Personal-Narrative:Nukula Viswanadham
About Nukula Viswanadham
On 18 July 2022, Dr. Lakshimi V. S. Yamujala met with IEEE Life Fellow Professor Nukala Viswanadham in Bangalore, India to record this brief “” conversation about his life history.” He was born in Anathavaram village in Konaseema District in Andhra Pradesh, India, on 9 November 1943. He completed a B.E. in electrical engineering in 1964, an M.E. in power systems in 1966, and a Ph.D. in 1969, all at Indian Institute of Science [IISc], Bangalore, India.
Viswanadham has made significant contributions in the areas of manufacturing, logistics, and global supply chain networks. His current research interests are in the areas of big data analytics, blockchain applications, global supply chain networks, and design of competitive business models and collaborative networks. He authored three textbooks, six edited volumes, more than eighty journal articles, and more than one hundred conference papers. He also served as Editor in Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science, and Engineering, 2008-2012.
Viswanadham is the recipient of many awards, including the 1996 IISc Alumni Award for Excellence in Research, the 2009 Distinguished Alumni Award by the Council of the Indian Institute of Science, and the 2012 Professor S. K. Mitra Memorial Award by the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He is also a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Academy of Engineering, and the World Academy of Sciences. At the time of this conversation, Professor Viswanadham was INSA Senior Scientist in the Computer Science and Automation Department at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
About the Interview
NUKULA VISWANADHAM: An Interview Conducted by Lakshimi V. S. Yamujala, IEEE History Center, 18 July 2022.
Personal Narrative #001 for the IEEE History Center, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
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It is recommended that this personal narrative be cited as follows:
Professor Nukula Viswanadham, a personal narrative conducted on 18 July 2022 by Dr. Lakshimi V. S. Yamujala, IEEE History Center, Piscataway, NJ USA.
Interview
INTERVIEWEE: Prof. Nukula Viswanadham
INTERVIEWER: Dr. Lakshimi V. S. Yamujala
DATE: 18 July 2022
PLACE: Bangalore, India
Yamujala:
Good morning. On behalf of IEEE Oral History, I would like to welcome Professor N[ukula] Viswanadham for a conversation about his life history. My name is Yamujala V. S. Lakshimi. I’m a volunteer in the IEEE Oral History program.
Professor Viswanadham was born in Anathavaram village in Konaseema District in Andhra Pradesh, India, on November 9, 1943. He completed a B.E. in electrical engineering in 1964, an M.E. in power systems in 1966, and a Ph.D. in 1969, all at Indian Institute of Science [IISc], Bangalore, India.
Professor Viswanadham is INSA Senior Scientist in the Computer Science and Automation Department at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He has held several prestigious positions before joining IISc in this position. Professor N. Viswanadham was Professor and Executive Director for the Center of Excellence, Global Logistics. Professor N. Viswanadham was Professor and Executive Director for the Center of Excellence, Global Logistics and Manufacturing Strategies in the Indian School of Business [ISB], Hyderabad, India from 2006 to 2011. He was Deputy Executive Director of the Logistics Institute, Asia Pacific, and Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering at the National University of Singapore [NUS] from 1998 to 2005. He was a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore from 1967 to 1998. He was Chairman of the Department of Computer Science and Automation from 1990 to 1996 and Chairman of Electoral Sciences Division from 1997 to 1998. He was Tata Chemical Chair Professor from 1992 to 1997. He was INAE Distinguished Professor at the Indian Institute of Science from 2011 to 2013.
He is the recipient of the 1996 IISc Alumni Award for Excellence in Research. He was conferred the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2009 by the Council of the Indian Institute of Science. He was awarded the 2012 Professor S. K. Mitra Memorial Award by the Indian National Academy of Engineering. Viswanadham is a [Life] Fellow of the IEEE. He is also a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Academy of Engineering, and the World Academy of Sciences. He was Editor in Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science, and Engineering, 2008-2012.
Professor N. Viswanadham has made significant contributions in the areas of manufacturing, logistics, and global supply chain networks. His current research interests are in the areas of big data analytics, blockchain applications, global supply chain networks, and design of competitive business models and collaborative networks.
