Dr Sakthy Selvakumaran is CEO & Co-Founder of tech start-up BKwai and Cambridge Engineering Fellow researching remote sensing (satellite monitoring) to predict structural failures and improve risk and resilience of infrastructure. BKwai’s software platform provides visualisations and data analytics for instrumentation and monitoring data in the construction sector.

Sakthy studied Engineering at the University of Cambridge (MA, MEng). She then lived and worked internationally in design, construction and R&D roles within industry and international development, becoming a Chartered Civil Engineer (CEng, MICE). Her roles in industry ranged from designing new bridges to working on sites to reconstruct housing destroyed by earthquakes.

She returned to Cambridge for her PhD, spending part of her doctoral training as a Visiting Researcher with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and received the Institute of Engineering Technology (IET) Leslie H Paddle Award for her work. Her achievements include being named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe List (2016), and the Financial Times Top 100 Most Influential Women in UK Engineering list (2020), and being appointed to the Young Professionals Panel of the National Infrastructure Commission in the UK (2018). Dr Selvakumaran is currently the Isaac Newton Trust / Newnham College Fellow in Engineering.