Shanmuganathan Raman, known as Shanmuga, is a Professor and Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar. A researcher in computer vision, computational imaging, and computer graphics, he develops algorithms that enable machines to capture, reconstruct, and interpret the visual world — bridging the physics of image formation with modern deep learning.
He founded and directs the Computer Vision, Imaging, and Graphics (CVIG) Lab at IIT Gandhinagar, where his group studies problems ranging from high dynamic range imaging and computational photography to photometric- and polarization-based 3D reconstruction, point-cloud analysis, and, increasingly, generative and neural methods that connect machine and human perception. His research has appeared at premier international venues, including CVPR, ECCV, BMVC, WACV, SIGGRAPH Asia, and IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.
Research
Shanmuga's research spans computer vision, image and video processing, computer graphics, deep learning, and artificial intelligence. A consistent thread connects his earliest and most recent work — the question of how images are formed, and how that process can be inverted to recover the scene behind them. It runs from his doctoral research on the high dynamic range imaging problem through photometric stereo, inverse rendering, and self-supervised shape estimation, to neural 3D reconstruction, differentiable rendering, and generative models for vision, and extends even to neural decoding, where his group has reconstructed images directly from EEG brain recordings. The aim throughout is to build methods that are not only accurate, but physically grounded and broadly useful.
A complete list of his publications is available on his Google Scholar profile and ORCID record, with selected highlights on the research page.
Education
Shanmuga received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2011, under the supervision of Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri. His dissertation, on low dynamic range solutions to the high dynamic range imaging problem, was honoured with the IIT Bombay Excellence in Ph.D. Thesis Work Award at the institute's 50th Convocation (2012). He earlier completed an M.Tech. in Biomedical Engineering at IIT Bombay (2006), with a thesis on the mechanism of synaptic integration in neurons advised by Prof. Rohit Manchanda, and a B.E. in Electronics and Communication Engineering at PSG College of Technology (2003). During his doctoral studies he was a Microsoft Research India Ph.D. Fellow (2007–2011).
Career & Roles
Shanmuga has been a member of the IIT Gandhinagar faculty for over a decade, advancing from Assistant Professor (2013) to Associate Professor (2018) and Professor (2024), and assuming leadership of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering as its Head in September 2025. Before joining IIT Gandhinagar, he was an Assistant Professor at IIT Jodhpur (2012–2013) and a post-doctoral research associate at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (2011–2012).
From 2020 to 2025 he held the Jibaben Patel Chair in Artificial Intelligence, and from 2023 to 2025 he chaired the institute's Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) activities. His service extends beyond academia: he has been appointed an Independent Director on the boards of Gujarat state enterprises, including the Gujarat Industrial Investments Corporation (GIIC) and the Madhya Gujarat Vij Company Limited (MGVCL).
Professional Recognition
| Award | Awarding Agency | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship | Qualcomm | 2023 |
| Long Service Award | IIT Gandhinagar | 2023 |
| Excellence in Research Award | IIT Gandhinagar | 2022 |
| Jibaben Patel Chair in Artificial Intelligence | IIT Gandhinagar | 2020–2025 |
| Excellence in PhD Thesis Work Award | IIT Bombay | 2012 |
| Microsoft Research India PhD Fellowship | Microsoft Research | 2007 |
The CVIG Lab
Mentorship sits at the centre of Shanmuga's work. Ten scholars have completed their doctoral studies under his guidance, together with a large number of master's, undergraduate, and visiting researchers. His former students have gone on to faculty positions at institutions such as IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, IIT Jodhpur, and IIT BHU, and to research and engineering roles at organisations including Qualcomm, Samsung, and Dolby. Many have been recognised with competitive honours, among them the Prime Minister's Research Fellowship, the Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship, and the Fulbright–Nehru and Visvesvaraya fellowships.
Teaching
Shanmuga teaches across the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum, pairing foundational courses with advanced, research-oriented electives. His subjects include Computer Vision, 3D Computer Vision, Computational Photography, Deep Learning, Mathematical Foundations for Computer Vision and Graphics, Matrix Methods for Signal Processing, Data Science, and Machine Learning, and Probability and Random Processes. A complete, term-by-term record is available on the teaching page.
Beyond the Lab
Outside the lab, Shanmuga follows tennis and cricket closely — with lasting admiration for Roger Federer and Michael Bevan — and is a dedicated reader of non-fiction and popular science in the tradition of Bill Bryson and Carl Sagan. He has a deep love of golden-era Tamil and Hindi film music, and devotes considerable energy to career counselling, guiding students on internships, higher studies, and placements through Career Development Services at IIT Gandhinagar.
Get in Touch
Shanmuga welcomes enquiries from prospective students and collaborators. He can be reached at shanmuga@iitgn.ac.in or ramshanmuga@gmail.com, or at Academic Block 13-322C, IIT Gandhinagar, Palaj, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India – 382355.
Students from outside IIT Gandhinagar who wish to work with him may apply through the SRIP or admission programmes for an internship or a Ph.D.