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{{short description|Indian Technology Entrepreneur}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Geetha Manjunath
| image =
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| occupation = Founder & CEO of NIRAMAI
| education = [[IISc]]<br />[[Kellogg School of Management]]

}}

'''Geetha Manjunath''' is an Indian entrepreneur and computer scientist. She is the founder and CEO of NIRAMAI Health Analytix, a [[Bengaluru]] based start-up that provides non-invasive, radiation free [[breast cancer screening]] through [[AI]].

== Education ==

Raised in Bengaluru, Manjunath got her Bachelor's in Computer Science, and got her Master's from [[IISc]] in Computer Science.<ref name="WiD">Geetha Manjunath. Women in Data Science (WiDS) Conference. Retrieved 16 June 2021, from [https://www.widsconference.org/geethamanjunath.html. WomenInDataScience] {{Dead link|date=June 2021}}</ref><ref name="WEF">Dr. Geetha Manjunath | WEF | Women Economic Forum. WEF. Retrieved 18 June 2021, from [https://www.wef.org.in/dr-geetha-manjunath/. WomenEconomicForum]</ref> She holds a management education from [[Kellogg School of Management]], Chicago and a [[PhD]] from IISc in AI and [[Data mining|Data Mining]].<ref name="WiD" /><ref name="WEF" />

== Career ==

Manjunath got her first job at the [[Centre for Development of Advanced Computing]], where she helped develop as a part of the team, the first Indian commercial supercomputer in the 1990s.<ref name="Forbes" /> Just out of college, she was inducted into the integration team, only to get bored within a year and was contemplating quitting.<ref name="Rukhmabai Initiatives">[https://www.rukhmabai.com/if-you-are-the-only-woman-in-the-room-so-what/]</ref> That's when she was transferred to the research wing.

She then joined [[Hewlett-Packard]] Laboratories as a Principal Research Scientist where she worked for 17 years, and later worked as the Lab Director leading Data Analytics Research at [[Xerox India]].<ref name="IndiaAI">[https://indiaai.gov.in/people/geetha-manjunath Geetha Manjunath], [[INDIAai]]. Retrieved 18 June 2021</ref>

In 2016, she became an entrepreneur by establishing her start-up NIRAMAI along with Nidhi Mathur.<ref name="INC42" /> NIRAMAI, which stands for “Non-Invasive Risk Assessment with Machine Intelligence”, uses the portable technology called Thermalytix using machine intelligence over thermography images to detect breast cancer.<ref name="Forbes">Bathija, M. (2020). How Geetha Manjunath Built Cheap, Non-invasive Breast Cancer Detection | Forbes India. Forbes India. Retrieved 16 June 2021, from [https://www.forbesindia.com/article/self-made-women-2020/how-geetha-manjunath-built-cheap-noninvasive-breast-cancer-detection/58119/1 Forbes]</ref><ref name="INC42" /> NIRAMAI's technology for detecting early stage breast cancer utilises non-touch and non-invasive breast cancer screening using Machine Learning and AI. The company has raised around $7 Million in funding with few of its main investors being Pi Ventures, Ankur Capital, Fund Dream Incubator and Beenext.<ref name="Forbes" /><ref name="INC42" /> The advantage this would have over previously used methods such as mammography, is that the technology developed by NIRAMAI could detect breast cancer in women under the age of 45 as well unlike mammography.<ref name="INC42">(2019). Retrieved 18 June 2021, from [https://inc42.com/startups/how-niramai-is-helping-india-women-battle-deadly-breast-cancer-with-ai-driven-early-detection/. Inc42]</ref>

The start-up announced in 2019, that it would leverage Thermalytix in detecting the presence of parasitic worm that causes river blindness, a project that is being also funded by the [[Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation]].<ref name="Forbes" /> She was initially part of the integration team, but got bored within a year and was contemplating quitting. That's when she was inducted into the research wing.<ref name="Rukhmabai Initiatives"/>

In 2020, amid the Covid-19 crisis, the health tech start-up also came up with solutions that use Thermalytix to detect fever and respiratory diseases to possibly detect Covid-19 infected people. In March 2020, this was pilot tested at a biotechnology company.<ref name="xray">\. (2021). X-Ray Setu plans to onboard 10K doctors for COVID detection in rural areas. Business-standard.com. Retrieved 18 June 2021, from [https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/x-ray-setu-plans-to-on-board-10k-doctors-for-covid-detection-in-rural-areas-121060100523_1.html. X-RaySetu]</ref>

In 2021, through NIRAMAI, Manjunath collaborated with Non-profit organization Artpark CEO Umakant Soni and IISc to come up with X-RaySetu. It is an AI-based program that runs on the app [[WhatsApp]] to help detect Covid-19 in areas where CT scans and RT-PCR tests aren't available.<ref name="xray" />

Manjunath co-authored the book "Moving to the Cloud" with Sitaram, on cloud technologies published by Elsvier Syngress.<ref name="IndiaAI" />

She is the former chair of [[IEEE Computer Society]], Bangalore Chapter.<ref name="WEF" />

== Awards and honors ==

* In 1991, Manjunath was awarded the Gold Medal by [[Computer Society of India]].<ref name="WEF" />
* In 2009, she was named as one of the top 50 [[NASSCOM]] IT Innovators.<ref name="WEF" />
* In 2010, she winner of 2010 MIT Tech Review Grand Challenges for Technologists in Healthcare category.<ref name="WEF" />
* In 2018, she was awarded the BIRAC WinER Award for her research in entrepreneurship.<ref name="WEF" />
* In 2020, she was named on the women in the Forbes List of Top 20 Self-Made Women India.<ref name="ForbesList">Self-Made Women 2020 : India's top women achievers : Forbes India. Forbes India. (2020). Retrieved 18 June 2021, from [https://www.forbesindia.com/lists/self-made-women-2020/1835/1. SelfMadeForbes2020]</ref>
* Manjunath is the has 16 US Patents for her work.<ref name="WiD" />
* She was awarded the [[Accenture]] Vahini Innovator of the Year Award from Economic Times in 2020.<ref name="WiD" />
* She was also titled as The Woman Entrepreneur of the year 2020 by Biospectrum.<ref name="BioSpectrum">Dr Geetha Manjunath receives BioSpectrum Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2020. Biospectrumindia.com. (2021). Retrieved 18 June 2021, from [https://www.biospectrumindia.com/news/18/18404/dr-geetha-manjunath-receives-biospectrum-woman-entrepreneur-of-the-year-award-2020.html. BioSpectrum] {{Dead link|date=June 2021}}</ref>
* In June 2021, Indian-American computer scientist Dr. Geetha Manjunath was named as one of the recipients of the Women Tech Global Awards in the "Innovator of the Year" category. Dr. Manjunath is the CEO and co-founder of Niramai, a startup that uses AI-based technology for early detection of breast cancer.<ref>{{Cite news |title=DBT-BIRAC supported start-ups InnAccel and NIRAMAI have received World Bank Group and the Consumer Technology Association's Global Women's HealthTech Awards |work=Press Information Bureau Government of India |url=https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1789344 |access-date=12 January 2022}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

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[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:People from Bengaluru]]
[[Category:Indian Institute of Science alumni]]
[[Category:Kellogg School of Management alumni]]
[[Category:Indian women business executives]]
[[Category:Businesswomen from Karnataka]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian businesswomen]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian businesspeople]]

Geetha Manjunath - Revision history

Greyscaledesign at 21:59, 14 February 2026