Dear Alumnus/ Alumna, 

This is Nagarajan, BTCH-81, and now Dean of International & Alumni Relations at IIT Madras. I have resolved to stay in touch with alumni through weekly messages posted on LinkedIn & Facebook, and this is the 4th one. Hope you find these useful & informative…. There are nearly 7,000 members in this LinkedIn Group, but that still represents only 1/6th of our alumni population. So, if each of you forward these messages to 10 alumni friends, we may reach nearly all.

The week dawned with an always-welcome holiday (for Ugadi) on March 31. April 1 on campus was no “All Fools Day”, as it saw the arrival of a delegation from Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia) to pursue research collaborations. Intensive discussions among IITM faculty and visiting faculty in the areas of Materials Science & Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics resulted in the identification of several joint projects to pursue. Deakin and IITM have signed a “joint Ph.D. supervision” agreement recently, enabling such joint collaborative work. Other academicians visiting the campus during the week included representatives from Russian institutions, and from University of North Texas, USA.

On Friday, IITM alum and President & CEO of TVS Motor Company Ltd., Mr. KN Radhakrishnan dropped by the Office of I & AR for an invigorating session with our Development Team of Thara Ganesan, Joe Thomas and Suresh. Several opportunities have been identified for industry linkages with IITM, and these were reviewed in some detail. The visit concluded with an invitation for the IITM team to visit the TVS Motor factories in Hosur.

The week also saw Mr. Swaminathan (BTME-69) add another Rs. 50 lakhs to a Trust (“SSAN Ananya Educational Trust”) he has set-up to benefit IITM students by providing loans to the needy. Currently with Petrofac in Sharjah, UAE, Mr. Swaminathan’s unique vision to motivate benefitting students pay back to the program so that it can not only be sustained, but also grow in future. While ensuring that finances do not become an impediment to one’s studies at IITM, this loan program also sensitizes the students to the need to give back. The Trust, currently funded to the tune of Rs. 4.5 crores, has committed to help 5 students in the first year, and increase it to 20-25 over a period of 4-5 years. Mr. Swaminathan envisions support for at least 100 students within 10-12 years. Alumni like him are a key reason why I have undertaken this responsibility!

Partially to thank Mr. Swaminathan and also to connect with alumni and academia in UAE, I’m planning a visit there from April 25 – May 3. A get-together with local alumni is being planned from 9:30 am on Saturday, April 26 at the Taj Palace Hotel in Dubai. Do spread the word, and attend if you happen to be in the neighbourhood.

Until next week….