Introducing Vidhyalakshmi Karthikeyan – winner of the Young IT Professional of the Year 2015

Vidhyalakshmi KarthikeyanVidhyalakshmi Karthikeyan successfully leads an area of research in application of data analytics to IPTV delivery as a Senior Researcher at BT. Vidhya likes to keep up-to-date with the industry and developments in academia, while constantly being on the lookout for publications in her area, and products in the market.
Vidhya is a member of Britain’s Future Board, an initiative that Michael Page and Page Personnel are running to give award winning high achieving professionals a platform to tackle industry issues, share insight and inspire the next generation. Vidhya and her fellow Board members will share advice and news on the Michael Page and Page Personnel websites throughout 2016.

Please  tell us about your career to date

I completed the BT graduate scheme in 2011 with a Graduate of the Year award and I've progressed since to successfully lead an area of research in the application of data analytics, and machine learning to network management. I have been involved in a number of exciting projects that improve the way BT delivers TV to its customers over broadband and also lead a longer term area of research on future streaming content delivery technologies. I also supervise students who undertake projects in this space, file patents to grow our Intellectual Property, and I'm  doing a part-time PhD alongside my role at BT.

What are your career highlights? 

I'm proud of the area of research I've carved for our wider team and I have had a number of successful projects in IPTV service delivery for BT.  I think it's a great time to be in this space because every day is different.  I’m proud that I’ve been able to make a difference. I’m also the most prolific female inventor in BT in the past decade, and I won CBI’s First Woman of the Year Award 2015 for Engineering, as well as the Young IT Professional of the Year at the UK IT Industry Awards this year.

What initially attracted you to Technology?

I've always been fascinated by the intangibility of communications technologies and the fact that we only notice their complexity when something doesn’t work. I even changed my previous course of study to an MSc in Telecommunications so I could learn more about the technologies that enabled connectivity and brought life to end user devices that have now become indispensable to us.

What career ambitions are you still to achieve?

I'd like to be the expert for the research space in the community that I lead and I'd like to shape the future of IPTV delivery.

If you weren’t doing this job, what would you be doing?

I would be running an animal sanctuary.

Meet the other members of Britain’s Future Board.