Brown CS Alum Sridhar Ramaswamy, SVP Of Advertising And Commerce At Google, Receives The Horace Mann Medal
- Posted by Jesse Polhemus
- on May 18, 2016
Brown University's Department of Computer Science (Brown CS) is proud to announce that alum Sridhar Ramaswamy's achievements in the field have earned him the Horace Mann Medal. Dean Peter M. Weber will present the award, given annually to a Brown University Graduate School alum who has made significant contributions to their field, at the Graduate School Doctoral Ceremony on May 29, 2016. Sridhar joins Brown CS alum Ingrid Carlbom, who received the Distinguished Graduate School Alumni Award (later replaced by the Horace Mann Medal) in 2000.
Part of a group of senior executives who report directly to CEO Sundar Pichai, Ramaswamy is currently the Senior Vice President of Advertising and Commerce at Google, where he oversees the design, innovation, and engineering of the company's advertising and commerce products. As leader of the engineering teams that helped define the vision and direction of AdWords, which built Google's multi-billion-dollar advertising business, he now directs the company's efforts in search advertising, display and video advertising, Google Shopping, Android Pay, and many other global platforms.
Prior to joining Google, Sridhar worked for Bellcore and Bell Labs, helping create a revolutionary system called AQUA (Approximate QUery Answering) that was aimed at providing provable guarantees for fast answers on massive datasets. His research provided the first efficient algorithm for mining outliers in large datasets and is considered a pioneering contribution to the field. Since then, his numerous innovations include the creation of online auction models with highly precise ad delivery, the development of a scientific framework and platform for understanding how website layouts and user interface components impact online monetization, and the establishment of ads quality systems.
Sridhar received his PhD in Computer Science in 1995 but continues to contribute to Brown CS, serving in the inaugural cohort of the Department's Advisory Board and delivering the first lecture in the IT Leaders Lecture Series. Interviewed prior to the event, he spoke of his love for solving the unsolvable: "What excites me is that computing itself is very young. It’s only begun to touch numerous aspects of our life. I can point kids to so many different areas and tell them that there are thousands of possible futures there, just waiting!”
"This is tremendous news," says Brown CS Department Chair Ugur Cetintemel. "We're proud of Sridhar's remarkable accomplishments and their daily impact on so many people worldwide. He's unique: our students who hope to lead and innovate in both technology and business couldn't ask for a better role model."
For more information, please click the link that follows to contact Brown CS Communication Outreach Specialist Jesse C. Polhemus.