Goel is a native of
New Delhi,
India. He completed his undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering from Regional Engineering College, Warangal (now National Institute of Technology, Warangal) in India and obtained his
PhD from
Canada's
University of Saskatchewan in 1991. The university offered him a teaching position, but he declined it because his wife could not tolerate the cold Canadian winters. Instead, he chose to come to NTU. His first lecture in NTU had 450 students, which was much larger than the classes of about 60 students he used to teach. He now teaches up to 1,000 students per lecture. In NTU, his students remembered him for his style of teaching, as well as his distinctive moustache and bald pate. He had started losing his hair from the age of 18; according to him, the baldness might be hereditary. In addition to his IEEE award, Goel had won 15 Teacher of the Year Awards in his time at NTU. ==YouTube video==