Open to collaboration · PhD Scholar @ IIT Madras

Teaching machines to see failure in the power grid.

Akash R — PhD Scholar, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Machine learning, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, and optical sensing for condition monitoring of high-voltage insulation and energy systems.

Portrait of Akash R
ML × OPTICS × HIGH VOLTAGE
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Publications
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IEEE Journals
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Patent Granted
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Awards
01 — Research

Six threads, one goal:
seeing failure before it happens.

From laser plasmas to vision transformers — non-destructive, data-driven monitoring of critical electrical infrastructure.

R-01

AI-enabled condition monitoring of polymeric insulators

Intelligent diagnostics for outdoor insulators in transmission and distribution networks — ML, deep learning, computer vision, LIBS, recurrence plots, fluorescent fiber sensing, and transformer architectures for hydrophobicity, pollution, aging, and surface tracking.

CNNLIBSRecurrence plotsTransformers
R-02

Hydrophobicity monitoring & cyber-resilient AI inspection

Image-based hydrophobicity classification with a Hybrid Swin Transformer capturing local and global dependencies in water-droplet patterns — robustness under FGSM and PGD attacks, hardened by adversarial training.

Swin TransformerFGSMPGDAdversarial training
R-03

LIBS, computer vision & spectroscopy for insulation diagnostics

Non-destructive monitoring of insulator pollution and silicone rubber aging via laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy — spectral-image conversion, corner detection, GLCM features, CNN classification, and LVQ networks.

LIBSGLCMLVQComputer vision
R-04

Optical sensing for early tracking detection

Non-contact optical methods for early tracking detection in silicone rubber insulators — fluorescent fiber sensing, optical emission spectroscopy, Gramian Angular Fields, CNN classification, and t-SNE visualization.

Fluorescent fiberOESGAFt-SNE
R-05

Machine learning for power & energy systems

ML applied to broader energy problems: long-term wind speed forecasting, LIBS–EIS soil-moisture estimation in grounding systems, and deep-learning prediction of electrostatic charging tendency in ester nanofluids.

LSTMLightGBMSHAPEIS
R-06

Methodology

Experimental HV testing meets interpretable AI: optical sensing, spectroscopy, LIBS, EIS, image and signal processing, feature extraction, deep learning, and explainability — designed for deployment, not just benchmarks.

ExperimentsInterpretabilityDeployment
02 — Publications

Selected publications

Peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. Filter by area or year.

2026Journal

Machine Learning based Analysis of LIBS and EIS Data to Estimate the Moisture Content of Soil in Grounding Systems

R. Akash, S. Srinivasan, R. G. Pillai, T. Thyagaraj, R. Sarathi
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation
DOI ↗
2026Journal

Dual Optical Measurement for Early Detection of Tracking in Polymeric Insulators Using Fluorescent Fiber and Emission Spectroscopy

R. Akash, R. Sarathi, M. Haddad, B. N. Shivananju
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement
Patent-linked
DOI ↗
2025Journal

Hybrid Swin Transformer Approach for Hydrophobicity Monitoring of Outdoor Polymeric Insulators in Transmission Lines

R. Akash, R. Sarathi, M. Haddad
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation
DOI ↗
2025Journal

Deep Learning Approach for Noninvasive Tracking Detection in Silicone Rubber Insulators Using Fluorescent Fiber Sensing

R. Akash, R. Sarathi, M. Haddad
IEEE Sensors Letters
DOI ↗
2025Journal

Pollution Monitoring on Polymeric Insulators Adopting Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, Computer Vision, and Machine Learning Techniques

R. Akash, R. Sarathi, M. Haddad
IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
DOI ↗
2025Conf.

Improving the Resilience of Insulator Hydrophobicity Classification Systems Against Cyber Attacks

R. Akash, C. Rebeiro, M. A. Haddad, R. Sarathi
IEEE 4th Int. Conf. on Smart Technologies for Power, Energy and Control (STPEC)
Best Paper Award
DOI ↗
2023Conf.

