Vinaya (Vinny) Sharma, Ph.D., P.E.
President

Vinny founded Sharma & Associates, Inc. (SA) in 1995 and has steadily grown SA and established it as one of the premier engineering consulting firms in the transportation industry.

Vinny has over 37 years of engineering experience, including 22 in the railroad industry (13 years with the Association of American Railroads (AAR)), specializing in railway bridge and equipment engineering, structural analysis, fatigue analysis, design of test, and expert witness services for arbitration and litigation.

Vinny is a licensed professional engineer in the states of Illinois and Alabama. He received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of California-Davis. Vinny has a Master of Science degree from Marquette University, Wisconsin and a Bachelor of Science degree from Jodhpur Engineering College, India.

Anand Prabhakaran is Vice President of Engineering at SA and has been with SA since its founding. Anand oversees the engineering, research, design and testing activities at SA.

Anand has over eleven years of experience in the railroad industry and has led and worked on many, diverse rail car and locomotive projects, as well as rail infrastructure projects.

Anand holds a Master’s degree in engineering from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa and a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India.

Anand’s experience and expertise include: Structural engineering (rail vehicles & bridges), product development, vehicle dynamics, crashworthiness, reliability analysis and testing.

Anand Prabhakaran
Vice President, Engineering

David C. Brabb
Director, Marketing & Test Services

David is responsible for the direction and management of SA’s marketing department, including materials and collateral, and the company’s test services lab and personnel. He has been with SA since June 2001.

David has over 16 years of research and test experience in the railroad industry. He worked for the AAR from 1989 to 1995 in various capacities including project engineer for the Peacekeeper Rail Garrison project at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado. He finished with the AAR as Senior Research Engineer working with the AAR’s Track Loading Vehicle. David spent almost 6 years with Cardwell Westinghouse, a division of Wabtec, and ended his tenure there as manager of their R&D laboratory. David holds and shares a number of rail car component related patents.

David holds a Masters in Business Administration from DePaul University in Chicago and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Sōm directs the engineering analysis and development activities at SA .

He has over 27 years of professional experience including 19 years in the railroad transportation research (AAR) and 8 years of product management experience in the telecommunication industry.

Sōm has extensive experience in the fields of vehicle dynamics, train simulation and engineering analysis. He has published and presented numerous technical papers in national and international journals and conferences. He has also authored and co-authored a large number of technical reports.

Sōm received his Ph.D. and Master of Science degrees from University of Illinois, Chicago. He obtained his Bachelor of Engineering degree from Punjab University, India.

Sōm P. Singh, PhD.
Director, Engineering