Ram Chillarege​

Ram's professional life is defined by a passion to innovate and take that all the way into real world application. His invention of Orthogonal Defect Classification (ODC) brought quantitative and structured analysis to the software development process, previously limited by qualitative methods. This foundational work endured three decades of development process shifts from Waterfall to Spiral and now Agile. IBM and IEEE recognized ODC’s significance with their innovation and achievement awards. He built IBM’s Center for Software Engineering, influencing practices which generated over $1 billon in savings.

Chillarege Inc is a boutique consulting firm that brings several advancements in technology, data models, algorithms and practices to address challenges faced by numerous software intensive Fortune 500 clients. The diversity of applications now touch: supply chain management, machinery development, insurance, networks, storage, cameras and even medical devices. Engagement into a project or corporation can be tailored to address the business challenges of the client.

While primarily an industry professional, Ram has published 75+ refereed papers with his seminal ODC paper garnering 1000+ citations. He received a PhD from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and was elected an IEEE Fellow. He has been active in the leadership of the IEEE Software Reliability conference (ISSRE) for over two decades, helping build partnerships with the software industry. ISSRE is now one of the top-tier academic conferences. Recently, he was awarded the IEEE Meritorious Service Award. In his spare time, (of what little there is!) he enjoys welding, HVAC, and a recently acquired tractor.