About Me

Overview Academic Positions Awards and Honours Committees Students Guided
Professor Balaraman Ravindran

Professor Balaraman Ravindran

HOD, Department of Data Science and AI

Professor Balaraman Ravindran heads the Department of Data Science and AI at IIT Madras. He is also the Founding Head of the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI (WSAI), Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI (RBCDSAI), and Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI) at IIT Madras.

He has more than three decades of experience working in reinforcement learning, and his research interest spans responsible AI and deep RL. Prof. Ravi is an elected fellow of the Association for Advancement of AI (AAAI), Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) and an ACM Distinguished Member. He was the Chair of the Committee that drafted the India AI Governance Guidelines to provide a framework for the development and deployment of safe and trustworthy AI systems. He was a member of RBI’s FREE-AI Framework, which provided guidelines for safe, ethical AI adoption in India’s financial sector.

In 2026, he was appointed to the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, established by the United Nations to provide rigorous, independent scientific assessment of AI’s impact on society. Prof. Ravi is also a member of the Technology and Policy Expert Committee (TPEC), a standing expert advisory body to support the functioning of the recently constituted AI Governance and Economic Group (AIGEG).

Research Interests

  • Reinforcement Learning
  • Network Analytics
  • Responsible AI
  • Deep Learning

Publications

52 H-Index Google Scholar profile

Academic Positions

April 2024 – Present
Head
Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, IIT Madras
January 2026 – Present
Professor
Higher Administrative Grade
Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, IIT Madras
January 2024 – Present
Head of School
Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, IIT Madras
March 2018 – April 2024
Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras
August 2017 – Present
Head of Centre
Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI, IIT Madras
April 2023 – Present
Head of Centre
Centre for Responsible AI, IIT Madras
August 2021 – March 2024
TCS Affiliate Professor
IIT Madras
August 2019 – September 2024
Mindtree Faculty Fellow
IIT Madras
August 2020 – July 2021
Visiting Researcher
Google Research, Bengaluru, India
March 2009 – March 2018
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras
1 May 2014 – 15 May 2014
Visiting Fellow
Department of Computer Science, University of Technology Sydney
June 2012 – December 2012
Visiting Faculty
Department of Computer Science and Automation, IISc Bangalore
February 2004 – March 2009
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras

Education

2004
Ph.D. in Computer Science
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Thesis: An Algebraic Approach to Abstraction in Reinforcement Learning
1996
M.Sc. (Engineering) in Computer Science and Automation
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
1993
B.E. in Electronics and Communication Engineering
Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai

Awards and Honours

2026
Appointed to the UN Independent International Scientific Panel on AI
One of 40 globally selected.
2026
Artificial Intelligence Exploration Award
Presented by the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence for theoretical advances in reinforcement learning and sequential decision-making.
2025
Fellow of the Association for Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
For significant contributions to reinforcement learning foundations and applications.
2025
Distinguished Alumnus
Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai.
2025
Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA)
2025
Named among the 30 Indian Minds Leading the AI Revolution
By Forbes India and Accel Ventures.
2023
Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering
For distinguished contributions to Engineering and Technology.
2021
ACM Distinguished Member
For significant scientific contributions to computing.
2020
AAAI Senior Member
For longstanding contributions to the field of AI.

Committees Served On

Member, UN Independent International Scientific Panel on AI (2026- ).
Member of the Technology and Policy Expert Committee, supporting the AI Governance and Economic Group (2026-).
Member, Advisory Group on AI for India Specific Regulatory AI Framework (2023- ).
Chairman, Sub-Committee for AI Governance Guidelines Development (2023- 2025)
Chair, Working Group on Safe and Trusted AI, India AI Impact Summit 2026.
Member, Academic Advisory Body on Emerging Technologies, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 2025-2026.
Member, Committee on Framework for Responsible and Ethical Enablement (FREE) of Artificial Intelligence(AI) in the Financial Sector, Reserve Bank of India, (January 2025- July2025).
Member, Committee on the matters related to the issue of deepfakes. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. (Nov 2024- October 2025).
Member, Expert Advisory Panel to the UK's State of the Science Report on Advanced AI Safety. Official representative of India. (2024- ).
Commissioner, Global Commission on Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain (GC REAIM) (2024- 2025).
Member UNSG AI Advisory Board, Panel of Experts (2024- ).
Member, AI Advisory Council of the AI for India 2030, C4IR India, World Economic Forum (2024- ).
Member, Telangana Govt. AI Advisory Panel (2024- ).
Member, National Program of AI (NPAI) Committee for Evaluation of Problems, MeitY, (2023-2024).
Member, NASSCOM AI Advisory Group (2023).
Member, ACM AI Task Force (2023).
Member, Indo-EU AI Task Force (2022-2023).
Member, ACM India Council (2022-2024).
Chairman, Task Force on Cybersecurity for AI (constituted by the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India), (2019-2020).
Member, Project Advisory and Monitoring Committee, Technology fusion and Applications Research Program, DST, India (2021-).
Member, Governing Board, TIH-Data, IIIT Hyderabad (2020-).
Member, Scientific Advisory Board, APPCAIR, BITS Goa (2020-).
President, India Chapter of ACM SIGKDD (2018-2021).
Member, Task Force on Employment of AI for National Security and Defence needs (2018).
Member, Expert committee on AI framework for Finance and Banking, Atomium-European Institute for Science, Media and Democracy, (2020).
Member, Selection committee for ACM India Outstanding Contributions in Computing by a Woman (2020-2021).
Member, Selection committee for the IEEE's AIs 10 to watch list. (2020).
Member, SEBI Committee of Financial and Regulatory Technology (CFRT) (2017-2023).
Member, Governing Council, IIT Madras-NASSCOM-IT-ITeS SSC MOOCs, (2017-).
Member, ASSOCHAM committee on IT and ITES (2016-2018).
Member, Experts Group, CSIR Mission Mode project on Intelligent Systems (2017-2018).
Vice-President, India Chapter of ACM SIGKDD (2016-2018).
Member, Research Evaluation Committee, India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management, Election Commission of India (2017-2018).
Secretary, India Chapter of ACM SIGKDD (2012-2015).

Students Guided So Far

Ph.D.
12
Completed
10 in progress
M.S. (by research)
46
Completed
4 in progress
M.Tech
49
Completed
Dual Degree
87
Completed
B.Tech
53
Completed