Classification of the Aging Condition of Silicone Rubber Insulating Material Using LIBS Adopting Recurrence Plot

R. Akash, R. Sarathi, S. Kornhuber
International Symposium on Electrical Insulating Materials (ISEIM)
DOI ↗
2023Conf.

Temporal Dengue Outbreak Prediction from Climatic Variables using Finite Element Machines for Regression

M. Lydia, G. E. P. Kumar, Akash Ravichandran, G. B. Martins, L. A. Passos, J. P. Papa
30th Int. Conf. on Systems, Signals and Image Processing (IWSSIP)
DOI ↗
2022Journal

Understanding the Electro-Rheological Aspects of Nano Silica Based Ester Fluid With Surfactants and Deep Learning-Based Prediction of ECT

S. K. Amizhtan, R. Akash, R. L. Gardas, R. Sarathi, B. Aryanandiny
IEEE Access
DOI ↗
2020Conf.

Machine Learning Based Univariate Models For Long Term Wind Speed Forecasting

Akash R., A. G. Rangaraj, R. Meenal, M. Lydia
Fifth Int. Conf. on Inventive Computation Technologies (ICICT)
DOI ↗
03 — Intellectual Property

Granted patent

Granted · The Patent Office, Government of India

System and Method for Detection of Surface Tracking Degradation in High Voltage Polymeric Insulators

A non-contact system and method for detecting surface tracking degradation in high-voltage polymeric insulators — enabling early intervention before irreversible failure. Protected for a 20-year term from filing.

Patent No.
592893
Application No.
202541027342
Filed
24 March 2025
Granted
19 June 2026
Patentee
IIT Madras
Inventors
B. N. Shivananju, R. Sarathi, R. Akash
04 — Timeline

Education & experience

Education
Dec 2022 — Present

Ph.D., Electrical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Madras
2020 — 2022

M.Tech., Power Systems

SRM University
2016 — 2020

B.Tech., Electrical & Electronics Engineering

Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences
Best Outgoing Student, 2016–2020 batch
2002 — 2016

High School

Vanavani Matriculation Higher Secondary School
Experience & Leadership
Dec 2022 — Present

Research Scholar

IIT Madras · Chennai, India
2021 — 2022

Secretary, SRM MTS Student Chapter

SRM University
2019

Project Student — Wind Power Forecasting

National Institute of Wind Energy, Chennai
LSTM and advanced ensembling techniques
2019

Summer Intern

IIT Madras
Ionization phenomena in soils under fast impulse
2018 — 2020

President, EEE Department Association

Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences
2018 — 2019

Student Intern

Centre for Wind Energy Technology, Chennai
05 — Recognition

Honors & awards

Dec 2025

Best Paper Award — IEEE STPEC 2025

IEEE 4th International Conference on Smart Technologies for Power, Energy and Control · with IIT Madras.

Feb 2022

MTS Nanda Student Innovation Award

Marine Technology Society — for "Machine Learning based Fault Detection in Wind Energy Conversion" at OCEANS Conference 2022.

Aug 2020

Best Outgoing Student Award

Dept. of EEE, Karunya University — best outgoing student of the 2016–2020 batch.

Jan 2020

Appreciation — Python Programming Workshop

From HoD, EEE, KITS — for handling sessions in a two-day hands-on Python training program.

Mar 2019

Certificate of Merit — Elite Students Conclave

Second place at Mindkraft, a national-level techno-management fest, KITS.

Mar 2019

Appreciation — ELECTRA'19 Symposium

From HoD, EEE, KITS — for organizing the department symposium as Association President.

Oct 2018

Appreciation — Mindkraft 2018 Core Team

From the Vice Chancellor, KITS — for dedicated service in a national technical fest.

Feb 2017

First Place — E-waste Audit Phase I

Green Energy Club, Dept. of EEE, Karunya University.

06 — Funding

Research supported by

CPRI/R&D/TC/GDEC/2023

Central Power Research Institute, Bangalore

Polymeric-insulator monitoring: pollution diagnosis, hydrophobicity monitoring, and tracking-detection research.

CRG/2023/003213

Anusandhan National Research Foundation, New Delhi

LIBS–EIS-based soil-moisture estimation for grounding systems.

07 — Contact

Let's build something intelligent.

Open to research collaboration, academic discussion, and industry engagement in AI-driven monitoring of electrical infrastructure.