The last few months have seen quite some changes in the BITS family. We have our new Vice Chancellor designate Prof. Bijendra Nath Jain who succeeds our beloved Prof. Maheswari. A man of many laurels, Prof. Jain has a PhD in Electrical Engineering and has been with IIT Delhi since 1975 where he was a Professor in Computer Science, Deputy Director (Faculty Affairs) and Dean for Alumni Affairs and International Programs. Besides this, he is co-inventor of 7 US patents, has trained over 2500 communication specialists and was the first to propose a nationwide data network for India.

We also see, Prof. Ravi Mittal taking over to continue the good work by Prof. Ramachandran, as the newly appointed Director of BITS, Pilani - Dubai. Prof. Mittal, one can almost say, has spent almost all his life at Pilani having pursued his B.E., M.E. and Ph.D. all from there.

Besides this, our other new appointments include:

- Prof. Raghurama will be playing a new role as Deputy Director (Academics) with additional responsibility as Deputy Director (Off Campus Programmes). He has been with BITS since 1987 and has been Dean of Admissions and Faculty Division II prior to this.

- Prof. R. N. Saha, a recipient of the Best Pharmacy Teacher of India Award (2005) and previously Dean of Educational Development and Faculty Division II at Pilani will now take charge as the Deputy Director of Research & Educational Development.

- Prof. G. Sundar, an alumnus of Cornell with interests in the field of Quantum Chemistry, Chemical Thermodynamics and Chemical Instrumentation and currently Dean of Practice School is also now Deputy Director, Off-Campus Programmes.

- Prof. Ashoke K. Sarkar currently the Dean, Instruction Division will now assume additional charge as Dean, Academic Registration and Counselling Division. Prof. Sarkar's research interests include Transportation Planning, Rural Accessibility and Pavement Maintenance and has more than 70 research articles in journals and conferences.

- Prof. B. V Babu who is Dean, Educational Hardware Division will now don the hat of Dean, Student Welfare. Prof. Babu has taught 10 different courses, has 48 international publications, 21 national publications, 116 publications in international conference proceedings and 2 books to his credit.

- Prof. N.V Muralidhar Rao who teaches Economics, Finance and Management and has represented India as a Country Expert on multi country WIPO-UNU is now Dean, Educational Hardware Division - a role he has taken over after being Dean, Student Welfare.

- Prof. Suman Kapur , the new Dean, Research and Consultancy at our Hyderabad campus brings with her nearly 16 years of teaching experience from US Universities and research at the Ranbaxy Research Lab, New Delhi.

- Prof. Ashis K. Das, will assume charge as Dean, Research & Consultancy at Pilani. Prof. Das has worked in the Department of Molecular Biology and Immunology at John Hopkins University and as a WHO fellow at Malaria Branch Center for Disease Control at Atlanta, Georgia USA.

BITSAA International Inc. welcomes two distinguished alumni, Mr. Raju Reddy ('76) and Mr. Viggy Mokkarala ('76), into its Board of Trustees. Their impact on the BITSian community is beyond description. Viggy and Raju led the Fundraising for the Acyut Robotics Team from the front and under their exemplary leadership BITSAA hit its target of $40,000.

Raju is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Sierra Atlantic. He holds a bachelor's in electrical engineering from BITS Pilani and a master's in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. He worked at Intel for over 10 years in software development, marketing and general management, before moving on to create 'one of the Top 75 most Admired companies in Silicon Valley, Top 25 great places to work in India and Top 10 best employers in South China', Sierra Atlantic. Among other things, Raju serves as a member of the BITS Pilani Board of Directors, a Charter member of TiE Silicon Valley, Board of Trustees for Puente, a Wharton School non-profit program and more recently the India Community Center, Milpitas.

Viggy is currently the EVP (Client Implementations) at Envestnet Advisory Corp. He completed his B.E. in Electrical Engineering from BITS Pilani (76F06385)and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and continued to work with Applied Materials, Silicon Graphics, and Hewlett-Packard. He co-founded Oberon Financial Technology, a pioneer in asset management software, which he grew from $10 million to $1.6 billion by 2004.

Speaking on the occasion of Raju's acceptance of the top BITSAA job, Prof. SP Kothari ('75), the outgoing President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees said - "I cannot tell you how happy I am that a distinguished and accomplished individual would lead the alumni organization.  The organization needs new vision, new energy (preferably, green), and new leadership.  You embody all of those elements beautifully.  The alumni look up to you for everything you have accomplished and you stand for, and your leadership will serve as a role model to the entire alumni body." Ashish Garg ('97) who played the pivotal diplomatic role in getting Raju and Viggy on board and made a larger contribution in laying the foundation for the BITSAA organization during his tenure as CEO joined SP in congratulating Raju - "BITSAA International will immensely benefit from your passion and vision for our alumni and the alma mater.  Looking forward to seeing BITSAA better its impact on the community under your leadership."

