When it comes to being successful, Dr. Vipin Chaudhary says, "One has to really enjoy what they do and be willing to ask questions." Dr. Chaudhary is a Program Director to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a Computer Science and Engineering professor at the University at Buffalo.
Since the age of four, Dr. Chaudhary was surrounded by some of the best professors and researchers in India, including his own father. Growing up in academia, Dr. Chaudhary received honors in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering from The University of Texas. In 1999, Dr. Chaudhary decided to step out of academia and into the workforce. He says, "Around the late 90s to early 2000s, the internet and dot com sensation were changing the way people operated at a rapid pace." Dr. Chaudhary moved to Silicon Valley to follow the growth of many startup and global technology companies to, "push the industry."
When Dr. Chaudhary moved to Silicon Valley at the start of the millennium, he joined a startup company, Corio, which was the precursor to what is now called cloud computing, later becoming its Chief Architect.
In 2001, Dr. Chaudhary became the Senior Director at Cradle Technologies, Inc. that developed high-end processing chips. At the time, the chips were the largest in the world with 42 cores in each processor. Dr. Chaudhary specialized in computer architecture which allows for efficient design of logic chips that serve in a computers’ processing unit. Computers have a control center called the central processing unit (CPU), which is a highly complex, extensive set of electronic circuits that executes program instructions. The CPU functions as the "engine" that goes into motion when the computer is turned on.
Over the years after that, Dr. Chaudhary served on advisory boards of several startup companies.
By 2003, his interest shifted into image-based engineering that simulated large amounts of data, specifically medical applications, such as MRIs, CTs, and X-Rays. In 2005, Dr. Chaudhary founded a company that focused on Computer Assisted Diagnosis (CADx) also known as Computer-aided Detection (CADe). The Imaging techniques in X-ray, MRI, and ultrasound diagnostics produce highlights of information in conspicuous sections that a radiologist or medical professional can use to diagnose a patient’s condition.
Dr. Chaudhary went back to industry in 2010 to become the CEO of CRL, Incorporated. This company built the fourth largest supercomputer in the world and unlike other supercomputers that are used for academic and research purpose, CRL paved the path for commercial use of supercomputing clouds, a common occurrence now. CRL was sold to Tata Consulting Services.
Today, Dr. Chaudhary works in numerous areas of computer science and engineering, yet he remains most interested in working with medical doctors to assist their ability to correctly diagnose patients. Dr. Chaudhary has recently been working with physicians to diagnose people with lower back bone pain. He says, "Majority of people will visit a doctor in their lifetime for back pain and that has a large effect on the work force… diagnostics are one thing but what is done after that is not always correct." By collaborating with various doctors including chiropractors, Dr. Chaudhary is able to help produce faster medical examination scans and process large amounts of medical data, improving patient experience and reducing overall costs.
Many believe there are too many treatments subscribed to treat lower back pain and some current treatments do more harm than good. Dr. Chaudhary agrees and is working collaboratively to change the trend by partnering with the medical practitioners and fellow researchers to improve both treatments and outcomes.
Dr. Chaudhary says, "There’s limited federal funding for issues like lower back pain because that pain has not been proven to kill people the same way cancer does." Dr. Chaudhry claims his research is vital to many applications and especially significant to health issues regarding lower back pain because it has a direct effect on an individual's performance in the work force.
Dr. Chaudhary attributes his funding success to his efforts as an experienced computer science professor and engineer; as well as finding a fair balance between academia and industry. With added experience in other fields of science and technology, Dr. Chaudhary is able to join fellow engineers that specialize in different areas and work with them to push the frontier in many disciplines.
As a professor, Dr. Chaudhary is greatly satisfied by his students' work. He states, "The most satisfying feeling is watching students go on to continue great work, generating billions of dollars, and still come back for advice and perspective."