Welcome, sir. Professor, you were born in a small village in Andhra Pradesh. How was your early life and education?
Viswanadham:
First, I would like to thank Dr. Lakshmi, IEEE, my mentors, my students, and others who made this possible. This interview about my life history is going to be highly significant at my age. Well, Lakshimi, thanks for reminding me of my early life.
I was born in a village, Anathavaram, and I had my elementary school education [there] until sixth. Afterwards, I was in high school from sixth to tenth and I joined SKBR College in pre-university. Then I applied for electrical engineering at Andhra University, but I was not admitted because I was under-aged. I was only thirteen. Then I registered for a B.Sc. in mathematics, physics, and chemistry and I finished my B.Sc. in 1961. I was very fascinated with chemistry. I was a University Gold Medalist in chemistry. I also thought of joining nuclear physics. In those days, nuclear physics was one of the very fascinating subjects, but one of my father’s friends suggested that I join electrical engineering at the [Indian] Institute of Science, so that made me apply to electrical engineering.
When I was about to go to Andhra University, I got a letter from the Indian Institute of Science saying that I was given the direct admission into the B.E. in Electrical Engineering. Then everybody said oh, very fascinating, you should go and join the engineering, so that changed my life. Once I’m in the [Indian] Institute of Science, then things started moving by themselves.
Yamujala:
Great. That’s very interesting.
Viswanadham:
Yes.
Yamujala:
Professor, could you please give a brief summary of your life at the Indian Institute of Science?
Viswanadham:
Yes. But before that, one quick thing I want to mention is why I joined into academics in Indian Institute of Science. My father told me that once you become an engineer, don’t join an engineering service. You should try and find out how you can become an academician. My mother wanted me to follow her father. He earned a B.A. from Madras University in 1905 and he was a teacher and principal. Because of my father’s and mother’s insistence that I should be an academic, I joined the [Indian] Institute of Science.
My life from 1961 is that I was a B.E. in electrical engineering as Lakshimi has said, and an M.E. in power systems, and a Ph.D. in control systems. In those days, the Ph.D. in control systems was a very fascinating subject. If you are working in control, they said, wow, you are working in control. My thesis was on multi-variable control systems. During those years, I learned how to work by myself, how to do mathematical modeling of physical situations, and how to use queuing networks, Markov chains, and all that to solve industry problems. That is how my life has happened from 1961.
The [Indian] Institute of Science has helped me do whatever I want. They never insisted that you should work on this, you should teach this course, and all that. I used to teach control systems when I was working on control systems. I introduced a course on manufacturing when I was working on manufacturing.
Yamujala:
That’s very interesting.
Viswanadham:
Yes.
Yamujala:
Sir, we would like to know more about your academic journey at IISc, ISB, and NUS.
Viswanadham:
I joined the electrical engineering department [at the Indian Institute of Science] in 1967 as a lecturer. I used to teach control systems. Afterwards, I finished my Ph.D., and then the School of Automation was started in 1969. I joined as an assistant professor in the School of Automation, and I was one of the founding members. The School of Automation said you had to concentrate on automation. At that time, there was a Russian collaboration about automation. In those days, the process control systems was very, very famous. We were working on chemical reactors and other plants and power systems. How do you control such systems? Afterwards, as things changed, I was working on large-scale systems. I had a book on reliability of control systems.
After a long stint at IISc, in 1998, because I had a book on flexible manufacturing systems and I’m a Fellow of IEEE, the National University of Singapore offered me a full professorship. I asked my mentors like Professor Kailath and others, what should I do. They said you should go and join the National University of Singapore, so I joined the National University of Singapore. Once I joined, they started The Logistics Institute-Asia Pacific (TLI-AP) in collaboration with Georgia Tech. Then people said since you are working in manufacturing and logistics, why don’t you join us as a research director?
I was interacting with Georgia Tech as a research director. I was working on industrial problems, like how do you make Singapore a logistics hub? That was the primary goal of the Singapore government, and they used to give us a lot of funding. At the suggestion of the CII President, I have written a proposal for the CII [Confederation of Indian Industry] to start a logistics institute. They started one in Madras. But meanwhile, the Indian School of Business Dean Professor M.R. Rao, whom I know, visited us in Singapore. Then he said, Viswanadham, why don’t you join us, so that is how I joined in the Indian School of Business.
