Arun Shroff is a serial technology entrepreneur, an advisor to multiple startups, and has been an invited speaker and expert on AI, technology and entrepreneurship. He has founded and grown multiple technology companies in both USA and India, and has worked as a programmer, systems analyst, management consultant and has academic degrees in engineering, business and computer science.

Startups:

Currently, Arun is founder and CEO of Xtend.AI – a startup with the mission to use AI to solve global challenges in health and other domains. The first challenge being addressed is using AI for early detection of diabetic retinopathy – the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide. Xtend.AI is currently conducting pilots of its solution in Senegal in partnership with ITU/WHO and in India, in partnership with a leading teleophthalmology provider.

Arun is also co-founder and Director of Technology at Medindia.net, a leading health website that is visited by over 30 million people a year from over 200 countries. Its mission is to empower better health for everyone. In addition to over 1 million pages of health information and content, Medindia provides a suite of health applications including a personalized health portal for consumers, a virtual clinic for doctors, and an employee wellness portal for companies.

Arun also founded FrontPoint Systems, Inc. a web services and web hosting provider that develops and manages complete web solutions for clients globally. Previously, he founded PcPortable.com, an e-commerce company that manufactured high-performance, portable computer systems sold directly via the web, and DynaPro, a systems integrator and value-added reseller serving Fortune 500 companies and businesses.

Advisory & Consulting:

Arun is a topic lead at the ITU/WHO Focus Group on AI for Health – a joint ITU and WHO initiative tasked with evaluating AI solutions for health and for creating a global community of all interested stakeholders.

Arun is also an advisor at STAR Associates, that provides strategic and advisory services to early stage technology companies in AI, Robotics, Blockchain, cybersecurity, biomedical, health and telemedicine.

Arun is also advises  several tech startups, mentors entrepreneurs, is a charter member at TiE NJ and co-chair of the TiE NJ University program – that mentors and guides student startups.

Pro-bono Advisory :

Arun is on the advisory board of several non-profits and NGOs on a pro-bono basis, including MOHAN USA where is a founding board member, and MOHAN Foundation where he is a Technology Advisor – both organizations promote ethical organ donation to save lives.

He is also a technology advisor for IIMPACT India, and IIMPACT Australia, non-profits dedicated to providing free primary education to girls aged 6 to 14, in the most backward and poorest regions of India.

Recent Speaking / Publications:

Arun has been an invited speaker and expert on AI and technology at conferences worldwide and contributed to several publications:

• ITU/WHO Focus Group on AI for Health – topic driver and lead author for the topic group documents “Standardized benchmarking of AI for Ophthalmology (Retinal Imaging Diagnostics) , Jan 2021 (also presented Oct 2020, May 2020, Jan 2020, Nov 2019, Sep 2019, April 2019, Jan 2019, Nov 2018)
• Chief Guest and Speaker at Sewa Milan’s Annual Volunteer Appreciation & Award Ceremony., Dec 21, 2020
• Invited speaker at Tele Medicon 2020 – the annual conference of the Telemedicine Society of India, on “How AI is Transforing Healthcare’, Dec 20, 2020
• Co-author of paper “ML4H Auditing : From Paper to Practice” published in Machine Learning for Health, Vol. 136, December 2020. Paper presented at NeurIPS 2020 workshop.
• Speaker at the IT Serve Alliance, Florida Chapter meeting, July 31st, 2020
• Speaker and member of the jury at the AI for Good Innovation Factory Pitching Session organized by the ITU, on June 26, 2020.
• Conversation with Prof. David Weiss of New Jersey City University on his show. “Connecting Bridges and Borders” on the topic of Artificial Intelligence and Its Importance in Academics & the Commercial Sector”, May 2020.
• Co-host on Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning webinar organized by TiE, NJ, May 2020.
• Guest Lecture & Workshop, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Feb 2020, on “Understanding How to Apply AI, ML and Deep Learning Concepts in Startups”.
• Guest Lecture, Rutgers University Business School, Feb 2020, on “How to integrate Al & ML in your startup business model”.
• Invited talk, TiE, NJ, “Demystifying AI/ML – Applications in Healthcare”, Oct 2019
• Invited paper at The Futures of e-Health conference at Alexander Von Humboldt Institute, Berlin , April 2019
  • Conference
  • Paper (PDF) (“An integrated solution using AI to detect diabetic retinopathy and prevent vision loss”)
• Interview with Stephen Ibaraki , Chairman and Managing General Partner REDDS Capital as part of his ongoing ACM interview series with technology experts and leaders globally, July 2019.
• Podcast Interview with Maria Palombini, Life Sciences practice lead, IEEE Standards Association on “AI vs ML: From Bench-to-Bedside, A Technical Insider’s Perspective” . June 2019
• Invited speaker at the “AI in Healthcare” workshop at the IIT Madras – Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre. Feb 2019
• ITU/WHO workshop on “Artificial Intelligence for Health”, New York, November 2018:
  • Program
  • Talk (Session 2 – talk starts at 17:00 min mark)
  • Presentation

• AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, May 2018:
  • Invited speakers
  • Program (Day 2, AI + Health Session)
  • Talk (AI + Health AI – Game changer in providing universal health coverage? (Room C1)
• Invited speaker at the “Futuristic Healthcare Technology” conference at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, Dec 2017

Education:

Arun has as a B.Tech from IIT Madras, an MBA (PGDM) from IIM, Ahmedabad, and M.S. in Computer Science from Penn State University and certifications in Machine and Deep Learning from Stanford University and Deeplearning.ai/Coursera.