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IITAV Newsletter
September 2015                                                                                         Issue No. 13



Message from the IITAV President

Dear IITAV colleagues and friends,

Welcome to this edition of our Newsletter.

We are in the fifth year of IITAV as an Association. During this period we have seen a steady growth in our membership and range of activities. As agreed at the AGM, this year we are also working to increase our interactions and visibility with IITs. Please see the note below for details.

We have formally implemented Corporate membership categories and are delighted to report that Swinburne University of Technology and Envision IT Pty Ltd are our first Corporate Gold members.

Our next special feature event is the IITAV-Engineers Australia event on 5th October at which our guest speaker is John McIntosh, the National President Elect (2016) of Engineers Australia.  Our annual Diwali event on 1st November evening with good food, entertainment and fun is shaping up well. 

Your Management Committee looks forward to your active support, participation and feedback - essential ingredients which will help us grow and increase our impact. Indeed, our AGM and networking events have been rich sources of feedback to the Committee on future directions and strategy for our Association.

With thanks and best wishes,

Raj Rajakumar

Dr. Raj Rajakumar
Mob: 0432 474 385
tarajkumar@optusnet.com.au

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IITAV Special Feature Event




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A DATE TO NOTE:  A FUN DIWALI EVENT ON
SUNDAY, 1st NOVEMBER, 5.30 pm - 9.30 pm
Spirit of India Function Centre, Preston



The Management Committee is busy planning our Diwali event on Sunday 1st November.  It will be a joyous event with entertainment, delicious food and networking for members, families and friends.

Please note this special event in your diary. We are looking forward to your attendance and active participation. Bring along your
friends and families too!

Details of the event will follow in due course.







IITAV held its AGM on 3rd May 2015 at Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn.  The Annual reports by the President and Treasurer were presented and accepted. The new Management Committee for 2015-16 was elected unanimously.  This was followed by a constructive discussion and suggestions for the development of IITAV for consideration by the new committee.  

Minutes of the AGM, President's and Treasurer's annual reports have been circulated to the members and can be found here.

2015-16 Management Committee (Profiles)

  Raj Rajakumar - President
  Nikhil Kumar  - Vice-President
  Rachana Kaudinya - Treasurer
  Sridhar Karuppasami - Secretary
  Dilip Desai - Committee Member
  Ravi Singh - Committee Member
  Abaran Deep - Committee Member
  Rakesh Saraf - Committee Member
  Vipin Gaindhar - Committee Member


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Thank you for continued support and co-operation. Please feel free to contact us with your comments and suggestions and any queries. We look forward to your active participation and contributions to the growth and impact of IITAV.

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At the May AGM growing our contact and visibility with IITs and IIT Alumni Associations in India was discussed.  It was suggested that we have an IITAV member volunteer as our primary liaison contact with each of the IITs.  We thank our members as noted below for taking on this role and look forward to working with you.
We request volunteers from our IITAV family to nominate for the liaison roles with other IITs including IIT Chennai, IIT Khargapur and IIT BHU.

We are also delighted to report that Dr Nalin Sharda, IITAV member, has been appointed as a Global representative of IIT Delhi Alumni Association.







IITAV Feature session On
Creating Change Through Humanitarian Engineering
30th July 2015




RasikaMohanRasika Mohan, Director of Development Partnerships - Engineers Without Borders (EWB), led the session.  EWB has over a decade of experience in engaging the private technical and engineering sectors in developing and leading community development projects across South and South East Asia. EWB is an award winning provider of innovative and engaging engineering education programs, a DFAT supported provider of technical assistance programs to developing communities, and a pioneer in developing and trialling innovative technical and market based solutions to solve problems.

Rasika described the main activities of EWB covering awareness/outreach, probono engineering, capacity building, technical and non-technical innovation, study tours and design education, and industry engagement. (Read More)

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@The White Lounge - June 2015



This event was held at The White Lounge, Tuscan Bar on Bourke Street, Melbourne. Thank you again to the attendees for your participation. The camaraderie and constructive discussion on potential ways forward for IITAV were much appreciated.