I started a Center called Global Logistics and Manufacturing Strategies. That was a wonderful idea. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave the inaugural talk at one of our conferences. I edited a volume called Rural and Global Supply Chains in India. That book was released by the Prime Minister. I used to give lectures in the Prime Minister’s Committee on manufacturing and service chains. If you look at my entire journey from IISc to ISB, which I finished in 2011, I was able to concentrate on control systems, large-scale systems, reliability manufacturing supply chains and both for industry and academics.
Yamujala:
Very interesting. The end-to-end solutions, you were able to… Tell everybody as to what is a success in that.
Sir, I would also like you to throw some light on your research successes from 1966. Of course, you have shown us a lot of areas, but if you can throw some more light on the successes you had on your research from 1966 until now.
Viswanadham:
I started my life working on control systems. Control systems at that time was a very important subject. I was working on what are called PLCs, (programmable logic controllers). I was concentrating on the point, if you have several PLCs, how do you connect them? How do you control them? This is like an operating system in the computer. So, that is where I started designing the operating system for the flexible manufacturing systems.
During the 1970s and 1980s, I was working on factory automation. Factory automation is a very important subject. There were no automated factories. You take a factory, there were what are called NC machines. There are robots. There were automated guided vehicles to transport things. There also was an initiative for connecting all the machines together, and that is through a network. There are three networks in a manufacturing system. One is goods transfer from machine to machine. The second one is the information transfer from machine to robots and all that. The third one is the financial transfer. That is how you transfer the money. I was considering all the three flows into one. We created what is called a flexible manufacturing system.
I was giving these lectures. I used to go on sabbaticals. I used to attend IEEE and other conferences, and people used to say why don’t you come and give a lecture in our university. GE R&D Center in Schenectady invited me to come and give a lecture on flexible manufacturing systems. Then the manager said, “look, we have engine factory. The control system was designed by somebody, so can you design this.” I wrote a paper, it got published, and it has high citation index.
After coming to Bangalore, IBM wanted me to design a factory here. Since I’m working in the area of manufacturing, the research started with the theory on Markov chains, queuing networks, and then implementation. Afterwards, of course, at ISB and in NUS, I was working on logistics networks, supply chain networks. I was working using the analytical models for the design of supply chains, competitive supply chains. In those days, it is not important to be a manufacturing company and they are outsourcing manufacturing. What is important is your entire supply chain, so everybody wanted to know about their supply chain, from where they should source and so on. The outsourcing has come into play in those days. China is one of the manufacturing outlets. Singapore used to be one of the places where things are assembled and transported to United States, Europe, and elsewhere.
If you look at my life, I think from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, I have changed my focus, along with the change in the subject and changing the focus both from academics and industries. I was indeed very fortunate to be in institutions like the Indian Institute of Science, NUS, and ISB where people allowed me to do whatever I wanted. They used to follow whatever my suggestions, so that is how I was able to implement it in other companies.
One thing I would like to mention is that when I was giving a talk the manager came to me and said look, why don’t you join us. My children were all in high school and for other reasons I cannot join them. I said I will come there for a sabbatical or six months. That is how I went to the R&D Center. I made a lot of friends there and they had a lot of connections with IEEE. That is how things happened.
Yamujala:
Thank you, sir. We are also eager to know your journey with IEEE.
Viswanadham:
I would like to thank you for that and IEEE. Yes, okay. It’s a very interesting journey for IEEE. How did I start my journey? I started as a reviewer, and then I became associate editor, and then the editor of TASE [Transactions in Automation Science and Engineering]. IEEE has for each magazine reviewers, associate editors, editors, and chief editors, so I started my life as a reviewer. Then I became an editor for manufacturing, and then I became an editor in chief for the IEEE Transactions in Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE). I also used to help by organizing conferences. For example, there was a conference called CASE [the IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE) is the flagship conference of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society]. That is a conference on automation science and engineering. It was first held in Vancouver, and I was the first one to organize that conference. Afterwards, in 2009, we organized it here in Bangalore.