In words of Aalap Tripathy, CEO, BITSAA International, "So many of us volunteers have had the privilege of watching first-hand how Viggy and Raju almost effortlessly drafted a team of BITSian's from all vintages to not only marshall contributions for ACYUT especially the Batch of '76, but also host the ACYUT team in the Bay Area, organize receptions in their honour at TiE, and above all, cheer for them at Robogames, 2008. It is no surprise that BITSians have since shown their mettle in successive Robogames event (2009) by winning first, second positions. Thanks to support and encouragement from visionaries like Raju and Viggy, BITSian's have continued to break new ground and win accolades at premier International events such as Team Teevra at the Human Powered Vehicle Challenge, California and Team Shaurya at DRDO's All-Terrain Fully Autonomous Ground Vehicle Challenge. It doesn't even take a spark to get BITSian's started - with stalwarts like Raju and Viggy at the helm of BITSAA, I am sure we would all be sufficiently enthused in taking BITSAA to greater heights and make us the most well-networked and resourceful alumni community in the world. Please join me in welcoming two distinguished and visionary BITSian's into BITSAA's apex body." 

BITSAA-Leaders which drive all activities within our organization has now grown into a vibrant and "enthued" 200 member team. "Although members of this diverse group have never all met each other face to face and consist of students and alumni separated by timezones, vintages, locations with dramatically diverse personal and professional interests, face daily challenges in communicating effectively - all of them have shared one common interest: "Do something for BITS Pilani". They have held fort by continuously meeting every Sunday for a Conference Call for a "no-holds barred" discussion on "How can we do it?" and sharing 20,000 emails a person on average in the process. This group is run as a Corporation following an established charter, governance rules, ownership, accountability, goals, annual reviews, disclosures etc. Group members either are or have since moved on to Global B-Schools with valuable lessons learnt in leadership and teamwork under the active mentorship and watchful eyes of the BITSian Who's-who.  

BITSAA is honoured to have you at such key positions and thankful for your never-ending support.

Results of Phase I of the DRDO's National Level Student Robotics Competition are out and BITSians Akash Mohan Singhal and Lokesh have sailed through to the next round. This competition, organized by the Defense Research & Development Organization, Ministry of Defense, Govt. of India is part of the National Robotics Program of India and aims towards building autonomous navigation capability. The competition is clearly intense, with BITSian team prototype ranking within the top 14 out of 240 submitted entries.

The BITSian team comprising EEE and Mechanical engineers-in-the-making has been developing a Small All-Terrain Autonomous Ground Vehicle under the mentorship of Prof. R.K.Mittal at the Centre for Robotics & Intelligent Systems (CRIS), BITS Pilani, for last year. The intent behind this prototype has been concept realization for small payloads. The prototype was judged in various categories such as obstacle detection, propulsion, lane detection and path planning by a panel of experienced judges from the DRDO, various industries and academia. We, along with BITSians all over the world wish this brilliant team luck for the future rounds of the competition!

Further Reading: Link1

All Big tasks have a small beginning by an idealistic person. Our BITS Alumnus Sarath Babu Elumalai takes a huge step to achieve a "Hunger Free India" Vision. Sarath Babu, who also went to IIMA, had faced the harsh realities of life during his childhood. He witnessed his struggling mother who sacrificed her own food to feed her growing children. This struggle has now turned into a vision.

10-10-2010 is to be observed as a HUNGER-FREE DAY

PROGRAMME ON 10-10-2010: 1. Provide food for at least 10,000 Needy people 2. A Human Chain to create awareness about the vision of HUNGERFREE INDIA 3. An entrepreneurial workshop for 100 youngsters. 4. A Youth conference to discuss the ways to achieve HUNGERFREE INDIA

Kudos for the initiative and this is the time when the Indian Youth must join hands and strive for the mission.

Satish Polisetti, an alumnus from the Batch of 2002 and also one of our most enthusiastic Associate Editors at Sandpaper 2.0, has been named one of only nine prestigious Mayfield Fellows for 2010. Considered no mean feat, bagging a fellowship requires unparalleled passion for entrepreneurship and technology. Satish - an engineer with a dual degree in Electrical & Electronics and Mechanical Engineering from Pilani and currently pursuing a Master's at the School of Information Management at the University of California, Berkeley - has fit the criterion to a tee with interests ranging from product management and mobile marketing to human-computer interaction.

