Bhargav Sri Prakash

Bhargav Sri Prakash (born 7 April 1977) is an Indian-American engineer, entrepreneur, and inventor. He is the inventor of digital vaccines and was awarded the world's first patent for a digital vaccine by the USPTO, for an artificial intelligence enabled platform of digital therapeutics for non-invasive prevention of metabolic syndrome, infectious disease and mental health conditions, through neurocognitive training and neuromodulation delivered via a gamified metaverse.
World Bank's International Finance Corporation and Financial Times awarded FriendsLearn and Carnegie Mellon University as the #1 Transformational deeptech innovation and transformational business in the world. During the award ceremony in London, the Chair of the jury - Mr. Miguel Martins - announced, "In the words of the judges, digital vaccines provide a truly transformative deep tech solution to prevent and cure diseases that leverages the power of the mind. This year's winners (Sri Prakash's team at FriendsLearn and Carnegie Mellon University) are boldly going where no solution has gone before".
He is the founder of FriendsLearn and coleads Carnegie Mellon University's Digital Vaccine Project as the inventor and founding partner for research translation-innovation.
According to Carnegie Mellon University's website for the Digital Vaccine Project, (applications delivered via smart-phones, tablets, etc.) for nudging positive human behavior via neurocognitive training. They are gamified, digital interventions that draw from principles of neuroscience, psychology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), persuasive computing and behavioral economics to provide safe and low-risk mechanisms for dynamic neuro-behavioral-physiological modulation." He has been recognised for defining this novel category of digital vaccines.
He is considered a notable entrepreneur, known for historic contributions in the evolution of gamification, metaverse and artificial intelligence, as well as for Vmerse at the University of Michigan
He was a former national tennis champion and the top ranked junior in India.
==Biography==
===Early life===
He was born in Chennai in India. His mother is Sheila Sri Prakash and his father is M V. Sri Prakash.
==Education==
Undergraduate Degree
He enrolled in the Birla Institute of Technology and Science but dropped out in his first semester and returned to Chennai to continue to play competitive tennis, as he described in an interview. He gained an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy and was the charter secretary responsible for the institution of the Society of Automotive Engineers Student Chapter for the College 
Graduate Studies
He went on to attend graduate school on a research fellowship at the University of Michigan where he worked on thermodynamics, computational fluid dynamics and experimental tribology at the Walter E Lay Automotive Lab under Dennis Assanis in Ann Arbor. He graduated with a master's degree in Automotive Engineering in 2000.
==Career==
Inventor of Digital Vaccines gives a lecture during the 2017 Stanford MedicineX at Stanford School of Medicine, a leading academic conference for breakthroughs of technology in medicine
Bhargav Sri Prakash gives the Opening Keynote Session & Panel on Future of Healthcare & Technology - 2020 NASSCOM Technology Leadership Forum
===FriendsLearn===
Bhargav Sri Prakash is the Founder and serves as the CEO and Chief of Product at FriendsLearn, which he started in 2011, as a fellow of the Kauffman Foundation. FriendsLearn is the research translation and innovation partner of Carnegie Mellon University Digital Vaccine Project
===CADcorporation===
He started his first company, CADcorporation, in the year 1999, when he was enrolled as an international graduate student at the University of Michigan to commercialize his graduate research in math-based simulations for design optimization of automotive powertrain systems. The company was incubated by the eLab at the Ross School of Business and emerged from a class taught by Prof Joshua Coval
===Vmerse===
After selling CADcorporation, he founded Vmerse in 2005, which was the first to market with a gamified 3D virtual reality simulation platform for college recruiting and alumni relations. He sold Vmerse in 2009.
===Nirmana Investments===
In 2008 he co founded a global macro trading and real estate securities investment fund called Nirmana Investments – and served as a managing director.
==Kauffman Fellowship==
Based on his experience in the field of education technology with Vmerse, he was invited to serve as an entrepreneur fellow of the Kauffman Foundation in 2011, to incubate entrepreneurial models for planetary impact that can address education, health issues, and agriculture. During this time he developed the vision for digital vaccines and founded FriendsLearn.
==US Department of State==
In recognition of his expertise in gamification, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and college recruiting, with Vmerse, and also because he was an example of successful student immigrant innovators and entrepreneurs in the United States of America, the US Department of State's EducationUSA awarded his startup company a contract to design and develop the world's first gamified simulation to recruit prospective international students from around the globe. This framework - "Your 5 Steps to US Study" - was launched for distribution via DVD-Rom in 2011 and then as downloadable App via facebook in 2012. It is currently installed at libraries in US Consulates around the world. Since 2011, 'Your 5 Steps to US Study' has served more than 1 Billion users globally.
==Selected works==
Articles
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Books
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===General Sources===
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Category:1977 births
Category:People from Chennai
Category:Investors
Category:Entrepreneurs
Category:Engineers