BITSAA Newsletter March 2008

 

   NEWS
Silver Jubilee Reunion of 1978-83 Batch in October 2008 at BITS Pilani

 

Dear Bitsian,

 

The '78 Batch is going to celebrate their Silver Jubilee and the dates have been finalized. If you are from the ‘78 batch or if you know a ´78 batch BITSian or are simply interested to attend the event, please register for the same.

When: 2nd October, 2008

What: Silver Jubilee Reunion of 1978-83 batch

Where: BITS Pilani campus

 

Details: Agenda is under formulation (in consultation with Prof.R.K. Mittal)

 

Start: From Delhi by chartered bus(es) on 2nd October 2008 for Pilani at 11:00 (also from Jaipur at 11:30)

 

End: At Delhi by chartered bus(es) on 4th October 2008 at 15:00 & 21:00 (also at Jaipur at 14:30 & 20:30)

 

How do you register:
You can contact any of the following people:
Nevri aka
Vijay Vasant Nevrekar, +91-98-213-69049 (Pune & Mumbai, India)
Solo aka
Solomon Raj Antony, +1-806-790-0395 (Kentucky, Murray, USA)
Bajju aka
Anu Sheel Bajaj, +91-98-490-36767 (Hyderabad, India)

Official BITSAA link: http://www.bitsaa.org/silver_jubilee_1978_batch.html

 

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Silver Jubilee Reunion of 1978-83 Batch in October 2008 at BITS Pilani
[More]
 
 The latest BITSian author on the block 
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The music never dies... A BITSian co-founded startup in Online Music and more!
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BITSian founded company's IPO performs well in spite of market fluctuations
[More]
 
BITSian makes into world's top 50 headhunters list
[More]
 
BITSian wins Crosby Medal
[More]
 
First batch of successful graduates from the Honeywell-BITS collaboration
[More]
 
WIPRO BITS-Pilani Collaborative wins Corporate University Xchange award
[More]

The latest BITSian author on the block

 

Vikram Sampath was recently in his hometown of Mysore to launch his first book “Splendors of Mysore: The untold story of the Wodeyars.” His book would be launched at a function at the Raj Bhawan in Bangalore where his Excellency the Governor of Karnataka would be presented with the first copy.

He began his journey, uncovering and understanding the Wodeyars, at the age of 12, when the Mysore bug’ bit him for the first time. He was inspired to go through the not-so-hard ordeal as he claims by the faulty depiction of the Royal House of Mysore in Sanjay Khan’s ‘Tipu Sultan’. What ensued was a 15-year thorough scrutiny of every record and source available on the subject and the results are there for your perusal in a bookstore near you soon.

“History has its own contradictions, multiple interpretations, and is as analytical and reasoning based as any science. I don’t find what I pursued and what I studied all that different,” he says, when asked about his varied and contradictory passions. “I have the upper hand, at not being biased and having no baggage to carry, I have a better chance at narrating a story as it actually was better than any historian,” he adds.

Vikram studied Maths and EEE at BITS-Pilani. For further details on the book, www.vikramsampath.com

 

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The music never dies…a BITSian co-founded startup in Online Music and more!

 

Mandeep Makkar, a Physics and Computer science graduate from BITS-Pilani started Hummaa Infotainment about a year ago and is going strong.

Humma is into almost all of the stuff to do with online music namely music streaming, downloads, music recommendations and much more. They have content hosted in 16 different Indian languages and 30 different genres.

Mandeep requests everyone reading this to check out the site and he would really appreciate your patronage/feedback/suggestions/queries.

 

 

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BITSian founded company IPO performs well in spite of market fluctuations

 

GSS America founded by two young BITSians listed their company at a premium though the Sensex was a bit tipsy. Undaunted by the volatility in the stock market, shares of GSS America Friday closed at INR 500.80 on NSE, a premium of INR 100.80 or 25.20 per cent to the issue price of INR 400.


The stock listed at INR 380. It touched a high of INR 540, and the low was INR 370. Around 10621014 shares were traded in the NSE counter. On BSE, the stock closed at INR 500.65 after opening flat at INR 400, also the low during the day. The high was INR 508.35. Around 1,39,80,284 shares has been traded so far.

 

Mr. Bhargav Marepally and Mr. Ramesh Yerramsetti, Co-Founders holds degrees from BITS-Pilani (1988-1993). Congrats! & Cheers!

