The Vision Behind Our Mission
Dr Pavanaja U B
Dr U B Pavanaja holds Master’s degree from Mysore University and PhD from Mumbai University. He was a scientist at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, for about 15 years. He has done advanced research at Taiwan. He resigned BARC in 1997 and dedicated himself fully for the cause of Computer and Indian languages. He has to his credit many firsts, viz., first Kannada web-site, first Kannada online magazine, first Indian language (Kannada) web-site to receive Golden Web Award, first Indian language (Kannada) editor for Palm OS, first Indian language (Kannada) editor for WinCE device (HP Jornado 720), first Indian language version (Kannada) of universally popular Logo (programming language for children) software, etc. his Kannada Logo has won the Manthan Award for the year 2006. He was a member of the Technical Advisory Committee setup by Govt of Karnataka on Standardization of Kannada on Computers (2000). He is also the member of Kannada Software Committee of Govt of Karnataka (2008-current). He started his career on computers from FORTRAN and then moved on to Pascal, C, BASIC, QuickBasic, Visual Basic, VB.Net, etc. He has attended and represented Indian languages in many Indian and International forums like Indic Font Workshop (Indic Computing Consortium, Bangalore, India), Unicode conference (Unicode Consortium, CA, USA), OpenType Font Seminar (Microsoft, Seattle, USA), etc. He is quite well known in Indic computing arena. He is also popular as a writer of articles in Kannada about IT. He has consulted to Microsoft India and Microsoft Research Labs India. His last assignment was with The Centre for Internet and Society in the Access to Knowledge team to work towards growing the Wikipedia community in India. He is a member of various committees setup by Govt of Karnataka in the area of Kannada and Information Technology. He is a contributor to ICANN as a member of the NeoBrahmi Generation Panel which is working towards standardization and implementation of Indic scripts in Internationalised Domain Names. He is one of the founder directors of Vishvakannada Foundation.
Dr. Anand Savanth
Dr. Anand Savanth is a seasoned SoC architect and VLSI specialist with over 20 years of industry experience and former Researcher at Arm Ltd. He has led and contributed to the design of advanced system-on-chip architectures, with a strong focus on performance optimization, scalability, and power-efficient computing. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from RV College of Engineering, Karnataka, MSc from University of Liverpool and PhD from the University of Southampton, UK. Anand holds multiple patents in his domain and has authored high-impact research publications in the field of VLSI and semiconductor design, bridging innovation with real-world silicon implementation. His work has directed new research threads and contributed to shaping modern computing systems and next-generation hardware platforms. Beyond engineering, Anand is actively involved in community and cultural initiatives. As a former Executive Committee Member of Kannada Balaga, UK, he has worked closely with Kannada Abhivruddhi Praadhikaara on efforts to digitize and animate the Kannada script, promoting the integration of language and technology. He also leads initiatives through Vishvakannada Foundation, working to bridge language barriers in computer literacy and enable broader access to computing literacy and technology for students in rural Kannada schools. Dr. Anand brings a unique perspective that blends deep technical expertise with societal impact, making him a compelling voice at the intersection of innovation, research, and cultural advancement.