For the first time ever, BITSAA International video having welcome messages from the Dr. S P Kothari (Chairman) and Ashish Garg (CEO) was played at the Orientation Program across campuses.

Watch it here -

Download - Link

Campus Snippet

The most common question to any BITS Alum is the "Cut-Off" in BITSAT. To keep everyone on the same page, 'cut-off' facts for BITS admission 2009 are below -

• The lowest cutoff for admit offer is 258.
• The lowest cutoff for waitlist-1(for all Programmes) is 251.
• The lowest cutoff for waitlist-2(for only B.Pharm.(Hons.)) is 240.

SJSU (San Jose State University) recognized Jayan Ramankutty (BITS ID No: 75F04480) as a distinguished alumnus at the Engineering banquet, which was held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose in April 2009. About 500 guests participated including some key decision makers from premier companies in the Bay Area.

The criterion for selecting the candidate was based on professional achievements as well as recognizable community and charitable services. At the banquet, Jayan was awarded a plaque and was given 3 minutes for an acceptance speech. A copy of the plaque will permanently hang on the 'Wall of Fame' in SJSU.

Subsequently, he was invited by the Dean to deliver the keynote speech to the graduating class of 2009 at the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering. The theme for his speech was about 'Aiming high but living within one's means.

Recently, when Professor Mittal was in the Bay Area with the Robotic Team, Jayan arranged a meeting between with students and faculty of the Charles W. David College of Engineering. SJSU showed keen interest in an ongoing engagement with BITS, which materialized only with the Jayan's magic.

Links: Keynote Speaker Brochure

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an academic organization owned by The Sapling Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation. TED is well-known for its annual, invitation-only conference devoted to "ideas worth spreading". TED is famous for its lectures, known as TED Talks, which originally focused on technology, entertainment and design, but has now expanded in scope.

TED recently announced its India fellows 2009 which includes Siva Cotipalli, a Mechanical Engineering graduate from BITS (1997-2001).

Siva is the Co-founder and CEO of dhanaX. The company is inspired by the unique ability of an online community to pool in their might to help others. dhanaX aspires to be a pioneering model for successful and innovative online social lending. dhanaX aims to:

• Support and provide easy access to low cost credit for poor borrowers to supplement their income.
• Provide a credible and lucrative investment opportunity for the social investor.

dhanaX targets unbanked Indian population whose annual income is between $1500 and $4500. dhanaX aims to enhance their hopes of availing easy credit from the fellow Indians.

Nafees Ahmed, graduated with Chemical Engineering from BITS Pilani in 2006. He received Dr. HOMI BHABHA Award from the Honarable Prime Minister of India - Dr.Manmohan Singh in August for securing 1st rank in BARC Chemical Training School.

Nafees joined BARC, Mumbai after his graduation as a trainee scientific officer. Currently, he works in the Chemical Technology Division of BARC, Mumbai as Scientist Office (C). Convey your wishes by shooting a mail to - nafeesva@yahoo.co.in

The Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), Bhopal which came into existence on 29th August 1956 is the mother plant of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, the largest engineering and manufacturing enterprise in India in the energy-related and infrastructure sector, today. BITS Pilani since 1973 has made a pioneering contribution for the development of institutionalized linkages between university and industry.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between BITS and BHEL Bhopal was signed on 17 August 2009 with the objective of fostering collaboration between the two institutions to promote academic and research interactions. This include participation of BITS in the Human Resource Development needs in the thrust areas of BHEL Bhopal; exchange of scientific information and joint publication of research output and reports; organization of joint seminars / workshops / conferences etc at national and international level in the concerned areas; continuation of support by BHEL Bhopal in the planning, organizing, and implementation of the Practice School (PS) program of BITS, both for the PS-I component of two months duration and the PS-II component of five and a half months duration.

Progf G Sundar Dean Practice School Division at Pilani signed the MoU on behalf of BITS while Mr Pawan Goyal AGM (HRD) signed the MoU on behalf of BHEL Bhopal.

Link : Full Story

Roshan Lal Nauhria was the only member of the Indian community to be featured in the Queen's Birthday Honours List released on June 1, 2009. Queen Elizabeth II made him a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, a top honour for his services to business and the community.

Nauhria graduated in Electrical Engineering from BITS, Pilani, in 1970 before migrating to New Zealand in 1972, where he set up his own construction and property business in 1976. He is the managing director of the Auckland based Nauhria Group of companies and is well known in the community for his forthrightness and philanthropy. He stands at the forefront of the Indian community and is the founder President of the Bharatiya Mandir in Auckland, set up in 1986. The former Vice-President of Hare Krishna Mandir (ISCKON) in Auckland, is also the President of the United Indians, the apex body of the 23 major Indian associations in New Zealand.

"I believe that this is an honor for every person of the Indian community and I also believe in mutual help and understanding, which is the foundation for growth and prosperity," a humble Nauhria's response to the honor he received.

Convey your wishes to roshannauhria@nauhria.co.nz

Links: Press

Nagesh, who scored 993 out of 1000 to top the Andhra Board Higher Secondary Examinations for the year 2009 can now fulfil his dream of pursuing his studies in BITS Pilani. NIRMAAN NGO and BITS Alumni promised to offer him financial and need based assistance for all four years of his college education.

