When youngsters dream of being entertainers, their backup profession isn’t usually engineering. However that was Gokul Pandy’s plan if he didn’t make it in Kollywood, a section of Indian cinema devoted to producing motion pictures within the Tamil language. As a teen rising up in Chennai, India, Pandy liked appearing and dancing, however he additionally excelled in math and science at school.
His mother and father, each educators, supported their son’s ardour however inspired him to think about finding out engineering. They advised him that if engineering didn’t work out, he might all the time attempt present enterprise.
Gokul Pandy
Employer:
Accenture in Richmond, Va.
Title:
Utility improvement supervisor
Member grade:
Senior member
Alma maters:
Anand Institute of Increased Know-how, Chennai, India; Alagappa College, in Karaikudi, India
He took their recommendation and, as a highschool pupil, started watching YouTube movies of engineers fixing real-world issues. These movies impressed him to enroll within the engineering program at Anand Institute of Higher Technology, in Chennai. Throughout his second yr there, a profession in engineering received out over one in leisure. His engineering profession has had its challenges, nonetheless.
Right this moment, Pandy is an software improvement supervisor at Accenture, in Richmond, Va. The IEEE senior member additionally serves because the chair of the IEEE Richmond Section.
He was inducted this month into the IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu honor society.
From IT assist to robotic automation skilled
Pandy graduated from Anand in 2008 with a bachelor’s diploma in electronics and communications engineering. It was on the top of the Great Recession, which started in 2007 and led to 2009. Many nations, together with India, had excessive unemployment charges then, making it more durable to discover a full-time job. To spice up his possibilities, Pandy earned quite a lot of certifications together with lead system architect, AWS cloud partitioner, and robotic process automation (RPA). He additionally enrolled within the on-line MBA program at Alagappa University, in Karaikudi, India—which he accomplished in 2011.
In 2008 he was employed by Accenture in Bangalore as a contract worker, working in IT assist. Because of his constant exhausting work, he says, the corporate promoted him to full-time software program engineer, which was “life-changing.”
He was transferred to the corporate’s Chennai workplace and finally was promoted to senior software program engineer.
He turned an skilled on automation frameworks: structured units of tips, instruments, and practices designed to streamline and handle repetitive duties.
To handle inefficiencies in techniques, he and his group designed and led an open-source automation instrument that automates processes equivalent to information entry and validation, and it verifies compliance throughout a number of ranges.
By automating repetitive administrative duties, enterprise customers might concentrate on different vital duties.
In 2015 his firm moved Pandy to the United States to assist a serious health care transformation initiative.
“That transfer marked a turning level in my profession,” he says, “propelling me into the worldwide highlight as a thought chief in enterprise automation.” He turned an automation material skilled from a handbook tester for 2 main well being care organizations, he says.
His efforts have been acknowledged. He acquired a Global Recognition Award this yr for his “outstanding leadership and innovative contributions to robotic process automation (RPA) in health care technology.”
He additionally acquired a 2024 Claro Platinum Award for excellence in technology. The Claro Awards acknowledge individuals doing excellent work in AI, data analytics, and know-how.
Pandy is a Fellow of a number of organizations together with the British Computer Society, Hackathon Raptors, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and the Soft Computing Research Society.
He has authored or coauthored more than 20 papers, a number of of that are within the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. He has peer-reviewed greater than 200 papers for main conferences, and he was invited as a keynote speaker in IEEE and different conferences.
Working an IEEE part to amass new expertise
Pandy joined IEEE final yr and was shortly elevated to senior member.
He says he joined as a result of “the group presents me a platform to collaborate with world technologists.
“IEEE stays up to date on the frontier of applied sciences and provides again to the engineering group,” he provides. “It additionally supplies providers to college students and initiates talks the place we will discover subjects with respect to our expertise and data, and mentor others.”
Concerned about volunteering and mentoring, he determined to appoint himself for the place of IEEE Richmond Part chair. The part has greater than 800 members and covers six cities and 26 counties.
Being chair is his first volunteer management place. He says he believed that working the part would improve his management expertise. Profitable the election “was a miracle,” he says. “It was one other enrichment alternative for my profession.”
He began his term in January and was initially anxious in regards to the extra workload, he says, however thus far his time period has been an “superb expertise.” He credit IEEE Senior Member Allen Jones, a previous chair of the part, for serving to him via the transition.
Pandy has been busy since taking workplace. The part fashioned a life members affinity group and has held occasions with the IEEE Virginia Commonwealth University student branch in Richmond. The part additionally held career-development occasions there, permitting IEEE members to mentor engineering college students, present them with networking suggestions, and assist them refine their résumés.
The IEEE Magnetics Society and the IEEE Computer Society chapters partnered with VCU, AI Ready RVA, and the Richmond Institute of Technology and Science to extend artificial intelligence literacy for preuniversity students in underserved communities. The initiative supplies coaching to educators and presents workshops to college students demonstrating the know-how and its sensible purposes.
By main all these actions, Pandy says, he has picked up vital expertise together with strategic planning, public speaking, group collaboration, and price range planning, which he can apply at work.
“These experiences have helped me drive large-scale IT transformation tasks in my skilled function,” he says, “and improved my potential to steer various and cross-functional groups.
“Volunteering fuels my vitality somewhat than drains it. Additionally, it’s form of a small, rewarding a part of my weekly routine. I really feel that I’ve carried out just a little bit to assist somebody someplace transfer a step forward of their profession—which provides me nice satisfaction.”
Pandy hasn’t misplaced his need to be an entertainer. He performs every time potential at cultural events and the part’s social gatherings.
“Dancing and appearing at the moment are hobbies,” he says.
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