PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Lakshmi Narasimhan

Also known as Lakshmi Narasimhan Theagarajan

Lakshmi Narasimhan is an electrical engineer at IIT Madras whose research applies statistical learning and neural networks to wireless communication. After working as a software engineer at Cisco Systems R&D from 2008 to 2010, they published the CHEMP receiver for large MIMO systems with Chockalingam in 2014 and obtained a PhD from the Indian Institute of Science in 2016. A postdoctoral post at Syracuse University from 2016 to 2017 and an assistant professorship at IIT Palakkad from 2017 to 2021 preceded a Fulbright Research Fellowship at MIT from November 2021 to October 2022. In 2022, a recurrent neural network receiver for time-varying fading channels, coauthored with Sandesh Rao Mattu and Chockalingam, appeared in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. They are an associate professor of electrical engineering at IIT Madras, are affiliated with the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, and are a member of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society's Committee on AI in Wireless Communications.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 2008–2010

    Software engineer at Cisco

    From 2008 to 2010, they work as a software engineer at Cisco Systems R&D in Bangalore.

  2. 2014

    The CHEMP receiver

    In 2014, they publish the channel hardening-exploiting message passing (CHEMP) receiver with A. Chockalingam in the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing. The receiver detects signals in large MIMO systems with 16 to 128 uplink users and 128 base station antennas, using a message passing algorithm that needs no matrix inversion.

  3. 2015–2017

    A PhD and a Syracuse postdoc

    In 2016, they obtain a PhD from the Indian Institute of Science. They spend 2015 to 2016 as a staff software engineer at National Instruments R&D in Bangalore, and 2016 to 2017 as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of EECS at Syracuse University in New York.

  4. 2017–2021

    Assistant professor at IIT Palakkad

    In 2017, they become an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad, a post they hold until 2021. In 2019, they are a visiting assistant professor in the Department of ECE at McMaster University in Canada.

  5. 2020–2022

    Fulbright fellowship at MIT

    In 2020, they are named a Fulbright Fellow. From November 2021 to October 2022, they hold a Fulbright Research Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

  6. 2022

    Deep channel prediction

    In 2022, they coauthor Deep Channel Prediction with Sandesh Rao Mattu and A. Chockalingam in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. The paper trains a recurrent neural network to learn how a time-varying channel changes and to predict channel coefficients into the future, which reduces the pilot symbols a receiver needs.

  7. As of October 2026

    Associate professor at IIT Madras

    At IIT Madras, they are an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and are affiliated with the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI. Their research covers statistical learning and inference, signal processing for large-scale wireless communication systems and integrated sensing and communications, and a May 2026 paper at the IEEE International Conference on Communications applies graph neural networks to CSI feedback. They are a member of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society's Committee on AI in Wireless Communications.

Career

  1. NowIIT MadrasAssociate Professor
  2. 2021–2022Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyFulbright Research Fellow
  3. 2019McMaster UniversityVisiting Assistant Professor
  4. 2017–2021Indian Institute of Technology PalakkadAssistant Professor
  5. 2016–2017Syracuse UniversityPostdoctoral Researcher
  6. 2015–2016EmersonStaff Software Engineer
  7. 2008–2010Cisco SystemsSoftware Engineer

Education

  1. 2016Indian Institute of SciencePhD

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  3. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes IIT Madras. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes IIT Madras. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Dr. Lakshmi Narasimhan Theagarajan - EE, IITM ee.iitm.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Don't panic! - Publications sites.google.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. [1310.3062] Channel Hardening-Exploiting Message Passing (CHEMP) Receiver in Large-Scale MIMO Systems arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Power Allocation for Generalized Gaussian MAC | CNI cni.iisc.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Lakshmi Narasimhan Theagarajan | India Science, Technology & Innovation - ISTI Portal indiascienceandtechnology.gov.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. [2203.12310] Deep Channel Prediction: A DNN Framework for Receiver Design in Time-Varying Fading Channels arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Lakshmi Narasimhan Theagarajan | IEEE Vehicular Technology Society vtsociety.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Lakshmi Narasimhan | Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence wsai.iitm.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.