BITSAA International was founded with a mission to create the most well-networked alumni community in the world- one that positively enhances the personal and professional lives of BITSians around the world. We, at BITSAA, always strive to strengthen the spirit of giving back to BITS-Pilani, towards better infrastructure, student exposure and education quality among other things.

BITSAA is looking for contributions to fund many initiatives that help BITSians as well as BITS-Pilani, in the short term as well as long term. For many of us, busy, working professionals, this might be the easiest way to give back.

What has BITSAA International done so far?

BITSAA has led several initiatives that have benefited BITS Pilani, its students, faculty and the alumni; bringing them together to help create a globally recognized brand. BITSConnect and Oyster Lab are among the largest alumni initiatives for a university in India, and highlight the power and influence of the BITS Alumni community. BITSAA has also instituted several scholarships to fund students across its campuses through alumni contributions amounting to over $65,000. This endowment is currently managed by the BITSAA Investment Committee.

BITSAA International Scholarships

BITSConnect

The first BITSConnect initiative, completed in January 2004, a $1.5 million (Rs. 7 crores) project jointly led by BITS Alumni and BITS Pilani, resulted in a state-of-the-art campus wide network. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Former President of India, inaugurated this core network – Neuron created by BITSConnect on March 20, 2004. BITSAA committed $750K for this first BITSConnect initiative and nearly the entire amount has been collected so far from alumni and friends across the globe.

Please click here to know more about the BITSConnect Initiative.

Oyster Lab

Oyster Laboratory is a distributed VLSI lab that connects all BITS campuses (Pilani, Goa, Dubai and Hyderabad) with an industrial centre at Bangalore. Around 2,000 sq ft of space has been allocated for the lab at the Pilani campus. The Bangalore Extension Centre is intended to facilitate industry collaboration. The lab, which is a collaborative effort between stakeholders like BITS, BITS Alumni Association and industry, boasts of some of the best-in-class Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools. These tools support Full Design Flow, RTL to GDSII, embedded design and board design. It also houses a powerful and scalable compute farm that is accessible over the Neuron network. With such advanced computing infrastructure and EDA software providing very large scale integration and embedded design, the lab ranks among the best in the country.

Please click here to know more about the Oyster Lab Initiative.