Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

e t a d p u
Dear Alum,

June 2010

Greetings from your alma mater. I hope the cricket fans amongst you enjoyed all the IPL action, particularly that on the field. Though the Mumbai team lost in the finals, it had mainly to do with the toss. For us at IITB, this past year has been a time of sobering challenges. With the student population expected to reach 8000 in another three years, one and a half times from that three years ago, we are stretching every available resource to cope. Thanks for your continued and generous support to IIT Bombay. It is worth mentioning that this has resulted in a 30% increase in contributions over the previous financial year. It is heartening to note that the alumni initiatives are starting to make a difference. Among the most successful is the YFA (Young Faculty Awards Joining bonus). This was started by C82 and is being also supported by C83 & C84.You may want to visit the 'YFA page' http://www.iitbombay.org/initiatives/young-faculty-award/home to see the excellent young people who have joined us recently. Another initiative that has been very helpful is the Financial Assistance Program (FAP), launched by C81. This is now gaining popularity with alumni in general. One more notable initiative is HATS, started by H7, followed up by H4, and now being extended to all hostels. Some of the champions of these programs were among those conferred Distinguished Service Awards on Alumni Day in December. Distinguished Alumni Awards were given on 10 March Foundation Day. We have included the biographies of the DAAs in this issue of the Update. As you might remember, IIT Bombay started the Chair Professorship program during our Golden Jubilee year, 2009-'10. We have named 19 chair professors, so far. This is the highest recognition for our faculty for their research, teaching and other contributions to the Institute. We have included the profiles of some of our Chair Professors in this issue of the Update. We have just brought out a book of caricatures and cartoons on life on the campus, 'Salt 'n Pepper' by Arun Inamdar. Get your copy and relive the exasperating but hilarious time you had on campus. Arun has provided a caricature of Nandan, the iconic IITian, who is trying to give each one of us in India a unique ID. We plan to bring you more of these (caricatures, not IDs) in the coming months and look forward to a continuing dialog with you. Best wishes Prof. A. Q. Contractor Dean Alumni & Corporate Relations alumni@iitb.ac.in

Top : Ananta (Faculty House) Center : Hostel 12 Bottom : Main Building

2010 Distinguished Alumnus Awards

IIT Bombay gave Distinguished Alumnus Awards on its 51 st Foundation Day (March 10 th 2010). Following alumni were recognized this year : Dr. Nitish Thakor
(B.Tech., Electrical Engg., 1974) Professor, Johns Hopkins University, USA

R Chandrashekhar, IAS
(M.Sc., Chemistry, 1973) Secretary to the Government of India (Department of Information Technology)

Dr. Nitish Thakor received his B.Tech. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay. Later, he obtained his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering (1978) and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (1981) from the University of Wisconsin, USA. He has served on the faculty of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science departments of the Northwestern University from 1981 to 1983. He joined the Johns Hopkins University in 1983 where he is currently a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Neurology. He is actively engaged in developing international scientific programmes, collaborative exchanges, tutorials and conferences in the field of Biomedical Engineering. He is the conference chair for the first American Medical Association and IEEE Conference on Individualized Health Care and the organizer of the IEEE Workshops on "Grand Challenges in Neural Engineering" and "Beyond Brain Machine Interface". He is currently the Editor-inChief of IEEE Transactions on Neural and Rehabilitation Engineering. He is the Editor-in-Chief of PiTech, a Pan-IIT Technology Review magazine of the IIT alumni devoted to highlighting the accomplishments of IITians and Indians. He is also a co-founder of the Faculty Alumni Network of IIT Bombay devoted to serving the faculty of the institute and assisting with teaching, mentoring, research, and recruiting missions. Dr. Thakor is a recipient of Presidential Young Investigator Award, National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health Career Award. He was given a Distinguished Service Award by the Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay, and a Centennial Medal by the University of Wisconsin, School of Engineering. He is also an IEEE Fellow, Founding Fellow of Biomedical Engineering Society, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

