• Dr. Utsav Banerjee from Bengaluru, India receives research grant of $300,000 over three years
• Awarded research addresses critical security and privacy issues in the Internet of Things
• Research will be conducted at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc)

ABB has granted the third ever ABB Research Award in Honor of former ABB chairman Hubertus von Grünberg to Dr. Utsav Banerjee to continue his research on innovative integrated circuits and systems for increased security on the Internet of Things  and connected devices.

His research, which ABB is going to support with a grant of $300,000 over three years, will address critical security and privacy issues in the IoT. It aims to bridge the gap between complex theoretical concepts and practical implementation techniques to enable efficient hardware solutions for secure edge computing. This field becomes increasingly critical to many companies as more and more components are connected to the internet and exchange data across companies’ sites. Every one of these connections has to be secure as only secure systems can provide reliable data

Dr. Banerjee, who received his Ph.D. in 2021 in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, was recognized in a ceremony at ABB’s Research Center in Baden, Switzerland. He will lead the project in the Secure Intelligent and Efficient Systems group at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), in Bengaluru, India, where he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering.

“With the ABB Research Award in Honor of Hubertus von Grünberg we recognize outstanding work while facilitating and encouraging advanced research. With Dr Banerjee the jury selected a great candidate out of the global field of all applicants. His research will help to make the foundation of our modern world, the internet, more secure,” said ABB CEO Björn Rosengren.

“With this year’s ABB Research Award we recognize Dr Banerjee as an outstanding researcher who has worked and will continue to work on innovative integrated circuits and systems for increased security of the Internet of Things. That for me is a cornerstone of the progressing digitalization in industry, but also in everyone’s life,” said Hubertus von Grünberg, former ABB Chairman.

The ABB Research Award, which is presented every three years, honors the best Ph.D. dissertation leading to an excellent research proposal in the fields of electrical, mechanical or software engineering, electronics, robotics, artificial intelligence, process automation, and any related technical discipline, as applied in utilities, industries, and transport and infrastructure. The jury’s special attention was paid to specific real-world applications and potential for innovation beside the benefit of the research to society and the environment.

The ABB Research Award is dedicated in honor of the achievements of Hubertus von Grünberg, who served as ABB Chairman from 2007 to April 2015. Von Grünberg, a theoretical physicist who wrote his doctoral dissertation in 1970 on Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, was instrumental in setting ABB on a path to sustainable growth. It is his legacy that supporting research, both at universities and within the company, has become a strategic imperative for ABB. Investing some $7 billion in research and development between 2016 and 2021, ABB is one of most innovative companies worldwide driving the digital transformation of industries.

The awardee decision was made by a renowned international jury consisting of Dr. Hubertus von Grünberg, Prof. Nina Thornhill, Imperial College London, Prof. Roland Siegwart, ETH Zurich, Prof. Manfred Morari, University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Ambuj Varshney, National University of Singapore, and Dr. Bernhard Eschermann, CTO of ABB Process Automation.