President’s Note

May 16, 2022 0 comments ISMAANA Admin Categories Patrika Q2 2022

Dear ISMAANA members:

At the start of this year, we had changes at the ISMAANA board. Dipak Sarkar who for the past so many years had been the President of ISMAANA moved on to assume the responsibilities of the Presidency of the IIT(ISM) ex-student’s association. For those of you, who are unfamiliar with this organization, it is setup at IIT(ISM) to coordinate the activities pertaining to IIT(ISM) of all the IIT(ISM) alumni chapters worldwide. I would like to take this opportunity to wish Dipak good luck in his new assignment. I would also like to thank him for doing an outstanding job in making ISMAANA the best IIT(ISM) ex-student chapter. With the help of some of our generous members, large amount of funds was collected and sent to IIT(ISM), to award 56 merit cum means scholarships per year to the needy students. Naresh Vashisht Center for Tinkering and Innovation was built at IIT(ISM) and is now fully operational. Six classrooms have been updated to become smart classrooms with the latest audio and video capabilities. Two recording studios are also operational. In addition, ISMAANA alumni are setting up prizes for the IIT(ISM) students to come up with innovative ideas and products that could be patented.

I have assumed the Presidency of ISMAANA. The treasurer- ship and the ISMAANA funds management responsibilities have been assumed by Shivaji Dasgupta. This year has started well for ISMAANA, four additional merit-cum-means scholarships have been sponsored for the students at IIT(ISM). This brings to a total 60 scholarships/yr. that are now being offered by the ISMAANA members. This is in addition to the 8 merit scholarships that ISMAANA gives every year to the topmost student in the eight major departments at IIT(ISM).

ISMAANA’s online seminar program for the students at IIT(ISM) is going well under the leadership of Dr. Ganesh Thakur. So far this year Dr. Mrinal Sen of UT has given a seminar on “Artificial Intelligence”. Dr. Sidharth Mishra of TAMU just finished a seminar on “Signal Processing and Machine Learning”. Both seminars were well received by the students and the IIT(ISM) faculty.

Please let us know if you wish to participate in any of the ISMAANA’s existing programs or have ideas to initiate any new program to help the students at IIT(ISM). Additionally, if you have any ideas as to how ISMAANA could be more useful to you, please send an email to the ISMAANA Secretary Dr. Hemanta Mukherji (ipoinoil@gmail.com).

ISMAANA now offers Internships, under which a student interns online with one of the mentors in US. These mentors are chosen by ISMAANA based upon their expertise in a given field. Dr. Anil Kumar is heading this program. So far seven IIT(ISM) students are interning under this program. The interns are not paid for attending this program. Dr. Anil Kumar is starting an award, to be given every year to an outstanding intern. In the coming academic year ISMAANA intends to expand this program to many more departments at IIT(ISM)

ISMAANA’s online seminar program for the students at IIT(ISM) is going well under the leadership of Dr. Ganesh Thakur. So far this year Dr. Mrinal Sen of UT has given a seminar on “Artificial Intelligence”. Dr. Sidharth Mishra of TAMU just finished a seminar on “Signal Processing and Machine Learning”.

Dr. Ganesh Thakur has initiated Faculty Research Award, to recognize an outstanding faculty member at IIT(ISM). In addition, ISMAANA members are giving 7 Innovation & Invention prizes per year to the students at IIT(ISM). For the year 2021 Dr. Piyush Dutta Innovation prize of $1500, was won by two students (Saswata Som and Shweta Kumari). The detail of this award is given later in this issue of Patrika.

Please let us know if you wish to participate in any of the ISMAANA’s existing programs or have ideas to initiate any new program to help the students at IIT(ISM). Additionally, if you have any ideas as to how ISMAANA could be more useful to you, please send an email to the ISMAANA Secretary Dr. Hemanta Mukherji (ipoinoil@gmail.com). ISMAANA is your organization, please check with your IIT(ISM) friends in US, if they are not receiving this newsletter they need to register at the ISMAANA Web Page (www.ismaana.org). If they have any problem with the Website, they can send email to the ISMAANA board member, Gaurav Seth (smile.gaurav@gmail.com).

Lastly ISMAANA depends upon the financial contributions from the IIT(ISM) alumni in North America. We are constrained in expanding several our programs and initiating new programs to help the students at IIT(ISM), due to lack of funds. All of us have done well from the education that we received at very little cost, at IIT(ISM). Please help ISMAANA in making IIT(ISM) a leading educational institution in India. You can send your tax-deductible contributions to ISMAANA. Please make your checks payable to “Indian School of Mines Alumni”. Mail your check to the ISMAANA treasurer, Shivaji Dasgupta at “2303 Bayou Mist Court, Houston, TX 77077”

Sincerely

Atul Kumar

President ISMAANA (67 PE)
atuloky@gmail.com