engineering

Mitra Dutta

Mitra Dutta is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mitra Dutta rather than just read about it. In short: Mitra Dutta (born 1953) is an Indian-American physicist and electronics engineer known for her research on optoelectronics. She is a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the university's former vice chancellor for research.

Key takeaways

Mitra Dutta belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mitra Dutta to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mitra Dutta from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mitra Dutta (born 1953) is an Indian-American physicist and electronics engineer known for her research on optoelectronics. She is a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the university's former vice chancellor for research.

Education and career Dutta is a graduate of Gauhati University, and has a master's degree in physics from the University of Delhi. She earned a second master's degree and PhD in physics at the University of Cincinnati. She was a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue University, the City College of New York, and Brookhaven National Laboratory before becoming a team leader and eventually division director of physics at the United States Army Research Laboratory. She moved to the Army Research Office in 1996, as head of the electronics division and later director of research technology and integration. Dutta moved to the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2001, and was named a Distinguished Professor in 2004. She headed the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering for over ten years, from her 2001 appointment until being named vice chancellor for research in 2012. She stepped down as vice chancellor in 2018, and was succeeded by geneticist Joanna Groden.

Books Dutta is the coauthor of Phonons in Nanostructures (with Michael A. Stroscio, Cambridge University Press, 2001), and of Introduction to Optical and Optoelectronic Properties of Nanostructures (with Stroscio, V. V. Mitin, and V. A. Kochelap, Cambridge University Press, 2019), and the editor of multiple edited volumes.

Recognition Dutta became a Fellow of the Optical Society in 1998. She was named a Fellow of the IEEE in 1999, "for contributions to heterostructure-based optoelectronic and electronic devices", and in 2000 the IEEE gave her the Harry Diamond Memorial Award for "innovative design, characterization and realization of high performance heterostructure optoelectronic devices, and establishment of major research programs in this field". The Society of Women Engineers gave her their Achievement Award in 2003. She became a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2012, after a nomination by the APS Forum on Physics and Society, "for research leadership and administration in government and academia, through which she has supported the applications of physics for society, outreach to the public, and enhancement of physics education". She is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mitra Dutta

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mitra Dutta claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mitra Dutta before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mitra Dutta ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mitra Dutta

In research: Mitra Dutta appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mitra Dutta in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mitra Dutta is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1953 births, 20th-century Indian engineers, 20th-century Indian women engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mitra Dutta outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Mitra Dutta” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Mitra Dutta in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mitra Dutta means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mitra Dutta out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mitra Dutta in simple terms?

Why does Mitra Dutta matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mitra Dutta?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mitra Dutta.