Dr. Vivekanandan Kumar is Full Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at Athabasca University, Canada. He held the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) Discovery Grant on Anthropomorphic Pedagogical Agents, funded by the Government of Canada. Imagine a world where software agents living inside your computer teach, play, study and mentor you — motivating your interests, challenging you and improving the way you live and learn. His research focuses on developing anthropomorphic agents, which mimic and perfect human-like traits to better assist learners in their regulatory tasks. His research includes investigating technology-enhanced erudition methods that employ Big Data Learning Analytics, Self-Regulated Learning, Co-Regulated Learning, Causal Modelling, and Machine Learning, to facilitate deep learning. He earned his doctoral degree in Computer Science (PhD) from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, as the best graduating student in 2001. He holds a master’s degree in Computer Science Applications (MCA) as the first rank holder from Bharathiar University, India, where he also completed his bachelor’s degree (BSc) in Physics with a minor in Mathematics. He launched his professional career 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, USA. During his first academic appointment in 2001 as Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University, 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 in Athabasca University’s School of Computing and Information Systems. With backing from major research funds in Canada such as NSERC, SSHRC, and CFI, he has become an active member and contributor to the research community in Canada. With over 100 research publications in refereed journals, international refereed conferences, and book chapters, and with tightly focused professional activities that include being a journal editor, funding reviewer, and conference administrator, he strives to advance analytics-oriented, computer-mediated, causality-infused balance between learning efficiency and instructional effectiveness. He is passionate about networked knowledge economies, social change through science fiction, empowerment of women through information and communication technologies, and comparative analyses of native cultures.