Mr. Rentala Chandrashekhar received his M.Sc. degree from the Department of Chemistry, IIT Bombay. Later, he joined the Government of India in 1975 as a member of the Indian Administrative Service. He also holds an M.S. in Computer Science from the Pennsylvania State University, USA. He was the man who established the first Department of Information Technology in the country in Andhra Pradesh, and also heralded some of the most innovative efforts including the public-private partnership (PPP) concept in e-Governance projects. He masterminded the conceptualization, planning and implementation of various key initiatives in the state in the field of Information Technology. The framework that was evolved was widely regarded as path breaking and catapulted the State of Andhra Pradesh to the forefront of IT development in the country. He has been with the Government of India since 2002 onwards first as Joint Secretary (e-Governance) and then as Additional Secretary and Secretary, Department of Information Technology. He played a leading role in the formulation and adoption by the government of India in 2006 of the National e-Governance Plan. This Plan set the e-Governance agenda of the country and gave it a citizen and business service orientation. Mr. Chandrashekhar has received several prestigious awards. Among those are the Prime Minister's Award for excellence in Public Administration for the year 2007-'08 for his outstanding contribution to the MCA21 eGovernance Project; the Award of Distinction by the Post Media Group, Silicon Valley, USA in 1998 for outstanding Public and Community Services and for being a Pioneer in developing Information Technology in the State of Andhra Pradesh; and the Dataquest Pathbreaker Award 2005 for initiating a model of Public Private Partnership to drive the country's e-Governance agenda.

If there's one singularity which over IIT's first five decades or so has characterized the entry of students to the degree programmes, it is the uncompromising criterion of merit.
- Monastery, Sanctuary, Laboratory (50 years of IIT Bombay).

2010 Distinguished Alumnus Awards continued ...

Adil Zainulbhai
(B.Tech., Mechanical Engg., 1977) Managing Director, McKinsey India

Mr. Madhu Pandit Dasa

(B.Tech., Civil Engg., 1981) Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation Chairman, The India Heritage Foundation President, ISKCON-Bangalore

Mr. Adil Zainulbhai obtained his B.Tech. degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay. He also holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. He is currently the leader of the Indian Practice of McKinsey & Company, Inc. He moved back to India in 2004 after 24 years with McKinsey in the United States, where he started the Minneapolis Office and led the Washington D.C. office. Since joining McKinsey in 1979, he has served a wide range of clients including large corporates, MNCs, PSUs, and family-owned businesses across sectors covering telecommunications, consumer electronics, energy, banking, infrastructure, and health care. Over the last five years, he has led McKinsey in India through a phase of significant growth and helped it maintain its status as the employer of choice and its reputation as the leading management consulting firm. Mr. Zainulbhai advises not only the CEOs of current and emerging industries, but also several government agencies on issues related to nation building. He has addressed various Indian and International forums like the World Economic Forum summits in Belgium, USA, Scandinavia, Japan, etc. He has served on the Boards of Indian CEO High Tech Council and The Indus Entrepreneurs, and is currently on the Boards of American India Foundation and Saifee Hospital, Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust and Wockhardt Foundation. He has also served on the Advisory Board of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. In his free time, Mr. Zainulbhai enjoys sailing and trying out the latest gizmos, but most of all he likes to go on skiing and other fun vacations with his wife Makduda and his four sons.

