Saritha Unnikrishnan

Biography

Dr. Saritha Unnikrishnan currently works as a Lecturer in Computing and Programme Chair of the online MSc in Data Science at ATU Sligo, bringing more than 15 years of combined experience from industry and academia. She also holds the position of Principal Investigator in Computer Vision and Machine Learning across three Strategic Research Centres at ATU. Saritha obtained her honours degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the University of Kerala, India. She has over 6 years of software industry experience working in software development, project management, and systems analyst roles with multinational companies in India and Ireland. She worked as a Research Assistant at the Department of Electronics & Electrical Engineering at Trinity College Dublin for a year.

Saritha joined ATU Sligo in 2015 as an Assistant Lecturer in Electronics and simultaneously joined the PEM research group based in ATU as a PhD researcher in Image processing and Machine Learning with a focus on pharmaceutical manufacturing applications. Dr. Unnikrishnan’s research work has been carried out in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (Ireland & UK) Ltd. She obtained her PhD in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Image Processing from ATU (formerly IT Sligo) in 2020. Saritha has presented her research at various international conferences including the Future Intelligent Manufacturing session in 2018 at MIT, Boston, USA. Her research interests are AI-assisted computer vision applications in sustainable manufacturing and, health applications.

Relevant Awards/ Funding Attained Summary:
• HEA/ERDF co-funded TU RISE funding worth €3 M to lead a postgraduate research training programme in applied Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (2024 to 28).
• Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation fund worth €400,933 in 2022.
• President’s bursary award, and 2 CUA bursary awards worth €260,000 in 2021/22.
• Interreg European Regional Development fund for STRAND 4 CO-INNOVATE programme in 2021.
• HEA pStem Role Models funding as a Co-PI with UCD and TUD in 2021.
• SFI Discover fund as a Co-PI in 2019.
• Irish Higher Education Authority’s Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions in 2003
• Best oral presentation award at the Microscopy Society of Ireland Annual Symposium 2018.

Dr. Unnikrishnan currently leads five Ph.D. projects and an Enterprise Ireland-funded commercialisation project, shaping an AI-enabled computer vision solution for pharmaceutical use, potentially initiating a spin-out. This vision was cemented with a license transfer in 2020 and a US Patent published in 2021. She has been nominated as a national delegate from Ireland in the management committee of two European COST actions – 1) the GliMR consortium focusing on AI in neuro-oncology and 2) CYPHER, which stands for Cyber-Physical systems and digital twins for the decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries.

Dr. Unnikrishnan has been awarded with 5 Ph.D. bursaries each worth €100,000, an Enterprise Ireland commercialisation fund worth €400,000 and a postgraduate research training centre worth €3 million, with a total fund worth around €4 million to support researchers in Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Her publication list can be viewed at http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=eW64QkcAAAAJ&hl=en