History

ATR Labs was founded by me in June-2003. I am Radhakrishnan, but most people just call me 'rk' !

I formally learnt computer programming in 1978, when I wrote my first program in Fortran ! In those days, you had to 'write' your program by punching cards, generating the output by sending it thru a card reader, correct the errors by repunching selective cards, feed the cards into a card reader to store into memory, wait for the output to be returned as punched cards, and then read those cards by the card reader to print the output on a printer !

I wrote over 200 such programs almost all of them dealing with statistical methods. The IBM 1620 and IBM 1401 mainframe computers at IIT Madras and Guindy Engineering College were the places where most of the work was done !

I was an "IBM Certified Key-Punch Operator" ! ( Basically a glorified data-entry operator ). I have the certificate !

After completing my Masters Degree in Management Studies from The Jamnalal Bajaj Insitute of Management, Mumbai, in 1981, I worked for a couple of years in Corporate Finance in a large Tata Company called Rallis India Limited. But my love for computers was obvious since I quit and joined HCL in its early days when there were less than 100 people !

Prior to 2003, I had worked for about twenty years with a few small and large companies. My final official corporate job was as Head of the Information Technology Lab of GE India Technology Centre, which subsequently was renamed as the John F Welch Technology Centre in Bangalore.

But, motivated by Jack Welch's saying "If you don't control your own destiny, someone else will !", I quit GE and started my own organization called ATR-LABS.

I accidentally got a contract to teach Linux to Digital Equipment Corporation ( DEC ) and that was a major turning point in my life.

I discovered that I love to teach !

My own 'students' became my emissaries and soon I was teaching at Intel, HP, Qualcomm, TI, Analog Devices, Nokia, Wipro, HCL, Adaptec, EMC, Dell, Infineon, LG, Cisco, Cypress, Conexant, Sasken, Schneider-Electric and many more !!

As time passed, Linux started becoming more popular as a great O.S for small embedded systems ( though it was never really architected as a true embedded O.S !! )

I discovered that I love playing with hardware !

So I started working wih linux on embedded systems. I loved this so much that I enrolled in my second Masters Degree in Embedded System Design from Manipal University, which I completed with a First Class with Distinction at the age of 50 years !

I also became interested in ARM architecture and got myself certified as an ARM Accredited Engineer for their Cortex-A series and as an ARM Accredited Microcontroller Engineer for their Cortex-M series.

I discovered that to be a great teacher, you need to first do a lot of research in the subject you are teaching ! Thus formed the name - ' Advanced Training & Research Labs' !

ATR Labs is essentially , an organization that specializes in consulting and imparting high-end technology training. The philosophy is simple - Take one reasonably complex area, do focused research on it, and then package our findings in a world-class training module !

Our simple corporate stand on CORRUPTION :

We would rather pay a one million rupee fine than pay a single rupee bribe.

ATR LABS HAS NEVER PAID A SINGLE RUPEE BRIBE IN ANY OF OUR DEALINGS.