm that employs a degree of randomness as part of its logic or procedure. The algorithm typically uses uniformly random bits as an auxiliary input to guide its behavior, in the hope of achieving good performa ...

s for

linear algebra Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning linear equations such as: :a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n=b, linear maps such as: :(x_1, \ldots, x_n) \mapsto a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n, and their representations in vector spaces and through matric ...

and learning algorithms for

convex set In geometry, a subset of a Euclidean space, or more generally an affine space over the reals, is convex if, given any two points in the subset, the subset contains the whole line segment that joins them. Equivalently, a convex set or a convex ...

Key contributions

Among his many contributions, two are # Polynomial-time algorithm for approximating the volume of convex bodies #

Algorithmic version for Szemerédi regularity partition Algorithmic may refer to: *Algorithm, step-by-step instructions for a calculation **Algorithmic art, art made by an algorithm **Algorithmic composition, music made by an algorithm **Algorithmic trading, trading decisions made by an algorithm **Algo ...

Selected works

Books

* 2013. ''Foundations of Data Science''. (with

John Hopcroft John Edward Hopcroft (born October 7, 1939) is an American theoretical computer scientist. His textbooks on theory of computation (also known as the Cinderella book) and data structures are regarded as standards in their fields. He is the IBM ...

Other representative publications

* "Clustering in large graphs and matrices," with P. Drineas, A. Frieze, S. Vempala and V. Vinay, ''Proceedings of the Symposium on Discrete Algorithms'', 1999. * "A Polynomial-Time Algorithm for learning noisy Linear Threshold functions," with A. Blum, A. Frieze and S. Vempala, ''

Algorithmica ''Algorithmica'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on research and the application of computer science algorithms. The journal was established in 1986 and is published by Springer Science+Business Media. The editor in chief is ...

'' 22:35–52, 1998. * "Covering Minima and lattice point free convex bodies," with L. Lovász, ''

Annals of Mathematics The ''Annals of Mathematics'' is a mathematical journal published every two months by Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. History The journal was established as ''The Analyst'' in 1874 and with Joel E. Hendricks as t ...

'', 128:577–602, 1988.

Awards and honors

* Joint Winner of the 1991

Fulkerson Prize The Fulkerson Prize for outstanding papers in the area of discrete mathematics is sponsored jointly by the Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS). Up to three awards of $1,500 each are presented at e ...

Discrete Mathematics Discrete mathematics is the study of mathematical structures that can be considered "discrete" (in a way analogous to discrete variables, having a bijection with the set of natural numbers) rather than "continuous" (analogously to continu ...

for his work on the volumes of

convex Convex or convexity may refer to: Science and technology * Convex lens, in optics Mathematics * Convex set, containing the whole line segment that joins points ** Convex polygon, a polygon which encloses a convex set of points ** Convex polytop ...

bodies. *

2011 for developing influential algorithmic techniques aimed at solving long-standing computational problems. In 2017 he became a

Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

References

External links

Ravi Kannan's home page
*
Distinguished Alumni Awardees 1999, IIT Bombay

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kannan, Ravindran Indian computer scientists 20th-century Indian mathematicians Yale University faculty Tamil scientists IIT Bombay alumni Cornell University alumni Living people 1953 births Academic staff of the Indian Institute of Science 21st-century Indian mathematicians Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Knuth Prize laureates Theoretical computer scientists