Qualification
Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering,
IIT Bombay 2000
M.Tech. in Biomedical Engineering,
IIT, Bombay 1991
BE (Electrical Engineering),
SPCE, Mumbai 1986
Experience
06
Teaching Experience
19
Research/Industrial Experience
11
Technical Papers Published
10
Administrative and Managerial Experience
01
Book Chapter Authored
02
Masters’ Theses Examined
Ever since my school days, I was fascinated by the power of engineering. Early on in my career, I got an opportunity to work in the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. I joined in the Hydraulic Engineering Department in Asia’s largest water filtration plant which supplies around 3700 million litres filtered and chlorinated water to Mumbai every day. Day by day my theoretical engineering concepts were getting strengthened with practical experience.
Then the day came, when there was a paradigm shift in my career. One morning, the then Municipal Commissioner visited our department and asked, “Can you repair the Doppler Scan machine at KEM Hospital?” The machine was not working for quite some time for want of some imported spares, as reported by doctors. Repairing the machine was a real challenge as I was not aware of anything about the medical field, except for a few fundamental concepts of Electronics. Our team accepted the challenge. We opened the machine in our workshop, studied the circuitry and we repaired the machine just by replacing a small fuse costing Rs. 2/-. Immediately the Corporation decided to form a Cell to look after medical equipment of all Municipal hospitals. My career thus shifted from Electrical to Biomedical Engineering. Since then, I had spent most years of my professional career in this field, where I handled medical instrumentation of four major hospitals in Mumbai, and 24 peripheral hospitals. I got a handful of experience on almost all medical equipment ranging from ECG machines to CT Scans & MRIs, manufactured by Siemens, GE, Philips, Toshiba, Drager etc. During this long and exciting span, I completed my M.Tech. and Ph.D. from IIT, Bombay. I worked on the development of Simple Ventilator, jointly with the Anesthesia Department of Sion hospital, for which I was awarded the ‘Shri Shyamlal Saxena Memorial Award’ for the year 1995-96 by the National Academy of Medical Sciences, India. I was also instrumental in setting the procedure for Biomedical Waste management in Mumbai.
During my entire journey in the Corporation, the teacher inside me was awake all the time and was expressing in the form of giving training to engineers in the Corporation and in other government organizations. I decided to explore a full-time career in teaching and I ventured into the teaching field. Since then I am in Vidyalankar, sharing my professional experience with students. I teach Biomedical Instrumentation and Hospital Management which is my main expertise. Because of my association with the industry, I discuss real life problems and their solutions during my lectures which is helpful for students. I invite experts from industries to deliver lectures and hands on training on latest medical equipment. I am keen on collaborating with industries, healthcare institutions for knowledge transfer and facilitate opportunities for students to work on real-time projects. I have a strong feeling that Biomedical Engineering is going to play an important role in the future for effective healthcare delivery by improving diagnosis and treatment. I have shared my views on ”Biomedical Engineering Career for Future”, in a programme which is available on YouTube.
On the lighter side, I am an amateur astronomer and I like sky watching on my telescope. Playing the tabla, reading technical books and trekking are my hobbies.