I wish to thank you for inviting me to be a part of your team and Chair the Pan IIT Board. I am honored and humbled. I had an opportunity to work with the Pan IIT movement in the formative years. While I have limited exposure to the workings of Pan IIT , I have had the privilege of being on the board of other similar organizations such as California State University Board of Trustees. I believe going forward we will set the goals and objectives through collaboration of all board members. I will rely on the board and our strong volunteers team for the meticulous execution of those goals and objectives.
I attended the Houston Conference and was impressed with the energy and enthusiasm of the volunteers who delivered a world class conference that all of us, alumni will be proud of. It gives me confidence that working with such a dedicated group we can make a significant difference.
I want to give you a sneak peak on the areas I am asking the board to focus on.
Vision, Missions & Goals
Long term and short term goals along with priorities
Attainable and sustainable goals
Past commitments
Re-examination/review of current projects
Organization:
Team building
Enlarging by inducting new member IIT
Building a strong volunteer organization
Financing required to meet our objectives and sources of funds.
While our vision and goals may change from time to time we need to come to an initial understanding to get started. Organization and Financing can be taken up once our goals are clear. I will be hosting an' in person' board meeting sometimes in April In San Francisco. We will also invite some non board genuine stakeholders as well. We will ensure that we all speak with one voice about PAN IIT.
I look forward to working with you to take Pan IIT to greater heights.
Regards
Shailesh J. Mehta
Chairman PAN IIT USA
HOUSTON IIT GLOBAL CONFERENCE
Wow! is the only way to describe
It was great to be there and Kiran can't stop singing praises as to how good it was.Arjun Malhotra, Recipient of Lifetime Achievement Award from PanIIT USA
Congratulations on pulling off a magnificent conference! The facilities, food, program content, registration, booth layouts etc. were professionally done and made us all proud. Thank you for your generous hospitality and cheerful execution of the whole show. Usha Uttap and the Fab 5 did a magnificent job and reminded everyone of the days on campus listening to the Beatles etc. TK and the volunteer team were a delight in the afterhours party in the Presidential suite. It was fun going back to campus humor! Great conference - great team -great job! Congrats again! Suresh Shenoy, DA rep to PanIIT USA Board
I have heard nothing but praise from all who attended the conference. The sessions were insightful and the presenters were well prepared . The organizing team did a superb job organizing all the plenary sessions, fun events, entertainment, networking and logistics. Their preparation showed in each aspect of the conference. The result was an excellent experience. Congratulations on both a successful and a memorable conference. It has set a new standard for conference to follow.
Considering the complexity of the event the performance by the team was indeed exemplary. The event was managed with near perfection and has earned wide appreciation from very one, old and young. Young entrepreneurs found special interest in the Business Case competition with Hersh Kumar.
I would like to particularly mention about the leadership of Witty Bindra and Pratish Kanani along with all the track leads and volunteers. Beginning with Roopa, who prepared and won the conference bid, this team has demonstrated nothing but absolute professionalism and it shows in each aspect of the conference.
Hats off !! Thanks Anoop Verma President, IIT Roorkee Alumni Association, USA
Thank you for putting up a fabulous conference. You guys have put up a very high bar for future conferences.Vas Raman, President, IIT Kharagpur Alumni Association, USA
Very well put-together conference, Witty! Everyone was really happy. Congratulations Amit Kumar, President, IIT Delhi Alumni Association, USA
The PanIIT Global conference was one of the best organized events I have attended. Amazing that it was a group of volunteers and not professional event organizers who pulled it off. Hats off to the IIT alumni and their families! Vish Narayanan, President, IIT BHU Alumni Association.
Congratulations on an awesome conference organized by you folks. Everything went very smoothly and on time. The speakers were great and so was the food and also the entertainment. I know how hard it is to make things work so well, so hats off to you folks. I really enjoyed myself.
Sanjiv Sahay, Past Conference Chair & Recipient of Distinguished Service Award from PanIIT USA
The conference was better organized than any other in the history of PANIIT movement.
Purnima Gupta, Recipient of Distinguished Service Award from PanIIT USA
2013 PanIIT Global Conference in Houston Passes Baton to 2014 Delhi
Houston, Texas - The tenth edition of the PanIIT Global Conference over the weekend of December 5 -8 witnessed networking, walks down memory lane, excellent lectures by luminaries including a noble laureate and a former president, in addition to top executives from distinguished companies.The inclement weather outside did not dampen the warm and energetic spirits inside the Hotel Hilton Americas in downtown Houston, Texas as nearly 1700 participants, mostly alumni of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology, immersed in the conference program titled, "Inspiring Innovation for Tomorrow."
