Indian Institute of Information Technology

Adduru U G Sankararao

Full-time Visiting Faculty

Office Address:

Cabin/Room No: 214,
Academic block,
IIIT Sri City

Academic Qualifications

Education:

Ph.D 
  • PhD in Communication & Signal Processing (Electrical Engineering), IIT Hyderabad, March 2025
  • Thesis title: UAV-Based Hyperspectral Imaging and Machine Learning Techniques for Advancing Crop Phenotyping Studies

 

  • PhD, Communication & Signal Processing, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, CGPA 8.93, March 2025
  • M.Tech, Telecommunication Engineering, National Institute of Technology Durgapur, CGPA 9.48, 2014-2016
  • B.E., Electronics & Communication Engineering, Andhra University College of Engineering Vishakhapatnam, CGPA 8.08, 2006–2010

Experience

  • Full-time Visiting Faculty Chittoor, IIIT Sri City, Chittoor, July 2025 – Present
  • Post Doctoral Fellow in Electrical Engineering, IIT Hyderabad, April– July 2025
  • Research Scholar, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) Hyderabad, Aug 2021 – Dec 2024
  • Assistant Professor, Dept. of Electronics & Communication Engg., M.V.G.R College of Engg. Vizianagaram, June 2016 – July 2019
  • Software Engineer, HCL Technologies Ltd., Chennai, July 2010 – Jan 2013

Research Areas of Interest

Hyperspectral Image Analysis, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-based Sensing, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Sustainable Agriculture.

Awards / Honours

  • Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) from Sept 2020 – July 2023.
  • All India Rank 331 in GATE-2019 in the Electronics & Communication discipline (Score:776/1000).
  • State Rank 178 in the EAMCET 2006, Andhra Pradesh
  • NPTEL DISCIPLINE STAR Dec 2019 in Electrical Engineering.
  • Best Abstract Award in 6th International Conference on Microactuators, Microsensors and Micromechanisms (MAMM), Hyderabad, India, Dec 2022.

Publications / Projects

Journal Publications:
  • 1. A. U. G. Sankararao, P. Rajalakshmi and S. Choudhary, ”UC-HSI: UAV-Based Crop Hyperspectral Imaging Datasets and Machine Learning Benchmark Results,” in IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, vol. 21, pp. 1-5, 2024, Art no. 5508005. (IF: 4.4 )
  • 2. A. U. G. Sankararao, P. Rajalakshmi and S. Choudhary, ”Machine Learning Based Ensemble Band Selection for Early Water Stress Identification in Groundnut Canopy Using UAV Based Hyperspectral Imaging,” in IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, vol. 20, pp. 1-5, 2023, Art no. 5505805. (IF: 4.4 )
  • 3. B. Prasad, A. U. G. Sankararao, S. Kundu, and S. D. Roy, “Throughput and outage probability of wireless energy harvesting based cognitive DF relaying network,” Materials Today: Proceedings, vol. 4, no. 9, pp.10304–10308, 2017.
Conferences:
  • 1. A. U. G. Sankararao, Sai Kiran K, Rajalakshmi P., Sunita Choudhary, ”Stover Nitrogen Estimation in Groundnut Using Hyperspectral UAV Imagery and Machine Learning”, in 3rd International IEEE Applied Sensing Conference (APSCON), Hyderabad, India, 2025.
  • 2. A. U. G. Sankararao, Sai Kiran K, Rajalakshmi P., Sunita Choudhary, ”UAV-borne Hyperspectral Imaging Dataset of Pearl millet Canopy Water Stress”, in 2nd International Conference on Agriculture- Centric Computation (ICA), Delhi, India, 2024.
  • 3. A. U. G. Sankararao, K. Saikiran and P. Rajalakshmi, ”Hyperspectral Image Denoising: A Comparative Study On UAV Based Vegetation Data,” 2023 13th Workshop on Hyperspectral Imaging and Signal Processing: Evolution in Remote Sensing (WHISPERS), IEEE, Athens, Greece, 2023, pp. 1-5.
  • 4. A. U. G. Sankararao, P. Rajalakshmi, Sivasakthi Kaliamoorthy, Sunitha Choudhary, “Water Stress Detection in Pearl Millet Canopy with Selected Wavebands using UAV Based Hyperspectral Imaging and Machine Learning” 2022 IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium (SAS), Sundsvall, Sweden, 2022, pp. 1-6.
  • 5. A. U. G. Sankararao, and P. Rajalakshmi, ”UAV Based Hyperspectral Remote Sensing and CNN for Vegetation Classification,” IGARSS - IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2022, pp. 7737-7740.
  • 6. A. U. G. Sankararao, G. Priyanka, P. Rajalakshmi and S. Choudhary, ”CNN Based Water Stress Detection in Chickpea Using UAV Based Hyperspectral Imaging,” 2021 IEEE International India Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (InGARSS), Ahmedabad, India, 2021, pp. 145-148.
  • 7. A. U. G. Sankararao, Sanju Kumar N.T, D. Naresh and P. Rajalakshmi, ”Optimal Parameter Selection for UAV Based Pushbroom Hyperspectral Imaging,” 2021 IEEE International India Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (InGARSS), Ahmedabad, India, 2021, pp. 413-416.
  • 8. A. U. G. Sankararao, Sanju Kumar N.T and P. Rajalakshmi, ”Workflow and Calibration of Airborne Hyperspectral Imaging System,” 2020 IEEE International Conference on Computing, Power and Communication Technologies (GUCON), Greater Noida, India, 2020, pp. 757-762.
  • 9. A. U. G. Sankararao, Tejasri N, and P. Rajalakshmi, ”Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Based Hyperspectral Imaging for Crop Phenotyping,” in 6th International Conference on Microactuators, Microsensors and Micromechanisms (MAMM), Hyderabad, India, Dec 2022.
  • 10. P. Rajalakshmi, A. U. G. Sankararao, G. Priyanka, “Drone-Based Sensing for Agriculture: Way Forward” extended summary in 5th International Agronomy Congress, Hyderabad, India, Nov 2021.
  • 11. Subhra S. Bhattacherjee, Shreeshan S., Gattu Priyanka, A. U. G. Sankararao, P. Rajalakshmi, ”Efficient Processing Methodology for UAV Flight Path Detection,” 2020 IEEE International Conference on Computing, Power and Communication Technologies (GUCON), Greater Noida, India, 2020, pp. 769-772.
  • 12. B. Prasad, A. U. G. Sankararao, S. D. Roy and S. Kundu, ”Throughput and outage of a wireless energy harvesting based cognitive relay network,” 2016 International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI), Jaipur, India, 2016, pp. 2009-2014.
Book Chapters:
  • 1. Adduru U.G. Sankararao, Rajalakshmi P., Sunita Choudhary, Jana Kholova, Chris S Jones,”AI-enabled UAV borne Hyperspectral Imaging for Crop-Livestock Farm Management,” in Smart Technologies for Sustainable Livestock Systems, CRC Press (Taylor Francis Group), 2025.

Patents

  • 1. A. U. G. Sankararao, P. Rajalakshmi, ”System and Method for Hyperspectral Imager Interface on UAV for Data Acquisition,” Indian Patent No. 562278, Application No. 202141042862, Granted in March 2025.
  • 2. Adduru U.G. Sankararao, Sai Kiran K, P. Rajalakshmi, “An Automated Pipeline Device for Analysis and Inference of UAV-Based Hyperspectral Images of Crop Water Stress,” Indian Patent, Application number: 202441064638, Published in July 2025.

Teaching

Computer Vision

Contact Information

Address for Communication:

Cabin/Room No: 214,
Academic block,
IIIT Sri City