Dr. SS Mantha, Chancellor, KL University & Adj Prof, NIAS, is an eminent academician and administrator, with more than 25 years of experience in the education sector. He was Chairman, of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), from 2012 to 2015. Having previously served as its Vice Chairman, he has been at the forefront of bringing in radical change for transparency and accountability in its administration.

Dr Mantha holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from MS University, Baroda and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from VJTI, Mumbai. He also holds a PhD in Combustion Modeling from the University of Mumbai.

He specializes in Robotics which he taught for more than 15 years, along with courses in Control Theory and Artificial Intelligence. He was instrumental in setting up a state-of-art Robotics/CAD/CAM laboratory at VJTI, providing consultancy in the area of Industrial Automation to the Industries in Mumbai and Pune.

Dr Mantha has more than 240 publications in national and international journals and conferences to his credit and he is also the author of 3 books.

He is the recipient of several awards including the ‘Best Teacher Award of the State’ in 2002 conferred by the Government of Maharashtra, the 5th National Telecom Award in 2011 for Excellence in Education through e-governance instituted by CMAI and Star News, and the INFOCOM CMAI National Telecom Award for 2010, among others.