Back close

Gayathri Manikutty

Asst. Professor, Ammachi labs, Amritapuri

Qualification: MS
gayathri.manikutty@ammachilabs.org
ORCID ID
Google Scholar Profile
Scopus Author ID
Research Interest: Educational Neuroscience, Human-Robot Interaction, Computing Education
Date of Joining: 01/10/2013

Bio

Gayathri Manikutty is an Assistant Professor and the Computing Education Research and Social Robotics Research Lead at AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. She has over two decades of experience spanning academia and industry. Her career began at Intel Corporation, USA, where she contributed to semiconductor validation for Intel Atom processors and chipsets. Since joining AMMACHI Labs in 2013, she has dedicated herself to advancing research in haptics, social robotics, computing education, and educational neuroscience. She has been recognized as an IEEE STEM Champion for her impactful outreach programs and workshops, fostering social innovation aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) among K-12 students in over 50 schools. She is also a multi-year recipient of the “GEM Mentor of Change” award from the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, Government of India, and serves in a leadership capacity as a Regional Mentor of Change (RMoC) for AIM’s Mentor India Program.

Gayathri’s research in child-robot interaction focuses on fostering positive handwashing behaviour change among primary school children in rural India and has presented her research in several prestigious international conferences and journals. She has published over 20 research articles and hold two US patents. As an active member of the IEEE community in Kerala, she serves as the Vice Chair of the IEEE Kerala Section’s Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technologies (SIGHT). She has guided over 30 undergraduate and graduate student projects and has mentored several hundred K-12 student STEM projects. She holds a Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, and a Bachelor’s degree from Gujarat University, India.

Publications

Journal Article

Year : 2024

Experiential learning in K–12 schools through social innovation projects [STEM Education]

Cite this Research Publication : Gayathri Manikutty, Arjun Venugopal, Pranav Prabha, Mahesh S. Unnithan, Amrin P. A., Bhavani Rao R., Experiential learning in K–12 schools through social innovation projects [STEM Education], IEEE Potentials, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2024, https://doi.org/10.1109/mpot.2024.3412390

Publisher : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Year : 2023

Co-designing the Embodiment of a Minimalist Social Robot to Encourage Hand Hygiene Practises Among Children in India

Cite this Research Publication : Devasena Pasupuleti, Sreejith Sasidharan, Gayathri Manikutty, Anand M. Das, Praveen Pankajakshan, Sidney Strauss, Co-designing the Embodiment of a Minimalist Social Robot to Encourage Hand Hygiene Practises Among Children in India, International Journal of Social Robotics, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-00969-3

Publisher : Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Year : 2016

Speed analysis of DC motor under load and no load condition using CHR based PID and LQR optimal controller

Cite this Research Publication : G. Seeja, Saisudha, V., Manikutty, G., Rao R. Bhavani, and V. Pillay, R., “Speed analysis of DC motor under load and no load condition using CHR based PID and LQR optimal controller”, International Journal of Control Theory and Applications, vol. 9, pp. 7387-7394, 2016

Publisher : Serials Publications

Year : 2016

Analysis of speed control of DC motor using LQR method

Cite this Research Publication : V. Saisudha, Seeja, G., V. Pillay, R., Manikutty, G., and Rao R. Bhavani, “Analysis of speed control of DC motor using LQR method”, International Journal of Control Theory and Applications, vol. 9, pp. 7377-7385, 2016

Publisher : International Journal of Control Theory and Applications,

Conference Paper

Year : 2024

Exploring Child-Robot Interaction in Individual and Group Settings in India

Cite this Research Publication : Gayathri Manikutty, Sai Ankith Potapragada, Devasena Pasupuleti, Mahesh S. Unnithan, Arjun Venugopal, Pranav Prabha, H. Arunav, Vyshnavi Anil Kumar, P. R. Rthuraj, Rao R Bhavani, Exploring Child-Robot Interaction in Individual and Group Settings in India, 2024 8th International Conference on Robotics and Automation Sciences (ICRAS), IEEE, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1109/icras62427.2024.10654467. (Best Paper Presentation Award)

