Amar Gupta · Lablypedia

Gupta has spent the bulk of his career at MIT. In 2015, he rejoined MIT to work at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Sciences (IMES), Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) on innovation and entrepreneurship related to Digital Health and Globally Distributed Teams. He serves as Principal/Co-Principal Investigator and Coordinator for "Telemedicine" and "Enhancing Productivity of Geographically Distributed Teams" areas.

During the interim period that he was away from MIT, Gupta served as Phyllis and Ivan Seidenberg Endowed Professor and dean of the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems at Pace University, US, and as the Thomas R. Brown Professor of Management and Technology at the University of Arizona, US. At the latter university, he was also Professor of Entrepreneuship and Professor of MIS at Eller College of Management, Professor of Computer Science in College of Science, Professor of Latin American Studies in College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Professor of Community, Environment and Policy in Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, professor at James E. Rogers College of Law, Member of the HOPE Center in College of Pharmacy, and the director of Nexus of Entrepreneurship and Technology Initiative at the University of Arizona.

Education

Gupta was born in 1953 in Nadiad, Gujarat, India. He received Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering in 1974 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. his undergraduate project on the design and implementation of an Electronic Taximeter was one of the two finalists for the best project of that year. In 1980, Gupta received Master of Science in management from MIT School of Management. His thesis was awarded in Brooks Prize Honorable Mention. In the same year, he received Doctorate of Philosophy in computer science from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi for his PhD research performed at MIT.

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Life and career

From 1979 to 2004, Gupta served as the founding co-director of the Productivity from Information Technology (PROFIT) Initiative and an allied roles at MIT Sloan School of Management. As director of the Research Program on Communications Policy at MIT School of Engineering, Gupta coordinated the establishment of the Internet Telephony Consortium, which was subsequently renamed as the Internet and Telephony Convergence Consortium and played a pivotal role in the commercialization of the voice-over-IP technology. As associate director of MIT's International Financial Services Research Center at MIT Sloan School of Management, he initiated and mentored the research effort that ultimately led to nationwide electronic clearance of checks, the Check-21 Act in the US, and similar innovations in other countries. As Diversity Committee Member for three terms, each 3 years long, he assisted in increasing the number of underrepresented minorities at Sloan. As a supervisor, he mentored large number of students including Salman Khan (founder of Khan Academy), Ronjon Nag (founder of Cellmania and Lexicus), and Phil (Lik) Mui (who led the strategy formulation and execution of Google Analytics).

Gupta has served as advisor to a broad range of multinational corporations (including IBM, Citibank, Chevron, and American International Group) and international organizations on technology, innovation, and strategy issues. He has served as an advisor to several UN organizations including World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UNIDO, and the World Bank on various aspects of national policy and large-scale information management in the context of the needs of both individual agencies and member governments. He led a UNDP team to plan and implement a national financial information infrastructure in a Latin American country where 40 percent of the banks had gone bankrupt. Gupta was part of the expert group established by the WHO to formulate policy guidelines for health informatics. These guidelines were subsequently ratified as national guidelines by over 100 countries. He also served as an UNDP advisor on a $500 million nationwide effort to get computers into every school in Brazil, and as World Bank advisor on distance education endeavor to Mozambique. He secured approval for the proposal to establish two UN Centers of Excellence in Information Technology. He was the first person to attain the rank of senior research scientist at MIT Sloan. In this position, in cooperation with Professor Lester Thurow (former dean of MIT Sloan School of Management), he launched the United States' first course on international outsourcing.

From 2004 to 2012, Gupta was appointed at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona as the Thomas R. Brown Professor of Management and Technology, professor of entrepreneurship and MIS; and senior director for research and business development. In this role, he has established dual degree programs with the Colleges of Agriculture, Science, Engineering, Medicine, and Optics. The program was designed to lead to two graduate degrees and a certificate in entrepreneurship. Gupta played a significant role in creating the vision for new interdisciplinary research initiatives, such as the proposed multi-college endeavor that would enable United States and Mexico to enhance healthcare in bordering areas through mutual cooperation without investing any additional funds. Another potential endeavor involves the creation of a new International Center of Excellence funded entirely through private donations.

