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Amitava 'Babi' Mitra - Director, Academic Computing, Babson College
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Babi is a proven international leader with extensive experience in delivering technology-enabled educational services and solutions in demanding academic and for-profit environments in the US and India. He has successfully led 40-600 people organizations and entrepreneurial ventures; his experience spans over twenty-three years in higher education, for-profit corporate e-learning, multimedia based training, and distance learning.
Babi is currently the Director, Academic Computing at Babson College, Babson Park, MA, USA. He has been the Vice President, Learning Technologies, Consulting Services for Education(cs4ed.com), Associate Director, Office of Educational Innovation and Technology and Executive Director, Academic Media Production Services at MIT, Senior Vice President and Head of the $24M revenue Knowledge Solutions Business at NIIT, Inc., and Chief, Distance Learning Programs Unit at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, India. Babi participated in the formulation of the Government of India's National Policy on Education and is a co-author of the book, "Challenge & Response: Towards a New Educational Policy".
He has contributed to professional organizations and boards promoting the development and dissemination of new/strategic uses of technology in teaching and learning. Babi has served on the NERCOMP board and the Advisory Board, Public School Academy, Atlanta, and was a founder-member of the Sakai Project board and the Council of Governors, Pan Himalayan Grassroots Development Foundation, Kumaon, India. He served as co-chairperson, Advisory Board, Royal Roads University, Victoria, Canada and advised specifically on ideation, design, creation and implementation of a new MA program in Distance Learning. At MIT he was also a member of the India Strategy Working Group, the MIT India Council and the MIT K-12 Forum. He has presented extensively at EDUCAUSE, NERCOMP SIGs and other technical venues.
Babi was a National Science Talent Scholar, Government of India and on the merit list, IIT Entrance Examinations. He earned his PhD from BITS, Pilani and was simultaneously a Visiting Engineer at the Chemical Engineering Department at MIT. He is co-founder and co-chair of the South Asian Parents Alliance at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, Cambridge; his interests include the intersects across people and technology, growing up with his children, and playing squash.