 

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BITSian makes to world's top 50 headhunters list

 

Dinesh Mirchandani, who heads India operations of global executive search firm Boyden World, is the only Indian on a list of the world's 50 most influential headhunters compiled by BusinessWeek.

Mumbai-based Mirchandani is the Regional Director (APAC region) and President (India) of Boyden World and is considered to be a specialist in hiring C-level executives, R&D chiefs and HR professionals.

Mirchandani specialises in technology sector, besides hiring for financial services, real estate and infrastructure, manufacturing and consumer products areas, all of which are highly dependent on right skill sets.

Dinesh holds a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from BITS-Pilani. He also holds an MBA from Boston University (Beta Gamma Sigma) and an MS in Computer Science from NC State. He is a graduate of the Boyden-Kellogg Management Program.

 

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BITSian wins Crosby Medal

 

Bijay Jayaswal and his co-author Peter Patton have won the American Society for Quality's highest award, the Crosby Medal, for their book, Design for Trustworthy Software. 

 

The Crosby Medal is presented to “the individual who has authored a distinguished book contributing significantly to the extension of the philosophy and application of the principles, methods, or techniques of quality management."

 

This is indeed a great achievement. A link to one of the e-book versions of the title can be found here: E-Book

 

A bit about Bijay: He is the CEO of Agilenty Consulting Group, LLC. He has held senior executive positions and has consulted in quality and strategy for the last 25 years. His consulting and research interests include value engineering, process improvement and product development. He has taught engineering and management at the University of Mauritius and California State University, Chico and has directed MBA and Advanced Management programs. He has helped introduce corporate-wide initiatives in re-engineering, Six Sigma, and Design for Six Sigma and has worked with senior executive teams for effective implementation of such initiatives. He holds a B.Eng. (Hons.) degree in Electrical Engineering from BITS-Pilani. He also holds an MBA and a Master's degree in electrical engineering from Aston University in England.

 

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First batch of successful graduates from the Honeywell-BITS collaboration

 

Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab (HTSL) is a well known PS station located in Bangalore. In February 2005, HTSL signed a Memorandum of Understanding with BITS-Pilani to offer a two year MS in Embedded Systems degree program and a two year MS in Mechanical Systems Design program for its sponsored employees. Both the degree programs were foreseen to have three semesters of coursework followed by one semester of dissertation.


In a colorful function organized at HTSL Bangalore on 11th February 2008, the employees of HTSL who successfully completed the programs received their final degree certificates from Dr. Krishna Mikkilineni, Managing Director HTSL. Dr. Mikkilineni in his speech said that the curriculum undergone by the employees has added value to their current profile and urged them to proceed further for a PhD.


Prof. L.K. Maheshwari, Vice Chancellor BITS-Pilani in his congratulatory message urged the graduating students to contribute to the task of nation building and conveyed that if change is an inevitable challenge, then innovation is the response and knowledge is the weapon. Prof. B.R. Natarajan, Dean BITS-Pilani in his message thanked Honeywell for the strong corporate support so vital for the success of the collaboration and conveyed that the graduation day at HTSL marked yet another milestone in university industry partnerships.

 

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WIPRO BITS-Pilani Collaborative wins Corporate University Xchange award

 

The Corporate University Xchange Awards (www.corpu.com) for Excellence and Innovation in Corporate Learning honor learning organizations whose programs improve employee and business performance. The 9th annual CUX awards conference was held on 5th February 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Working in partnership with BITS Pilani, Wipro Technologies had showcased the WASE (Wipro Academy of Software Excellence) for the CUX awards and bagged the Best Practice Award for Corporate College partnership for 2007. Peter Degnan, Executive Director Wharton Business Education and Patricia "Patty" Coopersmith, National Defense University - Project Manager were the judges for this category.

IT Major Wipro Technologies started a pioneering initiative in the field of higher education through WASE in the year 1995 for giving motivated and meritorious B.Sc. graduates the right kind of training for facing the challenges of the dynamic Information Technology world. Wipro signed a MoU with BITS-Pilani in September 1997 for offering a collaborative 4 year MS Software Engineering degree for the WASE B.Sc. graduates.

In India today, this award for the Wipro / BITS-Pilani collaboration marks yet another milestone in industry university collaborations.

 

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