Mr. Madhu Pandit Dasa, formerly known as Madhusudhan Sivashankar, obtained his B.Tech. degree from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay. Having found the path that answered his quest for the Absolute Truth right after his days in IIT-Bombay, Mr. Madhu Pandit Dasa dedicated his life to serving the mission of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He is a dynamic visionary, an able leader and a thought engineer. He has demonstrated his risk-taking ability in achieving organizational excellence and is held in high esteem for his spiritual, cultural and humanitarian contribution to society. He has been instrumental in conceiving and implementing many initiatives that have, are and will change the presentation of the heritage and culture of India. Inspired by the idea of simple living and high thinking, Mr. Madhu Pandit Dasa envisioned an eco-friendly and sustainable organic farm. His initiatives led to creating the Hare Krishna Nature Farm, in Mysore. This concept of impacting rural development through sustainable agriculture was conceived by him long before the organized sector realized its potential. The Hare Krishna Nature Farm grew to be a model farm and a case study in sustainable and organic farming in Karnataka, specific to the farmers of dry lands. Thousands of farmers all over India have benefited from this project. The Akshaya Patra programme initiated by Mr. Madhu Pandit Dasa has, in a short span of seven years, grown by leaps and bounds and been honoured with several prestigious awards. A Harvard Business School case study, Akshaya Patra is one of India's best conceived, technology-intensive social sector initiatives, strategically intervening in the education of underprivileged children by providing unlimited, free and nutritious mid-day meals to them.

IITs are meant to provide scientists and technologists of the highest calibre who would engage in research, design and development to helping building the nation towards self-reliance in her technological needs.
- Jawaharlal Nehru
03

2010 Distinguished Alumnus Awards continued ...

Name

Year Of Graduation 1962 1962 1962 1962 1963 1963 1964 1964 1965 1966 1966 1966 1966 1967 1967 1967 1967 1967 1967 1967 1967 1967 1967 1967 1968 1968 1968 1968 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1969 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1970 1971 1971

Dr. S. Rama Iyer

Mr. Colin H. Gonsalves

(B.Tech., Civil Engg., 1975) Founder, Human Rights Law Network

Mr. J.K. Tandon Prabodh V. Banavalkar Dr. N. Radhakrishnan Dr. Dhirendranath N. Buragohain Dr. Bharat Shiralkar Dr. R.K. Bhandari Wg. Cdr. R. Raghavan (retd.) Mr. Arun Hastimal Firodia

Mr. Colin H. Gonsalves received his B.Tech. degree from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay. He began working as a civil engineer, but was drawn to the law through union work and concerns over labour issues and exploitation. In 1979, he started studying law at night school. He is a fighter for social justice and a champion of the exploited. He has fought against government and big business interests. The Human Rights Law Network, founded by Mr. Gonsalves, has built 28 litigation centers in India. Through this Network, he has represented children in danger, villagers on the brink of starvation, and prisoners rotting in jails without the due process of law. After hearing a petition filed by this Network, the Supreme Court directed central and state movernments to implement several food security schemes. Mr. Gonsalves argued before the court that Article 21 of India's Constitution enshrines the right to life, which can be broadly interpreted as the right to food, work and fair wages. Today, children in school get mid-day meals. He pioneered public interest law in India by setting up a network of 200 lawyers around the country and is one of its most prominent human rights litigators. Disability laws, women's rights, domestic violence, child labor and sexual harassment issues have all been revisited by his growing army of public interest lawyers, who act as a frontline or the eyes and ears for the Human Rights Law Network Mr. Gonsalves was honoured in 2004 by American Bar Association with the International Human Rights Award for his extraordinary contribution to the causes of Human Rights, rule of law and promotion of Access to Justice.

Mr. Sharad Kumar Tak Mr. Lakshminarayanan R. Subramanyan Dr. S. Banerjee Mr. Edul Minoo Daver Dinesh Mohan Mr. P . L. Bongirwar Mr. Shiv Narain Mathur Dr. Arun N. Netravali Mr. Kanwal Rekhi Mr. Anuvrata (Dunu) K. Roy Mr. Vikram V. Rajadhyaksha Mr. Suresh Satramsingh Lulla Dr. Suresh Pal Sethi Mr. Rajiv L. Gupta Dr. Jitendra Bhatia Dr. Uday G. Karmarkar Mr. Ramesh Chandra Agarwal Mr. Shashikant D. Limaye Jagmohandas Mundhra Mr. Sharad Kumar Saraf Mr. Shailesh Ramkumar Gandhi Dr. Ramani Ayer Mr. Venkatesh Kasturirangan Rajeev Arora Dr. Romesh Wadhwani Parag Rele Dr. Dileep Bhandarkar

The exploits of these IIT Bombay products have turned IIT into something of a 'brand name' the world over.
- Monastery, Sanctuary, Laboratory (50 years of IIT Bombay).

