Best Place To BuildProf. Krishnan B.| He X-Rays Bridges & Planes | He Left USA to Build Non-Destructive Testing | Ep. 8
CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 2:13
Deep tech, entrepreneurship, and why IIT Madras is a “best place to build”
The episode opens with Prof. Krishnan Balasubramanian framing his core belief: deep-tech ventures endure because they’re built on hard-won technical moats. The host sets the scene at the Sudha & Shankar Innovation Hub and introduces the professor’s long track record across research, industry collaboration, and startups.
- •Deep tech vs. short-cycle software ventures; moats and longevity
- •IIT Madras focus on “curating entrepreneurs,” not just ideas
- •Setting: Innovation Hub and the podcast’s mission to understand the ecosystem
- •Professor’s credentials and role in IITM’s broader innovation story
- 2:13 – 6:09
What Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) really is: ‘X-rays for bridges and planes’
Prof. Balasubramanian explains NDT using a medical analogy: like X-rays and ultrasounds for the human body, NDT inspects engineered structures without harming them. The goal is reliability and safety—catching issues before they cause downtime or catastrophic failures.
- •NDT as “looking inside” materials and structures without damage
- •Improving availability (preventing cancellations/downtime) and safety
- •Engineered materials evolve rapidly, so inspection challenges constantly change
- •Real-world example: rail wheel cracking driven by braking system changes
- 6:09 – 7:53
Destructive vs. non-destructive testing: why ‘cutting it open’ doesn’t scale
The conversation clarifies destructive testing as a lab-based method to validate hypotheses, not something usable in service. NDT preserves function while diagnosing internal flaws, mirroring non-invasive medical diagnostics.
- •Destructive testing is useful for experiments, not real-world assets
- •Non-invasive inspection preserves performance and avoids making problems worse
- •Medical analogy: surgery vs. imaging for diagnosis
- •NDT applies from small products to critical infrastructure
- 7:53 – 11:51
Two NDT missions: manufacturing quality and in-service health monitoring
NDT’s scope is split into ensuring quality during manufacturing and monitoring degradation during service. Welding is used as a prime example of unavoidable variability (‘entropy’) that necessitates inspection, while corrosion highlights the scale of in-service deterioration problems.
- •Manufacturing QC: detecting defects from processes like welding
- •Welding variability and the impossibility of perfect assurance
- •In-service monitoring: aging, corrosion, and emerging weaknesses over time
- •Corrosion as a massive global economic problem; internal vs. external damage
- 11:51 – 14:34
NDT toolset: X-ray, ultrasound, infrared, radar, and terahertz
The professor outlines major NDT technologies and where they fit, again paralleling medical imaging. He explains how requirements vary widely by application—from near-zero-failure tolerance in space to more forgiving civil structures.
- •Core methods: X-ray, ultrasound, infrared imaging
- •Advanced methods: radar and terahertz (airport body scanners)
- •Detecting defects from microns to inches depending on use case
- •Application-driven standards: ISRO vs. railways vs. concrete structures
- 14:34 – 17:51
Leaving the US to build CNDE: IITM’s early bet on NDT (2000–2001)
Prof. Balasubramanian recounts being recruited back from the US to create a center of excellence in NDT at IIT Madras. With support from the institute and strategic sectors, he went from arriving with ‘a suitcase’ to inaugurating the initial CNDE facility within months.
- •IITM’s strategic motivation: nuclear, aerospace, manufacturing growth nearby
- •Mentorship and encouragement from leaders (Director Natarajan, Dr. Baldev Raj)
- •Starting from scratch and rapidly building a 1,500 sq ft research center
- •Early institutional and industry support from atomic energy, ISRO, defense
- 17:51 – 20:31
CNDE’s scale-up and India’s ‘first wave’ of returnees
The discussion shifts to the long-term growth of CNDE and the broader context of professionals returning to India in the early 2000s. The professor describes the personal and professional uncertainty of relocation, and the payoff of joining India’s growth curve early.
- •CNDE growth: industry projects, startups, and high-skill job creation
- •Personal ‘homecoming’ to Chennai and adjustment challenges
- •Returning to India post dot-com bust / early growth phase
- •Motivations: national opportunity + a clear institutional mandate
- 20:31 – 24:00
ICSR as IIT Madras’ window to industry and funded research
Prof. Balasubramanian explains how IIT Madras evolved from a teaching-first mandate toward research requiring significant funding and infrastructure. ICSR emerged to manage sponsored research, industry partnerships, and the administrative backbone needed for world-class engineering R&D.
- •Shift from teaching-only to research-intensive institution
- •Engineering/science research needs equipment, people, travel, and funding
- •ICSR as the interface for industry/government-sponsored research
- •Institutional processes as enablers of large-scale impact
- 24:00 – 28:47
Turning research into impact through IP: speed, protection, and commercialization pathways
He details how IITM overhauled its IP system to make protection fast and faculty-friendly, without slowing publications. The IP office matured from modest filing volumes to a high-throughput, impact-oriented engine, including international filings.
- •Why IP matters: impact, monetization, and preventing misappropriation
- •Process improvements: from ~1 year to as fast as 24 hours in special cases
- •Scale-up in filings (from tens per year to hundreds) and global filing strategy
- •Building professional capacity and partnerships (e.g., KPMG) for IP management
- 28:47 – 32:05
ICSR beyond local industry: global clients and socially relevant engineering
The professor emphasizes that industrial research problems are often globally transferable, enabling IITM to work with major multinational clients. In parallel, IITM targets national development problems such as clean water, electrification, affordable housing, and language technology.
