Executive Director
Dr. Sanjoy Paul is currently the Executive Director of Rice NEXUS, the university’s premier innovation factory offering state-of-the-art facilities, guidance and mentoring for prototyping, testing, and launching new ventures by Rice faculty and students. Designed to derisk, develop, and deploy new technology, the Rice Nexus aims to bridge the gap between the university and commercial markets by fostering partnerships with key corporate, government, community and venture capital firms. He is also the Co-founder of Houston AI, a non-profit organization aimed at empowering Houston's future by fostering AI knowledge, collaboration, and groundbreaking innovation. He is also a Charter Member of TiE - World’s largest community of Entrepreneurs. Dr. Paul is also a faculty in the Computer Science Department of Rice University, teaching graduate-level courses.
Prior to that, Dr. Paul worked at Accenture LLC., Managing Director, Technology, where he reported to Global Head of Accenture Labs. Spearheaded the creation of new platforms and solutions in Gen AI, Robotics, 5G, and Digital Twin globally with teams in San Francisco, and Sophia Antipolis for Accenture Technology Labs.
Dr. Paul also served as the CEO of Almawiz Inc. and as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rice University. His research lies in the intersection of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), Computer Networking, Internet of Things (IoT) and Extended Reality (XR). Specifically, he studies ways in which AI/ML, IoT and XR techniques can be brought together to build scalable and deployable intelligent systems to transform industries like Manufacturing, Energy, Healthcare and Technology.
Dr. Paul’s previous appointments include Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science at San Jose State University (2020), Global Digital Head of Manufacturing and Technology at Wipro Ltd. (2016-2020), Managing Director at Accenture (2011-16), Associate Vice President & General Manager at Infosys (2007-11), Founder & CEO at RelevantAd Technologies (2005-07), Research Professor at Rutgers University (2005-07), Research Director at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies (2001-2005), Chief Technology Officer at Edgix (1999-2001) and Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Labs (1992-99).
Dr. Paul is the recipient of Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Kharagpur, Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award from the R&D Council of New Jersey, William R. Bennett award from IEEE Communications Society for the best original paper in IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, Infosys Excellence Award for Innovations and Thought Leadership and MIT Technology Review’s Grand Challenges for India award.
Dr. Paul received a bachelor's degree in electronics and electrical communications engineering (ECE) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in 1985, and a doctoral degree in electrical engineering from University of Maryland at College Park, in August 1992. He also received a Master of Business administration (MBA) from the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, in May 2005.
Dr. Paul is the Fellow of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and Fellow of Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE). Marquis Who's Who honored Dr. Paul, for Expertise in Engineering and Higher Education in 2024. He was also featured in the Wall Street Journal on January 30, 2025, as Who’s Who of Distinguished Leaders: 2025 Honorees by Marquis Who’s Who.