About Me

Rajeev Kumar is a Professor of Computer Science & Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from Univ. Sheffield, an M.Tech. degree in Computer Sc. & Tech. from Univ. Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee), and an M.Sc. degree in Physics (Electronics) from Univ. Allahabad. His primary education was in a river-side Gurukul, Shri Dugdheshwar Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya at Pilibhit.

He is an academician by choice. He has four decades of experience in teaching & research, which is his lifeline. He served Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) at Kharagpur & Kanpur, Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) Pilani, and JNU New Delhi. Prior to his academic tenure, he worked as a Scientist in the Defence R & D Organization (DRDO) Dehradun and the Department of Science & Technology (DST) Hyderabad/New Delhi. He was a Visiting Design Engineer at National Semiconductors (NSC) Germany. He visited several universities in USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, S. Korea, and Singapore.

R & D: His initial learning at DRDO culminated in technology transformation for end-users. His research interests include higher education, machine learning, medical imaging, multimedia, programming languages, software systems, evolutionary optimization, and scientometrics. He has published over 250 research articles in international journals and conferences, several in lead venues. He has supervised nineteen doctoral, over eighty master theses, and a hundred undergraduate projects. He worked on industrial-funded projects from Microsoft USA and NSC USA; the NSC project was in close collaboration with their USA, Germany, and Israel units. He founded the Data to Knowledge (D2K) Lab at JNU. He is a reviewer for journal/conference papers. He delivered several keynote & invited lectures and tutorials at conferences. His h-index on Google Scholar is 25.

Teaching: Rajeev has designed and taught several Computer Science & Engineering courses ranging from freshman to senior graduate level. He has taught programming (C/C++/C#/Java/R/Python), core and advanced (Data Struct., Algorithms, Compiler, Software Engg, Pattern Classification, Machine Learning), application (Image/Video Processing, Computer Vision, Multimedia Sys.), and specialized courses (Statistics, Evolutionary Comp, Research Method, etc.). At JNU, he introduced the Academic Ethics course. His teaching focuses on active learning, thinking, creativity, and innovation with flexible workloads/assessments.

Academic Leadership: He served as a Senator in IITs Kharagpur/Kanpur and BITS, a member of the Court and Academic Council in JNU, and several other academic bodies, e.g., Board of Studies, Statutory Comm. of Institutes/Universities. He worked for reforms in curriculum, academic structure, regulations, and ordinances. He mostly worked as a crisis handler with out-of-box solutions for complex problems.

Public Policy: His contribution to framing public policies for higher education is enormous. He reformed IITs admission examinations, bringing transparency and accuracy through well-defined processes. He pioneered common examination and common counseling (JoSAA/CSAB) for admissions in IITs/NITs/ IIITs/CFTIs. Almost all admissions & competitive examinations of the country in most disciplines have been reformed following this model. His proposal for an independent body led to the setting of the National Testing Agency (NTA). Including common examinations in NEP 2020 is a testimony of his work, leading to CUETs in Central Universities. His prototype for common counseling in CUs developed with the Ministry will be used fin 2024. He advocated for the Research Advisory Comm. (RAC) and Ethics course for PhD Students in JNU; UGC adopted both. Recently, IITs adopted several measures from his proposal for preventing suicides. India's Hon'ble Supreme Court hailed him as one of the many unsung heroes who helped in improving the system.

He defined quantitative Academic Performance Indices (APIs) in 2009. He co-authored/authored output-based quantifiable ABET-guided accreditation guidelines for undergraduate engineering programs from 2009 to 2011. These have been in public use since 2011, making the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) an autonomous body. This work led India to join the Washington Accord in June 2014 permanently.

His four decades of academic/administrative expertise acquired across universities and institutions in India and abroad have enriched his passion for teaching, research, curriculum development, faculty mentoring, and institution building. His reform-centric & student-oriented leadership, combined with 24/7 work ethics, open comm., legal acumen, and wider perception across inst./univ., is an asset.