Vice President for Research and Economic
University at Albany, SUNY
Albany, NY, United States
Thenkurussi “Kesh” Kesavadas is the VP for Research and Economic Development at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where he leads a diverse portfolio of academic and sponsored research for a R1 university. At UAlbany, he has launched a new $200 Million Artificial Intelligence Initiative that received $75 Million from the State. Kesh is charting the future of UAlbany's unique role in semiconductor research and workforce training in New York and its partnership with NYCREATS. Kesh is an expert on medical robotics, AR/VR and simulation and inventor of the first stand alone simulator for da Vinci Surgical robot.
Before joining University at Albany in 2022, he was the founder Director of the Health Care Engineering Systems Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2014 to 2022. He was also a professor of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering and held faculty appointments in the Department of Computer Science, and with a founding faculty of the Carle-Illinois College of Medicine. He also served as a Fellow of the University of Illinois President's Executive Leadership Program (PELP). Kesavadas held the title of the Engineer-in-Chief of the Jump ARCHES endowment – where he managed a $112.5 Million endowment.
Kesavadas has widely published in the areas of medical robotics, AR/VR, digital twinning, AI, haptics, medical simulation and automation. He is also an inventor of products that were successfully commercialized. In 2008, Kesavadas developed the world’s first stand-alone virtual reality Robotic Surgical Simulator called RoSS™ that is used around the world to train residents and medical students. This invention led to forming Simulated Surgical Systems to commercialize RoSS™.
Digitizing a Functional Fabrication Plant for a Digital Twin Future
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
5:15pm - 6:30pm MT