Dr. Shrinivasa Udipi

Prof. Udipi Shrinivasa, who is a leading expert in vibrations and structural analysis, was teaching in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore until July 2012. With a bachelors and masters degrees in Aeronautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and a doctorate in structures from the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, he has worked as a faculty member since 1982.
He has been actively involved with and eventually the chairman of an erstwhile department of the Institute known as ASTRA (Application of Science and Technology to Rural Areas). During the time spent with this group, he has made several significant advances in bringing viable technologies to rural areas in India to help improve their standard of living. Notable among these are, water harvesting techniques that convert local streams into perennial water sources, gasifiers for biomass, efficient stoves, vegetable dryers for perishable goods and what he is now most well-known for - using straight vegetable oils in diesel engines to generate energy locally! He has been pursuing the latter since 1997 with his group known as SuTRA (Sustainable Transformations of Rural Areas) and is responsible for renewing interest in this technology to such an extent that it is now a nationwide phenomenon. He is a member of the Bio-diesel Board of the Government of Karnataka
Prof. Shrinivasa also started the Advanced Product Design and Prototyping center at the Indian Institute of Science with the aim to bring academics and the industry closer together. On handing over charge, he has been associated with Peach Engineering, since its inception in 2004, as an honorary consultant and one of the mainstays of the product design and structural analysis group. He is currently its Chairman.