Amitava Mitra

Dr. Amitava ‘Babi’ Mitra has over twenty-two years of leadership experience in for-profit and non-profit education, including educational technology, higher education, distance education, corporate e-learning, publishing and multimedia based training.

Dr. Mitra is currently the Associate Director of the recently launched Office of Educational Innovation and Technology (OEIT) at MIT. An outcome of the reorganization of academic computing in December 2006, OEIT which is in the Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education, works with faculty, staff and students to enable and promote the development and dissemination of innovative uses of technology in teaching and learning. Dr. Mitra is also a member of ACCORD – the Academic Computing Coordination group at MIT – a strategic initiative launched by the Dean for Undergraduate Education’s Office, Information Services and Technology, and the Libraries. ACCORD’s mission is to ensure that all academic computing service providers on campus work together in a cohesive and transparent manner to provide faculty with seamless and responsive service for academic computing.

Prior to OEIT, Dr. Mitra was the Executive Director of Academic Media Production Services (AMPS) at MIT for nearly five years, an organization that provided educational technology services to the MIT community, in support of the Institute’s strategic goals. AMPS’ strategy and services, as well as its goals and activities were directed toward progress in the following three key areas: developing and delivering Stellar, MIT’s course management system; media-enabled teaching and learning spaces, and; production & delivery of rich media content for academic, research & community purposes.

At NIIT, Ltd., and NIIT, Inc., Dr. Mitra transformed a small instructional design project team into the profitable $24 million revenue Knowledge Solutions Business unit, and was its Senior Vice-President. With over 600 professionals, clients in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia, and a strong process-oriented development approach (among the first in the world to receive ISO 9001 certification in 1993 for instructional development), this business formed a strategic component of NIIT’s vision.

Dr. Mitra participated in the formulation of the National Policy on Education released by the Government of India in 1986. He also served as the Chief, Distance Learning Programs Unit, at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India, from where he earned his PhD: he was simultaneously a Visiting Engineer at the Department of Chemical Engineering, MIT where he spent five years working on his doctoral research and dissertation. Dr. Mitra is the co-author of a book, "Challenge & Response: Towards a New Educational Policy", a founder-member of the Council of Governors, Pan Himalayan Grassroots Development Foundation, Kumaon, India, a Leader to Leader Fellow at MIT, and has served on the Sakai Project Board as well as on the NERCOMP 2008 Program Committee. He is currently serving on the NERCOMP Board of Trustees and is also a member of the NERCOMP 2009 Program Committee. His interests include the intersects across people and technology, growing up with his children, and playing squash.