PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Nirav Bhatt

Nirav Bhatt is an IIT Madras researcher who works on modeling and identification of biological and chemical systems and on machine learning for engineering and financial systems. Degrees in chemical engineering from The M S University of Baroda and IIT Madras came first, followed by a PhD at EPFL in 2011. In 2015, he and Arun Ayyar proposed monotonous nonnegative matrix factorization, and in June 2018 he joined IIT Madras's Department of Biotechnology as an assistant professor. He coauthored a 2022 paper on chemistry-inspired molecular representations, received the Best Experimental Paper Award at the Indian Control Conference in 2022, and coauthored a 2023 European Control Conference paper on deep reinforcement learning for autonomous driving. As of October 2026, he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Data Science and AI at IIT Madras and program chair of the M.Tech in Data Science and AI at IIT Madras Zanzibar.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 2003–2005

    Chemical engineering in Baroda and Madras

    A BE in chemical engineering from The M S University of Baroda comes in 2003, followed by an MTech in chemical engineering at IIT Madras in 2005.

  2. 2011

    A doctorate at EPFL

    At EPFL in Switzerland, he works as a doctoral assistant and completes his PhD in 2011.

  3. May 2015

    Monotonous nonnegative matrix factorization

    In May 2015, he and Arun Ayyar submit a paper that adds monotonicity to nonnegative matrix factorization. Their alternating least-squares algorithm recovers monotonous source signals from a data matrix, and a relaxed version handles data matrices with real-valued entries.

  4. June 2018

    Assistant professor in Biotechnology

    He joins the Department of Biotechnology at IIT Madras as an assistant professor in June 2018. The Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI at IIT Madras lists him among its people, with interests in data analysis, process systems engineering and kinetic modeling.

  5. 2022

    Chemistry-inspired molecular representation

    In 2022, he coauthors a paper on chemistry-inspired molecular representation for property prediction with G. S. Gedela and J. Bobby, published at the 5th Joint International Conference on Data Science & Management of Data.

  6. 2022

    A best experimental paper award

    The Indian Control Conference gives him its Best Experimental Paper Award in 2022.

  7. 2023

    Deep reinforcement learning for driving

    In 2023, he coauthors a European Control Conference paper with Soumyajit Chakraborty, Subhadeep Kumar and Ramkrishna Pasumarthy on end-to-end autonomous driving in heterogeneous traffic. The paper casts driving as a Markov decision process and builds Deep Q-Network agents for two kinds of sensor data, tested in the highway-env simulator.

  8. As of October 2026

    Associate professor of data science

    As of October 2026, he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Data Science and AI at IIT Madras, part of the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, and program chair of the M.Tech in Data Science and AI at IIT Madras Zanzibar. His interests span modeling and identification of biological and chemical systems, and machine learning and data analysis of engineering and financial systems.

Career

  1. Since 2018IIT MadrasAssistant Professor
  2. Until 2011EPFLDoctoral Assistant

Education

  1. 2011EPFLPhD
  2. 2005IIT MadrasMTech in Chemical Engineering
  3. 2003Maharaja Sayajirao University of BarodaBE in Chemical Engineering

From the biography.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Nirav Bhatt. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  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 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. Dr. Nirav Bhatt | Faculty | IIT Madras Zanzibar iitmz.ac.in. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Nirav Bhatt | Centre for Integrative Biology and Systems medicinE (IBSE), IIT Madras ibse.iitm.ac.in. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. [1505.00294] Monotonous (Semi-)Nonnegative Matrix Factorization arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Vidwan | Profile (Dr Nirav Pravinbhai Bhatt) vidwan.inflibnet.ac.in. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Nirav Bhatt | Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence rbcdsai.iitm.ac.in. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. End-to-end Autonomous Driving in Heterogeneous Traffic Scenario Using Deep Reinforcement Learning | Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence wsai.iitm.ac.in. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Nirav Bhatt | Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence wsai.iitm.ac.in. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Nirav Bhatt | Centre for Responsible AI cerai.iitm.ac.in. Checked 22 October 2026.