Professor Chandan Kumar

Biography

Professor Chandan Kumar is a distinguished academician and researcher in the field of Computer Science, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics. Born in 1975 in Kolkata, India, he completed his B.Tech in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 1997, graduating with first-class honors. He pursued his M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge, where his doctoral thesis explored scalable algorithms for high-dimensional data mining.

Since joining the Department of Computer Science at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Bangalore, in 2004, Professor Kumar has risen through the ranks from Assistant Professor to Full Professor. Over the past two decades, he has become a mentor to hundreds of graduate and undergraduate students, known for his rigorous approach to problem solving and his enthusiasm for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Research Interests

• Machine Learning & Deep Learning: Development of novel architectures for image and speech recognition, and interpretability of blackbox models.
• Big Data Analytics: Scalable algorithms for processing petabytescale data streams.
• Computational Neuroscience: Modeling neural dynamics using spiking neural networks.
• Edge Computing & IoT: Efficient inference on resourceconstrained devices.
• Ethical AI: Frameworks for fairness, accountability, and transparency in automated decisionmaking.

His interdisciplinary projects often involve collaborations with electrical engineers, statisticians, and domain experts in healthcare and environmental sciences, aiming to translate theoretical advances into realworld solutions.

Selected Publications

1. Kumar, C., & Rao, S. (2023). Sparse Attention Mechanisms for RealTime Video Analytics. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 45(2), 10211036.
2. Kumar, C., Lee, H., & Patel, R. (2022). MetaLearning for FewShot Medical Diagnosis. Nature Machine Intelligence, 4, 567574.
3. Kumar, C., & Banerjee, T. (2021). EnergyEfficient Deep Neural Networks for Edge Devices. ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, 20(4), Article 35.
4. Kumar, C., et al. (2020). Interpretability Framework for BlackBox Models Using Counterfactual Explanations. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 68, 923955.
5. Kumar, C., & Gupta, A. (2019). Scalable Clustering Algorithms for HighDimensional Data. Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 32013210.

A full list of his works can be accessed via his Google Scholar profile and the institutional repository.

Awards & Honors

• 2023 IEEE Fellow for contributions to scalable machine learning.
• 2022 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award.
• 2021 Best Paper Award, International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR).
• 2020 Outstanding Faculty Award, NIT Bangalore.
• 2018 Distinguished Alumnus, IIT Kharagpur.

Teaching & Supervision

Professor Kumar is deeply committed to education. He regularly teaches core courses such as:

• CS 301 Algorithms & Data Structures
• CS 421 Machine Learning
• CS 450 Advanced Topics in Artificial Intelligence

He also designs elective seminars that bring industry practitioners into the classroom. Over the years, he has supervised 25 Ph.D. candidates, 40 master's theses, and numerous undergraduate projects, many of which have resulted in patents and startup ventures.

Contact Information

Office: Room 412, Department of Computer Science, NIT Bangalore
Phone: +918023614500
Email: chandan.kumar@nithome.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 3:00pm 5:00pm