IIT Madras Chair Professor, Bhatnagar Prize laureate joins the Vision AI safety startup's Advisory team
From the left Sasikumar Chandran, CEO & Founder, Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal, Growth Advisor, and Naveenkumar, COO & Cofounder, Dtyle.Ai
CHENNAI, India, Sept. 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dtyle.AI, a deep-tech Vision AI company building safety monitoring systems for maritime and industrial operations, today announced that Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal has been officially onboarded as the company's Growth Advisor.
Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal holds a PhD and completed postdoctoral research at Imperial College London, following a five-year integrated master's degree from IIT Madras. His research in non-destructive evaluation, robotics and data engineering spans 114 peer reviewed publications, 150+ additional technical articles and 60+ granted IP filings. He has attracted more than $90 million in combined R&D and venture funding over his career. His work on super-resolution ultrasonics down to quantum scale is widely recognised, receiving Young Scientist Awards from Indian Society for NDT (2016), Institute for Smart Structures and Systems (2017) and the prestigious Swarnajayanti Fellowship (2020). Prof. Rajagopal has international collaborations with leading academic and industrial partners in UK, EU and East Africa in particular. He has co-founded startups including Planys (submersible robots), Solinas (robotics for water/sanitation) and Xyma (high temperature ultrasonic sensors), that are disrupting asset maintenance (contributing to elimination of manual scavenging for e.g.., through Solinas). His work on co-owned AI model IPs is commercialised by Plenome; Other companies he advises, such as BotForge, Terraclime, Automagri and Matterize advance AI for robotics and automation. Prof. Rajagopal played key roles in India's I&E ecosystem, leading IITM's pioneering maker-space Center for Innovation (2020-25), pre-incubator Nirmaan (2023-25) and founding the Institute’s School of I&E (summer 2025), while also serving on the Board of TECHIN the Startup Incubator of IIT Palakkad (since 2023). He is recipient of the National Design Award (2016), Gandhian Young Technology Award (2018), National Entrepreneurship and Startup Awards (2019-20 - Planys), Economic Times Startup Award (‘best on campus’ 2022 – Solinas), IITM Institute R&D Award (2019 & 2025) and National Technology Award (2023 - Xyma). In recognition of his pioneering translational research, he was recipient of India’s highest award for mid-career scientists, the Bhatnagar prize (2024), and inducted as a Honorary Fellow of the Indian Society for NDT (2024), Mukta Pai Faculty Fellow (2025), and fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (2025). Currently the Nanjangud G. Viswanath Swabhanu Leadership Chair Professor at IITM, he leads the Institute’s first offshore campus in Zanzibar Tanzania as its 2nd Director-in-charge. He is Adjunct Professor at University of Nairobi Kenya as well as the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Arusha, Tanzania, while also serving as Technical Advisor to the Network of Entrepreneurial Institutions Leaders, and Vice Chair of Working Group 3: Education and Research at the International Committee for NDT.
“Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal has spent two decades turning deep research into companies that have made a difference and contributed real impact on the field. That's precisely the discipline we want on our side as Dtyle.AI moves from pilot deployments to scaled global growth. We've had him travelling with us for almost a year now, and having him noboard formally as our Growth Advisor reflects how central his guidance already is to how we build." Sasikumar Chandran, Founder & CEO, Dtyle.AI”
“Tech-for-good runs as the singular theme in most of my translational research, and Dtyle’s work developing AI based safety solutions in critical domains such as maritime mobility and transportation as well as for developing actionable intelligence across industries fits right in. Observing the work ethic and passion of the founding team, led by Sasi, it gives me great joy to support them through my strategic guidance, mentorship and advise” Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal, Growth Advisor, Dtyle.AI
About Dtyle.AI
Dtyle.AI Nuview Pvt Ltd is a deep-tech Vision AI company incubated at IIT Madras, Chennai, developing real-time fire, smoke, and safety-critical monitoring systems for the maritime and safety-critical industries. The company holds DPIIT Startup India recognition and NVIDIA Inception membership, is backed by AWS, and was selected for the PIER71 Smart Port Challenge 2026 cohort (Singapore).
Media Contact
Sasikumar Chandran, Founder & CEO, Dtyle.AI Nuview Pvt Ltd, sasikumarc@dtyle.ai
www.dtyle.ai
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