Pushing Boundaries of Engineering in Automotive and Healthcare Learn more about Srinivasaiah's career, the impacts she's made in both sectors and her potential to drive progress on a global scale.
By Liam Keeney
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Although the healthcare and automotive sectors seem worlds apart, they are united by the common drive to innovate to meet society's evolving needs and overcome modern challenges.
While it's uncommon for any one person to make a marked impact in both of these industries, eclectic professionals like Bhavani Srinivasaiah have stepped up to deliver on multiple fronts. From enhancing navigation systems to developing test kits in the height of the pandemic, she's not only solved existing industry problems but also set higher standards for what's possible in both fields.
Learn more about Srinivasaiah's career, the impacts she's made in both sectors and her potential to drive progress on a global scale.
Meet Bhavani Srinivasaiah
As a child, Bhavani Srinivasaiah would often accompany her father (a civil engineer) to work, where he would explain the intricacies of his projects. This experience inspired her to become an engineer herself, and she pursued a bachelor's degree in electrical and electronics engineering at Visvesvaraya Technological University in India.
In her third year, TVS Motor Company recruited Srinivasaiah from a pool of candidates to work for them after college. She would go on to work for them as an R&D engineer, developing hardware for automotive dashboard systems and working with advanced technology for prospective automotive projects. Soon after, she decided to pursue her master's degree in electrical and computer engineering at Newcastle University in the U.K.
However, Srinivasaiah's career took a turn when she moved to New Jersey in 2016. She wanted to prioritize her family, so with fewer automotive opportunities in the area, she pivoted her career direction and accepted a position at Siemens Healthineers, a leading global MedTech company. There, she worked as a technical leader in developing laboratory diagnostic devices.
Throughout all of her work, Srinivasaiah has tackled complex problems and made a series of impressive innovations in both the automotive and healthcare industries.
Bringing Innovative Solutions to the Automotive and Healthcare Sectors
At TVS Motor Company, Srinivasaiah set out to find a solution to GPS' tendencies to lose connection in areas with tall buildings or dense forests. Recognizing the limitations of traditional GPS technology, she developed an advanced algorithm leveraging the sensor data from a vehicle's accelerometer to maintain navigation functionality even when satellite signals are lost.
Srinivasaiah collaborated with TVS and Newcastle University to develop and patent this algorithm. Her work was deemed indispensable, earning her five patent grants and three global publications in the Society of Automotive Engineers International. She won the TVS Motor Company Patent Award in both 2013 and 2014, highlighting her contributions to the field and setting a new benchmark for smart navigation technologies.
Her time in healthcare had an even more significant impact, as her career move coincided with the greatest health crisis in recent history: COVID-19.
During her tenure at Siemens Healthineers, Srinivasaiah's expertise became invaluable when she was tasked with supporting the engineering release of software related to COVID-19 tests. Despite the risks of the global pandemic, she regularly went into the office to assess and ensure the successful release of these life-saving tools.
But that wasn't the end of COVID-19's impact on her work. At the height of the pandemic, the global supply chain crisis robbed Siemens Healthineers of a certain silicon chip — a vital component of the company's medical devices. But Srinivasaiah led a team to develop an adapter that would accommodate a similar but larger chip, allowing her team to use the previously incompatible part. This improvisation required extensive simulations, design modifications, and collaboration with offshore engineers and vendors to quickly resolve the issue and ensure the continuation of medical device manufacturing.
Thanks to her steadfast dedication and innovative acumen, Srinivasaiah was honored with the Global Recognition Award and the 'Women in Tech Community Award' in 2024.
Currently, she works at Varian Medical Systems, where she contributes to developing radiotherapy instruments for cancer treatment.
Pioneering Innovation for a Safer and Healthier Future
Bhavani Srinivasaiah's journey demonstrates the power of innovation in solving the most pressing challenges of our time. Her work serves as a powerful inspiration for visionary engineers who aim to push the boundaries of innovation to enhance the quality of life and achieve global improvement.