Dr. Manthiram Natarajan Mr. Victor J. Menezes Mr. Sudhakar V. Shenoy Dr. Bharat T. Doshi Dr.Sudhir P . Mudur Prof. Narendra Kumar Mr. Deepak M. Satwalekar

IIT Bombay has given Distinguished Alumnus Awards (DAAs) since 1983. The following alumni have received DAAs in the past. We have listed them in order of their graduation year.
Name Year Of Graduation 1971 1971 1971 1971 1971 1971 1971 1972 1972 1973 1973 1973 1973 1973 1974 1974 1974 1974 1974 1975 1975 1975 1975 1975 1975 Name Year Of Graduation 1975 1976 1976 1976 1977 1977 1977 1977 1977 1977 1978 1978 1978 1978 1982 1983 1983 1984 1984 1985 1985 1985

Dr. Shailesh J. Mehta Dr. Sundaresan Asokan Mr. Rajeev M. Pandia Pramod Madhukar Chaudhari Dr. Behruz Sethna Mr. Alexander Luke Dr. Sheel Kant Sharma Dr. Yogen Kantilal Dalal Mr. Achyut S. Godbole Prof. Dr.-Ing Bharat Balasubramanian Dr. Badri Prasad Mr. Ravindra Sitaram Gupta Dr. Satish Ramnath Shetye Mr. Suhas S. Kakde Rohini M. Godbole Ashank Desai Dr. Ravindran Kannan Dr. Sadanand D. Joshi Prof. Sharad S. Sane Bharat N. Desai Mr. Prashant Narayan Ranade Dr. Jairaj Moreshwar Phatak Mr. Jairam Ramesh Mr. Rajesh Mashruwala Krishnanand Prabhu

Avinash Manudhane Dr. Vivek S. Borkar Mr.Atul Vijaykar Satish Balram Agnihotri Mr. Ajit Shelat Dr. Shankar Sastry Dr. Rajeev Vasant Joshi Prof. Pramod P .Khargonekar Mr. Ramesh Vaikuntanathan Vangal Subramanian S. Iyer Mr. Nandan Mohan Nilekani Mr. Manohar Parrikar Mr. Rakesh Mathur Dr. Narendra K. Karmarkar Dr. Ajit Keshav Ranade Dr. Chetan Chitnis Mr. Girish Jayawant Gaitonde Prof. Nitin Nohria Dr. Kota Harinaryana Prof. Chaitan Khosla Mr. Ravi Venkatesan Dr. Arunava Majumdar

Please visit http://www.alumni.iitb.ac.in/distinguish.htm for information about above alumni.

SALT'n PEPPER
by Dr. Arun Inamdar
To order a copy please contact Dean ACR on the address mentioned on the backcover.

An excerpt from the book

05

Chair Professors at IIT Bombay

Chair Professors at IIT Bombay

A Chair Professorship is a distinguished academic position in the Institute. The following chair professorships have been established at IIT Bombay with generous donations from alumni, corporations and other friends of IIT Bombay.
1st Batch (Class of 1962) P K Kelkar Chair L & T Chair Forbes Marshall Chair Rahul Bajaj Chair G K Devrajulu Chair Kamalnayan Bajaj Chair Ramkrishna Bajaj Chair D L Shah Chair Pramod Chaudhari Chair Praj Industries Chair S M Nilekani Chair Bajaj Group Chair Major Bhagat Singh Rekhi Chair J R Isaac Chair Shailesh Mehta Chair Vijay & Sita Vashi Chair MHRD IPR Chair Dhrumil Gandhi Chair Romesh Wadhwani Chair Madhuri Sinha Chair

