Nagendra is passionate about solving real-world problems that can make a meaningful difference in the world we live. That includes addressing the dire needs of rural communities in the developing nations as well as the 'smarts' required to make lives better in urban centers through the use of state-of-the-art technologies. Although trained as a Computer Science professional, he has worked extensively in software, semiconductor, solar, and energy platforms.
Nagendra is currently CTO at FTC Solar, a startup in the solar space. His responsibility includes envisioning new products such as trackers, automation software, etc., for the solar industry and defining new technologies that can serve the needs of utility scale solar projects.
Prior to this he was CTO at Enernet, a microgrid company, and CTO at LinkBee, an IoT company. And before that he was the VP & CTO at SunEdison, the world's largest renewable energy company. There he was responsible for new products and solutions. This included power electronics technologies like micro and string inverters, tracker controllers, and sophisticated energy meters. And it included structures and trackers for mounting solar modules in a labor optimized way. A large portion of what he managed also included software & systems for monitoring and controlling solar plants remotely.
Nagendra has filed 50+ patents, submitted multiple grant proposals working with national labs and industry partners, has given many key note presentations in international forums, and published several articles and technical papers in various journals and magazines. He holds a Master’s and Ph.D., degrees in Computer Science from IIT, Chicago and attended the Stanford Executive Program at GSB.
Specialties: IoT technologies and solutions, communications, PV + Hybrid systems, PV projects, Battery solutions, Software platforms, ASIC design and EDA