PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Rajendra Acharya

Also known as U. Rajendra Acharya

Rajendra Acharya is a researcher in artificial intelligence for health whose work applies deep learning to brain and heart signals. He earned a PhD at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka and a DEng at Chiba University, and by 2021 he was senior faculty at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. In 2019, SleepEEGNet paired deep convolutional and sequence-to-sequence models to score sleep stages from one EEG channel; in 2021, a Gabor-CNN tool used ECGs to classify three cardiovascular conditions. Clarivate listed him as a Highly Cited Researcher for 2016–2023, the IAPR named him a Fellow in 2024, and he became a Fellow of IETI and AAIA in 2025. In 2025, he and Yan Li received $551,982 for speech emotion recognition research; as of October 2026, he is Professor (Artificial Intelligence in Health) at UniSQ, Distinguished Professor at Kumamoto University, and Group Co-Leader of UniSQ's Artificial Intelligence Applications Laboratory.

Now at
University of Southern Queensland and Kumamoto University
Works
1,168

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Timeline

  1. 2016–2023

    Highly Cited Researcher listings

    Clarivate lists him as a Highly Cited Researcher for 2016–2023. Essential Science Indicators place him in the top 1% of Highly Cited Researchers in Computer Science over 2016–2022.

  2. 2019

    SleepEEGNet for sleep staging

    In 2019, he coauthors the PLOS ONE paper SleepEEGNet with Sajad Mousavi and Fatemeh Afghah. The method pairs deep convolutional neural networks with a sequence-to-sequence model to score sleep stages from a single EEG channel, reaching 84.26% accuracy on Physionet Sleep-EDF datasets.

  3. By 2021

    Faculty at Ngee Ann Polytechnic

    By 2021, he is a senior faculty member at Ngee Ann Polytechnic's School of Engineering in Singapore. He holds a PhD from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka in Surathkal, India, and a DEng from Chiba University in Japan.

  4. 2021

    A Gabor-CNN tool for ECGs

    In 2021, a team from NTU Singapore, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and the National Heart Centre Singapore, including Acharya, develops a Gabor-CNN tool that reads ECGs to diagnose coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure with more than 98.5 per cent accuracy. The study appears in Computers in Biology and Medicine.

  5. 2024

    An IAPR fellowship

    The International Association for Pattern Recognition names him an IAPR Fellow in 2024 for significant contributions to AI algorithms and biomedical applications.

  6. 2025

    Fellow of IETI and AAIA

    In 2025, he becomes a Fellow of IETI and a Fellow of AAIA.

  7. 2025

    An ARC speech emotion grant

    In 2025, he and Professor Yan Li receive $551,982 through the ARC Linkage Project scheme to develop an AI tool that detects subtle emotional changes in human speech and supports a more accurate and efficient speech emotion recognition system.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor of AI in Health

    As of October 2026, he is Professor (Artificial Intelligence in Health) at the University of Southern Queensland and a Distinguished Professor at Kumamoto University. He co-leads UniSQ's Artificial Intelligence Applications Laboratory, and his research includes biomedical imaging and signal processing.

Career

  1. NowUniversity of Southern QueenslandProfessor (Artificial Intelligence in Health)
  2. NowKumamoto UniversityDistinguished Professor
  3. Ngee Ann PolytechnicSenior Faculty Member

Education

  1. National Institute of Technology KarnatakaPhD
  2. Chiba UniversityDEng

From the biography.

  1. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Southern Queensland. 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.
  2. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes National University of Singapore. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.
  3. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes National University of Singapore. 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. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes National University of Singapore. 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.

Sources and credits

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  1. Our People – UniSQ's Artificial Intelligence Applications Laboratory create.usq.edu.au. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Professor Rajendra Acharya staffprofile.unisq.edu.au. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. SleepEEGNet: Automated sleep stage scoring with sequence to sequence deep learning approach | PLOS One journals.plos.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. 6th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering umevent.um.edu.my. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. AI-powered tool could accelerate the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases news-medical.net. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Chronological List of IAPR Fellows – International Association for Pattern Recognition iapr.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Spotlighting our Research: September 2025 | UniSQ unisq.edu.au. Checked 21 October 2026.