In my IEEE journey, I was basically doing service to journals and conferences. This, of course, has helped me in terms of my connections and to talk to people. I always tell people that the problem is in your mind and the solution is in some other’s mind, so you should always go to and attend lectures in other fields. This happened to me also. I had a friend who sent me a paper to review from computer science on Petri Nets. Petri Nets were used in computer science to model operating systems. I told him look, out of curiosity I will read that paper because I’m in computer science and automation department. Why not? I apply flexible manufacturing systems and I had a paper on the Petri Nets in flexible manufacturing systems. It has 500 citations.
Yamujala:
Oh my God.
Viswanadham:
We were able to create a big subject in the area of manufacturing. And everybody says, sir, you are the Petri Net. I said I am not Petri, although I had just applied it to this. The big lesson I have learned is you should always learn from others, and I follow that. Sometimes I look at healthcare and I look at agriculture; what people are doing and how they are doing it. Is it possible to do it here in supply chains. Of course, this is called innovation of various types, analogical innovation. Whatever happened in the other area, is it possible to do this in my area? There are lots of examples that I can give in terms of this. For example, all of us go to McDonald’s. The eye hospital has imitated McDonald’s to do cataract surgery in villages. There are lots of these kinds of examples that one can give.
Yamujala:
Yes, that’s a very interesting example which you have given about how McDonald’s has been imitated by urban hospitals. Today, I learned this because I didn’t know of it before.
Sir, we would like to know a little bit more about your service to academic institutions.
Viswanadham:
Yes. This is a very good question because it gives me an opportunity to thank some of my mentors. Professor Roddam Narasimha, Professor Thomas Kailath, Professor Sanjoy Mitter, and Professor Deekshitulu. Professor Deekshitulu was of course my Ph.D. guide, and Thomas Kailath and Sanjoy
Mitter used to visit the Indian Institute of Science. They were the ones who introduced me to IEEE and other institutions. I used to go to MIT and Stanford to give lectures. Professor Roddam Narasimha introduced me to the Indian Academy of Sciences.
The Indian Academy of Sciences has a journal called SADHANA [the official journal of the Indian Academy of Sciences]. He asked me to be one of the editors of SADHANA. I was asking for paper submissions, but the point was that most Indian academics want to publish in foreign journals, not in Indian journals, so at that time that SADHANA was not getting enough papers except from R&D [research and development] organizations and other places where they were just describing what they were doing. When I took over, I said look, we should have an annual meeting and we should have several associate editors. I have increased the associate editors for various fields. We used to have associate editor meetings. The number of papers for SADHANA have increased, and the citation index also has increased. I always said that one should always have journals of your own country origin; like you have a house, your own house. You can always rent a house, but you want to have your house. You have your own kids. Like that, you should have your own journal. That was supported by the Academy, [Indian Academy of Sciences] and others. From 1990 to 1996, I was the editor, Springer published the journal, and the citation index had jumped up. Of course, in 2011, when I came, they said why don’t you take over because they’re not doing well. I took over again from 2011 to 2015. Now the number of papers submitted has increased enormously. We changed SADHANA into three divisions, engineering, computer science, and mechanical and electrical engineering; so, there are three different journals.
I used to choose the subjects to work on. For example, in those days I used to work on artificial intelligence, game theory, and other problems. Now I work on big data and analytics and prescriptive analytics. I was fortunate enough to be of service to the academic institutions to teach these subjects. I also go to engineering colleges to teach them and to tell their students how they should do research, how their guides should guide them, how you collaborate, and so on. In other words, if you are working in an institute, you should collaborate with people in other institutions so that you know what is happening not only in industry but also at other institutions. That is where I always used to prefer the conferences where people meet. And I used to always tell people to attend conferences or lectures which are given in other subjects. So, if I attend a biology lecture, maybe I can think, look, I can apply this to my manufacturing system. So, this has happened.
This is how Petri Nets was used by me, and my book has 600 citations, and it is reprinted seven times so far. But I was doing service to help them in terms of journals and in terms of publishing papers in magazines. For example, a lot of my thought leadership papers came in magazines in India. For example, I have a paper about how India can be a global supply chain hub, and past, present, and future of supply chain. These papers were cited, and people used to appreciate them.
