Draft:Bhargav Sri Prakash

Bhargav Sri Prakash (born 7 April 1977) is an Indian-American engineer, entrepreneur, and inventor.

Biography
He is the founder of FriendsLearn collaborating with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. This involves "digital vaccines" which use smartphone technology.

He has been involved in developing digital vaccines.

Sri Prakash was awarded the world's first patent for a digital vaccine by the USPTO, for an artificial intelligence enabled platform of digital therapeutics for non-invasive prevention of metabolic syndrome, infectious disease and mental health conditions, through neurocognitive training and neuromodulation delivered via a gamified metaverse.

World Bank's International Finance Corporation and Financial Times awarded FriendsLearn and Carnegie Mellon University for, to quote, "deep tech ideas that may not yet meet the financial criteria of the core categories". During the award ceremony in London, the Chair of the jury - Mr. Miguel Martins - announced, "In the words of the judges, digital vaccines provide a truly transformative deep tech solution to prevent and cure diseases that leverages the power of the mind. This year's winners (Sri Prakash's team at FriendsLearn and Carnegie Mellon University) are boldly going where no solution has gone before".

Early life and education
Prakash was born in Chennai in India. His mother is Sheila Sri Prakash and his father is M V. Sri Prakash. He gained an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy of Anna University

He went on to attend graduate school at the College of Engineering of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and graduated with a master's degree in Automotive Engineering in 2000.

Career
He has worked on the evolution of gamification, metaverse and artificial intelligence at the University of Michigan

Sri Prakash is the Founder and serves as the CEO and Chief of Product at FriendsLearn, which he started in 2011, as a fellow of the Kauffman Foundation. FriendsLearn is a research partner of Carnegie Mellon University Digital Vaccine Project

He started his first company, CADcorporation, in the year 1999, when he was enrolled as an international graduate student at the University of Michigan to commercialize his graduate research in math-based simulations for design optimization of automotive powertrain systems. The company was incubated by the eLab at the Ross School of Business and emerged from a class taught by Prof Joshua Coval

After selling CADcorporation, he founded Vmerse in 2005, which was the first to market with a gamified 3D virtual reality simulation platform for college recruiting and alumni relations. He sold Vmerse in 2009.

In 2008, he co founded a global macro trading and real estate securities investment fund called Nirmana Investments – and served as a managing director.

He was an entrepreneur fellow of the Kauffman Foundation in 2011, to incubate entrepreneurial models for planetary impact that can address education, health issues, and agriculture. During this time he founded FriendsLearn.

He is a mentor to other founders from India who are accepted by NASSCOM in to the deep tech club.

Major Works
He is the Chief Product Officer of fooya! which produces a mHealth App for children developed by FriendsLearn, to lower their risk of lifestyle diseases  through the underlying gamified implicit learning and neurocognitive computing digital vaccine platform.

The US Department of State's EducationUSA awarded his startup company a contract to design and develop a gamified simulation to recruit prospective international students from around the globe. This framework - "Your 5 Steps to US Study" - was launched for distribution via DVD-Rom in 2011 and then as downloadable App via facebook in 2012.

Personal life
Prakash was a former junior national tennis champion in India and represented India in international tournaments. During his college years he had enrolled in the Birla Institute of Technology and Science but dropped out in his first semester and returned to Chennai to continue to play competitive tennis.