The conference kicked off on December 5 with the chairman's reception at the Asia Society Texas Center in the Museum District where a select audience of invited guests was treated to a dance, beautifully choreographed by talented local artist Ratna Kumar's Anjali School of Performing Arts. The guests were given a taste of things to come over the weekend by the conference committee chaired by Witty Bindra with Pratish Kanani as vice chair.
The seat opened up when Councilman Kevin Mullin was elected in November to the California state Assembly. Read full article in India West
IIT Campuses
Startups jump to top of placements queue at IITs
Hemali Chhapia & Samidha Sharma,TNN | Dec 5, 2013
Over the past couple of years, with the success of t ech-based startups like Flipkart, Inmobi and Snapdeal, there is a sea-change in the way students at the prestigious IITs are evaluating offers from this new universe of employers
MUMBAI: Life can come full circle in just a year. Advitiya Sharma sat uncomfortably in his dark suit as he pitched himself to top companies at IIT-Bombay last year. This week, Sharmawas back on campus, in informal tees-as befits an engineer-turned-entrepreneur-picking up students from the Class of 2014.
The co-founder of Housing.com, a campus-born company, seemed at home sharing space at the IITs with global tech biggies like Google and Oracle-them with their bulge-bracket salary offers and promises of overseas postings-on the opening day of campus placements. The house-hunting portal snared 45 IIT graduates during top slots at campuses in Delhi, Mumbai, Kharagpur and Guwahati.
The mating season spreads across five months at engineering colleges; they have traditionally been fertile ground for startups in search of fresh talent and energy. This year though, a new pecking order appears to have emerged. Several recently incubated ventures have jumped to the head of the queue and are powering the opening days of campus placement.
"Never have so many startups made it to the first few slots. Not only are they paying a lot more, they are also popular among students because they have interesting profiles," said Avijit Chatterjee, placement head at IIT-Bombay. "A lot of them are students who have graduated from here and they know exactly what they are looking for." Companies are paying northwards of Rs 12-18 lakh (gross), and many are offering stock options, said placement team member.
BANGALORE: This may come as a pleasant surprise to many Indians. Indeed, it came as a surprise even to the US research firm that conducted the study.
IITians are among the leading founders of startups in the US. The study places the IITs among the top 10 higher educational institutes in the world that have produced founders of US startups that have raised their first round of venture capital(VC) since 2010.
In fact, the IITs are the only non-US university in the list prepared by PE/VC database firm PitchBook. The list is led, as many familiar with startups would expect, by Stanford and University of California, Berkeley.
PitchBook had this to say about the IIT entry: "Perhaps the most interesting, and rather unexpected, entry on the list comes in at No. 10 - the Indian Institutes of Technology. India's entry in the top 10 was definitely a surprise, but with that country's boom in the IT industry over the last couple of decades, it stands to reason that Indian schools are producing innovative thinkers to fuel that country's - and the world's - rapidly growing and increasingly technology-reliant economy."
The IITs accounted for 77 startup founders raising VC money. Stanford topped with 190 alumni receiving their first round of VC funding, followed by UC Berkeley with 160 and University of Pennsylvania with 131.
IIT-Delhi alumni creates first map of neural circuitry
An Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi alumni has created the first ever map of neural circuitry inside a human brain which has confirms that women's brains are designed for social skills and memory while men's are for perception and co-ordination.
However, there is one field in which women beat men hollow - multitasking, finds the study that looks at brain connectivity.
A new brain connectivity study from Penn Medicine published on Monday has found striking differences in the neural wiring of men and women that's lending credence to some commonly-held beliefs about their behaviour.
In one of the largest studies looking at the "connectomes" of the sexes, Ragini Verma, an associate professor in the department of radiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found greater neural connectivity from front to back and within one hemisphere in males, suggesting their brains are structured to facilitate connectivity between perception and coordinated action. In contrast, in females, the wiring goes between the left and right hemispheres, suggesting that they facilitate communication between the analytical and intuition. Read full article at the IIT DELHI WEBSITE.
NEW DELHI: Expansion and improving its global image are twin goals Indian Institute of Technology Delhi is currently focused on. Thirty-eighth amongst 300 institutions in Asia with its electrical and mechanical engineering departments topping the QS World University Rankings, the institution has constituted a four-member committee to work towards improving its global position.
IIT is also setting up a research academy in Mauritius by the end of the current academic year. With land having been allocated for its two extension campuses in Sonepat and Jhajjar, it's also planning a number of centres and executive programmes there.
