34/790B, AARUSHI, Beena Anjumana Road, Edapally, Kochi-682024, Kerala, INDIA
K. R. Suresh Nair, Ph.D
a. IEEE Senior Member, SM 03757648
34/790B, AARUSHI, Beena Anjumana Road, Edapally, Kochi-682024, Kerala, INDIA
Contact id: ; Cell: +91 9847545895/8086385385
b. Educational and Professional Information:
Education
Ph.D Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Professional History:
Founder and Managing Director, Biophoton Technologies Pvt. Ltd. 2014-present
Founder & Managing Director, Innobreeze Communication
Technologies Pvt Ltd. 2010-present
Chief Technology Officer SFO Technologies Pvt Ltd. 2008-present
Director & Head NeST R&D Centre 2002- 2008
Deputy General Manager SFO Technologies Pvt. Ltd. 1999-2002
Scientific Officer (SC-SE) TIFR, SAMEER, Department of Information
Technology, Government of India 1985-1999
c. Contributions/Accomplishments
i. Well-accepted Technical Leader with 28+ years in research and product development experience:
• Establishment of a Design and Engineering Centre in Integrated Optics (DECIO) at SAMEER (Govt. Research Lab) containing design CAD, Class 1000 clean room with Class 100 laminar benches, all photolithographic equipment including mask aligner, test equipment, metallization, and 12-axis precision alignment equipment for fiber pig tailing. This laboratory was adjudged as the first and best Integrated Optic laboratory in the country in 1990s.
• Was honored with IETE CEOT award for outstanding contributions in the field of Optoelectronics
i.b. Proven capability to lead teams to bring out commercial products from research concepts to international level
• While at SFO Technologies Pvt. Ltd., (NeST Group) Suresh used his expertise in Photonics and established design and volume manufacturing facilities for both optical passives as well as active products. Suresh joined this private company in 1999, SFO Technologies was doing contract manufacturing of simple fiber optic couplers and patch cords. Remaining within budget constraints.
• Suresh convinced the management on the future of Photonics and established full fledged optical active and passive facilities. A strong design group was formed. Took a not so popular company to the top and well known Photonics company in India and globally. The facilities established were Class 10,000 clean room, die bonding, wire bonding, precision alignment, laser welding, testing, etc. There are around 600 employees presently employed in Photonics division, with an annual turnover in Photonics products to the tune of 40 Million USD. The customers are all global. The success and demonstrated results by Suresh made the company management to shoulder Suresh with the responsibility of Chief Technology Officer of the Group. The manpower strength is 3600.
• SFO Technologies has grown from 80 Million USD turnover in 1999 to around 200 Million USD in 2014, and the major reason for this growth can be attributed to the planning of Technology strategies. Suresh conceptualized a few more value added services which attracted global customers to NeST, even though low cost manufacturing is available in other Asian countries. Suresh is shown as the face of the company and all first customer presentations are done by him.
http://www.photonics.com/Article.aspx?AID=40675
IETE awarded IETE BV Baliga Award for outstanding contribution in Electronics and Telecommunication. This award is given by IETE in recognition of distinguished contribution in the field of Electronics and Telecommunications with emphasis on R&D and Industrial development over a period of ten years. This award is presented annually to one person.
ii. Innovation in blood:
• Initiating a startup (www.innobreeaetech.com) at the age of 50, Suresh came up with the concept of providing affordable healthcare products. He spent all his personal earnings for this societal cause.
• Led a fresh team and came up with the innovation on Non invasive Oral cancer detection device.
• Held Rank 1 innovator position in India during 2014.
• Was honoured with DST Lockheed Martin Award 2014 (http://www.thisweekdelhi.com/dst-lockheed-martin-india-innovation-growth-programme-announces-winners-for-2014/) as well as ‘Medicall 2014’ award.
(http://medicall.in/medicall/innovation.php).
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-07-27/news/52088923_1_cancer-cells-oral-cancer-risk-regional-cancer-centre
Video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsHLAbmjTOo
iii. Enjoys taking technical challenges and a task master, gets executed in time:
• Represented AM Networks, a NeST Group company based out of USA, in meetings held by Verizon to help NeST Group enter into the market on passive FTTH solutions specifically for Multi Dwelling Units.
