Dr. Saurabh Mehta

Professor
Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering
Chief Academic Officer, VIT
Qualification

Ph.D. in Wireless Networks, South Korea 2011
M.S. in Wireless Networks, South Korea 2005
B.E. (Electronics), University of Mumbai 2002

Experience

Teaching Experience: 19 Years
Industrial Experience: 2.5 Years
Corporate Consultancy in R & D: 14 Years
Administrative and Managerial Experience: 3.5 Years
Technical Papers Published: 70
Book Chapters Authored: 5
Doctoral and Masters Students Guided: 10

It is rightly said that a learning curve is essential for growth. Learning and innovating have always been my passions since childhood. I always believe that learning happens in uncovering the syllabus, doing things, working in fields, and discussing with experts. My belief made me interested in extracurricular reading, developing various hobbies from Astronomy to Stamp Collection, and meeting with various personalities from different fields. I believe this could have been be a motivating factor for me to venture into the fascinating world of engineering.

Right after graduating from engineering, I started my career as a Junior Service Engineer at Vinit Enterprises in the power and battery industry, where I played an instrumental role in establishing the R & D division. Working with a medium scale company not only helped me to grow as a technical professional, but also trained me as a leader. This professional experience helped me to earn a fully funded position at Ajou University, South Korea, to pursue a Master’s degree. As a Research and Teaching Assistant while pursuing M.S., I started to nurture a lifelong passion for research and education.

I was associated with industry giants like the Ministry of Information and Communication Applied Research (South Korea), LG, Samsung, SK Telecomm, ETRI, and Hyosung Corporation throughout my research career. Since 2006, I have been working as an independent Technical Consultant for various organizations. The knowledge and experiences I had gained, working in both academia and industry, have provided me with a broad professional framework in shaping my career as an educator, researcher, and technical consultant.

It was a turning point in my life when I decided to pursue a career in academia. Since 2011, I have been associated with Vidyalankar Institute of Technology where my career blossomed as an academician. In addition to being a Professor at the Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, I currently also shoulder the responsibilities of Chief Academic Officer (CAO), a role in which I am responsible for designing curricula, implementing academic planning and policies, integrating academia and industry collaboration, bringing in innovation and intrapreneurship in academia, research programs, human resource development, and educational training for the Institute.

I strongly believe in the inspiring words of Nelson Mandela. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” In the course of my career, I have been fortunate to meet many great scientists, engineers, innovators, and leaders such as celebrated mathematicians John Nash (Nobel Laureate) and Terence Tao (Fields Medalist), and the developer of LaTeX Leslie Lamport (Turing Awardee), just to name a few. Those powerful moments of interacting with great minds have truly broadened the horizons of my thinking. I collaborated with my friends to establish an NGO to support underprivileged and financially backward students for their education.

Besides my passion for technology and education, I am a trained cricket scorer and I enjoy giving commentary, scoring, and umpiring at local cricket clubs occasionally. I strongly believe that cricket is not just a game but teaches us many important life lessons. Working with scoring helped me to learn some important skills such as effective way of record keeping, analyzing the numbers beyond statistics, etc. I am also passionate about films which have taken me to study film theory as a non-credit subject while pursuing my PhD. During my leisure time I enjoy various movies and documentaries. Films and documentaries broaden your horizon about professions and personal life from a new prospective. I also enjoy writing about cricket, education, technology, and films as a regular column writer in various print media and web portals.