Publisher : IEEE

Year : 2023

An explorative case study on effects of a makeathon for SDGs on middle school students learning and democratic empowerment

Cite this Research Publication : Gayathri Manikutty, Pranav Prabha, Mahesh S Unnithan, Ayisha E A, Sreejith Sasidharan, An explorative case study on effects of a makeathon for SDGs on middle school students learning and democratic empowerment, 2023 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), IEEE, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1109/educon54358.2023.10125137

Publisher : IEEE

Year : 2023

Designing Empathy Game: Case on Participatory Design Session with children within the Indian context

Cite this Research Publication : Muravevskaia, E., Prabha, P., Unnithan, M. S., PR, R., Kanukunta, R., & Manikutty, G. (2023, June). "Designing Empathy Game: Case on Participatory Design Session with children within the Indian context," In Proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, (pp. 459-463).

Year : 2022

A Minimalist Social Robot Platform for Promoting Positive Behavior Change Among Children

Cite this Research Publication : Pranav Prabha, Sreejith Sasidharan, Devasena Pasupuleti, Anand Das, Gayathri Manikutty, Rajesh Sharma, A Minimalist Social Robot Platform for Promoting Positive Behavior Change Among Children, SIGGRAPH '22 Educator's Forum: Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques Conference Educator's Forum, ACM, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1145/3532724.3535597

Publisher : ACM

Year : 2022

Exploring Collaborative Game Play with Robots to Encourage Good Hand Hygiene Practises among Children

Cite this Research Publication : Devasena Pasupuleti, Sreejith Sasidharan, Rajesh Sharma, Gayathri Manikutty, Exploring Collaborative Game Play with Robots to Encourage Good Hand Hygiene Practises among Children, 2022 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), IEEE, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1109/ro-man53752.2022.9900712

Publisher : IEEE

Year : 2022

Driving innovation through project based learning: A pre-university STEAM for Social Good initiative

Cite this Research Publication : Gayathri Manikutty, Sreejith Sasidharan, Bhavani Rao, Driving innovation through project based learning: A pre-university STEAM for Social Good initiative, 2022 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), IEEE, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1109/fie56618.2022.9962420

Publisher : IEEE

Year : 2022

Handwashing Action Detection System for an Autonomous Social Robot

Cite this Research Publication : Sreejith Sasidharan, Pranav Prabha, Devasena Pasupuleti, Anand M Das, Chaitanya Kapoor, Gayathri Manikutty, Praveen Pankajakshan, Bhavani Rao, Handwashing Action Detection System for an Autonomous Social Robot, TENCON 2022 - 2022 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON), IEEE, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1109/tencon55691.2022.9977684

Publisher : IEEE

Year : 2022

When elephants nodded and dolls spoke: Bringing together robotics and storytelling for environmental literacy

Cite this Research Publication : Mukhil, M. V., Manikutty, G., Vijayan, D., Rangudu, A & Bhavani, R. R. (2020, January). When Elephants nodded and dolls spoke: Bringing together robotics and storytelling for environment literacy." In Fablearn Asia 2020.

Publisher : Fablearn Asia 2020.

Year : 2021

HAKSH-E: An Autonomous Social Robot for Promoting Good Hand Hygiene among Children

Cite this Research Publication : Sasidharan, S., Pasupuleti, D., Das, A., Kapoor, C., Manikutty G., & Bhavani Rao R. (2021). HAKSH-E: An Autonomous Social Robot for Promoting Good Hand Hygiene among Children. In IROS 2021.

Year : 2021

My Robot can tell stories: Introducing robotics and physical computing to children using dynamic dioaramas.

Cite this Research Publication : Gayathri Manikutty, “My Robot can tell stories: Introducing robotics and physical computing to children using dynamic dioaramas.”, in 2021 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) Proceedings. IEEE., 2021.