Yamujala:
We would also like to ask you a few words of wisdom, sir, having heard you so much. And from the angle of what would you do if you were a youngster today? And in the end, what are your goals of coming years?
Viswanadham:
I have spent my life in very good institutions like the Indian Institute of Science, NUS [National University of Singapore], and ISB [Indian School of Business]. These are leading institutions, and I was doing academic research. I have a lot of publications, like Lakshimi has mentioned. I have four books and 200 journal papers. I am happy today.
Today, if I were a youngster, what would I do? What are the kinds of things that I would have done? I was following the world methodology, [and] following my gurus, who used to join a particular organization, like the Indian Institute of Science, and worked there until retirement. But now, things have changed, technology has changed, and there are new ways of living that are coming up. For example, there are technologies, online learning, online retail, or also online banking. Now you need to go to the bank. You do not have to write a check. You can transfer money through the mobile and all that.
How are these things changing your research? All of us know about the big data. All of us know about IoT (Internet of Things). All of us know about blockchain. I started working on how you use these technologies in your supply chain or logistics. When I was working on these things, the supply chains in olden days, an academic was in an institute until retirement. They used to do manufacturing cars, so I’ll manufacturer cars my whole life and sell them, and if there is any change, small car, big car, and all that. But now, the cars have changed. The cars, for example, have become changed from petrol or like diesel-based to battery-based and electricity-based.
[In addition], you don’t buy just a car, you have all these connections to the cloud. People can know where you are because they can track you, and all that. Basically, things are changing. Also, there is risk. Wherever there is Amrutham there is Halahalam. That is, wherever there is a good thing, there is a bad thing. Wherever there are gods, there are demons. All these things create a risk. For example, if you are using your data, your mobile can be hacked, and they can steal the money. If you are using an ATM, somebody can use your card and then use the ATM to steal your money. Or there are a lot of things you must have seen like these crypto things and the crypto risks that are happening. Not only crypto risks, but there are also risks everywhere. I started working on the risks of the supply chain. [In regard to] the new technologies, how do you do the predictive and prescriptive analytics? That is my research.
Okay, who will use this, because I don’t have students. I am not associated that strongly with any institution, so I cannot produce Ph.D. theses or anything. I said, all right, there are two things I was thinking about. What should I have done? Yes, that is the words of wisdom coming. Ten, fifteen years back, if I thought about this and I started a startup or associated with that, then I would have gone out from here and used all my knowledge for my startup. But in those days, it was not the time to have a startup. Now I am like an NGO for startups. There are a lot of students who come and say sir, I’m working on the supply chain, what do I do? They say we are a startup; we don’t have money to pay. I said I don’t want money. I don’t want to be on your board. I’m just an advisor, an academic advisor. You’ll tell me what your problems are, and I will give you some answers. That is how I become an NGO for startups.
Yamujala:
Yes.
Viswanadham:
All of us think oh, as the technology moves, I will go with that, but that is not correct. Opportunity has tuft in the front. You should move along with the technology. A lot of companies also are making these kinds of mistakes. A lot of institutions are also making this mistake. As an advisor, I advise all of them.
I had lots of students. Some of my students have changed companies they worked in from Infosys to IBM. Some of my students also have startups. Somebody was asking me which of your students you like, a fellow who has a high citation index or a fellow who has a startup? I said I like one fellow who has a startup. I gave his name, and he said why. This was when all my students were there in my house for a dinner. They said sir, you should tell us why. I said he has created 350 jobs whereas you guys are looking for a job. So, my future suggestion for people is don’t look for a job, create jobs. I should have done that myself, but somehow, it’s too late for this for me. To summarize all this, one is create jobs. First, don’t think of having a job. The second thing is move with the technology. Don’t think that oh, I will attend a course and afterwards I will do it. Hopefully, if people follow this, I will be happy.
Yamujala:
Thank you very much, sir. In today’s conversation, we got a lot of nuggets from your history. Your words of wisdom are really very interesting. I think it’s a long way forward for all the youngsters. Thank you so much, sir.
Viswanadham:
Thank you so much for being with me on a Saturday.
Yamujala:
Thank you.
