TDAI Affiliate and an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering Arnab Nandi recently received an Early Career Innovator of the Year from the Office of Research. The award recognizes early career researchers Ohio State researchers who are actively working to promote commercialization of university intellectual property, through invention disclosures filed, patents applied for and/or received, technologies licensed or spin-off companies formed.

Nandi’s research focus is on database systems, on large-scale data analytics and next-generation human-in-the-loop query interfaces. His work spans database systems, interactive visualization, human-computer interaction and information retrieval. Nandi is a recipient of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award, a Google Faculty Research Award and the IEEE TCDE Early Career Award for his contributions towards user-focused data interaction. He co-founded the OHI/O Hackathon and Informal Learning Program that hosts some of the region’s largest hackathons to foster a tech culture amongst students. He is also a co-founder of the STEAM Factory, an interdisciplinary network for research collaboration and dissemination. Most recently, Nandi co-founded Mobikit, an Ohio State technology commercialization spinoff company, based on his work in spatiotemporal data analytics.

Every year, three university-wide innovator awards are presented as part of the Research and Innovation Showcase hosted by the Office of Research and Corporate Engagement Office.