Year : 2020

Social making: teaching children to design solutions for the global goals

Cite this Research Publication : Gayathri Manikutty, Nagarajan Akshay, Shruti C. M., Radhika Shetty, Mukil M. V., Rao R Bhavani, Social making: teaching children to design solutions for the global goals, undefined, ACM, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1145/3397617.3397834

Publisher : ACM

Year : 2020

Design and development of a low-cost powered air-purifying respirator for frontline medical workers for COVID-19 response

Cite this Research Publication : Vishnu Jayan, Ayyappan Ajan, Harish Mohan, Gayathri Manikutty, Deepu Sasi, Mahesh Kappanayil, Sundeep Vijayaraghavan, R Bhavani Rao, Design and development of a low-cost powered air-purifying respirator for frontline medical workers for COVID-19 response, 2020 IEEE 8th R10 Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10-HTC), IEEE, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1109/r10-htc49770.2020.9356954

Publisher : IEEE

Year : 2019

I Can Also Make Robots! Inspiring Rural Indian Children to Learn Robotics

Cite this Research Publication : Gayathri Manikutty, Lisa M. Frey, Amritha Natarajan, Udayalakshmi Chilakapati, Vennila V, Bhavani Rao R, I Can Also Make Robots! Inspiring Rural Indian Children to Learn Robotics, 2019 IEEE Tenth International Conference on Technology for Education (T4E), IEEE, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1109/t4e.2019.00022

Publisher : IEEE

Year : 2019

Autonomous Navigation of an Unmanned Ground Vehicle for Soil Pollution Monitoring

Cite this Research Publication : K P Akhil, Gayathri Manikutty, Rahul Ravindran, Bhavani Rao R, Autonomous Navigation of an Unmanned Ground Vehicle for Soil Pollution Monitoring, 2019 2nd International Conference on Intelligent Computing, Instrumentation and Control Technologies (ICICICT), IEEE, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1109/icicict46008.2019.8993292

Publisher : IEEE

Year : 2017

Virtual Rebar Bending Training Environment with Haptics Feedback

Cite this Research Publication : Balu M. Menon, Sasi Deepu, Mohan T. Harish, R. Unnikrishnan, Manikutty Gayathri, Sangiorgio Marco, S. Shanker, Prathap Vishnu, S. Nishok, Menon Mahima, Rao R. Bhavani, Virtual Rebar Bending Training Environment with Haptics Feedback, undefined, ACM, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1145/3132446.3134901

Publisher : ACM

Year : 2017

Control of Quadrotors Using Neural Networks for Precise Landing Maneuvers.

Cite this Research Publication : U. S. Ananthakrishnan, Akshay, N., Gayathri Manikutty, and Bhavani, R. R., “Control of quadrotors using neural networks for precise landing maneuvers”, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol. 517, pp. 103-113, 2017.


Publisher : Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, Springer Verlag,

Year : 2017

Search and rescue operations using robotic Darwinian particle swarm optimization

Cite this Research Publication : Kumar, A. S., Manikutty, G., Bhavani, R. R., & Couceiro, M. S. (2017, September). "Search and rescue operations using robotic darwinian particle swarm optimization". In 2017 International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI) (pp. 1839-1843). IEEE.

Publisher : IEEE

Year : 2016

Unmanned Ground Vehicle Based Automated Soil Sampler Mechanism for Contaminated Soil Sites.

Cite this Research Publication : A. David, Surendran, G., Gayathri Manikutty, and R. Madhavan, “Unmanned Ground Vehicle Based Automated Soil Sampler Mechanism for Contaminated Soil Sites.”, (Poster) in International Conference on Robotics and Automation for Humanitarian Applications (RAHA’16), Amritapuri, Kerala, India, December., 2016.

Publisher : International Conference on Robotics and Automation for Humanitarian Applications

Year : 2011

Improving Verification Throughput for Atom™ SOC by Design Partitioning

Cite this Research Publication : Manikutty, G., & Kalita, D. "Improving Verification Throughput for Atom™ SOC by Design Partitioning." In SNUG2011 San Jose, 2011.

Year : 1999

Hardware/Software Partitioning of Synchronous Dataflow Graphs in the ACS domain of Ptolemy.University of Texas, Literature Survey, Final Report May, 12.

