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 BITSConnect Initiative #1: The Gigabit backbone

The first BITSConnect initiative, completed in January 2004, was 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, Hon'ble President of India, is expected to inaugurate this core network created by BITSConnect on March 20, 2004

This first BITSConnect initiative provided BITS with a gigabit backbone, broadband access and telephones and video conferencing abilities (IP telephony) in every room in every bhawan, all staff quarters, each student room and the guest house, as well as wireless access in Sky and the Library.  

BITSAA committed $750K for this first BITSConnect initiative and nearly $650K have been collected so far from alumni and friends across the globe.   There remains a roughly $60K shortfall and efforts are under way to bridge this gap.

Click here for media coverage of this project

 BITSConnect Initiative #2: The Oysters Lab (OLAB) Center for VLSI and Embedded design

In the second BITSConnect initiative, alumni are working with BITS Pilani to create a state-of-the-art VLSI lab comparable to the best among US universities. The BITSConnect Oysters Lab (OLAB) initiative provides BITS Pilani with advanced computing infrastructure for Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) and embedded design. Drawing on strong industry collaboration with companies like Broadcom, Magma and Mentor Graphics, the Oysters Lab will occupy 2000 sq. ft. at BITS Pilani. This lab will have a national impact by creating pearls of Intellectual Property on silicon," said Raj Khare, Managing Director of Broadcom (India), and a BITS alum.

For more details on this initiative or to volunteer, please e-mail venu@bitsaa.org

Click here for media coverage of this initiative 

• The Gigabit Backbone project, BITSConnect's first initiative was a Rs 7 crore project and you funded ½ of it.

• BITSConnect is first in a series of alumni-driven projects to contribute to their alma mater.

• All teams (fundraising, finance, marketing, technical) were voluntary & brought together alum across generations.

BITSConnect Impact

Impact on research

Impact on teaching

• BITS VLSI OLAB (Already under development on the BITSConnect Infrastructure, the Oyster Lab is a VLSI lab that has been launched and will be co-located in Bangalore and Pilani).

• IPv6 Research, in which BITS is already a national leader, will be boosted by BITSConnect
• BITS Virtual University, the most technically advanced experiment in scaling distance education using state-of-the-art Internet and Multimedia Technologies, is going to run off the BITSConnect Infrastructure
• BITS Multimedia Operating System & BITS Ubiquitous Computing Research initiatives get a fillip with BITSConnect

• Complete online courseware – hybrid delivery of on-campus education

• Students have 24/7 unrestricted access to PARAM Supercomputer

• Desktop collaboration tools for students & teachers

• Live video streaming of remote lectures to students rooms (e.g. Alum in US lecturing)

• Interactive real time multicasting of lectures (“virtually” reduce student-teacher ratio)

• Enables advanced educational & presentation systems, similar to the well-known ‘Wharton Lectern’ used at the Wharton School of Business

• Distance learning – BITS already has the #1 distance learning program in India and this network will enhance that further by scaling it to a large # of students. An effective distance learning program creates a unique financial model for BITS to be emulated by other institutions

BITSConnect Details

Technical Details

 Operational Details

• Highly redundant 3-tier network architecture (Core, distribution and access layers).
• More than 20 kilometers of cables
• 2-4 Mbps WAN connectivity
• 4000 voice-grade 10/100 access points over a Gigabit backbone
• LRE (Long Range Ethernet) & Wireless Access (802.11b) available.
• Advanced routing technologies to manage ISP bandwidth across BITS campuses (Pilani, Goa, Dubai)
• Leading edge network security via DHCP snopping and Dynamic ARP inspection
• VoIP Phones

• All volunteer efforts

• No overheads

• Professionally managed & executed

• Design expertise from Alumni

• Resident experts from  deployment partner for first 3 years

• Student internship and training programs to support & maintain systems

• Seed funding by BITS Pilani

• Remainder of funds from BITS Alumni around the world

B I T S C o n n e c t     C o r e   T e a m

Contact us 24/7 in case of any questions

Three Ways to Contribute

        1. All payments are secure online
            using PayPal

        2. Click here to pay online

1. Payable to "BITSAA International"

2. Write BITSConnect in Memo Field

3. Put your name, batch, email address and telephone number along with the check

4. All receipts will be emailed

5. Mail your check to Sandeep Arora. If you live on the West Coast or Midwest, mail to Jayan Ramankutty.

Sandeep Arora

Treasurer

BITSAA International

34 Pierce Road

East Windsor, NJ 08520

USA

T: (609) 203-1117

Email:sandeep@bitsaa.org

(US - West & Midwest Only)

Jayan Ramankutty

Trustee

BITSAA International

43980 Rosemere Drive
Fremont, CA 94539

USA

T: (408) 202-8931

Email:jayan@bitsaa.org

Contribute Stock or Mutual Funds

(Only in the United States)

1. All transfers are handled by our broker, Merrill Lynch

2. Call Sandeep Arora at  (609) 203-1117 or email sandeep@bitsaa.org to make a contribution. We have an easy method of completing your transfers.

1. Payable to "Birla Inst. of Tech. & Science"

2. Send payment to:

Professor JP Mishra

C/o BITSConnect

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Vidya Vihar Campus

Pilani, Rajasthan 333031

India

Email: jpm@bits-pilani.ac.in

Contact your chapter coordinator. If you do not have a chapter coordinator, please email sandeep@bitsaa.org

Please note that BITSAA International can only handle payments from outside the United States if the payment is dollar denominated and if any stock/mutual fund is in the United States