• Led a team from scratch to complete a study on new standards within a month. The prototype was demonstrated to Verizon within 2 months. This exceeded the Verizon expectations, and was adjudged as the better Value product than those solutions offered by other giants from USA, UK and Japan. In this process, around 12 US patents emerged based on Suresh’s ideas
• Set up a manufacturing facility in India at SFO Technologies which was approved by Verizon after due inspection and audits. This is also TL9000 certified. Please refer Annexure 4: Brochure by AM Networks, and these products are the brain child of Dr. Suresh Nair from nothing.
iv. A strong initiator and promoter of Industry-Academia-Research institute association:
• Was instrumental in introducing one course on Industrial Photonics at International School of Photonics, Cochin University of Science and Technology and volunteered to take one full semester course by faculty from own industry.
Please refer http://www.thehindu.com/edu/2005/07/11/stories/2005071100300400.htm
• Built a strong academic-research institute-industry association with Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute(CGCRI) , CSIR, Government of India Laboratory. .The Fiber Optics group has been doing excellent work in special purpose Fiber designs, and joined with them to sign MOU and develop Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier. NeST developed the Electronics, mechanical and other product engineering, and CGCRI supplied specific Erbium doped fibers. This project of NeST with Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute (CGCRI) was adjudged as the best successful collaborative project under Government of India’s five year plan 2012.
Please refer Annexure 6: CSIR News letter highlighting this association.
CSIR Technology Award for Most Significant
CSIR Technology of the Five Year Plan Period
-2012
v. Volunteering Leadership; Installation of IEEE E-Scientia:
• Proposed an installation of E-Scientia, a lab model space lab, under IEEE Kerala Section. Despite budget constraints, Suresh, volunteered to formulate an innovative model to build the same in India within the budget. As Chair of IEEE Kochi Subsection under Kerala Section, Suresh took up the responsibility of getting the lab made as per the original design. This was a herculean task and even with the high demanding positions he had in his profession, Suresh took help of all Volunteers of IEEE Kochi subsection, and executed perfectly. This was inaugurated by Prof. Moshe Kam, Past President, IEEE.
vi. Strong sense on futuristic products: experience in managing research oriented projects and delivering results under demanding budget/schedule
• In 2004 itself, Suresh predicted the requirement of Intrusion Proof Systems for Fiber Optic networks in future .Initial research was initiated and a few prototypes were developed namely Fiber Sentinel System, also known as Intrusion Proof System. These systems can safeguard fiber optic communication channel from hacking attempts, eavesdropping and service outage (due to rupture). The device with its exclusive WaveSenseTM intrusion prevention technology provides continuous, real-time monitoring of a fiber connection, detects any physical intrusions, and instantly eliminates the intrusion by shutting down the transmission. Automatic optical bypass switching simultaneously diverts data to an alternate fiber path
• . Now in 2014, this has found real deployment. This is now to be included in the nationwide FO network by Indian Defence, expecting around 400 systems to be deployed. Suresh’s vision on futuristic products and persistence and perseverance towards achieving it can be seen here.
http://www.techonlineindia.com/edn_magazine/techonline/2013-Aug
vii. Using challenge as an opportunity: Development of 1x4 Truly Fused Coupler for Japanese Market:
• When start of FTTH waves in Japan, customer expressed requirement of 1x4 wideband coupler. Suresh took up this challenge, and led a team to come up with special structure and process to realize 1x4 splitters with very wide bandwidth. The other alternative for this device was to use Planar Integrated Circuits, but was expensive at that time, compared to fused couplers. Suresh used this challenge as an opportunity. This has successfully undergone all reliability trials as per Telcordia standards. Japanese customers did rigorous audits. Around 97,300 units were manufactured at SFO Technologies/NeST and sold to ACS, Japan.
viii. Urge to gain more expertise in allied areas: Mesosphere, Stratosphere and Troposphere (MST) Radar exists in a few countries and in 1988 India also decided to install this at a place near Tirupati. The responsibility of design, development and installation was taken up by SAMEER, Government of India lab. A complete system design has to be done. While other fellow Engineers got settled with design and development of respective subsystem, Suresh, even though very young at profession, took the responsibility of simulating the whole Radar system, derived the specifications of various subsystems, studied the impact of variation in subsystem performance, etc. This was done with guidance from his guide Dr.YGK Patro. Many papers emerged during these studies. The Radar system was installed and commissioned successfully. The urge to understand the whole system and to gather more knowledge has made Suresh to take up such a complex challenge.
