Hanagud joined the faculty of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1970. Prior to his Georgia Tech appointment, he worked at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) as a research scientist from 1963 to 1970. In 1967, he, along with other Stanford professors and a colleague, founded the company Failure Analysis Associates now located in Menlo Park, California. The company helped form two acoustic emission technology firms. His research fields include structures, materials, structural dynamics, aeroelasticity and areas of design associated with these fields. Currently he is working in the areas of smart structures based vibration control, biomechanics, induced strain actuators, health monitoring of structures, active aeroelastic control and beneficial modifications of the musical instruments to improve their structural dynamic and acoustic response. Hanagud has published more than 170 technical papers, has advised and directed Ph.D. thesis of 25 graduate students and has advised 38 M.S. degree students. He has given numerous seminars/lectures at various universities, industries and different professional conferences around the world. Recently, his research work on the 'development of a smart acoustic guitar' was cited in many newspapers and news magazines around the world including a feature article in the Wall Street Journal and in a publication of the New York Academy of Sciences.