Dr. S S Mantha, an eminent academician and an able administrator, was the Chairman, of All
India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), starting 05th January 2012 till 4th January
2015. Having joined AICTE in March 2009 as its Vice Chairman, he has been at the forefront
of bringing in some radical changes for transparency and accountability in its
administration. On completion of the tenure at AICTE he worked as Professor of Robotics,
CAD/CAM and AI in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at VJTI, Mumbai and superannuated
on 31st May 2016.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the M S University, Baroda, and a
Masters in Mechanical Engineering from VJTI, Mumbai. From small beginnings, he progressed to
be the Professor and Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering a position he held for 6
years at VJTI, subsequent to which he was appointed the Pro Vice Chancellor, SNDT Women’s
University by the Government of Maharashtra which he served for two years with distinction.
He specializes in Robotics which he taught for more than 15 years out of a rich teaching
experience of more than 25 years, along with courses in Control Theory and Artificial
Intelligence. He was instrumental in setting up a state of art Robotics / CAD / CAM
laboratory at VJTI, providing consultancy in the area of Industrial Automation to the
Industries in Mumbai and Pune. His Research interest in the area also has seen him provide
expertise to DRDO and BARC projects.
A PhD in Combustion modeling from University of Mumbai, he also had several administrative
assignments that he did for the University of Mumbai, as also being the Dean, Faculty of
Technology. As recognition, Government of Maharashtra conferred the best teacher award of
the State in 2002.
He implemented the first e - governance project, automating the workflows, for the department
of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra in 1995. Further he provided
the IT expertise for IT initiatives of several departments of Government of Maharashtra. The
Citizen Facilitation Centre, Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation, an e–governance
initiative that won many National and International awards were also completed with his
expertise amongst others. He currently is also the IT Expert for the Department of IT,
Government of Maharashtra.
He is also the recipient of INFOCOM CMAI National Telecom award for 2010 and the HR Nexus –
the HR & Network, Leadership award in the field of Education, 2010. The.e-governance project
implemented in AICTE has also won the Silver Edge Award instituted by United Business Media
and Information Week and the Good Governance National Technology Award, 2010.
He is also a recipient of the 5th National telecom Award in 2011 for “Excellence in Education
through e- governance instituted by CMAI and Star News He has more than 240 publications in
National and International Journals and Conferences to his credit as also 23 Ph D students
who have completed their PhD under him. He has three books published titled “Objet Oriented
Programming in C++” Published by Wiley India, “Aerodynamics of Cars, an experimental
Investigation – A synergy of Wind Tunnel and CFD”, and "Design & Development of
Decelerometer" both published by LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing Company, Germany besides
contributing chapters for many books.
