PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Nandan Sudarsanam

Nandan Sudarsanam is a professor at IIT Madras whose research applies bandit algorithms and active learning to the design of experiments and the search for robust policies. After a mechanical engineering degree in 2003, a master's at Oklahoma State University in 2005 and an MIT doctorate in engineering systems in 2008, he worked from 2009 to 2013 as a quantitative researcher at Rackson Asset Management, a high-frequency trading firm in New York. He joined IIT Madras in July 2014, coauthored papers on thresholding and linear bandits in 2017 and 2018, and posted the EffAcTS framework for robust policy search to arXiv in January 2019. A 2022 paper with Daniel Frey quantified the maximum possible improvement in 2^k experiments, and a review of revenue management in taxi services followed in 2024. He is a professor in the Department of Management Studies and a core member of the Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 2003–2008

    Engineering degrees and an MIT PhD

    He earns a B.E. in mechanical engineering at Shanmugha College of Engineering in 2003 and an M.S. in industrial engineering and management at Oklahoma State University in 2005. In 2008, he completes a PhD in engineering systems at MIT, in its Engineering Systems Division.

  2. 2009–2013

    Quant researcher in New York

    From 2009 to 2013, he works as a quantitative researcher at Rackson Asset Management, a high-frequency trading firm in New York.

  3. July 2014

    Assistant professor at IIT Madras

    In July 2014, he becomes an assistant professor in the Department of Management Studies at IIT Madras. His specialty is heuristic approaches to problem-solving, including bandit algorithms and efficient policy search.

  4. 2017–2018

    Bandit algorithms for experiments

    In 2017, he coauthors "Thresholding Bandits with Augmented UCB" with Subhojyoti Mukherjee, Naveen Kolar Purushothama and Balaraman Ravindran, which proposes the AugUCB algorithm. In 2018, he and Ravindran publish "Using Linear Stochastic Bandits to extend traditional offline Designed Experiments to online settings" in Computers & Industrial Engineering, which introduces the LGUCBand algorithm.

  5. 2019–2022

    EffAcTS for robust policy search

    In January 2019, he and Balaraman Ravindran coauthor with Sai Kiran Narayanaswami the arXiv paper "An Active Learning Framework for Efficient Robust Policy Search", which proposes EffAcTS and applies it using linear bandits. The paper appears at the 9th ACM IKDD CODS and 27th COMAD conference in 2022.

  6. 2022

    Best-case gains in factorial experiments

    In 2022, he coauthors "Quantifying the maximum possible improvement in 2^k experiments" with Anusha Kumar and Daniel Frey. The paper numerically quantifies the optimal response in a design space with main effects and two-way and three-way interactions.

  7. 2024

    A taxi revenue management review

    In 2024, he coauthors with Swaminathan Rammohan and Rahul Marathe a systematic review of revenue management in taxi services in Management Review Quarterly. The review analyzes 110 research articles.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor at IIT Madras

    He is a professor in the Department of Management Studies at IIT Madras and a core member of its Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. He is also on the faculty of the Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

Career

  1. Since 2014IIT MadrasAssistant Professor
  2. 2009–2013Rackson Asset ManagementQuantitative Researcher

Education

  1. 2008Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPhD
  2. 2005Oklahoma State UniversityM.S.
  3. 2003Shanmugha College of EngineeringB.E.

From the biography.

  1. 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.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes IIT Madras. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes IIT Madras. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. nandan-Sudarsanam-profile – Department of Management Studies doms.iitm.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Nandan Sudarsanam | Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence rbcdsai.iitm.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Vidwan | Profile vidwan.inflibnet.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Thresholding Bandits with Augmented UCB | IJCAI ijcai.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Using Linear Stochastic Bandits to extend traditional offline Designed Experiments to online settings | Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence rbcdsai.iitm.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. [1901.00117] An Active Learning Framework for Efficient Robust Policy Search arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Quantifying the maximum possible improvement in 2^k experiments dspace.mit.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Recent advancements in revenue management of taxi services: a systematic review and research agenda ideas.repec.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Nandan Sudarsanam | Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence wsai.iitm.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.