IIT Mandi has a new director

Professor Laxmidhar Behera, an electrical engineering professor at IIT Kanpur, has been named the new head of IIT Mandi. He will take over as director of IIT Mandi replacing Professor Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi, who was appointed by the central government on Monday.

Professor Behera earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from the National Institute of Technology in Rourkela. He went on to complete his Ph.D. at IIT Delhi and his post-doctoral studies at the German National Center for Information Technology in Evolutionary Computation and Multi-agent Systems.

Robotics and Artificial Intelligence are Professor Laxmidhar Behera’s areas of expertise. He is the director of IIT Kanpur’s Intelligent Systems and Control (ISCON) Laboratory, which focuses on developing automation solutions for industrial and residential challenges. The lab specializes in robotic system control, both traditional and modern, robust and intelligent, and is responsible for the development of various industrial applications incorporating robotics, control, and artificial intelligence.

Professor Behera’s ISCON Lab contains multiple divisions through which students can learn about robots and artificial intelligence in a variety of methods. Professor Behera has also created courses for colleges around the world.