Cite this Research Publication : Gayathri Manikutty and H, H., “Hardware/Software Partitioning of Synchronous Dataflow Graphs in the ACS domain of Ptolemy.University of Texas, Literature Survey, Final Report May, 12.”, 1999.

Patents

Year : 2019

Protective Packaging and Delivery

Cite this Research Publication : M. Anand, ,, Kanthimathi, S., and Rao R. Bhavani, “Protective Packaging and Delivery”

Publisher : India 202041018365. USA 16/917,354

FDP / Workshops
  • Participated in IEEE Women in Engineering (WiE) International Leadership Summit, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, July 29-30, 2022.
Talks Delivered

Research Talks Delivered

  • Invited international speaker for the AI for Good Webinar on “Sustainable Robots: What does it take for a robot to be sustainable”, 28 February, 2023
  • Talk on “Robotics for Social Good: Designing an Autonomous Social Robot to Promote Positive Behaviour Change among Children in India”, IEEE Malabar Subsection, IEEE Kerala Section, December 15, 2022
  • Talk on “An Autonomous Social Robot To Promote Proper Hand Hygiene Among Children In India”, in the Global Summit for UNESCO Gender-Related Chairs and Networks (W36), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, August 20, 2021

Invited Talks

  • Invited talk on Innovative capacity building and networking strategy during the Rising Women: A women first founder-investor meet, American Center, Kolkatta on 14, March 2024
  • Participated in a Panel discussion with IEEE STEM Champion and STEM Grant Recipients on STEM Volunteerism during the 3rd Annual IEEE STEM Summit, 2023
  • Talk on “Evaluating Impact of IEEE STEM Initiatives”, IEEE Kerala Section, July 4, 2022
  • Talk on “Sustainable Development Goals and Project Sustainability”, March 17, 2022
Membership
  1. Vice Chair, IEEE SIGHT Kerala Section, 2022-2025
  2. HAC and STEM Coordinator, IEEE Education Society Kerala Section 2023
  3. WiE Coordinator, IEEE Education Society Kerala Section 2021, 2022
  4. Member, IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology, 2023
  5. Member, IEEE Women in Engineering (WiE) Kerala Section, 2023
  6. Life member, Association for Machines and Mechanisms (AMM), India, 2015-2023.
Awards

Individual

  1. Outstanding Humanitarian Volunteer Award, IEEE Kerala Section, 2024
  2. Regional Mentor of Change, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, 2024
  3. Member of expert evaluation panel for ATL Marathon AIM, NITI Aayog 2023-24.
  4. Sub Group lead for Education and Skill Development Subgroup of Gender Equality and Disability C20 Working Group, 2023.
  5. IEEE Senior Member Award, 2022.
  6. Award for Special recognition for contributions to IEEE Kerala Section, 2022.
  7. Featured in “Gems of Mentor India” handbook for being recognized as Top Mentor of Change in India for the years 2023-24, 2021-22, 2020-21, AIM, NITI Aayog.
  8. Exemplary top mentor of the month, January 2022, December 2021, October 2021, January 2021, AIM, NITI Aayog.
  9. One of the 56 top performing and most popular mentors for students, ATL Tinkerprenuer 2021, AIM, NITI Aayog.
  10. One of the 225 most consistent and active mentor for students, ATL Tinkerprenuer 2021, AIM, NITI Aayog.

Team Awards

  1. IEEE Kerala Section SIGHT Vice Chair for the Amarnath Raja Humanitarian Technology Award 2023 winning team
  2. 2. Mentor of HaKsh-E Bot team, winner of Toycathon, Physical Edition 2021-22
Conferences Organized

Technical Program Committee Member for

  • International Conference on Robotics and Automation (RAHA) 2016
  • International Conference on Gender and Technology (ICGT) 2025

Associate editor for

  • International Conference on Robotics and Automation (RAHA) 2016

Reviewer and Session chair for

  • International Conference on Gender and Technology (ICGT) 2025
Admissions Apply Now