Manikonda, Vikram
Dr. Manikonda earned his B.E. (Hons.) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, India, in 1992. He then pursued his graduate studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, obtaining an M.S. in 1994 (jointly advised by Prof. P.S. Krishnaprasad and Prof. J. Hendler), followed by a Ph.D. in 1997 (advised by Prof. P.S. Krishnaprasad), both in Electrical Engineering.
Over the last 28 years, his experience has spanned research and development, entrepreneurship, business ownership, and senior business executive roles. He was the Chief Technology Officer for BlueHalo, a technology company focused on providing industry-leading capabilities to the defense and national security sectors. At BlueHalo, he led the development of its strategic technology roadmaps and was responsible for managing and deploying the company’s IRAD and other investments to accelerate capabilities and mitigate customer risk for BlueHalo’s key programs with the DoD/IC in autonomous swarming, next-generation missile systems, RF and directed energy-based counter-unmanned systems, satellite/hypersonic telemetry, tracking and control, and open-source intelligence. He led BlueHalo’s Science and Technology Council and chaired its Cloud Center of Excellence. In his role as CTO, he also worked closely with the corporate development teams on BlueHalo’s mergers and acquisition activities related to technical due diligence and integration. BlueHalo was acquired by AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) in May of 2025.
Prior to joining BlueHalo, he was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Intelligent Automation, Inc. (IAI). Over his 23-year career at IAI, he served as the Principal Investigator for several federally funded RDT&E programs from agencies including DARPA, AFRL, ARL, ONR, and NASA. He also worked on several DoD and NASA programs, such as the Army’s Future Combat Systems Logistic Decision Support System, OSD’s Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team (Project Maven), and NASA’s Airspace Concept Evaluation System. As CEO, he transformed IAI’s business model and culture to enable the transition of IAI’s R&D across the “valley of death” into products and programs. IAI was acquired by BlueHalo in September of 2021. While at IAI, he was also a founder and investor in Cryptonite, LLC, a cybersecurity startup spun off from IAI and served on its board until 2020.
Since receiving his Ph.D., Vikram has been an active member of the UMD engineering alumni community. He is currently the Chair of the MATRIX Lab Industry Advisory Board. He has served on the Board of Visitors for the A. James Clark School of Engineering and as the Chair of the Strategic Advisory Council for the Institute for Systems Research. In 2014, he was honored with the Clark School’s Glenn L. Martin Medal, which is awarded to individuals who have upheld and contributed to the mission and ideals of the A. James Clark School of Engineering and are chosen based on exceptional community service, contributions to the student experience, and noteworthy leadership and accomplishments in the field of engineering.
In 2023, he established the Vikram Manikonda Endowed Distinguished Graduate Fellowship in Electrical and Computer Engineering. The fellowship provides ECE graduate students with merit-based support, particularly for students researching controls or microelectronics.
Vikram’s research interests span a wide range of topics, including motion description languages, robotics, autonomous systems, multi-agent systems, data analytics, AI/ML, counter-unmanned systems, and space technologies. He is the author of several publications in refereed journals, books, and conference proceedings in these areas.