Mathai Joseph
Advisor, Tata Consultancy Services
Pune, India

BIOGRAPHY

Mathai Joseph was Executive Director of the Tata Research Development and Design Centre in Pune, India, until 2007 and is now an Advisor to Tata Consultancy Services. He earlier held a Chair in Computer Science at the University of Warwick from 1985-97. Before that, he was a senior research scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India. He has been a Visiting Professor at Carnegie-Mellon University, Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Warwick and University of York (U.K.).

He was a founder of some long-running international conference series, such as Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science, Formal Techniques in Real-Time and Fault-Tolerant Systems and, more recently, Software Engineering Approaches to Outsourcing and Offshoring. He has set up workshop series (TECS Week and TECS Workshop) to promote computer science research in India, especially among teachers in India’s engineering colleges, and established research collaborations with several prominent universities in different countries.

His main research interests have been in real-time and fault-tolerant computing, with emphasis on formal specification and analysis. He has written and edited a number of books and conference and journal papers in these areas. He has worked on software systems for many years and wrote an early book on the design of a multiprocessor operating system.

Mathai Joseph did a Master’s degree in Physics at Bombay University and a PhD at the Mathematical Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK. He has worked in several countries and now lives in Pune, India. He has been investigating early work in computing and computer science in India and the transition over the last few decades of the Indian software industry.

STATEMENT

The remarkable growth of the Indian software industry has been a major stimulus for the recent spread of computing in India. It has led to a massive increase in the number of engineering colleges preparing students for entry into the industry. However, this growth has not been accompanied by any comparable growth in computer science research: there are few institutions where high grade research is done and only a few additions (notably the India research centres of large computing corporations) over this period; there are still very few PhD students in the country.

I believe ACM has a major role to play in creating links between the best in computer science worldwide and education and research in India. ACM publications and conferences have set an unquestioned standard for representing the highest grade of computer science research. ACM awards, like the Turing Award, are universally recognized for honoring the most significant contributions to computing. Yet, as a professional society, ACM is still very under-represented in India and no major ACM meetings are held here.

A lot of my work has been to create forums for the exchange of ideas, new research and people among industrial and educational institutions in India and overseas. I would like to work with ACM to grow these and other initiatives for promoting computer science education and research in India.

I would also like to work with ACM to promote the understanding of the software industry as a global manufacturing industry, with a consequent redefinition of software engineering technology. ACM has already made a valuable contribution through the report of its Task Force on the subject and is well-placed to make the findings a source for policy makers and a part of every computing professional’s education.