Speaking about expansion plans and setting its first footprint abroad, IIT Delhi director R K Shevgaonkar said it has formalized setting up an IIT Delhi Research Academy in collaboration with the Mauritius government.
Back home, IIT is planning a number of centres including one on cyber security. "We are coming up with a cyber systems and information assurance centre in collaboration withUniversity of Nebraska. We are also coming up with a policy research centre, partially funded by the department of science and technology," he said.
The IIT is having its 44th convocation on Saturday in which President Pranab Mukherjee will be the chief guest. He will inaugurate an innovation exhibition before conferring the alumni awards. This year, the institute will confer degrees to 1,793 students.
IIT-B's Techfest 2014 scheduled this year from January 3 to 5 will host a series of lectures in the distinguished segment to bridge the gap between the industry, academic and students. The series will include a series of lectures from eminent personalities such as Professor CNR Rao, Pranav Mistry, Kiran Bedi, Rajendra Pachauri and many more.
IIT Chapters
Diwali Dhamaka: Bay Area's PanIIT Entertainment competition
The IIT team of over 25 people, including kids, led by the Spouses Committee consisting of Radhika Venkatraman, Latha Raman, Padma Gargeya and Padmini Rao, together with the Bay Area Committee Prasanna, Abhishek, Bhanu and Sudha (President, VP, Secretary and Treasurer, respectively) put on show a great performance. DP (1981) wrote most of the 'screenplay', Anitha Dixit (1997 of Saarang fame) sang and her daughters danced.
Their well-choreographed performance was superior to all other IITs, and displaced traditional-winner IIT-B to win the First Prize. The event was held in the Bay Area on November 16th, 2013 between 4 PM and 10 PM, at the Heritage Theater, Campbell, CA.
Here's a celebratory picture, showing Monishi (MC for part of the evening), Narendra Rao with Padmini, and all the performers. The kids were wonderful!
Please forward missing information to [email protected] so that we can include it in future newsletters.. Thanks
IIT Events
1. IITB Alumni Day Dec. 29, 2013
The last Sunday of every year is reserved at IIT Bombay for welcoming its former students-alumni of the institute. The celebration is known as Alumni Day. This year, the Alumni Day will be celebrated on Sunday, December 29th 2013. Registrations will be at the venue (IIT B)
3. Swearing-in of Pradeep Gupta (BTech 1964), Councilman for South San Francisco
Please attend and show our pride and support for our alumnus. Time and location will be posted shortly.
Sponsorship: Your local chapter appreciates sponsorship for its events and activities, and we are looking for up to $6000 to fund events (like Diwali Dhamaka and Picnic) during the year. Please donate to IITMAANA General Fund, and indicate your city/region (eg, 'Bay Area Chapter') in Special Instructions - donations received in excess of $6000 for a Chapter will be added to the Travel Grant Endowment. Your sponsorship donation is tax deductible.
South San Francisco Conference Center 255 South Airport Blvd. South San Francisco CA94080 United States
PLEASE SEND NEWS TO [email protected] FOR INCLUSION IN FUTURE NEWSLETTERS
IIT Alumni - Join us on LinkedIn
IIT Alumni Linkedin Group has emerged as a very vibrant resource for our community. We are now 24000+ strong and growing. The group is a great way to connect with fellow IITans living in your area, working in your industry or from your batch. It is great resource to find employers, employees, contacts or customers via qualified introductions on an opt-in basis. The members are finding it as a great place to discuss their ideas or to promote their products.
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Newsletter team at Pan IIT USA Inc.
(Alumni Association of Indian Institutes of Technology)
Congratulations on pulling off a magnificent conference! The facilities, food, program content, registration, booth layouts etc. were professionally done and made us all proud. Thank you for your generous hospitality and cheerful execution of the whole show. Usha Uttap and the Fab 5 did a magnificent job and reminded everyone of the days on campus listening to the Beatles etc. TK and the volunteer team were a delight in the afterhours party in the Presidential suite. It was fun going back to campus humor! Great conference - great team -great job! Congrats again!
I have heard nothing but praise from all who attended the conference. The sessions were insightful and the presenters were well prepared . The organizing team did a superb job organizing all the plenary sessions, fun events, entertainment, networking and logistics. Their preparation showed in each aspect of the conference. The result was an excellent experience. Congratulations on both a successful and a memorable conference. It has set a new standard for conference to follow.
Very well put-together conference, Witty! Everyone was really happy. Congratulations Amit Kumar, President, IIT Delhi Alumni Association, USA
The conference was better organized than any other in the history of PANIIT movement.
Thirteen people applied for a newly vacated seat on the five-member 