The Fellows Program, funded by top tier venture capital fund, Mayfield Fund,is administered by UC Berkeley's Management Technology Program and the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. It will allow Satish to pursue a year of mentoring, travel and study in entrepreneurship. As part of the program, he has already travelled to China and India as part of a study on best practices for entrepreneurship in emerging markets which included meeting executives from start-up companies in health care, web 2.0 and IT. The most exciting bit of the fellowship however is yet to come when he will embark on his 12 week internship this summer at a start-up, Amobee Media Systems - the first ad serving solution dedicated to mobile operators with clients including Coca Cola, Lenovo and Lacoste. He will work for their platforms in China and India.

For Further Reading: Link1

As BITSians not only can we lay claim to some of the most ingenious minds in the country but also to some of the most pro-active and environmentally aware. This year's International Climate Championship, held by the British Council in conjunction with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), saw two BITsians becoming International Climate Champions. One winner, BITS alumnus Tanpreet Singh Singhal from the Batch of 2010 is clearly a committed climate change champion with not one but two ventures - GreenCitizens.Net and FirstCarbon. While the former is a unique green networking platform on the internet, the latter is a consultancy firm that provides solutions related to climate change, sustainability and waste management to clients. Our equally enthusiastic second International Climate Champion is Raghav Mimani (currently pursuing the third year of his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering at Pilani) who has demonstrated sound knowledge and understanding of climate change and strong leadership skills in this regard.

Further Reading: Link1

The country's largest cement production company has a new CEO and MD. The Board of the company on 5th August 2010 announced the appointment of Kuldip K Kaura as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of ACC Ltd with effect from 13th August 2010.

Mr Kaura, who brings with him rich experience in leading businesses in diverse sectors such as power, natural resources, metals and mining as well as a deep understanding of corporate governance and sustainable development and who has been a Director on the Board of ACC Limited since October 28, 2008, holds a B.E. (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani in 1968 and an Executive education at London Business School & Sweedish Institute of Management Stockholm, Sweden.

Prior to this Mr Kaura was CEO of Vedanta Resources Plc, where he is still acting as an advisor. He worked with the Vedanta Resources group for 7 years, playing a significant role in transformation and rapid growth of its group companies, initially as Managing Director of Hindustan Zinc Ltd. Before that he was Managing Director & Country Manager of ABB India, a group where he served 18 years holding various management positions. He started his professional career at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd in 1969.

BITSAA congratulates him on his great success!!

Full Story: Link1

"You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives."

Thus recognizing the need for depth, hands-on experience and thorough use of mental capability in education, 'Phyzok', the brainchild of alumni from BITS, Pilani, IIT Bombay and IIM Kozhikode, aims to introduce and nurture analytical thought processes in young brains. With the greater emphasis being on hands-on and inquiry based learning, Phyzok engages students in in-depth investigations with concepts, related puzzling phenomena and ideas, drawing meaning and understanding from those experiences. It is specifically targeted at students in grades 7 to 10 who undergo sessions spanning 7 hours spread across a week. At the end of this, the child will have experienced, explored and learnt from various real-life concepts at different stages.

A typical 'Phyzok' day would be something as follows. The co-ordinator poses real life simulated scenarios using technology. The Phyzok Lab is used to demonstrate the scientific concepts and the students are encouraged to apply the concepts and reach the conclusion by themselves in the simulate environment. The Phyzok founders believe that using a systematic approach as this nurtures analytical thought processes in the young which can then been effectively used in the classroom. Phyzok also offers challenges online with its daily cache of questions which can be accessed at www.phyzok.com/qotd

Already on the path to success on its mission to make learning fun, exciting and something more than a mere test of memory, the Phyzok demonstrations and sessions have garnered much praise from students, teachers and parents alike with much being said about their clever use of visual aids and animations. Many even propose revising the existing teaching methods to incorporate the 'Phyzok Way'. Phyzok is currentl incubated under the technology Business Incubator by Department of Science and Technology (Govt. Of India), at BITS, Pilani.

Further Reading: Link1

"HarVa" - a start-up with a vision for an integrated rural development model - aims to bring in sustainable inclusive growth by harnessing value in the 'real' India, the villages. Their model focuses on tapping into the intellectual and infrastructure capital in the heart of India by developing several productive communities.

For CEO and fellow BITSian, Ajay Chaturvedi, HarVa is more than just a model. It is a mission that he is extremely passionate about as is a fellow alumnus in the team, CIO Sunil Panigrahi. They focus primarily on skill development, BPO, community based farming and microfinance with their highly experienced team hailing from backgrounds as varied as banking, law and mathematical finance.

Further Reading: Link1

What Happens when you run into a stranger in an elevator who is a distinguished alumnus of Northwestern University and Harvard University and he provides you a life-changing insight? What happens when you are pleasantly coerced to experiment outside your 'comfort zone' by a creative genius?

