Ajit Pal is presently Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian
Institute of
Technology, Kharagpur. He obtained his M. Tech. and Ph.D. degrees from the
Institute of Radio
Physics and Electronics, Calcutta University in 1971 and 1976, respectively.
Before joining IIT
Kharagpur in the year 1982, he was with the Indian Statistical Institute,
Calcutta, ITI, Naini and DLRL,
Hyderabad in various capacities. He became full Professor in
1988 and served as head of Computer
Center from 1993 to 1995 and head of the Computer
Science and Engineering Department from 1995 to
1998. His research interests include Real
Time Systems, CAD for VLSI and Computer Networks. He is
the principal investigator of several
Sponsored Research Projects including "Low Power Circuits and
Systems" sponsored by Intel,
USA. He has over 90 publications in reputed journals and conference
proceedings and a book
entitled "Microprocessors: Principles and Applications" published by TMH. He
has supervised four
Ph.D. students. He is the Fellow of the IETE, India and Senior Member of the IEEE,
USA.
Academic qualifications: B. Sc.(Hons. Physics) 1968 Calcutta University
M. Tech. 1971 Calcutta University
Ph.D. 1976 Calcutta University
Admitted to the Ph.D. degree of the University of Calcutta in 1976. The topic of the Ph.D
dissertation was 'Studies on the synthesis of digital logic circuits using threshold gates and
MOS networks'.
Awards received:
(a) 'Meghnad Saha Memorial Award - 1977' from IETE (India) for the best application
oriented paper entitled 'A Programmable Logic State Analyser'.
(b) 'Meghnad Saha Memorial Award - 1986' from IETE (India) for the best application
oriented paper entitled 'On the Design and Development of a Computer for Indian Languages'.
(c) Best Paper Award for the paper entitled 'Fault Tolerant Scheduling in Distributed Real-
Time Systems', Beizing, China, Oct 2001.
Professional Experience:
(i) Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Professor - Since July 1988
Head, Comp. Sc. & Engg. Dept.- July 1995 to May 1998
Head, Computer Center - July 1993 to June 1995
Asst. Professor - Nov 1982 to June 1988
Since November 1982 serving as a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science and
Engineering, IndiSat, March 18, 2006 11:36 PMof
Professor. Engaged in research and teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the
field of Computer Science and Engineering. Single handedly set up a Microprocessor laboratory
in the Department. Served as Chief-investigator and Co-investigator of a number of
Sponsored anSat, March 18, 2006 11:36 PMSat, March 18, 2006 11:36 PMyber mainframe
computer system, several RISC-based servers and 130 desktop systems. Campus-wide ATM-
based backbone network of the Institute was also planned.
(ii) Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta
Computer Engineer - May 1979 to Nov 1982.
Main assignment was to participate in the teaching of post graduate (M. Tech.) courses in
Computer Science and Engineering and carry out research and development works. Worked as
a team member in the development of a M6800-based Microcomputer and a microprocessor-
based Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) processor.
(iii) Indian Telephone Industries Limited, Naini
Asst. Executive Engineer - July 1976 to April 1979
Design and development of several equipment were carried out: a) Quantization distortion
meter; an equipment used for testing the quality of PCM systems, b) Fault locating test for
locating faults in underground regenerative repeaters of PCM systems, c) Speech Scrambler
system for secret message communication via ordinary telephone network.
(iv) Defence Electronics Research Laboratory, Hyderabad
Senior Scientific Officer-II - Feb 1976 to June 1976
An instrument was developed to simulate different signals which a RADAR receiver encounters
at the time of jamming and atmospheric disturbances. This simulator can be used to test
Electronic Counter Counter Measure ( ECCM ) RADAR receivers.
(v) Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, Calcutta University
Junior Research Fellow - Nov 1971 to Feb 1974
Senior Research Fellow - Mar 1974 to Feb 1976
Worked in the area of switching and automata theory for Ph.D. degree. Designed and
developed a number of digital equipment such as, Digital Capacitance Meter, Digital Phase
Meter and Logic state analyzer.