Governor and Chancellor of the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) - Naya Raipur, Balramji Dass Tandon has appointed Prof. Rajat Moona of IIT Kanpur, currently Director General, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), as the founding Vice Chancellor and Director of IIIT-Naya Raipur.
Prof. Moona has accepted the appointment and would be taking charge this winter. His appointment follows an extensive search-cum-selection process involving candidates from both India and abroad, officials stated.
The appointment underscores the State's commitment to develop IIIT - Naya Raipur as a world-class university equipped with faculty, infrastructure and student community of global standards, they stated.
As DG, C-DAC, Prof. Moona has led India's efforts in diverse areas like development of supercomputers, the national supercomputing grid, multilingual computing, electronic devices and embedded systems, information and cyber security, health informatics, e-governance solutions and e-learning technologies.
Prior to this, he held the prestigious Poonam and Prabhu Goel Chair Professorship at IIT Kanpur, where he taught since 1991 in the Computer Science & Engineering Department. An alumnus of IIT Kanpur and Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, he holds seven patents, and has authored about 30 research papers and two books.
As an Indo-US Science and Technology Fellow, he has been visiting scientist to MIT in the US. His research interests span embedded computing, computer security, VlSI design and operating systems.
He has been involved in defining standards for smart cards used in applications like driving licences, vehicle registration systems, Indian National ID, and e-passports. He has also been involved in defining RFID applications in areas such as electronic toll collection.
Prof. Moona aims to position IIIT - Naya Raipur as a premier institute fostering information technology research and innovation which will connect technical talent with competitive industry, and thereby contribute to globally relevant IT solutions that are responsive to the needs of the market, the consumer and society at large.