Ashok Vijayakumar at 05:54, 5 March 2026

2026-03-05T05:54:26Z

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{{short description|Indian-American electrical engineer (1931 - 2021)}}{{Family name hatnote|Kamisetty|lang=Telugu}}{{about|the electrical engineer|the psychologist K. R. Rao|Koneru Ramakrishna Rao}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = K. R. Rao
| image = KRRao.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = K. R. Rao
| birth_date = {{birth date|1931|08|27|df=y}}<ref name="Dang_2021" /><ref name="Rao_Obit" />
| birth_place = [[Chennai|Madras]], [[Madras Presidency]], [[British India]] (now [[Chennai]], [[Tamil Nadu]], [[India]]) <ref name="Dang_2021" /><ref name="Rao_Obit" />
| death_date = {{death date and age|2021|01|15|1931|08|27|df=y}}<ref name="Rao_Obit" /><ref name="UTA_Mourns" />
| death_place = [[Arlington, Texas|Arlington]], [[Texas]], [[United States]]<ref name="Rao_Obit" />
| citizenship =
| alma_mater = {{ubl|[[College of Engineering, Guindy]]|[[University of Florida]]|[[University of New Mexico]]}}
| doctoral_advisor =
| academic_advisors =
| doctoral_students =
| notable_students =
| known_for = [[Discrete Cosine Transform]]
| author_abbrev_bot =
| author_abbrev_zoo =
| influences =
| influenced =
| awards = Fulbright Scholar<ref name="Dang_2021" />
| signature =
| footnotes =
| field = [[Electrical Engineering]]
| religion =
}}

'''Kamisetty Ramamohan Rao''' (1931{{Spnd}}2021) was an [[Indian-American]] electrical engineer. He was a professor of [[electrical engineering|Electrical Engineering]] at the [[University of Texas at Arlington]] (UT Arlington). Academically known as K. R. Rao,<ref>{{cite web | url = https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/37275488000 | title = IEEE Xplore author page | access-date = 12 June 2020 }}</ref> he is credited with the co-invention of [[discrete cosine transform]] (DCT), along with [[Nasir Ahmed (engineer)|Nasir Ahmed]] and T. Natarajan due to their landmark publication, ''Discrete Cosine Transform''.<ref name="Rao_Obit" /><ref name="Ahmed_1974" /><ref name="Rumende" />

==Education==
Rao received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the [[College of Engineering, Guindy]], affiliated with the [[University of Madras]], in 1952. In 1959, he received his Master of Science Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Florida in 1959 followed by a Master of Science in [[Nuclear engineering|Nuclear Engineering]] from the [[University of Florida]] in 1960. He received a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the [[University of New Mexico]], Albuquerque in 1966.<ref name="Rao_Obit" />

==Career==
Rao had been with the University of Texas at Arlington since 1966.<ref name="Rumende" /> He was a professor of electrical engineering, and the director of the Multimedia Processing Laboratory. He also taught undergraduate courses on Discrete Signals and Systems and Fundamentals of Telecommunication systems. He also taught graduate courses on Digital Video Coding, Digital Image Processing, Discrete Transforms, and Multimedia Processing.

He had been an external examiner for graduate students from universities in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan. He was a visiting professor at universities in Australia, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Thailand. He conducted workshops/tutorials on video/audio coding/standards worldwide. He advised more than a hundred graduate students.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-06-16 |title=Remembering Data Compression Pioneer K. R. Rao |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/krrao-tribute |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220617192307/https://spectrum.ieee.org/krrao-tribute |archive-date=2022-06-17 |access-date=2022-06-17 |website=IEEE Spectrum |language=en}}</ref> He published in refereed journals and has been a consultant to industry, research institutes, law firms, and academia.

He was a [[Fellow of the IEEE]]. He is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Scholars, UTA. He was invited to be a panelist for the 2011 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), with service on the Electrical Engineering Panel.
He was a panelist for the US EPA STAR fellowship program during 2013 and 2015 in Chantilly, Virginia.