From 2012 to 2015, Gupta worked at Pace University: Seidenberg School of Computer Science for Information Systems. As the Founder and Head of the "Nexus of Entrepreneurship and Technology" initiative, Gupta interacted with the trustees of the Thomas R. Brown Foundation to delineate and refine ideas that are of high interest to the individuals who have sponsored the endowed chair. He initiated efforts to establish major interdisciplinary initiatives in telehealth and three other areas. He supervised partnerships with healthcare IT startups and jointly won several New York City's Pilot Health Tech Innovative Project Awards and initiated new partnerships with government agencies and private organizations. One of the projects, The Telehealth Intervention Program for Seniors (TIPS), was selected for a National Association of Counties (NACo) Achievement Award in 2016.

Research

National policy on telemedicine

Gupta proposed new national policy on telemedicine, which became fully effective on June 11, 2018, by the US Department of Veterans Administration (VA). As a result, VA medical practitioners are able to offer medical services across state lines with virtually no incremental overhead.

Telemedicine

Gupta conducted research on medical personnel working during day time from diverse places around the world to perform high quality services to patients in other continent(s) during night time. This idea was explored in a paper published in Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

24-Hour Knowledge Factory

The concept of the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory was developed by Gupta. This concept allows for multiple professionals in different geographical locations to work together to perform a single task or project. Research is being conducted to utilize this model in a variety of industries. In 2007, Gupta was awarded an IBM faculty award for this vision.

Healthcare applications

Gupta proposed the notion that healthcare applications should be handled in a three pronged manner involving on-site personnel, off-site personnel, and advanced computer techniques. Mooted this model in 2001 for improved interpretation of mammograms using on-site technicians, off-site radiologists, and emerging data mining technology. This concept won the first prize in the Big Red Venture Contest at Cornell University. An extended article on this topic was published in The Wall Street Journal. A complementary video interview can be accessed at the website of The Wall Street Journal.

Electronic processing of bank checks

Gupta was the lead inventor for U.S. Patent on "System and Method for Character Recognition with Normalization", (Patent #5633954, dated May 1997). This patent played a significant role in a major court case in Canada in 2010. This invention includes the automated reading of courtesy amount (the amount denoted in numerical format) and the electronic transmission of the check to the financial institution on which the check has been issued. This concept is manifested in the Check 21 legislation in the US.

Fairness in machine learning

Gupta led and coordinated two main projects on AI fairness in 2021 through 2022 (one centralizing on fairness in the mortgage lending domain and another measuring bias in opioid prescriptions). The first project was published in a special issue of Machine Learning and Knowledge Extraction and received press by the MIT News and The Boston Globe. The second project was submitted as a master thesis to MIT.

Books

Outsourcing and Offshoring of Professional Services: Business Optimization in a Global Economy (IGI Global, 2008, ISBN 978-1-59904-972-4)
Knowledge Reuse and Agile Processes: Catalysts for Innovation (with Amit Mitra, IGI Global, 2008, ISBN 978-1-59904-921-2)
Creating Agile Business Systems with Reusable Knowledge (with Amit Mitra, Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-521-85163-3)
Agile Systems with Reusable Patterns of Business Knowledge: A Component-Based Approach (with Amit Mitra, Artech House, 2005, ISBN 978-1-58053-988-3)

Articles in Popular Media (Partial List)

Prescription for Change, The Wall Street Journal, October 20, 2008 (extended article and online video interview).
Expanding the 24 Hour Workplace, The Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2007 (extended article and online podcast interview).
The Critical Role of Trusted Agents, Sloan Management Review, Volume 43, No. 4, Summer 2002, pp. 94–95.
Personal Computers (with H.D. Toong), Scientific American, Vol. 247, No. 6, December 1982, pp. 88–99.