Prof. Dr. Sureswaran Ramadass

Professor Sureswaran Ramadass is a Professor and the Director of the National Advanced IPv6 Centre of Excellence (NAV6) at Universiti Sains Malaysia.

He obtained his BsEE/CE (Magna Cum Laude) and Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Miami in 1987 and 1990 respectively. He graduated as the top student in the College of Engineering for his Bachelors Degree.

He obtained his PhD from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in 2000 while serving as a full time faculty in the School of Computer Sciences.

His recent achievements include being awarded :-
• The Wireless World Research Forum Fellow in April 2010. This fellowship award was presented in recognition to his contribution in the area of Next Generation Networks and IPv6.
• Malaysian Innovation Award by the Minister of Science and Technology in 2009. This Award was given in recognition for his contribution to innovative research and development in the area of Advanced Network and IPv6 Security and Monitoring.
• The "Anugerah Tokoh Negara" (National Academic Leader) for Innovation and Commercialization in 2008 by the Minister of Higher Education. This award is given to an academic in recognition to his contribution to Innovation and commercialization in the area of science and technology.
• Malaysian Innovation Award by the Prime Minister in 2007. This Award was given by the Prime Minister in recognition for his contribution to innovative research and development in the area of Multimedia Conferencing Systems.

Prof Sureswaran started his career in 1990 as head of technical support and customer relations manager for ComputerBanc Inc, a company with a chain of 7 stores in South Florida. He later joined MODCOMP, Florida as a senior member of the research team. MODCOMP, a wholly owned subsidiary of AEG Daimler Benz, was focused on the research, development and deployment of real-time operating systems. Their customers included Jet Propultion Labs (JPL) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for their remote space vehicles. He later joined ICON Business System, Inc (Florida) as Senior Consultant in 1991. He was subsequently promoted as Vice President of Engineering and was responsible for the entire engineering and R&D divisions of ICON. In 1992, he returned to Malaysia to join USM as a lecturer. In 1993, he formed and grew the Network Research Group to become a world recognized research center. In 2005, he became the first director of NAv6 (the Next Generation Internet Center) in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and in 2008, he become a full professor and a member of Senate, USM.

Prof Sureswaran is involved in the Global IPv6 Forum and is currently part of the IPv6 Forum Education Certification Program. He is also the Malaysian IPv6 Forum Chairman. Prof Sureswaran was also the first Chairman of the Research Steering Committee for MYREN (Malaysian Research and Education Network) and is currently the IPv6 Domain Head. He was the Chairman of the Asia Pacific IPv6 Task Force (APV6TF) and was involved in promoting IPv6 within the region and globally. He is currently a Primary Member of APAN (Asia Pacific Advanced Networks) as well as the Head of APAN Malaysia. He also holds the position as Technology Area Director of APAN, managing over 6 technical WGs under that area.

His recent active participation in the global IPv6 arena includes being a consultant to ITU. His expertise was valuable in formulating a proposal on the expansionary approach to Global IPv6 Address Allocation. This expansionary approach and his other ideas create the possibility to revolutionize the monopolistic way Internet Addresses are currently managed globally. He continues to work closely with ITU to promote IPv6 to developing countries.

He was also one of the 18 finalist for the ICANN at large Directorship in the year 2000. He is currently a Director of the Japanese AI3 project and is also the Head of the AI3 (Asian Internet Interconnections Initiative) for Malaysia. The AI3 network is one of the world’s fist native IPv6 satellite networks. This is a project funded by the WIDE group of Japan together with JCSAT Corporation with over 11 participating countries. He was also appointed as an advisor to the Japanese government’s Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecomm. (MPHPT). The input was mainly in the area of broadband penetration and growth in the South East Asian and East Asian Regions in the early 2000s.

In the world of Innovation and Commercialization, Prof Sureswaran founded and headed the team that successfully took Mlabs Systems Berhad, a high technology video conferencing company to a successful listing on the Malaysian Stock Exchange in 2005. Mlabs is the first university based company to be listed in Malaysia. He sits on the advisory boards of numerous technology companies. Under his leadership, NAv6 is currently the highest consultancy revenue earner for USM.

Prof Sureswaran and his team at NAv6 are the founders of the globally recognized CNE6 (Certified Network Engineering IPv6 Program). NAv6 is also actively assisting numerous training organizations and companies globally to provide and expand their IPv6 Certified Engineering Training Programs. This is in line with the global IPv6 agenda towards capacity building and training IPv6 Engineers. NAv6 is also involved in the planning and migration of numerous governments and organizations globally to help develop their IPv6 environment.

He has published over 110 journals and research papers, filed over 10 patents and has given numerous keynote addresses, lectures and seminars. He has written chapters and provided materials for over 7 books. He has chaired as well as been a program committee member for numerous international conferences and has reviewed papers for over 30 international and national level conferences. He has received over USD 8.5 million in research funding and grants from numerous organizations in the 19 years that he has been with the university.

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