Imagine a world where software agents living among your computing devices teach, play, study and mentor you -- motivating your interests, challenging you on ethics, nurturing your trust, globalising your presence, and improving the way you live and learn. His research focuses on such anthropomorphic agents, which mimic and advance human-like traits to assist learners. Areas of research includes Artificial Intelligence in Education, Learning Analytics, Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Agile Learning, and Self-Regulated Learning.

Dr. Vivekanandan S. Kumar is Associate Dean, Research and Innovation, and Full Professor, Computing and Information Systems, in the Faculty of Science and Technology, Athabasca University, Canada. Imagine a world where software agents living among your computing devices teach, play, study and mentor you - motivating your interests, challenging you on ethics, nurturing your trust, globalising your presence, and improving the way you live and learn. Dr. Kumar's research focuses on such anthropomorphic agents, which mimic and advance human-like traits to assist learners. Dr. Kumar earned a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, as the best graduating student in 2001. His professional career was launched earlier in 1990 as a Scientist at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing in Mumbai, India. During this tenure, he won a United Nations fellowship to train at the Learning Research and Development Centre, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA. During his first academic appointment in 2001 as Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University, Surrey, Canada, he worked as an Educational Technologist with the Asian Development Bank to develop an online learning infrastructure and a master’s degree programme in educational technology for the Open University of Sri Lanka. He took up an academic position as Senior Lecturer with Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand in 2006. Two years later, he returned to Canada as Associate Professor at Athabasca University. With backing from major funds from NSERC, SSHRC, and CFI, Dr. Kumar has become an active member and contributor to the Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) research community. With over 180 research publications in journals, conferences, and book chapters, he strives to advance analytics-oriented, causality-infused, agile-cognification in human learning and machine learning. He is passionate about humanity+, knowledge economy, social change through science fiction, and ICT empowered EDI.