In addition to the above, the Institute has setup a number of Institute Chair Professorships. As of now, IIT Bombay has appointed 18 chair professors :
Dr. Santosh Gupta, Chemical Engg. Dr. H. Narayanan, Electrical Engg. Dr. J.M. Vasi, Electrical Engg. Prof. U.A. Athavankar, IDC Prof. A.G. Rao, IDC Dr. S.K. Maiti, Mechanical Engg. Dr. A.W. Date, Mechanical Engg. Dr. G. Mukhopadhyay, Physics Dr. N.K. Naik, Aerospace Engg. Dr. V .D. Sharma, Mathematics Dr. Ravi S. Kulkarni, Maths Dr. D.M. Dhamdhere, CSE Dr. S.L. Dhingra, Civil Engg. Dr. Tarun Kant, Civil Engg. Dr. Deepak Phatak, CSE Dr. Ashwin Gumaste, CSE Dr. Krithi Ramamritham, CSE Dr. Aluru, CSE L & T Chair Professor Kamal Nayan Bajaj Chair 1st Batch (C'62) P .K. Kelkar Chair Ramkrishna Bajaj Chair D.L. Shah Chair G.K. Devarajulu Chair Rahul Bajaj Chair Institute Chair Institute Chair Institute Chair Institute Chair Institute Chair Institute Chair Institute Chair S M Nilekani Chair J. R. Isaac Chair Vijay & Sita Vashee Chair Bajaj Group Chair

Appointments to the Chairs are made by a committee headed by the Director of IIT Bombay, field experts, Institute functionaries and a nominee of the donor as an observer. Selection is based on peer reviews of overall research achievements and particular, research achievements in the recent past. Contributions made to the growth of the Institution are given due weightage. The term of a Chair Professorship is usually 3 years for full time faculty of the Institute or for full time faculty employed on contract.

A few Chair Professors ...

Prof. J. M. Vasi :
1 Batch (1962) P . K. Kelkar Chair Professor for Nanotechnology
st

Prof. Uday A. Athavankar

(Ramkrishna Bajaj Chair Professor)

Electrical Engineering

Industrial Design Centre

Academic Background
B.Tech., Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay, 1969 Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA, 1973 Research Interests l Nanoelectronics l Flash memory devices l Nanoscale CMOS devices for ULSI applications l Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOS devices l Reliability of nano-scale CMOS devices l Modeling and simulation of nanoscale CMOS devices

Academic Background
B.Arch., University of Mumbai, 1966 Research Interests Product Design l Metal Imagery and Visualisation l Communication Theory l Design Process and Methods l Product Planning l Product Semantics l Design and Culture l About Prof. Athavankar

About Prof. Vasi Prof. Vasi has played an important role in the initiation and growth of Nanoelectronics at IIT Bombay and in the country. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), and Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE). He was elected to The Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 1993. He has received IIT Bombay's Award for Excellence in Teaching at IIT Bombay twice, as well as the Mathur Award for Excellence in Research. He was awarded the National Sreenivasan Memorial Award of IETE in 1997, and the TechnoVisionary Award of the India Semiconductor Association in 2008. Prof. Vasi has been a faculty member at IIT Bombay since 1981. Before joining IIT Bombay, he taught at IIT Delhi and Johns Hopkins University. He has been an Editor of the prestigious journal IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices and a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Electron Devices Society. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet of the Government of India.

Prof. Athavankar has received the Award for Excellence in consultancy, from the President of India in 2004; the third prize for Edugame Design competition, Israel, in 1973 and Best Paper Award, Conference in Vienna in 1996. He has been a faculty member at IIT Bombay since 1970. He has been working on a range of institutional and consumer products. His current projects are in the field of localization (India and Asia Pacific) of global products from companies such as NCR, Unilever, Samsung and Nokia. The products he is working on include robotic toys and thinking games for children. He has also collaborated on the development of a personal locket that collects ECG data, a table top small ECG machine, a biometric authorization device, a variable frequency light table and night vision goggles for the vision impaired. In his research, he has been exploring the relationship between cognitive science, linguistics and design decision. Using cognitive theories as a framework, he has focused on areas like 'product semantics' and 'object and culture relationship'. His current work also includes exploring the role of mental imagery, spatial intelligence and visual thinking in design problem solving. Besides research publications, he is on the editorial board of two international journals on design research.

