Prasanna Date

Dr. Prasanna Date is a Research Scientist in the Computer Science and Mathematics Division (CSMD) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). His research interests include neuromorphic computing and quantum machine learning. For his work, Date was featured on the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in the Healthcare and Science category. At ORNL, he was awarded the Promising Early-Career Researcher Award in his division in 2021 and also won the 2021 Your Science in a Nutshell (YSiaN) competition.

Date has shown that neuromorphic computing, an energy-efficient computing paradigm that performs machine learning computations by mimicking the human brain, is not just limited to machine learning, but is capable of doing everything that today’s computers can do, i.e. it is Turing-complete. Given that neuromorphic computers consume only a fraction of energy as compared to today’s computers, Date’s work would pave the way for energy-efficient computing in the future. This would be instrumental for reducing the carbon footprint of computing globally. Date also develops novel machine learning techniques on quantum computers. Some of his quantum machine learning techniques are significantly faster than the current state-of-the-art, and will be instrumental for efficient data analysis in scientific, consumer and business applications in the future.

Dr. Date has published more than 30 papers in top journals and conferences like Nature Computational Science, Nature Scientific Reports and International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN). He serves as the Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (TNNLS) journal, and is on the editorial board of Nature Scientific Reports and Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience journals. He also serves as a reviewer for top journals and conferences, including Nature Communications Physics and the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). Date has led research projects as the PI, Co-PI, or Task Lead, organized conferences, chaired workshops and mentored postdocs and students.

Date obtained his Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science, as well as M.Eng. in Industrial Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, in 2019. He obtained his B.E. (Honors) in Manufacturing Engineering from BITS Pilani, India, in 2014. He is a member of IEEE, ACM, APS and INFORMS, where he engages in extensive volunteering activities.