Sugata Mitra

Education speaker Sugata Mitra is the Professor Emeritus at NIIT University. He used to be a Professor and Principal Research Investigator at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom.

In 1999, Sugata did an experiment called the Hole in the Wall.  He embedded a computer within a wall in an Indian slum letting kids use it as much as they wanted. The experiment aimed to demonstrate that children could learn to use computers very quickly and easily without any prior formal training. In Sugata’s words, this is called “Minimally Invasive Education” (MIE). There have been numerous recreations of the experiment since it was first conducted. Speaker Sugata Mitra has received multiple awards from the United Kingdom, India, the United States, and several other countries.

His primary focus is on Children’s Education, Self-organising systems, Remote Presence, Cognitive Systems, Physics, and Consciousness. The Hole in the Wall experiment inspired the creation of the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire.  In 2003, Sugata received the Dewang Mehta Award for Innovation in Information Technology. Ten years later, he obtained the 1 million dollar TED Prize.

Sugata Mitra started working with molecular orbital calculations in the 1970s. He found that the structure of organic molecules is more important than the number of atoms in them. Furthermore, he developed an interest in the flow of electricity through biological systems. This interest led to a seminal speculative paper on why our perception organs are situated where they are.

He predicted the rise of the desktop publishing industry in 1984 when he created India’s first local area network-based newspaper publishing system. This resulted in the creation of LAN-based database publishing. He also established the “Yellow Pages” industry in Bangladesh and India.

His continued fascination with the human mind led him to research in the fields of memory and learning. In fact, he was one of the first researchers to demonstrate that simulated neural networks can aid in understanding the mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease. He invented a hyperlinked computing environment years before the Internet. Furthermore, he created the Voluntary Perception Recording.

Sugata Mitra’s work at NIIT involved the development of the organization’s first curricula and pedagogy. Moreover, he researched learning devices and learning styles, many of which are now innovative learning methods and patented multimedia.

In 2009, he founded the Granny Cloud, a network of teachers who communicate with children via the Internet. Sugata Mitra’s work has impacted people’s lives worldwide and several counties’ economies.