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Greetings!
It was not so long ago that sight of Indian-American names in the mainstream U.S. media was unusual. Indian-Americans, specifically IIT Alumni names came up in context of brilliant scientists, leading entrepreneurs and at the forefront of technology. Today, it is no longer a rarity to see an Indo-American being selected to the positions of great respect, and more often than not we bask in the knowledge that they are one of our own. Our IIT education prepares us challenge the usual and strive for the best wherever we are. The Appointments of Dean Nitin Noria, Dean Subra Suresh confirm it. But as our visibility grows, it comes with the responsibility towards the community we live in. The brutal murder of Kharagpur alumnus Divyendu Sinha in New Jersey reminds us all that America continues to have issues. This year has also seen an increase in IIT Alumni USA and India Chapter activities. The 2010 Pan IIT worldwide conference is being held in Greater Noida, near New Delhi from October 29th through October 31st. Arun Seth and Vijay Thadani are leading this effort. The theme of the conference is Sustainable Transformation: Our New India. The registration list has already crossed 1000. We look forward to seeing you all there. Register soon to ensure your place! The venue for 2011 Pan IIT alumni conference will be New York.
Newsletter Chairs:
Amita Suhrid (IITK 1983) & Smita Goel Bagla (IITK1984, IITR1986)
email: newsletter@iit.org
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| New Rupee Symbol created by Bombay alumnus |  IITG's Udaya provides new Rupee symbol
Dharmalingam Udaya Kumar (Bombay, Ph.D. 2010 Industrial Design) has designed the new Rupee symbol. A five-member panel chose Kumar's design from among five shortlisted symbols and recommended it for Cabinet approval. Udaya joined IIT Guwahati on July 16, 2010 to start his new job as assistant professor in the Department of Design.
Kumar's symbol is an amalgam of the Devanagari 'Ra' and the Roman capital 'R' without the stem. It retains an Indian character with an international flavor. As envisioned by the Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the new Rupee symbol "reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture". The Finance Ministry organized "Indian Currency Symbol Design Competition" with prize money of Rs 2.5 lakh with the condition that it should be applicable to the standard keyboard, be in the national language script or a visual representation and should represent the historical and cultural ethos of the country.
While he was born in Madras in 1978, Kumar's family hails from Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu . The magnificent temples there must have had something to do with his decision to study architecture, which he pursued at Anna University. Subsequently, he did his Masters in Architecture from IIT Bombay. When the Industrial Design Center in the campus started offering a PhD, Udaya Kumar enrolled, and started work on the evolution of the Tamil script.
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Teenage Brutality and a senseless murder
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The Indian-American community is deeply saddened and outraged at the brutal killing of Indian American Dr. Divyendu Sinha (Kharagpur Computer Science 1982) who was allegedly murdered by five teenagers at Old Bridge, New Jersey. The unprovoked attack that led to his death a couple of days later occurred on Friday, June 25th, 2010 close to his home and in the presence of his wife and teenage children.
Pan IIT Alumni USA President, Gunjan Bagla has written to The US Attorney General Eric Holder along with the Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, his State Attorney General and the Senators and Congressmen representing NJ along with the local Assemblyman demanding that the murder be treated as a hate crime. The Indian-American community is united in its outrage across the country. See Bagla's letter at http://whatho.satpathy.org/2010/07/10/india/iit-kharagpur/letter-to-gov-of-nj-from-president-of-pan-iit-us-murder-of-dr.-divyendu-sinha/.
Kharagpur Foundation President, Roy DaSilva has written to the local authorities in New York and New Jersey and has appealed to alumni to show their support as individuals by making a donation to a scholarship fund for Dr. Sinha's children at http://www.divyendusinha.com/.
Dr. Sinha received his Master's (1984) and Doctorate (1987) at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He taught at the College of Staten Island in the City University of New York. Dr. Sinha was a respected teacher and gifted researcher who made many theoretical and applied contributions to various fields including image processing, robotics, computer networking and graph theory.
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Teen Patti Consultants
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Did you know that Prof Alladi Subramanyam of IIT Bombay and Aditya Parmeswaran (IIT Bombay), currently a PhD Computer Science student of Stanford University, were the two academic experts consulted by filmmaker Leena Yadav to get it right when co-writing "Teen Patti". Aditya is most interested in fields of Computer Science which mix Algorithms and Logic with Mathematics.
For those who don't know much about "Teen Patti"- Ben Kingsley plays Perci Trachtenberg, regarded as the world's greatest living mathematician; and Amitabh Bachchan is Venkat Subramaniam, a man with a dark secret in teen patti- a.k.a. "Flash" in India.
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Jagdish Narayan
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 Jagdish "Jay" Narayan (Kanpur Metallurgy '69) who works in Nano Research with his team at North Carolina State University has created a ceramic material that could hold a terabyte of data in a chip no larger than the size of a fingernail. Jay is the director of the National Science Foundation Center for Advanced Materials and Smart Structures (CAMSS) at the university. Dr. Narayan is internationally known for his seminal contributions in laser processing of materials. Dr. Narayan completed his PhD from University of California, Berkeley in 1971 and MS in 1970. He has several discoveries, publications and inventions to his credit and one of his inventions alone resulted in four U.S. patents.