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The main points which were discussed are below. Please feel free to give your feedback.
  • Consider including South Indian dishes at our Diwali event.
  • Ideas for events/activities which could help to increase impact of IITAV, building on the progress achieved so far were explored.
  • General support for a major event early next year for which content, funding and sponsorship avenues need to be explored. Such an event could include IIT directors/senior staff, industry and government representatives. It was suggested that support from the Victorian government may be feasible and worth pursuing.(Read More)




@The Hotel Windsor - April 2015


This well-attended session was held at The Cricketeers Bar in The Hotel Windsor. The attendees enjoyed the evening of discussions and the outstanding collection of cricketing memorabilia.

Photographs of English and Australian teams from the 1800’s and 1900’s adorned the walls and a Sir Donald Bradman bat and memorabilia signed by Shane Warne take pride of place.


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IITian Sundar Pichai is New CEO of Google

Google announced a surprise corporate overhaul recently, forming a new parent company  Alphabet to include Internet search and a handful of independent companies.  Google will be one of the units, headed by the current company vice president Sundar Pichai. Originally from Tamil Nadu province in southeast India, Pichai received a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He also has a Master of Science from Stanford University and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  More information can be found here.


Alumni Helping To Create An IITian Start-up Ecosystem

An interesting article on how IIT alumni are helping young IITians through funding their start-ups has been published in the Economic Times . The full article by Rajiv Singh can be found here.

Ten Brilliant Innovations By IIT Students That Prove India Is A Pool Of Talent

From a scooter that charges faster than your phone to a technology that makes walking on water possible, the young minds at IIT have come up with some brilliant ideas that will convince you that our country is one powerhouse of talent! Take a look at 10 mind-blowing ideas that were a result of their hard work and patience.

  E-scooter
  Drones
  Walking on water ride
  Re-writable T-shirts
  Alcohol Sensing Helmet
  Earphones Untangler
  A dual pin stapler
  Hemometer
  Guardian
  3D display and user interface

Read full article in the India times here.

One more IIT announced in India’s 2015 Budget

In his budget speech, Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister, said that Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad will be converted into an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), apart from setting up a new IIT in Karnataka. (Read More)





We welcome Akshaya Nirvikar
and Parthasarathy Bhaumik  into our family of IITAV Members and take this opportunity to thank all Members for their continued participation in IITAV activities.



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Swinburne Logo

Swinburne University of Technology is an Australian public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. Swinburne operates five campuses in two countries and has an enrolment of students across vocational, undergraduate  and postgraduate levels.

Swinburne houses advanced labs such as Design for Ageing, Smart Structure and Factory of Future labs. “Being a corporate member of IITAV, we benefit from collaborations and industry experts to create a new forum for engineering studentsProfessor Ajay Kapoor, Dean of Engineering,  said. (Read More)



EnvisionIT


Established in 2002 in Melbourne, Envision IT develops software products for global markets. This includes Standalone, Cloud based SaaS, Enterprise, Line of Business and mobile applications.

 Envision IT products are known for their ease of use, high productivity, efficiency and reliability. Typically, our products offer an ROI under 3 months.(Read More)





We take this opportunity to thank everyone for their contributions. Special thanks to Raj Rajakumar and Sridhar Karuppasami for their efforts in producing this newsletter.

To help us improve the newsletter, please send your feedback and contributions (news, views and memories) for the next issue to mail@iitav.org.au or Contact Rakesh Saraf(0414 853 557, rakesh.saraf@oracle.com). Previous editions of the newsletter are available here.

Members are also requested to update their profiles at our website.

Thank you.

Rakesh Saraf
(On behalf of the IITAV Committee) 





 

Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are the premier institutes of engineering education in India.
IITAV is the Alumni Association for IIT alumni in Victoria.