Dr. Pratap Chillakanti

Dr. Pratap holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science, and an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of business. Pratap is an Entrepreneur, Adjunct Professor, Researcher, and a Mentor. He has over 30 years of experience in both the Silicon Valley technology industry and the academia in institutions like the University of California at Berkeley. Most recently, through his company GENI (Global Entrepreneurs Network Inc.), Pratap led his team in the development of an AI/ML-driven technology innovation and transformation in partner incentives & engagement for Cisco’s partner organization. The system supports over 25,000 individual partner sellers who earn rewards driven by dynamic incentives. Dr. Chillakanti was one of the very first in the high tech industry to envision and implement an integrated approach to collaborative learning. In 2011, as the founder and CEO of a startup company Lensoo in Silicon Valley, he was the first to introduce a self-organized cloud ecosystem for collaborative learning, teaching, and knowledge sharing.

In the academic environment, Pratap had the privilege of co-teaching graduate courses in Computer Science at University of California, Berkeley along with his mentor (late) Professor C.V. Ramamoorthy, a founding father of Computer Science/Software Engineering. Pratap also taught courses through the UC Berkeley extension. In the time period 2015-2017, Pratap was invited as a Visiting Professor by his alma mater in India, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University at Kakinada (JNTUK), to introduce MOOCS for over 25+ Engineering colleges in the University system. As part of this effort, he had trained the faculty in facilitating effective online learning and collaboration. Pratap has numerous publications in journals, books, and conferences in information security, dynamic collaboration, and transdisciplinary education, research, development. He is a frequent speaker at conferences. He personally supports many education initiatives especially for the less fortunate. Pratap firmly believes in sharing his entrepreneurial success stories and challenges. He actively mentors other entrepreneurs while continuing his own aspirations to change the world through his innovations. As a lifelong learner, Pratap is on theverge of completing his second Ph.D. in transdisciplinary research from Texas Tech University.