Sumit J Darak
Professor, IIIT-Delhi, India
PhD: Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore (2009-2013) (PhD supervisor: Prof. Vinod A. Prasad.)
B.E.: University of Pune, India (2003-2007).
Email: sumit@iiitd.ac.in
Work Experience
| 16. | June'25 | Visiting Professor, TCA2I, IIT Bombay, India |
| 15. | May'25 - Present | Radar System Consultant, Arka Aerospace, Hyderabad |
| 14. | Jan'25 - Present | Professor, IIIT-Delhi, India |
| 13. | Jan'24 - Dec.'24 | Digital Hardware Design Consultant, Apexplus Tech., Hyderabad |
| 12. | June 23 - Present | Dean of Academic Affairs (DoAA) |
| 11. | Jan'20 - Dec. 24 | Associate Professor, IIIT-Delhi, India |
| 10. | June'22 - June'23 | SoC Consultant, Apexplus Tech., Hyderabad |
| 9. | July'20 - June'23: | Chair: UG Affairs, IIIT-Delhi, India |
| 8. | Mar'19 - Sept'2021: | 5G Architect (Consultant), VVDN Tech.India |
| 7. | Jan'15 - Dec'19: | Assistant Professor, IIIT-Delhi, India |
| 6. | June'17, Dec.'17, June'18: | Visiting Researcher, IEOR, IIT Bombay, India |
| 5. | Nov'15 - Dec'15: | Visiting Faculty, CentraleSupélec, Rennes, France |
| 4. | Mar'13 - Nov'14: | Postdoctoral Research Fellow, CominLabs Excellence Center, Université Europèenne de Bretagne (UEB) and Supélec, France |
| 3. | Aug'12 - Jan'13: | Intern, EADS Innovation Works (Airbus), Singapore |
| 2. | Aug'11 - Nov'11: | Visiting Research Student, Massey University, New Zealand |
| 1. | Sep'07 - Dec'08: | Assistant System Engineer, TCS, India |
Honours and Awards
- COMSNETs 2025 Best Demo Award.
- IIIT-Delhi Research Excellence Awards (2021, 2023, 2024).
- IEEE MAPCON 2024 Best Student Paper Award (3rd Position).
- Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship (QIF) Winner (2022,2023, 2024).
- VLSID 2024 Research Forum Award to Asrar.
- IEEE APCCAS 2023 Design Contest Winner.
- IIIT-Delhi Research Excellence Awards (2021, 2023).
- Elevated to IEEE Senior Member Grade.
- VLSID Conference Design Contest Winner (2022, 2023)
- COMSNETs 2022 Best PhD Thesis Award and IIITD 2022 PhD Dissertation Award to Himani Joshi.
- Best paper award (Application-oriented Research Track) in AIMLSystems 2021 Conference.
- IIIT-Delhi Teaching Excellence Awards (based on student's feedback and class strength): ECE270: ELD (2018, 2020), ECE111: DC (2019), ECE510: DHD (2019, 2020).
- Second-best poster award at COMSNETS 2019.
- 2018 NI (National Instruments) Academic Research Grant.
- Second best paper award IEEE/AIAA 36th DASC 2017, Florida, USA.
- 2017 NI (National Instruments) Academic Research Grant.
- Young scientist paper award and conference travel grant from 32nd URSI-GASS, Montreal, Canada, Aug. 2017.
- Best demo award in 11th International Conference on Cognitive Radio Oriented Wireless Networks (CROWNCOM 2016), France.
- Visiting professor fellowship, CentraleSupélec, Rennes, France (Nov.-Dec., 2015).
- DST INSPIRE faculty award from Government of India for young researchers under 32 years age along with 5 year research grant.
- Young scientist paper award and conference travel grant from URSI-France in XXXI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium of the URSI, Beijing, China, Aug. 2014.
- Graduate scholarship for four years to pursue graduate studies at NTU, Singapore.
- Best paper award in the IET National Conference on Signal and Image Processing Applications, Pune, India
Biography
Sumit J. Darak received his Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Pune University, India, in 2007, and his Ph.D. from the School of Computer Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, in 2013. He is currently a Professor and the Dean of Academic Affairs (DoAA) at IIIT-Delhi, India. Prior to joining IIIT-Delhi, he served as a Postdoctoral Researcher at CentraleSupélec, France, from March 2013 to November 2014.
Dr. Darak has also contributed to industry through multiple consultancy roles. He worked as a 5G Consultant with VVDN Technologies, India (March 2019 – September 2021), as an SoC Consultant with Apexplus Technologies, India (June 2022 – December 2024), and is currently serving as a Radar System Consultant with Arka Aerospace (since May 2025).
His research interests lie in the design of efficient algorithms and their implementation on reconfigurable and intelligent architectures for applications in wireless communication, radar systems, and artificial intelligence (AI).
His research group has received numerous accolades throughout his career. He is a recipient of the DST INSPIRE Faculty Award (2015–2020), Best Demo Award at CROWNCOM 2016, Second-Best Student Paper Award at IEEE DASC 2017, and the Young Scientist Paper Award at URSI in both 2014 and 2017. He also won the Second-Best Poster Award at COMSNETS 2019, Best Paper Award at AIML Systems 2021, Design Contest Awards at VLSID in 2022 and 2023, the IEEE APCCAS 2024 Design Contest Award, the COMSNETS Best Demo Award 2025, and the Best Paper Award at IET NCSIPA 2009. From the industry, he has been honored with the National Instruments (NI) Academic Research Grant in 2017 and 2018 and the Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship for three consecutive years—2022, 2023, and 2024. His research has also been supported by grants from DST, DRDO, and MeiTy. At IIIT-Delhi, Dr. Darak has received multiple accolades for both teaching and research, including the Teaching Excellence Awards (2018, 2019, 2020) and Research Excellence Awards (2021, 2023, 2024).