===Discrete cosine transform===

Rao, along with [[Nasir Ahmed (engineer)|Nasir Ahmed]] and T. Natarajan, introduced the [[discrete cosine transform]] (DCT) in 1974 which has since become very popular in [[digital signal processing]]. DCT, INTDCT, directional DCT and MDCT (modified DCT) have been adopted in several international video/image/audio coding standards such as JPEG/MPEG/H.26X series and also by SMPTE (VC-1) and by AVS China.

==Publications==
{{refbegin|2}}
*{{cite journal | last1 = Ahmed | first1 = Nasir | author-link1 = Nasir Ahmed (engineer) | last2 = Natarajan | first2 = T. Raj | author-link2 = | last3 = Rao | first3 = K.R. | author-link3 = K. R. Rao | author-mask3 = 1 | date = 1974-01-01 | title = Discrete Cosine Transform | url = | format = | department = | journal = [[IEEE Transactions on Computers]] | language = en | publisher = IEEE Computer Society | volume = C-23 | issue = 1 | pages = 90{{hyphen}}93 | doi = 10.1109/T-C.1974.223784 | eissn = 1557-9956 | issn = 0018-9340 | lccn = 75642478 | oclc = 1799331 | ol = | s2cid = 206619973 | df = dmy-all }}
*{{cite book | last1 = Ahmed | first1 = Nasir | author-link1 = Nasir Ahmed (engineer) | last2 = Rao | first2 = Kamisetty Ramamohan | author-link2 = K. R. Rao | author-mask2 = 1 | date = 1975-08-07 | title = Orthogonal Transforms for Digital Signal Processing | publisher = [[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer-Verlag]] | publication-place = New York | doi = 10.1109/ICASSP.1976.1170121 | isbn = 978-3540065562 | lccn = 73018912 | ol = OL22806004M | oclc = 438821458 | s2cid = 10776771 | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Elliott | first1 = Douglas F. | author-link1 = | last2 = Rao | first2 = K. Ramamohan | author-link2 = K. R. Rao | author-mask2 = 1 | date = 1983-02-11 | orig-date = | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = Fast Transforms Algorithms, Analyses, Applications | url = https://archive.org/details/fasttransformsal0000elli/ | url-access = registration | language = en | volume = | edition = 1st | publication-place = Orlando, Florida | publisher = Academic Press | page = | pages = | doi = | doi-access = | isbn = 978-0122370809 | lccn = 79008852 | oclc = 471811324 | ol = OL33490917M | via = [[Internet Archive]] | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Rao | first1 = K. R. | author-link1 = K. R. Rao | author-mask1 = 1 | date = 1985-01-01 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = Discrete Transforms And Their Applications | url = | url-access = | series = Benchmark Papers in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | language = en | edition = | publisher = [[Wiley (publisher)|Van Nostrand Reinhold]] | page = | pages = | doi = | isbn = 978-0442276690 | lccn = 84020832 | oclc = 246796185 | ol = OL2858181M | s2cid = 118773622 | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Rao | first1 = K. R. | author-link1 = K. R. Rao | last2 = Srinivasan | first2 = Ram | author-link2 = | author-mask1 = 1 | date = 1985-09-01 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = Teleconferencing | url = https://archive.org/details/teleconferencing0000unse_p0p0 | url-access = registration | series = Benchmark Papers in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | language = en | edition = | publisher = [[Wiley (publisher)|Van Nostrand Reinhold]] | page = | pages = | doi = | isbn = 978-0442278267 | lccn = 85006078 | oclc = 11867822 | ol = OL3025695M | via = [[Internet Archive]] | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Rao | first1 = K. Ramamohan | author-link1 = K. R. Rao | last2 = Yip | first2 = Patrick C. | author-link2 = | author-mask1 = 1 | date = 1990-09-11 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = Discrete Cosine Transform: Algorithms, Advantages, Applications | url = | url-access = | series = Signal, Image and Speech Processing | language = en | edition = | publisher = [[Academic Press]] | page = | pages = | doi = 10.1016/c2009-0-22279-3 | arxiv = 1109.0337 | isbn = 978-0125802031 | lccn = 89029800 | oclc = 1008648293 | ol = OL2207570M | s2cid = 12270940 | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Rao | first1 = K.R. | author-link1 = K. R. Rao | last2 = Hwang | first2 = J. J. | author-link2 = | author-mask1 = 1 | date = 1996-07-18 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = Techniques and Standards for Image, Video, and Audio Coding | url = | url-access = | series = | language = en | edition = | publisher = Prentice Hall | page = | pages = | isbn = 978-0133099072 | lccn = 96015550 | oclc = 34617596 | ol = OL978319M | s2cid = 56983045 | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Rao | first1 = K. R. | author-link1 = K. R. Rao | last2 = Bojkovic | first2 = Zoran S. | author-link2 = | author-mask1 = 1 | date = 2000-04-15 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = Packet Video Communications over ATM Networks | url = | url-access = | series = | language = en | edition = 1st | publisher = Prentice Hall | page = | pages = | doi = | isbn = 978-0130115188 | lccn = 99044156 | oclc = 247762667 | ol = OL10073693M | s2cid = 57275175 | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Rao | first1 = K. Ramamohan | author-link1 = K. R. Rao | last2 = Yip | first2 = Patrick C. | author-link2 = | author-mask1 = 1 | date = 2000-09-27 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = The Transform and Data Compression Handbook | url = | url-access = | series = Electrical Engineering & Applied Signal Processing Series | language = en | edition = | publisher = [[CRC Press]] | page = | pages = | doi = 10.1201/9781420037388 | isbn = 978-0125802031 | lccn = 00057149 | oclc = 44468841 | ol = OL19020123M | s2cid = 116261584 | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Rao | first1 = K. R. | author-link1 = K. R. Rao | last2 = Bojkovic | first2 = Zoran S. | author-link2 = | last3 = Milovanovic | first3 = Dragorad A. | author-mask1 = 1 | date = 2002-05-06 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = Multimedia Communication Systems: Techniques, Standards, and Networks | url = | url-access = | series = | language = en | edition = | publisher = Prentice Hall | page = | pages = | doi = | isbn = 978-0130313980 | lccn = 2002021427 | oclc = 807397722 | ol = OL9285737M | s2cid = 59669344 | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Wu | first1 = H. R. | author-link1 = K. R. Rao | last2 = Rao | first2 = K. R. | author-link2 = K. R. Rao | author-mask2 = 1 | date = 2005-11-18 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = The Transform and Data Compression Handbook | url = | url-access = | series = Signal Processing and Communications | language = en | edition = | publisher = [[CRC Press]] | page = | pages = | doi = 10.1201/9781420037388 | isbn = 978-0824727772 | lccn = 2005051404 | oclc = 781375718 | ol = OL34589317M | s2cid = 116261584 | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Rao | first1 = K. R. | author-link1 = K. R. Rao | last2 = Bojkovic | first2 = Zoran S. | author-link2 = | last3 = Milovanovic | first3 = Dragorad A. | author-mask1 = 1 | date = 2006-01-03 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = Introduction to Multimedia Communications: Applications, Middleware, Networking | url = | url-access = | series = | language = en | edition = | publisher = Prentice Hall | page = | pages = | doi = 10.1002/0471656399 | isbn = 978-0471467427 | lccn = 2005001259 | oclc = 940714465 | ol = OL3392250M | s2cid = 60544523 | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Britanak | first1 = Vladimir | author-link1 = | last2 = Yip | first2 = Patrick C. | author-link2 = | last3 = Rao | first3 = K. R. | author-link3 = K. R. Rao | author-mask3 = 1 | date = 2006-11-06 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = Discrete Cosine and Sine Transforms: General Properties, Fast Algorithms and Integer Approximations | url = | url-access = | series = | language = en | edition = | publisher = [[Academic Press]] | page = | pages = | doi = | isbn = 978-0123736246 | lccn = 2006931102 | oclc = 220853454 | ol = OL18495589M | s2cid = 118873224 | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Rao | first1 = K.R. | author-link1 = K. R. Rao | last2 = Kim | first2 = Do Nyeon | author-link2 = | last3 = Hwang | first3 = Jae Jeong | author-link3 = | author-mask1 = 1 | date = 2010-10-07 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = Fast Fourier Transform - Algorithms and Applications | url = | url-access = | series = Signals and Communication Technology | language = en | edition = 2010th | publisher = [[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] | page = | pages = | doi = 10.1007/978-1-4020-6629-0 | isbn = 978-1402066283 | lccn = 2010934857 | oclc = 828528685 | ol = OL25559230M | s2cid = 117791909 | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Rao | first1 = K.R. | author-link1 = K. R. Rao | last2 = Kim | first2 = Do Nyeon | author-link2 = | last3 = Hwang | first3 = Jae Jeong | author-link3 = | author-mask1 = 1 | date = 2013-10-21 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = Video coding standards: AVS China, H.264/MPEG-4 PART 10, HEVC, VP6, DIRAC and VC-1 | url = | url-access = | series = Signals and Communication Technology | language = en | edition = 2014th | publisher = [[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] | page = | pages = | doi = 10.1007/978-94-007-6742-3 | isbn = 978-9400767416 | lccn = 2013939570 | oclc = 1026103913 | ol = OL27990888M | s2cid = 39585218 | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Rao | first1 = K. R. | author-link1 = K. R. Rao | last2 = Bojkovic | first2 = Zoran S. | author-link2 = | last3 = Bakmaz | first3 = Bojan M. | author-mask1 = 1 | date = 2014-06-24 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = Wireless Multimedia Communication Systems: Design, Analysis, and Implementation | url = | url-access = | series = | language = en | edition = 1st | publisher = [[CRC Press]] | page = | pages = | doi = 10.1201/b17059 | isbn = 978-1466566002 | lccn = 2014007345 | oclc = 1016108013 | ol = OL28774961M | s2cid = 63951744 | df = dmy-all}}
*{{cite book | last1 = Rao | first1 = K.R. | author-link1 = K. R. Rao | last2 = Hwang | first2 = J. J. | author-link2 = | last3 = Kim | first3 = D. N. | author-link3 = | author-mask1 = 1 | date = 2017-08-17 | chapter = | script-chapter = | trans-chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-url-access = | chapter-format = | title = High Efficiency Video Coding and Other Emerging Standards | url = | url-access = | series = Signal, Image and Speech Processing | language = en | edition = | publisher = River Publishers | page = | pages = | doi = 10.1201/9781003338406 | isbn = 978-8793609037 | lccn = | oclc = 1008648293 | ol = OL30586610M | s2cid = 56901176 | df = dmy-all}}
{{refend}}

