Millionaire donor behind University of Bradford's new AI space centre says it was time to 'give something back'

Dr Venkata ‘Murthy’ Renduchintala, a telecoms expert and former chief engineering officer for Intel Corporation, studied at the university from 1983, going on to collect a PhD in satellite communications.

His investment is to launch the Renduchintala Centre for Space AI in September, with an MSc Satellite Systems Engineering programme, and with scholarships for up to £10,000.

Dr Renduchintala, who now lives in California, said it was time to “give something back”.

He said: “Quite frankly, the foundation of everything I’ve been able to achieve on a personal level has been built on the foundation that Bradford gave me academically.

"When you get to my age – somewhere between 50 and 60 – you start to think a lot more about what you are going to leave behind. This is something I have thought about for a long time.”

Dr Renduchintala, who now sits on the board of Fortune 500 company Accenture plc, is a member of advisory councils at engineering schools within the University of California academic system.

He sees the Renduchintala Space Centre AI as a catalyst to realise – and monetise – the untapped potential of research “excellence” across the university.

He said: “The university can take advantage of the great research it has by taking a few pages out of the copybooks of some of the universities I am close to in the US, to incubate a much more aggressive start-up culture that results in a win-win for the university, the region and the country.

“Just think if Bradford was able to generate a research budget of $20 to $30m a year by commercialisation of its research. It’s not pie in the sky, this happens every day in the US and it could happen here.”

Pocket rocket

The University of Bradford centre’s interim director, Prof Fun Hu has already hinted at the possibility of launching a miniature ‘pocket cube’ space satellite by 2023.

For Dr Renduchintala, it’s all about seizing an opportunity.

“This is an area where Bradford can rise above parochial perspectives,” he said.

“This new centre will provide the university with the ability to participate in a discussion that only has context in a hemispherical or global scale and thereby gives visibility of Bradford to a much broader community.”

To elevate Bradford’s participation on a global level, he said, raises the university’s reputation. He added: “Everyone is trying to find the next great idea and universities are a rich hunting ground for that – Bradford has the level of expertise to take advantage of those opportunities.

"Robert Louis Stevenson changed the entire world from Stockton; I think we have a chance here to achieve something similar for Bradford.

“I believe as far as space is concerned, we’ve only seen the trailer of the movie. It’s going to open a new frontier of understanding and Bradford will be part of the vanguard.”

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