Whom would you pray if you got yourself trapped in the middle of the gargantuan desert with your car unwilling to make even a baby leap, your clothes tattered, knees bruised, completely misplaced hundreds of miles from the Matrix World with no back up crew to rescue and a hungry lingering highwayman points a gun at you ??

If you never dared dreaming about such hideous circumstances, this article about an adrenaline pumping adventure which two BITSians volunteered to confront in July 2009 will be riveting!!!

A couple of BITSians who share a very deep love of adventure have successfully bagged a place in the Mongol Rally 2009. They also managed to form a competent international team which is seriously preparing for the impending rally starting this July. The aim of the rally being, to drive a car of less than 1.2L engine capacity (to give it that crazy twist for adventure) from England to Ulaanbataar, the capital of Mongolia.

In the process they hope to raise at least 1000 GBP of direct donations for MercyCorps and also raise enough money to invest in their car which would later be sold off in Mongolia and the money donated to sustainable development programs running in the region.

They have chosen a route which passes through at least 17 countries including Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (heard about them ?? leave alone driving through !!! - this makes the Rally all more adventurous) and Russia.

The team's website is : http://www.mongolrallyrustics.com/

Arun Maharajan, a 99 batch instruite currently working in Germany, bagged his confirmed place in the rally before Rajesh Thatha, a 99 batch mechite currently working in Norway joined him on this venture. The whole rally organization is happening online as almost all team members are in different countries.

In Arun's words "We would love for the BITSian diaspora to help us out in this cause of ours. In current times of crisis, something like this might be just what the doctor would prescribe as we would love to show the world that life will go on in spite of challenges...and how! Please support us to make this work...visit our Donate page for more details. Thanks a lot and Cheers!"

Join voices in wishing their bodies and wits a whole lot of luck! Go Rustics!

Guri Sohi graduated with a Gold Medal from BITS in 1981. He went on to finish his PhD from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He started with the Computer Science Department at the University of Wisconsin in 1985, and been associated with them till date.

Guri Sohi was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2009. The NAE is a private, independent, nonprofit institution. In addition to its role as advisor to the federal government, the NAE also conducts independent studies to examine important topics in engineering and technology.

Sohi says, "I consider myself very fortunate to have received education from BITS. Not only did I receive an outstanding foundation on which I could build further, I also formed deep friendships that continue to this day. One of the most important classes I took-the one that laid the foundation for my career-was the microprocessor class was based on Aditya Mathur's book. The practice school that followed, at the Department of Electronics in New Delhi, further solidified my desire to study computer architecture and design."

Full Story: Link

Ashok Vardhan Rao Bolagani is BITS alum who finished his Masters in Chemistry with Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering. He strongly believes in "BE THE CHANGE THAT YOU WANT TO SEE IN OTHERS". At the age of 26(running), he is contesting for AP state legislative assembly (MLA) as an independent candidate for GAJUWAKA constituency of Visakhapatnam. This makes him the youngest candidate contesting for Andhra Pradesh Assembly Elections across the state.

Ashok was active in Student Union politics when he was a student in Pilani. He declined his campus job offer from Wipro in 2005 and joined a BITSian start-up with an aim to create more employment opportunities in his home town (VIZAG).

He runs an NGO called CHAITANYAM (www.chaitanyam.org) whose long term vision is to setup an engineering college to fulfill Tagore's dream -"where knowledge comes free". The organization is currently supporting 5 students providing monetary assistance.

BITSians round the world wish you good luck to achieve your dream.

The Reliance Dhirubhai Fellowship was established in 2008 to support promising Indian students with financial need who earn admission to the Stanford MBA Program based on merit, and who are committed to contributing to the development of India post education.

One of the 5 selected for this prestigious Fellowship is a BITSian girl of 2000 batch - Aditi Pany.

Aditi Pany was the first woman elected president of the Students' Union at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, where she completed both a bachelor of engineering degree in electrical and electronics, and a Master of Science degree in economics in 2005.

As president, she launched several new initiatives, including the formation of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. Based in New Delhi, Pany began her career at the social enterprise TARAhaat, developing IT-enabled services-such as skills development programs-for rural communities.

Currently a program associate at Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, she facilitates business-social partnerships to provide housing and healthcare to low-income communities. She credits her upbringing and experiences in Bhubaneswar in the coastal state of Orissa, home to some of India's finest artisans, for her aspiration to promote India's rich tradition of handlooms and handicrafts that are intricately linked with its diverse culture, people, and natural environment.

Roshan Sumbaly finished his Bachelors in Computer Science from Goa campus in 2008. During his engineering days, he was the proud recipient of Dirubhai Ambani Undergraduate Scholarship & BITS Merit Scholarship. He also won the Narotam Sekhsaria Fellowship for graduate studies in 2008.

