Dear Alumnus/ Alumna,
The big campus Event of the week of April 14, 2014 was the celebration of “Institute Day”, with Dr. Avinash Chander (DRDO Head) as Chief Guest. 8 out of 10 Distinguished Alumnus awardees were present to pick up their Award—Dr. Thirumalai Sudarshan (BTMT-76), Dr. Sridhar Ramaswamy (BTCS-89), Prof. Ramesh Govindan (BTCS-87), Shri Venkataraman Raju (BTCH-81), Shri L Kannan (BTME-88), Dr. Lalgudi V Ramanathan (BTMT-69), Prof. Krishnan Raghavachari (MSc, CY-75) and Dr. Venkataraman Sadanand (BTEE-87). The day also saw the conferral of the “Excellence-in-Teaching” award, funded by our alumnus, Marti Subrahmanyam. The recipient was Prof. Devdas Menon, BTCE-80, currently with the Department of Civil Engineering. In addition, Institute R & D Awards were presented to 3 junior-level faculty, 3 mid-career faculty, and a “Lifetime Achievement Award” was presented to one senior faculty, Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala. For the first time, Staff achievers were presented with awards as well. Of course, students receiving “Institute Blues” for co- & extra-curricular activities was the high point of the function. Dinner at OAT that followed was well-attended by alumni, faculty and students. Here are a few relevant links:
On Saturday, April 18, the Director, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, presented IITM’s “Strategic Plan 2020” to assembled DAs and other “friends” of the Institute. The session, planned for 2 hours, extended beyond 3 hours, and served as a great forum to collect feedback from concerned alumni.
Also visiting the campus during the week was Prof. Sidney Burrus from Rice University. Our alum activist in Houston, Mallik Putcha, was instrumental in setting up the funds for the “S Sampath Memorial Lecture” which Prof. Burrus delivered on “innovation in Higher Education”. Prof. Burrus spent 3 days on campus, including a day at the EE department to provide technical insights on research and the course curriculum. He also interacted with Deans, the Director, award-winning faculty, students, and alumni. Such distinguished visitors add greatly to the richness of the campus. Hats off to Mallik for his yeoman efforts! He’s now trying to set up a “Sampath Chair”, and will, I’m sure, appreciate all contributions.
On the academic relations side, Deakin University visited campus to discuss terms for a joint Ph.D. supervision program, and IFMR representatives were on hand to sign an MOU. Collaborations with Rice University were also on the anvil during Prof. Burrus’ visit.
“Annual Giving Report 2013” was released on Saturday during the interactive session. An e-version will be available for perusal by next week. For links to prior years’ reports, to the “IITM Alumni Mobile App” and to the 1st Quarterly Magazine of I & AR, please visit: http://acr.iitm.ac.in, and look for the “Links” tab.