The book "Tomorrow's Young Achievers" by Pushpendra Mehta gives thought provoking experience and brilliant insights addressing the questions posed above. It is a book that inspires young minds to think "BIG, BOLD and DIFFERENT". Pushpendra Mehta says, "My forthcoming book provides 31 Career Insights to prepare Young Minds for a radically different tomorrow."

This book is worth reading as it takes you for a ride in an influencing path where it is not mere memories that you make but decisions!!

For book extract: Link1

BITSian Professor Umakishore Ramachandran, a professor of Computer Science at Gatech (http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~rama/)released his new book: "Computer Syestems: An Intergrated Approach to Architecture and Operating Systems" .

About Prof. Ramachandran

Prof Ramachandran got hisM.E. Electronics from BITS Pilani in 1978. Prior to that he did his ECE in the College of Engineering Guindy, Chennai (B.E. Hons) in 1975 and was working for ECIL Hyderabad in the computer group (1976-1980). He received his Ph. D. in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1986. Since then he has been with Georgia Tech), where currently he is the Director of STAR Center & Korean Programs and a Professor in the College of Computing. At Georgia Tech, He has been involved in the design and evaluation of several large experimental systems and studying their scalability from an applications perspective.He has received numerous awards like The William A "Gus" Baird Faculty Teaching Award(2004), Outstanding Senior Faculty Research(1996), The Freeman Award(2009) and The Dean's Award(2003).

About the Book ( from www.amazon.com)

In the early days of computing, hardware and software systems were designed separately. Today, as multicore systems predominate, this separation is becoming impractical.Computer Systems examines the key elements of all computer systems using an integrated approach that treats hardware and software as part of the same, larger system. Students gain important insights into the interplay between hardware and software and leave the course with a better understanding of a modern computer system.

You can order your book from Amazon here.

The success stories of our Alumni are a never ending list of Intellectuality, Entrepreneurial spirit and Leadership. This story is no exception. An Electrical Engineer from BITS Pilani (1974-1979) who has been rightly cited as one of "50 Leading Marketing Thinkers" and named to the "Guru Gallery" by the UK-based Chartered Institute of Marketing (in 2003), Dr Sisodia is Professor of Marketing at Bentley University, and was previously Trustee Professor of Marketing and the Founding Director of the Center for Marketing Technology. A leading figure in the Conscious Capitalism movement, he is also the Founder and Chairman of the Conscious Capitalism Institute.

IT Major Mastek inducts Dr Rajendra Sisodia into Board of Directors. Mastek, a high-end IT solutions player with global operations providing new technology and IP-led enterprise solutions with a focus on the Insurance and Government verticals worldwide, has added a new member to its Board of Directors with the induction of Dr Rajendra S. Sisodia as an Independent Director with effect from 20 July 2010.

Dr. Sisodia has an MBA in Marketing from the Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in Bombay, and a Ph. D. in Marketing & Business Policy from Columbia University, where he was the Booz Allen Hamilton Fellow. He also authored several books, of which Firms of Endearment: How World Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose, has been translated into six languages and was named one of the best business books of 2007 by several organizations, including Amazon.com, and The Rule of Three: How Competition Shapes Markets, which has been translated into German, Italian, Polish, Japanese and Chinese and was the subject of a seven part television series by CNBC Asia. His other books include Tectonic Shift: The Geoeconomic Realignment of Globalizing Markets and Does Marketing Need Reform? He has also published over one hundred articles in publications such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Business Strategy, and many others.

BITSAA congratulates you Sir!!

Full Story: Link1

How many twenty-two-year-olds can claim to be pursuing a PhD at MIT, no less? Ashok Ajoy, a BITS Pilani graduate, is one of a handful of students (and this is no exaggeration, mind you) to pursue a PhD in nuclear engineering at the much coveted Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And not only does he get to walk the annals of one of the world's most prestigious Institutions, he also gets to do it paying zilch! As part of the fully-funded PhD programme, Ashok will not only pay no fees but will also be awarded a fellowship at the end. He credits his success to his research stint at the lab at the Indian Institute of Science and hopes to become an academic in nuclear research at the end of his programme.

Further Reading: Link1

The inaugural mBillionth awards, presented by the Digital Empowerment Foundation on 23 July in New Delhi, provided a platform for mobile content and application developers from South Asia to showcase their best products and services. At any such forum, is it possible for the BITSian mark to be missing?

BITS Pilani alumnus venture Mgurujee featured as a nominee at the mBillionth Awards 2010. MGurujee is India's leading Mobile Learning portal delivering unique anytime-anywhere mobile phone based learning experience with access to a wide variety of branded knowledge content from market leaders. The illustrious brains behind this venture are both EEE graduates from Pilani - Shantanu Dash of the (graduated in 1982) and Surabhi Dewra (graduated in 2007).

Check out their site and let Mgurujee be a part of your life: Link1