“I’d already decided to take up an offer from another big company. The package was bigger and the work was completely different. But SRI-B’s focus on research made me change my decision”, shared Dr. Madhan Raj, reflecting on his decade-long career with Samsung R&D Institute India – Bangalore (SRI-B).

This software R&D wing of the South Korean conglomerate houses some of the best minds from the industry, who share an insatiable passion for research and a hunger for learning every day. In their quest for innovation, many have found a home in SRI-B, India’s #1 patent filer. For Dr. Madhan Raj Kanagarathinam, an individual contributor and a mentor of the Connectivity R&D team, joining SRI-B was the catalyst that set him off on a transformative journey of growth.

In his early years, Dr. Madhan would spend several days inside the Communications lab - the ‘shield room’ – completely disconnected from the outside world. At a time when India’s mobile network operated at 5 Mbps (~2015), he was leading efforts to enable speeds of 1Gbps (gigabits per second). Many, including himself, did not think it possible. Nevertheless, taking up the unlikely chances of success as a challenge, he spent 60 days cooped in the lab along with his lone team member, often foregoing weekends, to turn this vision into a reality. The result? A new high-speed and reliable mobile network, Giga-LTE, capable of achieving a peak speed of 1.17 Gbps – 15 times faster than the then-existing LTE service.

“I travelled to South Korea frequently during the commercialization period. Giga-LTE was being advertised all over, and people would go around explaining what it was all about. One time, when I was buying a new sim at the Korean International Airport, they approached me and explained my own product to me. It was funny, but also felt really good.”

This was the first of many milestones in Dr. Madhan’s career, which he credits to the research and innovation culture nurtured at SRI-B, Samsung’s largest software R&D centre outside of South Korea.

Another standout moment in his career that he is especially proud of was the opportunity to pursue both his Masters and Doctorate degrees, which he completed in a record time of 3.5 years.

As part of its commitment to continuous learning, SRI-B offers sponsored higher education programs for engineers to pursue a postgraduate degree or PhD at top-tier institutes in India, such as IIT-Madras and IISc. Dr. Madhan is the first SRIBian to complete his PhD through this initiative, despite working full-time on critical, time-bound projects while managing personal challenges brought forth by the pandemic.

Interestingly, his motivation to pursue higher studies was inspired by a humorous gaffe. In 2021, he contributed to the publication of the world’s first book on 6G, titled 6G Mobile Wireless Networks, which he edited along with six academia and industry experts. During the book’s production process, someone mistakenly referred to him as ‘Dr.’ Madhan, and he thought, “Why should this be a mistake? I’m already doing a lot of not just theoretical, but tech-transferred research at SRI-B, so why not turn that into a doctorate?”

Seizing the opportunity offered by SRI-B, Dr. Madhan worked hard towards his goal, completing his entire Masters program at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) in just one semester! This was especially remarkable as he managed to do this during the peak of the pandemic, when project demands were high, and the environment far from ideal.

The first 6-7 months, he admits, were the toughest part of his journey. With video calling and online gaming growing by 10x during the Covid era, his team was in the commercialization stages of the ‘Prioritize Real-time Data Mode’, a part of Samsung’s Intelligent Wi-Fi Settings. The project demanded over 14 hours of work daily, and he had to cram in time for his studies while also dealing with a loss in his family.

“I had a very supportive team who backed me. They worked really hard to manage the project so that I wouldn’t be more burdened, despite having challenges of their own”, Dr. Madhan shared with gratitude.

In 2023, he had briefly transferred to South Korea as part of the first batch of the Samsung Talent Exchange Program (STEP), a unique initiative where overseas employees are incubated at Samsung’s headquarters for a year, working and experiencing life as an employee of the Samsung Mobile Experience (MX) Division. During this period, employees move along with their family and work directly under HQ management, enjoying the same benefits and integration as the regular employees of that office.

While in Korea, Dr. Madhan considered dropping out of his PhD program as it seemed impossible to pursue, and even discussed this with his university professor. However, encouragement from his team at both HQ and SRI-B helped him push forward. His Team Head at HQ (Head of Connectivity R&D) even personally reviewed one of his journals, which eventually won the Samsung Best Paper Award.

“This is possible only in Samsung”, he notes. “Even as an external scholar, my professor was highly impressed with the research opportunities and support provided here. At SRI-B, we are not just encouraged to get certification, but to become experts in our fields. Throughout my learning journey, no one, not even at HQ, asked me to prioritize business over my studies. Instead, they pushed me to give it my all.”

Thanks to the invaluable support of his family and team members, particularly his then manager at SRI-B, who first nudged him along. In less than 4 years, he grew from an ‘engineering graduate’ to ‘Dr. Madhan’ - a title he holds dearly as it would have made his father, whom he lost in the years of the pandemic, extremely proud.

If you’re looking for a workplace that allows you to work on what you love while prioritizing your growth, please visit:
http://www.samsung.com/in/aboutsamsung/careers/careers-center/
https://sec.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/Samsung_Careers