== See also==
* [[JPEG#Discrete cosine transform|JPEG]] – This article contains an easily understood example of DCT transformation
* [[Modified discrete cosine transform]]
* [[Discrete sine transform]]
* [[Discrete Fourier transform]]
* [[List of Fourier-related transforms]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em|refs=

<ref name="UTA_Mourns">{{cite web | url = https://www.uta.edu/academics/schools-colleges/engineering/about/news/2021/01/21/01-rao-obit | title = College Mourns Electrical Engineering Professor KR Rao | date = 2021-01-21 | df = dmy-all | website = [[University of Texas at Arlington]] | access-date = 2021-12-28 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210128145608/https://www.uta.edu/academics/schools-colleges/engineering/about/news/2021/01/21/01-rao-obit | archive-date = 2021-01-28 | url-status = live | quote = Electrical Engineering Professor Kamisetty R. "K.R." Rao, one of the College's longest-serving faculty members, passed away January 15 in Arlington after a short illness. He was 89. }}</ref>

<ref name="Rao_Obit">{{cite web | date = 2021-01-15 | title = OBITUARY {{!}} Dr. K.R. Rao {{!}} AUGUST 27, 1931 {{hyphen}} JANUARY 15, 2021 | url = https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/arlington-tx/kr-rao-10010623 | website = [[Service Corporation International|Dignity Memorial]] | language = en-us | access-date = 2021-12-28 | df = dmy-all}}</ref>

<ref name="Ahmed_1974">{{cite journal | last1 = Ahmed | first1 = Nasir | author-link1 = Nasir Ahmed (engineer) | last2 = Natarajan | first2 = T. Raj | author-link2 = | last3 = Rao | first3 = K.R. | author-link3 = K. R. Rao | author-mask3 = 1 | date = 1974-01-01 | title = Discrete Cosine Transform | url = | format = | department = | journal = [[IEEE Transactions on Computers]] | language = en | publisher = IEEE Computer Society | volume = C-23 | issue = 1 | pages = 90{{hyphen}}93 | doi = 10.1109/T-C.1974.223784 | eissn = 1557-9956 | issn = 0018-9340 | lccn = 75642478 | oclc = 1799331 | ol = | s2cid = 39023640 | df = dmy-all }}</ref>

<ref name="Rumende">{{cite news | last1 = Rumende | first1 = Thevnin | date = 2021-12-20 | title = UTA remembers professor Kamisetty "K.R." Rao | url = https://www.theshorthorn.com/news/uta-remembers-professor-kamisetty-k-r-rao/article_89e782e8-5b9e-11eb-8f8d-13a8fa1fdd87.html | url-status = live | work = [[The Shorthorn]] | language = en-us | issn = 0892-6603 | oclc = 232118097 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210305200132/https://www.theshorthorn.com/news/uta-remembers-professor-kamisetty-k-r-rao/article_89e782e8-5b9e-11eb-8f8d-13a8fa1fdd87.html | archive-date = 2021-03-05 | access-date = 2021-12-28 | df = dmy-all}}</ref>

<ref name="Dang_2021">{{cite news | last1 = Le | first1 = Dang | date = 2021-12-27 | title = Electrical engineering professor remembered for his mentorship, kindness and contributions to research | url = https://www.theshorthorn.com/news/electrical-engineering-professor-remembered-for-his-mentorship-kindness-and-contributions-to-research/article_79b8b99a-6013-11eb-8a73-8f4abfa34aac.html | url-status = live | work = [[The Shorthorn]] | language = en-us | issn = 0892-6603 | oclc = 232118097 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210210094809/https://www.theshorthorn.com/news/electrical-engineering-professor-remembered-for-his-mentorship-kindness-and-contributions-to-research/article_79b8b99a-6013-11eb-8a73-8f4abfa34aac.html | archive-date = 2021-02-10 | access-date = 2021-12-28 | df = dmy-all}}</ref>

}}

==External links==
*Books by Dr Rao, [https://www.informit.com/authors/bio.aspx?a=cdf971e5-3ea0-4e99-9676-44180bbfd7a6 Books]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20010629152615/http://www.ieee.org/about/awards/index.html IEEE Fellow Citation] (He was elected Fellow of the IEEE ''for contributions to the theory and practice of image and video compression''.)
*[https://mentis.uta.edu/explore/profile/dr-kamisetty-rao Dr Rao's faculty page at UTA]
*[http://www-ee.uta.edu/DIP/ Multimedia Processing Lab's page at UTA]{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rao, K. R.}}
[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:2021 deaths]]
[[Category:American electrical engineers]]
[[Category:Fellows of the IEEE]]
[[Category:University of Florida College of Engineering alumni]]
[[Category:University of New Mexico alumni]]
[[Category:University of Texas at Arlington faculty]]
[[Category:Sainik School alumni]]
[[Category:American academics of Indian descent]]
[[Category:Indian scholars]]
[[Category:Data compression researchers]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:American people of Telugu descent]]

K. R. Rao - Revision history

Ashok Vijayakumar at 05:54, 5 March 2026