- •Global industry engagement: Boeing, Airbus, ExxonMobil, etc.
- •Local-to-global pattern of industrial challenges and solutions
- •Social impact R&D: water, electricity access, low-cost construction
- •AI/translation work enabling multilingual access to knowledge and law
- 32:05 – 38:14
Incubation policy: from ‘bad word’ to board-approved institutional framework
He traces the cultural shift around startups in academia, comparing US norms in the 1980s to IITM’s early 2000s. The incubation policy required careful drafting and broad consensus through the Board of Governors, ultimately enabling open, legal, long-term startup creation.
- •Early stigma around faculty startups and patenting; ‘clandestine’ efforts
- •Director-driven push to formalize policy and get Board approval
- •Consensus-building across government, academia, and industry stakeholders
- •IITM policy later mirrored by broader government incubation frameworks
- 38:14 – 41:10
Creating the Incubation Cell: legal structure, Research Park linkage, and early ‘babysitting’
After policy approval, IITM needed an operational entity capable of holding equity and supporting startups. Constraints of the Tamil Nadu Society Act led to using the IITM Research Park structure (Section 8) and a transition phase where ICSR temporarily housed early startups.
- •Need for a dedicated incubator entity beyond policy documents
- •Legal constraint: inability of TN society to hold equity
- •Solution: Incubation Cell under IITM Research Park (Section 8/25)
- •ICSR’s interim role incubating early companies before formal transfer
- 41:10 – 46:57
Dhvani: automating NDT from instruments to analytics platforms
Dhvani began as a response to India’s reliance on imported NDT systems, aiming to productize IITM’s lab innovations at industrial scale. It evolved into multiple companies, separating hardware systems from AI/data analytics, with major deployments in strategic and industrial sectors.
- •Motivation: reduce dependence on imported NDT equipment and solutions
- •Automation for reliability and repeatable inspection in manufacturing
- •Spin-off into Dhvani AI for data management/analytics at refineries and plants
- •Impact examples: Chandrayaan component inspections; hundreds of systems delivered
- 46:57 – 54:30
Planys: underwater robotics for safer, richer inspection than human divers
Planys emerged from student robotics success and pivoted from selling robots to solving inspection as a service for ports, dams, tanks, and offshore assets. The company built field-grade robustness, gained early support and funding, and scaled into a globally operating firm.
- •Origin: student underwater robot team and returning founder talent
- •Strategic pivot: from generic robots to inspection-focused value proposition
- •Replacing divers: safety, availability, cost, and better data capture
- •Scaling journey: seed funding, Indian customers first, global contracts later
- 54:30 – 59:06
Detect Technologies: from a high-temp corrosion sensor to AI-driven asset & safety management
Detect started with a patented high-temperature corrosion-monitoring sensor (GUMS) and an unusually strong early industry pull from Reliance. It expanded into drone-enabled inspection (Noctua) and then into a broader platform (T-Pulse) for predictive integrity, compliance, and human safety across industrial sites.
- •Industry-backed start: Reliance support and pre-committed sensor purchase
- •Drone-based NDT to reduce scaffolding risk and compress inspection timelines
- •Data explosion as a catalyst for predictive maintenance and safety analytics
- •Positioning today: SaaS platform for asset integrity + human safety
- 59:06 – 1:04:11
Xyma: decades of research into high-temperature sensing with ultrasonic waves
Xyma commercializes long-running research (since the mid-1990s) into remote high-temperature and process sensing without contaminating materials like molten glass. Through extensive patents, publications, and industry-funded validation, the technology reached market with global adoption.
- •Problem origin: sensing in extreme temperatures without contamination
- •Core method: ultrasonic waves guided in wire-like structures (matchbox-phone analogy)
- •Strong IP base and research depth enabling differentiation
- •Adoption by major global industrial players; ‘moat’ from deep research
- 1:04:11 – 1:14:44
Ecosystem stack at IITM: CFI → Nirmaan → Research Park → I-Corps and the Deshpande ecosystem
Prof. Balasubramanian maps IITM’s ‘many building blocks’ approach: student making culture via CFI, student venture support via Nirmaan, translation pathways via Research Park and incubators, and mindset-building via I-Corps. The Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Center institutionalized customer discovery and entrepreneurship training at national scale.
- •CFI as inspiration engine: ‘walk in with an idea, walk out with a product’
- •Student support mechanisms: stipends/scholarships and Nirmaan’s pipeline
- •I-Corps: customer discovery to shift researchers from ‘paper-first’ to ‘market-fit’
- •Deshpande + Kris Gopalakrishnan partnership; national expansion with DST
- 1:14:44 – 1:22:11
Teaching, tennis, and the case for deep-tech timelines (SpaceX vs. X)
The episode closes with lighter personal notes on teaching and tennis, then returns to a serious thesis: deep-research ventures take longer but create stronger defensibility and longer-term value. The professor argues that both software and hardware matter, but ‘hard problem solutions’ often outlast trend cycles.
- •Current teaching: Advanced Non-Destructive Testing & Evaluation
- •Tennis as stress relief and IITM’s clay courts faculty culture
- •Deep tech vs. software cycles; moats and endurance (SpaceX/Tesla analogy)
- •Respect for software impact while advocating for deep-research products