07

Prof. A. G. Rao
D. L. Shah Chair Professor for Innovation

Prof. A. W. Date
Rahul Bajaj Chair Professor

Mechanical Engineering

Industrial Design Centre

Academic background:
B.E., Mechanical Engineering, 1961-66 Post Grad Dip. in Industrial Design, NID, Ahmedabad Research Interests l Product Design, l Creativity and Problem Solving l Bamboo Crafts About Prof. Rao Has been a faculty member at IIT Bombay since 1970 and has been involved in shaping the M. Des programme from its inception. He has studied Creativity and Problem Solving at MIT (Cambridge) and other places in USA for 9 months under a UNESCO fellowship. Prof Rao has published two books through IDC: IDC a decade of Design and Bamboo Craft Design. He has designed over 20 products for industry including Electronic Voting Machine. He has published several papers in National and International Conferences. Additionally, he studied bamboo craft in the North East during a year's sabbatical leave and developed tools and small technologies for bamboo craft under a UNDP project. Prof. Rao has conducted over 30 workshops in Bamboo Craft all over the Country and started a 'Bambu Studio' at IDC. He is a Member of the International Journal of Bamboo and Rattan and has incubated a company 'AG Bambu Style' under the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay.

Academic Background
B.E. from VJTI, Bombay University, 1967 M.Sc. (Tech.) University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, U.K, 1969 Ph.D. (DIC), Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, U.K, 1973 Research Interests l Enhanced Heat Transfer l Computational Fluid Flow and Heat/Mass Transfer l Computational Solidification and Melting l Energy Systems l Choice of Technology About Prof. Date Prof. Date is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (FNAE), 2001. He received the Excellence in Teaching Award, IIT Bombay in 2006. He has made outstanding contributions to fundamentals of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and has written an important text book in the area. The book is published by Cambridge University Press. He was also invited to contribute a chapter on CFD in the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology (2008 edition). Prof. Date has been a faculty member at IIT Bombay since 1973 He is the founder and current head of the Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Area (CTARA). He has made important contributions in the field of rural technology development and has inspired several generations of students to work on problems of rural areas.

Heading Back to Old Haunts: HATS & You

HATS (Hostel Alumni Team Stewardship) is an alumni driven initiative that facilitates reconnect with your hostel - with old friends and new students. Now you can do your bit for the continued welfare of your hostel by contributing towards infrastructure improvements, welfare of mess workers and support of student research projects. The initiative was pioneered by alumni of Hostel 7 and subsequently taken up by Hostel 4. They have collectively raised Rs. 60 lakhs from about 80 donors. So far, funds have been disbursed for infrastructure improvements and retired mess workers have been given sums of up to Rs. 1 lakh, as a mark of gratitude. To learn more about HATS please visit https://www.iitbombay.org/initiatives/hats. HATS is now launched in all hostels. Those interested in being a part of the process or in donating to this cause may write to Hemant Patel <h4patel4@gmail.com> or Bakul Desai (C82) <bakuldes@hotmail.com> or Damayanti Bhattacharya <db.iitbaa@gmail.com>. You could also call IITBAA at 91- 22- 2576- 7086 for more details.

