NEWS
NEWS
Dr. Akella’s deep innovation roots and practical execution experience uniquely position him for select recognition
NEW YORK and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., – March 10, 2022 – Dr. Prasad Akella, Founder and Chairman of Drishti Technologies, Inc., has been elected a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The Fellow grade of membership recognizes exceptional engineering achievements and contributions to the engineering profession and to ASME.
“An ASME Fellowship recognizes outstanding members and is a distinctive honor among ASME members,” said Thomas Costabile, Executive Director and CEO, ASME. “ASME’s vision is to be the premier resource for the engineering community globally. Dr. Akella’s accomplished career underscores his innovative and entrepreneurial contributions to the engineering community and exemplifies the type of work we want to highlight as an organization.”
Dr. Akella is recognized for leadership and innovation in engineering technologies that empower humans on the plant floor, both physically and cognitively. He has founded two companies and created three new market categories to that end.
In the 1990s, while at General Motors, Dr. Akella led the team that helped create intelligent assist devices — popularly and collectively branded as “cobots” — to provide physical assistance and ergonomic safety to human workers. Alongside academic and industry colleagues, they created cobots to safely marry the power of robots with the cognition of humans. Cobots are the fastest growing segment in robotics and are projected to be ~$10+B in 2027 (~30% of global robot sales).
Today, at Drishti which he founded in 2016, Dr. Akella is providing cognitive assistance to line associates. Drishti helps provide operators feedback that ensures adherence to standardized work, boosts productivity and increases quality. This capability results from Drishti’s pioneering “action recognition” technology that has significantly advanced computer vision by extracting spatio-temporal information and manufacturing insights from video streams.
In the 2000s, Dr. Akella was the co-founder of the pioneering business social network company, Spoke, which was then the world’s largest business social network.
Dr. Akella’s work has been recognized by the World Economic Forum, Forbes, Gartner, CBInsights, the National Association of Manufacturers, Nvidia, Frost & Sullivan, Aragon Research, CB Insights and the National Science Foundation. Dr. Akella has been the recipient of GM’s “Boss” Kettering Award — its highest technical award, and best paper awards from the ASME and IEEE. He currently holds five U.S. patents.
Dr. Akella holds a Ph.D. from Stanford (Edgar Meakin Fellow), an MBA from Michigan’s Ross Business School (High Distinction, Beta Gamma Sigma) and a B.S. from the Indian Institute of Technology (HAL Award, Institute Award).
“ASME is the gold standard for engineering organizations around the globe, and the recognition of Fellow carries a great deal of weight,” said Dr. Akella. “As one who has never held an academic position, I’m particularly humbled to be honored with such a prestigious distinction. I hope that this honor helps focus more attention on the exciting world of manufacturing, the plant floor, and especially on the millions of unsung line associates who help build the wonderful goods we take for granted.”
A member of the 100 Fellows in the Class of 2021, Dr. Akella is one of only 3,388 Fellows out of 64,428 ASME members in 135 countries.
About Drishti
Drishti’s AI-powered video analytics technology augments human workers and provides visibility and insights that transform the pace and impact of manual assembly line improvement. Manufacturers use Drishti to anchor true digital transformation, driving sweeping improvements in quality costs, efficiency gains & time-to-proficiency for line associate training. And line associates rely on Drishti to be more consistent and efficient, becoming even more valuable on the factory floor. Drishti has been recognized as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and a Forbes AI 50 company, among others. For more information, visit drishti.com.
About ASME
ASME helps the global engineering community develop solutions to real world challenges. Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education, and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world. ASME recently formed the International Society of Interdisciplinary Engineers (ISIE) LLC, a new for-profit subsidiary to house business ventures that will bring new and innovative products, services, and technologies to the engineering community. For more information, visit www.asme.org.