Y. G. K. Patro, K. R. Suresh Nair, P. Balmuralidhar, Effect of signal path distortions on the decoding performance in a pulse compression radar system, Radio Science, Vol. 25, No.5, pp.1095-1100, Sept. ’90.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1029/RS025i005p01095/
ix. Continued to concentrate on futuristic products: Design and Development of Super Continuum Light Source and Confocal Microscopy: As a Senior Consultant to Vinvish Technologies Pvt Ltd (www.vinvish.com) , Suresh took technical leadership to collaborate with Central Glass And Ceramic Research Institute (CGCRI) ,and to undertake a project from CSIR to design and develop country’s first Super Continuum Light Source and a Confocal Microscope excited with this SC source. This is designed with innovation to achieve low cost. This has brought in respect among technical fraternity in the country. A few systems are already sold.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1141010/jsp/nation/story_18911993.jsp#.VKJ_ppADY
x. Recognised and reputed person in Photonics in India: Chairman and member of many national committees on Photonics: Recognising the expertise of Suresh, Government of India has nominated him in many committees.
• Chairman: Project monitoring Committee, “Breast Cancer Detection”, project sponsored by DeitY, Government of India. This is rare recognition to Chair a monitoring committee by a persona from a private company, where the project is executed by government institute.
• Chairman: Project Monitoring Committee, “Development of Fiber Laser”, project sponsored by DeitY, Government of India. This is rare recognition to Chair a monitoring committee by a persona from a private company and where the project is executed by government institute.
• Member, Working Group as well as Steering Committee, for projects sponsored by Electronics materials and Photonics Division of Ministry of Information Technology, Govt. of India
• Photonics Micro- Nano Systems
• Photonics Switching, Multiplexing and Networking
• Polymers in Photonics Dilute III-V materials for Mid Infra red Optoelectronics devices
• Bio and Nano photonics
• Was Member, Research Council of CGCRI, CSIR Lab, Govt. of India
• Member, Syllabus Revision Committee, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT)
• Was Member, Executive Council, Optical Society of India
• Member, Review Committee, Journal of Optics.
• Member Board of Governance, TEQUIP, IHRD Government Engineering College, Karunagapally, Govt of Kerala.
• Member, Board of Studies, MES College of Management, Kochi.
• Member Sectional Committee on Telecom by Bureau of Indian Standards, 2011.
• Member of FICCI Defence SME Committee, 2011.
• Review Committee Member, Molecules to Materials to devices”, CSIR, Govt of India.
Technical Publications:
Harnessing Light, VPN Nampoori, P.Radhakrishnan, K.R.Suresh Nair, VM Nandakumaran, Selected Topics in Photonics, Publisher: Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, 2004.
Ed. Proceedings of Photonics 2004, International Conference.
Ed. Proceedings of NICE 2001, National Conference.
Patents:
• Method of building truly fused 1x4 couplers with wide band spectral performance, low polarisation sensitivity and high impact resistance couplers build therefore
India Patent Number: 261028
Grant Date: 30th May 2014, India.
Inventors: K. R. Suresh Nair, Samuel Varghese, Muhammed Iqbal, Yoshita Koshiba.
A method for making truly fused lx4 coupler with ultra broadband spectral performance, and low polarization sensitivity, where only the primary fiber is pre-processed and four fibers are braided together to get a symmetric coupling from primary fiber to each secondary fiber and there is no mutual coupling between secondary fibers, is disclosed. Method of making the product impact resistant and thermally stable, for outdoor applications, is also claimed. lx4 Wavelength Independent Couplers are of particular interest.
Suresh has led the team in an industry to convert a theoretical idea to a commercial product and could sell over 1 Million such devices that too around 100K in Japanese market for Fiber To The Home applications. Please see Annexure 9.
• System for an internal rotating storage spool combined with top and bottom cable access in a fiber distribution terminal
US Patent number: 8437596
Type: Grant
Issued: May 7, 2013
Inventors: K. R. Suresh Nair, Kizakkekuttu Parameswaran Chandran, Muhammed Iqbal, Biji Mathew, Mathew Anjilivelil Thomas, Aniz Muhammad
Abstract: A fiber distribution terminal for use in an environmentally sealed enclosure can include a rotatable spool for housing input fiber cable. The spool is configured to be mounted in the environmentally sealed enclosure. The fiber distribution terminal can also include an adapter pack that secures the connections between fibers of the input fiber cable and fibers of the output fiber cable. The fiber distribution terminal can include an adapter plate that guides the routing of both the input and output fiber cables internal to the enclosure. The fiber distribution terminal can also include a spool lock that can direct the cable routing to a first side or a second side of the fiber distribution terminal.
This invention has led to realise commercial product with better features and performance in global market while competing with giants. The products based on this invention are regularly manufactured at NeST facilities and supplied to Verizon and other service providers. Suresh made sure that continuous improvements are done, more features are added to remain in the market.