Prof. Ashwin Gumaste

James R. Isaac Chair

Prof. Srinivas Aluru

Bajaj Group Chair Professor

Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering

Computer Science and Engineering

Academic Background B.E., Mumbai University. M.S., Univ. of Lousiana, 2000. Ph.D.(EE), University of Texas, Dallas, 2003. Research Interests l Metro and access optical networks. l PBB-TE, MPLS-TP , 100 Gigabit Ethernet, multidegree ROADMs l GPON, NGPON, Data Centers, Cloud Computing, Telepresence. About Prof. Gumaste Prof. Gumaste was a Visiting Scientist with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA in the Research Laboratory for Electronics, Claude-E-Shannon group from 2007 to 2009. He was previously with Fujitsu Laboratories (USA) Inc as a Member of Research Staff in the Photonics Networking Laboratory (2001-05). He has also worked in Fujitsu Network Communications R&D and prior to that with Cisco Systems in the Optical Networking Group (ONG). His work on light-trails has been widely referred, deployed and recognized by both industry and academia. He has 17 granted US patents and has over 30 pending patent applications. Prof. Gumaste has published about 120 papers in referred conferences and journals. He has also authored three books in broadband networks called DWDM Network Designs and Engineering Solutions (a networking bestseller), First-Mile Access Networks and Enabling Technologies and Broadband Services: User Needs, Business Models and Technologies for John Wiley. He has served Program Chair, Co-chair, Publicity chair and workshop chair for IEEE conferences and as Program Committee member for IEEE ICC, Globecom, OFC, ICCCN, Gridnets etc. Ashwin is also a guest editor for IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE Network and the founding Editor of the IEEE ComSoc ONTC? s newsletter Prism. He is the Secretary of the IEEE Communication Society's Technical Committee on High Speed Networks (TCHSN). He has been with IIT Bombay since 2005 where he convenes the Gigabit Networking Laboratory: www.cse.iitb.ac.in/gnl

Academic Background B. Tech. (CSE), IIT Madras, Chennai, 1989 M.S. (CSE), Iowa State University 1991 Ph. D. (CSE), Iowa State University 1994 Research Interests l Bioinformatics and Computational Biology | Computational Genomics, and Computational Biology. l Parallel Algorithms and Applications l Combinatorial Scientific Computing Spatial Domain Decomposition Methods, Fast Multi-pole Method, Computational Electromagnetics. l String Data Structures and Algorithms. About Prof. Aluru Prof. Aluru is a well known authority in two major fields: Parallel Computing and Bio-informatics. He is one of a very small group of people who has used massively parallel computers to solve complex problems with innovative algorithms and data structures. He has also developed collaborations with Biologists to the extent that he has several papers in the Biology literature and teaches course with solid Biological content. This work has led to very serious use of parallel computing in the Bio-informatics arena. He has published two books and more than 90 technical papers in journals and peer-reviewed conferences. He is a recipient of the NSF Career award (1997), IBM faculty award (2002), Iowa State University Foundation award for mid-career achievement in research (2006), Warren B. Boast Undergraduate Teaching Award (2005), two best paper awards (IPDPS 2006 and CSB 2005), and two best paper finalist recognitions (SC 2007 and SC 2002). He co-chairs an annual workshop in High Performance Computational Biology and has edited a comprehensive handbook on computational molecular biology, published in 2006. Prof. Aluru has been a faculty member at IIT Bombay since 2009.

It would be the rare soul who has passed through the Institute's acres whose memories of it aren't bathed in the warmest of tints.
- Monastery, Sanctuary, Laboratory (50 years of IIT Bombay).
09

Prof. Krithi Ramamritham

Vijay and Sita Vashee Chair Professor

SARC (Students Alumni Relationship Cell) April 2010 Report Arpit Oswal, third year Dual Degree student of MEMS department was elected as the new Institute Alumni Secretary. Prior to being elected as the Institute Alumni Secretary, Arpit Oswal worked for SARC for 2 years. He has volunteered in five Phonathons and has participated in over 100 conversations with alumni. With the aim of enhancing student alumni relationship, The Alumni Student Mentorship Program was launched on 30th January, 2010 by SARC. The aim of mentorship is twofold - to provide the alumni a platform to interact one on one with the current students of IIT Bombay and secondly, to provide the students with mentorship so that they can make important decisions regarding their careers. So far, 439 students and 148 alumni have registered for the first phase of mentorship. More Alumni are welcome to take part in the mentorship program, the details of which can be found at http://www.iitb.ac.in/sarc/mentorship.php For more information on SARC activities and SARC team members see http://www.iitb.ac.in/sarc/