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IITans for ITIs
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 A number of US based IIT Alumni are actively supporting the "IITians for ITIs" program that has been adopted by PanIIT India. Ray Mehra (Roorkee 1964) is the US based Program President and Atul Mathur (Kanpur 1984) is the Program Launch Coordinator supporting this strategic initiative from here. Pradeep Kapse (Roorkee 1972) on left, has come forward to provide fresh leadership to this program. Pradeep as an active member of PanIIT India Executive Council. Kapse recently retired as CEO of a couple of Eicher Group companies.
This program is focused on infrastructure upgrade of the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) to drive sustainable excellence in training. The ITIs produce 700,000 technicians each year and improving their skill level would be a very powerful channel of advancing India's technical/manufacturing capabilities. For a high level introduction to the program, please view this presentation at http://www.slideshare.net/akmathur/iitians-for-itis-program-v096. |
| Subra Suresh nominated to lead NSF by President Barack Obama | 
Dr. Subra Suresh (Madras 1977), Dean of MIT's School of Engineering will serve as the next director of the National Science Foundation. U.S. President Barack Obama formally announced his nomination on June 8. Dean Suresh will serve as NSF director for the next six years. The current director Arden Bement has concluded his tenure on June 1, 2010. Obama said, "I am proud that such experienced and committed individuals have agreed to take on these important roles in my administration...". An interim director has been appointed until Dr. Suresh is confirmed by the Senate.
As director of the National Science Foundation, Prof. Suresh will oversee the foundation's staff and management, which directs "program creation and administration, merit review, planning, budget and day-to-day operations," according to the NSF website. With an annual budget of seven billion dollars, the National Science Foundation is a federal government agency which serves to promote "opportunities for research and education funding in all areas of science and engineering". The foundation includes a workforce of 1,700 employees, who are based at the foundation's headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The staff includes workers who review research proposals, primarily from academic institutions, which are awarded through a merit-based process.
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Nitin Nohria: dean of the Harvard Business School
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 Nitin Nohria (BTech Civil Engg, Bombay 1984) is the first foreign-born and the youngest dean of the storied Harvard Business School. He has previously served as Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Head of the Organizational Behavior unit. He has taught across the School's M.B.A., doctoral and executive education programs.
Dr Nohria has his PhD in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. His intellectual interests center on human motivation, leadership, corporate transformation and accountability, and sustainable economic and human performance, and the strategic and organizational challenges of globalization. When announcing Prof Nohria's new appointment on May 4, HBS President Drew Faust said "He's an outstanding scholar, teacher, and mentor, with a global outlook and an instinct for collaboration across traditional boundaries...."
IIT Bombay awarded him Distinguished Alumnus medal in 2007. In a recent interview with Economic Times (India) he has been quoted as saying that IIT Bombay gave him a fabulous education- "The IIT taught me to survive anything. Being in the USA was challenging in the initial years and my IIT experience really helped. We should be proud of the IITs and what they do for their students." |
Alumni Events!
| Pan IIT Chapter Events
Oregon: Pan IIT Oregon Events Schedule
- July 31st: 5 - 7 pm: I-race Portland at Cook Park Tigard
- July 31st: 5 - 8 pm: PanIIT presents Hindi movie at Intel JFCC 'Om Shanti Om'
North Texas: I IT-NT Regular Monthly Events Schedule
Please check IITNT Events Calendar: Location Varies
- Monthly Luncheon/ Guest Speaker - 11:30 am -1:00 pm - Friday after the first weekend
- Networking - Happy Hour - 5:30 pm - whenever - Fourth Friday of the month
IITSINE 2010 Annual Picnic
When - August 7, Saturday, 2010, from 10:00AM to 3:00PM
Where- Cochituate State Park, Natick, Rte. 30, Natick, MA
PanIIT Pacific Northwest Chapter
What - Mt. St. Helens day trip & picnic (A joint event of Oregon and Seattle sections)
When - Saturday, August 18th, 2007 at 12 noon
Food - Potluck (details to come)
For details of the above locations, please see:
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dhngr9hz_0gqmw9k
Roorkee Alumni Association North America, Galveston, TX:
What - IIT-R Bi-Annual Conference Cruise
When - Date: 23-27 September 2010 (4 days)
- Reporting Time: 11:00 AM (lunch on board)
- Departure Time: 4:00 PM.
- Venue: Carnival Ecstasy from Galveston, TX to and from Cozumel, Mexico
- Contact Phone: 919 847 8098 - Purnima Gupta - President IIT-RAANA
- Conference Registration fee (not to be confused with cruise tickets): $100
- Mail check to Purnima Gupta, President IIT-RAANA, 808 Ivanhoe DriveRaleigh, NC 27615
Cruise Fee: Depends upon the Cabin chosen: Contact Elite Travel, Vasu (Contact no. - 210 340 2555, 210 378 3939)
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| Pan IIT 2010 Conference - Greater Noida, India - 29th -31st October | | http://www.paniit2010.org/
This year - PanIIT 2010 in India is being held at the brand new Exposition Center in Greater Noida. The participants will also witness the brand new infrastructure, Air conditioned buses and the completed Delhi Metro system up and running for the Commonwealth Games. Plus a golf tournament at renowned JP Greens The organizers are developing group tours to Rajasthan, Agra, Uttaranchal. They are planning to do 'each-one-host-one' for the alumni so that the bonding increases
The theme is Sustainable Transformation - Our New India and is being conducted along with Ministry of Renewable Energy. This conference will have structured networking time.
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PanIIT USA Inc.
Alumni Association of Indian Institutes of Technology
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