IEEE Computer Society Election · 2026

Let's build a trusted, agile Computer Society. Ready for what comes next.

I'm running for President of the IEEE Computer Society. Here I share my story, my plans for our technical community, and what I've done so far. I'd also love to hear your ideas, and to learn whether you'd like to get involved.

Who am I Read my vision My record Share your ideas
IET Fellow · 2022 AAIA Fellow · 2025 Humboldt Award · 2018 27 PhD grads
Portrait of Saurabh Bagchi

Professor, Purdue University, Electrical and Computer Engineering & Computer Science

Co-Founder and CTO, KeyByte

Saurabh Bagchi with finalists and judges at the IEEE CS North America Student Challenge Competition 2024 in Washington DC Saurabh Bagchi holding a runner-up medal at a pickleball tournament A large sophomore lecture hall Saurabh Bagchi with the NSF Center CHORUS group, June 2026 Saurabh Bagchi at the Computer Society Awards Ceremony, 2019

01 / 05

At the IEEE CS North America Student Challenge Competition 2024 in Washington DC with the finalists and co‑organizers/judges Deborah, Eric, and Haoliang.

Election Schedule

You will receive your electronic ballot from Election from ieee-computervote@ieee.org on 14 August 2026. Eligible voting members for this election include current IEEE Computer Society members with active membership as of 11 June 2026. Unfortunately, Graduate Student Members and Students are ineligible to vote.

01 · Introduction

Who am I?

I am a Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer Science at Purdue University, in the sleepy and charming university town of West Lafayette, Indiana. I am the Co‑founder and CTO of a cloud computing startup, KeyByte. I have had the joy of graduating 27 PhD students and 30 Masters thesis students from my group, who are all in various stages of building wonderful careers in academia and industry.

I was born and grew up in the overwhelming, contradiction‑filled, warm, embracing city of Calcutta (renamed Kolkata) in India. With my father's job as a civil engineer in the Federal Government of India, I had the fortune, though it did not seem that great at the time, of traveling through many parts of India. I did my undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in Computer Science, and after that, following a hallowed and well‑worn path, I came to the US for MS and PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana‑Champaign. Four short years later, I added a "Dr." to my name and was out into the bright lights of industry, starting work at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in New York.

A decade and a half later, I am still idealistic, still wonder‑struck that a profession can be so rewarding.

A few years of learning from, and then working together with, some of the greats of computer science at IBM, the academic bug bit me, and I headed back to the mid‑west to become an idealistic Assistant Professor at Purdue University. One scenic detour along the way has been a successful startup I did with three colleagues, SensorHound Innovations, on embedded system reliability. Currently at Purdue, I lead the National Science Foundation center CHORUS (2024–current) on resilient cyber‑physical systems, and the Army's Artificial Intelligence Innovation Institute (A2I2) (2020–current) on assured autonomous operations.

Our technical community has been generous with awards, acknowledging our technical and societal contributions. Our work has received 13 best paper or runner‑up for best paper awards, and two Test‑of‑Time awards (DSN 2022; Middleware 2025). I am a nominated member of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (2022) and of the Asia Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (2025), and a recipient of the Humboldt Award (2018).

On a personal level, I maintain strong connections to India, serving as International Visiting Faculty at IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bombay. I have been a 20+ year volunteer with Asha for Education, a non‑profit that has been supporting basic education for underprivileged children in India since 1991. I love to play tennis — surface no matter — and for those snowy days in the Midwest, pickleball would do equally well. My wife is also a Professor at Purdue, and she has kept me sane (to some extent), on my toes (especially when she zips past me during our bike rides), energetic (whenever I feel like lolling too much, she lets me know), and fun (no professorial airs, please).

Saurabh Bagchi sketching a multimodal classification pipeline on a whiteboard

Same habit in every room I'm in, from the classroom to the boardroom: sketch it out, then build it.

02 · Platform

My vision and plans for our technical community

IEEE Computer Society stands at an inflection point — poised not just to disseminate technical knowledge, but to be a beacon showing our community the path forward. My two terms on the CS Board of Governors, along with my current leadership of two Society‑wide programs — CS Juniors and the Global Student Challenge — have prepared me to lead CS toward a future in which we shape computing technology as a powerful force for serving humanity.

I.

Academia–industry–government collaboration

While on the Board of Governors, I led a successful effort to make CS the locus for academia‑industry‑government collaboration. CS is uniquely positioned to catalyze this, but too often we’ve missed the calling. I will change this through focused programs: joint ventures in roadmapping technology sectors; standards development to ensure interoperability and security; joint prototype creation; and student challenge competitions that build effective talent pipelines.

II.

Elevate Society members

CS must proactively nurture students and young professionals (SYP) to become leaders. Currently leading CS Juniors as Chair, and the Student Challenge as Chair, I see firsthand how much impact well‑run programs can have. I will streamline our operations and create clear, documented pathways for global members — far beyond our boardrooms — to contribute to, and then lead, important programs.

III.

Independent voice in technology policy

I will build standing, rapid‑response task forces of domain experts who translate complex research into accessible policy briefs, and train members to amplify their impact with policymakers and standards bodies (NIST, IETF, ISO).

IV.

Efficient operation

I will make CS agile and cost‑efficient in initiating and sustaining activities worldwide — leading through local, member‑driven events that tap into the passion of our members, given the proper support and recognition, and keep these events broadly accessible across financial and geographical lines.

This moment of opportunity excites me. Drawing on my leadership experience across IEEE, ACM, and IFIP, as well as my passion and discipline, I am committed to making the Society a deeply rewarding professional home for its members and a powerful, enduring force for good in the broader world.

03 · Record

What have I done so far?

2021–current

Chair, Computer Society Student Challenge Competition

The challenge competitions give students a platform to build innovative solutions to real‑world problems, using real‑world datasets from academic and industry teams. They alternate between global student community and North America‑based community. The last Global Student Competition drew 500 registered students; the last North America Competition (2024) drew 43 teams. Each is financially sponsored by IEEE CS and private industry, organized with two other Board member colleagues (Prof. Deborah Silver and Prof. Joaquim Jorge), with the final held in person at an IEEE CS conference.

2024–2026

Chair (2026), Co‑Chair (2025), Member (2024): IEEE CS Juniors Program

A global program, started in 2024, inspiring K‑12 students to explore and excel in computing. As (Co‑)Chair: defining the rubric for project selection, disseminating program information, coordinating proposal evaluation, and advising organizers on execution.

2017–20, 2022–24

Computer Society Board of Governors Member

Leading student activities within the Geographical Activities Committee (GAC), IEEE CS representative to the IEEE Biometrics Council, Charter Member of the CS Distinguished Contributor Recognition Program, and member of the Ad‑Hoc Committee on ideation of novel CS activities.

2021–2024

Distinguished Visitor, IEEE Computer Society

Selected as Distinguished Visitor, I gave 6 talks — including two keynotes — at campuses (IISc Bangalore, University of Lisbon, University of Glasgow, and others) and CS conferences (keynotes at ISSRE and InC4). Topics included “Turning Padawans to Jedi — How to Train Computing Scientists” and research on dependability and data analytics.

8× in 10 years

Steering Committee & Organizing Committee, TCFTC and DSN Conference

As a core member of the IEEE CS Technical Community on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance (TCFTC), I have served on the Organizing Committee of the primary conference, Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), 8 times in the last 10 years — including Founder of the Rising Star Award (2020), Workshop Chair (2021, 2025), Steering Committee (2018–19), and PC Chair (2011).

04 · Your turn

Tell me something