Computer Science and Engineering

Academic Background B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, 1976 M.Tech. in Computer Science, IIT Madras, 1978 Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Utah, 1981 Research Interests l Real time systems, l Databases l Distributed applications About Prof. Ramamritham Prof. Ramamritham has received a Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Madras, Doctor of Science (honoris causa) from The University of Sydney, Australia and IBM Faculty Award. Prof. Ramamritham is a Fellow of Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), a Fellow of Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), and a Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences. His research explores timeliness and consistency issues in computer systems, in particular, databases, real-time systems, and distributed applications. His recent work addresses these issues in the context of Dynamic Data in sensor networks, embedded systems, mobile environments and the web. For the last few years he has been interested in the use of Information and Communication Technologies for creating tools aimed at socio-economic development. Prof. Ramamritham has been a faculty member at IIT Bombay since 2000.

National Center for Mathematics

Sixty mathematicians assembled for a workshop convened by Profs. C. S. Seshadri and M. S. Raghunathan, in October 2006 at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore to discuss development of mathematical research, education and requirements of use agencies and industries. The workshop resulted in a document outlining a plan of action for a major boost to mathematics education and research in India. This report lists setting up of two institutes similar to the Mathematics Research Institute of Oberwolfach (Germany). Inspired by this proposal, a team of mathematicians from IIT Bombay and TIFR have proposed setting up a National Center for Mathematics (NCM) in the picturesque surroundings of lakes and hills at IIT Bombay. The NCM is planned to be a major center for organization, throughout the year, of short term courses, workshops, national and international conferences for researchers in mathematics and its applications. Its programmes will give a major boost to training researchers in all age groups in frontier areas of mathematics. The vital importance of mathematics for science and industry is now realised by all. With increasing globalization, several leading universities in Europe and America are sending delegations to institutes like IITs and TIFR for possible collaboration. Currently, for organising various national conferences and workshops, it takes a great deal of effort for the organisers to locate a suitable venue and then spend considerable energy in organizational matters like accomodation, local transport, food, etc. The proposed research institute on the campus of IIT Bombay will eliminate these difficulties once for all. IIT Bombay and TIFR will together establish NCM and run its programmes. For this purpose, a multipurpose building with a 100 seat state of the art auditorium, several seminar halls, cafeteria, library, a guest house with fifty rooms and twenty offices is envisaged

11

Punctuation - A photographic journey through the IIT Bombay campus, was published on the occasion of our Golden Jubilee year. In addition to the physical view of the Campus, it gathers bits and pieces of the everyday life of the Institution's past. Punctuations endeavours to capture faces, expressions, habits and attitudes and their flow. It is a stroll through the Campus in space and time, halting now and then to record moments, both the humdrum and the flamboyant.

Punctuations
(A photographic journey through IIT Bombay Campus) Alumni in India can send us Rs. 1000 donation by DD/Cheque in favour of "Registrar IIT Bombay" and have a copy shipped. Alumni in USA can send $ 50 via iitbombay.org

Our Upcoming Events

August 6 August 7 September 6 Sept. 25 & 26 Convocation for B. Techs & Dual Degree students Convocation for M. Techs & Ph. Ds Teachers' Day (to be confirmed) IIT Bombay / Heritage Fund meetings & FAN (Faculty Alumni Network) event in California PanIIT2010 in Noida National Education Day at IIT Bombay Mood Indigo Alumni Day at IIT Bombay
yogesh@vimaloffset.com vimal offset 2578 0490
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October 29 to 31 November 1 December 20 to 23 December 26

Dean ACR Contact Information

1st Floor, Main Building, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400 076. India. Tel. : 91-22-2576 4889 l 2576 7023 Email : diptidatye@iitb.ac.in

Published by : Dean Alumni & Corporate Relations, IIT Bombay,