Dr. Desai received the B. Tech. from IIT., Kanpur, M.S. from the State University of New York, USA and PhD from The Johns Hopkins University, USA. He was the founding Director of IIT, Hyderabad and at present he is Prof. Emeritus at IIT, Hyderabad. He served as a faculty at Washington State University and IIT Bombay. He also served in the capacity of Dean of Students at IIT-Bombay and has been a visiting professor at Arizona State University, Purdue University, and Stanford University.
His research interests are in wireless communication, wireless sensor networks, cyber-physical systems, IoT and AI. Dr. Desai has guided 25 Ph.D. students. He is the author/co-author of nearly 300 peer-reviewed papers in international journals and conferences, and also a co-author of nine monographs.