As with any state topper, Nagesh secured direct admission to BITS-Pilani (University policy after the introduction of BITSAT). 'Eenadu' a Telugu newspaper reported that Nagesh would not be able to afford the education at BITS Pilani as he is from an economically disadvantaged family. Proud to be BITSian Rakesh Anugula, one of the founding members of the NGO Nirmaan got in touch with Nagesh (Mobile 91-9848319458) as soon as he came across the news. Another Proud to be BITSian Eashwar Koneru from BITS Alumni Association - BITSAA 75-80 batch swung into action and assured support from his batch. Eshwar and Nirmaan have confirmed Nagesh that they together will help pay his admission fee and first year tuition fee. They also promised that they will be open to help him in case if he needs additional assistance for his BITS education.

The initiative taken by BITSAA and Nirmaan for the education of Nagesh goes to show that when a mission is taken up with passion, there are no dreams too large and no frontiers beyond reach

Links: Nirmaan
Eshwar can be contacted through mail -- konerueashwar@hotmail.com

Its a matter of pride that one of our BITS Alum Sundar Kadayam (1981 to 1985) is founder of the Cincinnati based ZAKTA which is a personal and social Web search engine where you can find, personalize, share and discover information from the Internet.

ZAKTA has been nominated for Cincinnati Innovates competition which accepted entries till start of Sep 2009. Let us pass the news around and make ZAKTA a name to reckon with, keep the BITS flag flying high and put Cincinnati in the same league as Silicon Valley.

Try using ZAKTA - it is really cool!

Mr.Arpit Agrawal belonging to 2001 batch at BITS is the Founder-Director of Mykidsarena.com.

The company objective is to help young parents create a stimulating and fun home environment and help them spend quality time with their children. The company promises the right customized mix of toys, books, games, cards etc which is adequate in a child's growth.

The team includes well qualified members who are specialized in Early Childhood Education, Clinical Psychology and Human Development and Family Studies.

The work of MyKidsArena.com is strategically meeting the needs of children by providing appropriate toys and books to families. Their work in setting up toy libraries will guarantee that more children will be nurtured through the power of play at the time they are most vulnerable and will most greatly benefit.

Packages are available for kids in the age from 12 months to 6 years - Order now !!!

Dr. D. M. Kulkarni, Assistant Professor from Goa Campus has been honoured with the coveted Rashtriya Gaurav Award along with Certificate of Excellence from the Indian International Friendship Society in a Seminar on 'Economical Growth and National Integration' held in New Delhi recently. This award was given in recognition of his meritorious services, outstanding performance and remarkable contribution in the field of Industry, education and research.

Dr DMK teaches Engineering Graphics, Computer Aided Design (CAD), Mechanics of Solids, Design of Machine Elements, Engineering Thermodynamics at BITS Pilani Goa Campus. He also leads the Center for Software Development as Faculty In-Charge, Computer Center at Goa Campus. He has been the key inspiration and driving force behind each and every software development and process automation project at the Goa Campus since inception. Recently, he has been leading efforts at Goa Campus for creating BITS Pilani's VISION-2020 | Mission-2012 through Town Halls and student discussion forums. His ongoing projects include - "Online Database Management System for Employees of Govt. of Goa" and "Online Ware House Management for Cadila Health Care Limited"

Dr Kulkarni received his Ph.D. on "Fracture behavior of Extra Deep Drawn Steel Sheets" and has research interests including Finite Element Analysis, Theory of Elasticity & Plasticity, Fracture Mechanics, Computer Graphics, Data Mining and Bio-mechanics. He has several journal papers and conference publications in these areas. He is also an active member of the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) and Indian Society for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ISTAM).

Dr DMK has been an inspiration to thousands of students at the University of Pune, BITS Pilani (Pilani Campus and Goa Campus) during his academic career. We are proud to know that his EDD Notes on "Engineering Graphics using Autocad" (used by thousands of freshmen BITSians in all BITS Campuses in the past decade) has been published as a text book by PHI. Our congratulations to Prof DMK for keeping the BITS flag flying high. We wish you the very best.

BITSAA International launches Campus Buzz with BOSM 2009 updates. In a constant effort to connect tha alumni to the campuses, BITSAA launches Campus Buzz, a place to get updates of the latest happenings of the BITS campuses. To begin with we have Daily Updates of BOSM 09 (16-20th Sept)

All of us have heard of Google Summer of Code. It is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together nearly 2500 successful student participants and 2500 mentors from 98 countries worldwide, all for the love of code.

For more information, click here: http://code.google.com/soc/

And delighfully, the top 10 schools for the Google Summer of Code in 2009, had the Goa campus in it! (This is out of 591 schools which participated this year). The program has almost every major university participating in it, including Harvard, Stanford, MIT etc.

These are the schools with maximum number of students winning the funding:

• Sri Lanka - University of Moratuwa - 22
• Brazil - University of Campinas / UNICAMP - 12
• China - Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences - 11
• Romania - Polytechnic University Of Bucharest - 11
• Poland - Gdansk University of Technology - 10
• Austria - Vienna University of Technology - 9
• India - Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, Goa campus - 9
• Sweden - Royal Institute of Technology - 9
• India - Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University - 8
• Singapore - National University of Singapore - 8

BITS Pilani, Goa Campus figures at the 7th position worldwide. This proves the love of open source software of BITSians, and also reasserts their competitiveness in the global market.

More can be found here.