Roshan recently received a Fellowship from RPSEA - CEES (Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America - Stanford Center for Computational Earth & Environmental Sciences) on grounds of his research contributions at Stanford University.

He is currently a Graduate Research Assistant at the "Pervasive Parallelism Lab" (PPL) which works in collaboration with CEES. The CEES department is involved in earth exploratory activities and requires loads of computation. The group wanted to innovate novel ways to get parallelism in their daily tasks. Roshan's interest in Parallel/Distributed and Cloud computing helped him get involved in this project which in turn made him the proud recipient of the fellowship. The scholarship has been designed to pay off the tuition fees in addition to a healthy stipend.

Abhisheak Iyer, 2006 Computer Science graduate from BITS Pilani is the recipient of "The Donald V. Jackson Fellowship" for 2009. The fellowship is established by Jeannie Jackson in memory of her husband, Don Jackson, a 1971 Masters graduate of IS and a 1965 Bachelors graduate in Mathematics at Georgia Tech University. The fellowship is awarded to a computer science student who demonstrates qualities of academic excellence with leadership and covers the tuition fee for Masters education. About 200-300 students compete for the fellowship every year. Congratulations Abhisheak :)

Abhisheak is currently working in Computing for Good (C4G) group at Georgia Tech. The group works on the belief - 'technology could make the lives of the underprivileged better'. Abhisheak works with Prof. Suresh to develop a Web-Based Homeless Shelter Occupancy system with a centralized database to assist the UWMA - United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta's (a Non Profit Organization) "Shelter-to-Home" and "Street-to-Home" programs in ending chronic homelessness. His system has the potential to save approximately $90,000 per year in operating costs for UWMA.

His message to BITSians on campus: "One thing that I have learnt from this project is that - technology could be made reachable and affordable to the poor and I definitely feel similar projects could be started in BITS too."

• Chemical Engineering from BITS Pilani
• MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad
• MTV Youth Icon 2008
• Successful Entrepreneur - Food King Catering Services (turnover of 7 crore)
• His countenance appearing on Pepsi Can shortly
• Honorary Alumni XLRI, Jamshedpur
• Honorary Rotarian, Dist 3201

All pointing to Sarath Babu - BITS alum, is contesting as an independent candidate from South Chennai for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections (around May 13th in Tamil Nadu).

He aims to improve employment opportunities and provide education to all citizens. The man who knows the real hunger, gives top priority to poverty alleviation. As a youngster he has seen hardships, poverty & illiteracy around him during his voyage from rags to richness.

How can you support - Visit his website @ http://sarathbabu.co.in/in/ and find information on how you can help his candidature through funds, blogging and campaigning.

Seldom do we hear of BITSian entrepreneurs and CEOs away from US and India. The segments under focus are often if not all into IT and Electronics!!! We have come across a BITSian CEO in the field of Real Estate who is based in Dubai…now who hasn't heard of the construction spree which rolls in Dubai.

Mr. Ashok J Galgotia is alum from 1976 batch, CEO of Triveni Builders and Promoters Ltd (TBPL), a Dubai-based developer wholly-owned by the Triveni Trading Group.

Under the leadership of Ashok, the builders launched its first project, the La Fontana di Trevi in February last year. La Fontana is a six-floor low-rise building located in the Arjaan Master Community in Dubai Land, a one-of-a-kind community that promotes nature, greenery and a family-first, amenity-rich lifestyle. Triveni Builders is planning for a La Fontana 2, another low rise structure on a plot within Arjaan, in October 2010.

Triveni Builders focuses its selling strategy on genuine end-users which helps it strive through the touch time for builders in Dubai. Any BITSian Millionaires reading this can approach him to buy their holiday homes in Middle East :)

5 BITS Pilani students, Poonam Daga, Antonio Fernandes, Abhishek Dutta, Aastha Mehta and Vishwa Parekh from BITS Pilani are among the 29 students from India declared as the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders for 2008-09 out of the 150 chosen from across the world. Goldman Sachs Foundation conducts the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Program with the motive to train and develop budding educators, business leaders and social entrepreneurs to create an international network through which they can share ideas, work collaboratively, and begin to change the world.

In this regard, the Institute of International Education (IIE), in partnership with educational organizations in selected countries, conducted an annual international competition at 100 top-ranked universities in about 19 countries.

Amongst the 150 students selected from 100 of the worlds top ranking universities and colleges, 75 will be attending the annual Goldman Sachs Global Leadership Institute (GLI) in New York during July 2009. They will attend the Global Leadership training and seminars, meet and consult with renowned leaders and build ties based on shared experiences and common goals. Abhishek Dutta and Aastha Mehta are the fortunate ones from BITS Pilani to attend the annual meet. Each Global Leader receives a 3,000 dollars grant for educational expenses, as well as continued support for their academic and professional advancement through an international alumni network.

Good going BITSians !!!