Chaitanya Rao

Chaitanya Rao (full name Chaitanya Kumar Rao) is an Australian mathematician and electrical engineer. He attended Melbourne Grammar School, where in Year 12 he was one of six students selected to represent Australia at the 1994 International Mathematical Olympiad in Hong Kong, earning an Honourable Mention with 18 points. He completed a BE (Hons) in Electrical Engineering and a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics at the University of Melbourne in 2000, then an MS (2002) and PhD (2007) in Electrical Engineering at Caltech under Babak Hassibi, with a dissertation on the asymptotic analysis of wireless systems with Rayleigh fading. His first role on returning to Australia was as an algorithm designer; he later worked in research and data science roles at IBM and Telstra, and is now a Lead Trainer and Head of Learning (Data Science) at the Institute of Data, teaching data science and AI.

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• Has stayed connected to the Australian olympiad movement: a member of AMT's Senior Problems Committee since 2000 and a regular tutor at the December School of Excellence, recognised in the 2017 BH Neumann Award recipients.2017
• Selected for the six-member Australian team at the 1994 IMO in Hong Kong as a Melbourne Grammar School Year 12 student; scored 18 points and earned an Honourable Mention, on a team that also included future Fields Medalist Akshay Venkatesh.Jul 1994
• Career pivoted from wireless-communications research (algorithm design, IBM research, Telstra data) into data-science teaching; his stated motivation was positive feedback on explaining complex ideas, and he now leads data science/AI training at the Institute of Data, suggesting a deliberate move toward education over engineering.Jan 25, 2024
• Completed BE(Hons) Electrical Engineering and BSc(Hons) Mathematics at the University of Melbourne (2000), then an MS (2002) and PhD (2007) in Electrical Engineering at Caltech under Babak Hassibi, dissertation on the asymptotic analysis of wireless systems with Rayleigh fading.2007
• Authored the conference paper 'Analysis of Multiple Antenna Wireless Links at Low SNR' with Babak Hassibi at Caltech, showing capacity of a multiple-antenna Rayleigh fading link grows quadratically in SNR at low SNR.
• Describes using mathematical models to solve real-world problems across natural-resources companies, sporting clubs and the education sector - the through-line from his olympiad and Caltech training into applied consulting and teaching.