Annual Report 2015
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CONTENTS
LEADERSHIP 2015.........................................................................2 SCHOLARSHIPS TEAM, BITSAA INTL..........................................6 BITS2BSCHOOL...........................................................................12 BITS2MSPHD...............................................................................13 BITS ALUMNI MENTORING PROGRAM......................................14 BITS2 FITNESS............................................................................16 BITSAA INVESTMENT COMMITTEE (BIC)..................................16 STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS......................................................18 HOW TO DONATE?......................................................................21
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LEADERSHIP 2015
EXECUTIVE TEAM
Ravi Sekhar Cherukuri CEO
Kaushik Balasubramanian CMO
Vishrut Shukla COO
Kalyan Krishnamani VP Communications, CPRO
Deekshith Vanamala CFO
Rajesh Chelapurath CIO
BITS-AMP
BITS2BSCHOOL
BITS2MSPhD
Sandeepa Garlapati Manager
Prateek Chaudhary Manager
Adwait Gandhe Manager
Shekhar Kanodia Team Leader
Avneesh Singh Team Leader
Manish Kumar Team Leader
Vineesha Satwani Team Leader
Animesh Tambi Team Leader
Apoorvaa Deshpande Team Leader
Vani Macha Team Leader
Manish Shukla Team Leader
Manasa Gopal Team Leader
AkhileshAgrawal Volunteer
Ashwin Naik Team Leader Likhita Ravuri Volunteer
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LEADERSHIP 2015
BITS2MSPhD
(Contd.)
CAMPUS RELATIONS
Samarth Hegde Volunteer
Utkarsh Mehrotra Director
Vikas Goel Volunteer
Chinmaya Patnayak Team Leader
Parth Bhogate Volunteer
Akshit Sandooja Team Leader
Siddharth Gupta Volunteer
Parth Goel Team Leader
BITS2FITNESS Siddharth Gupta Director Robin Garg Manager Jyoth Kali Prasad Bhogaraju Manager Pratyush Mahapatra Manager
BITS SPARK Rohan Manchanda Convener Rajesh Damarapati Director Arjun Baskaran Volunteer Anurag Nandi Volunteer
Rajarshi Sinha Team Leader Nilesh Gaurav Team Leader Rajdeep Pundir Team Leader Abhinav Gupta Team Leader Aditya Sharma Member Angad S Oberoi Member Tanish Anand Member Aditi Kulkarni Member Amitabh Aggarwal Member Anjali Sinha Member Raghav Jajodia Member Shivam Darmora Member
CAMPUS RELATIONS (Contd.)
Tushar Vatsa Volunteer Sourav Banerjee Volunteer Jaivardhan S Chauhan Volunteer Nikhil Sahakari Volunteer
CAREER CENTER Susheel Tatineni Vice President, Operations Suhas Kashyap Director Aishwarya Raghavan Marketing Head Vivekananda Murarishetty Technology Manager Anvesh Gudivada UI Manager Siddharth Biyani Team Leader Rachit Agarwal Team Leader Ratna Prashanth Analytics Lead Rohit Tipnis Volunteer Ramanjanaya Reddy Volunteer 3
LEADERSHIP 2015
CHAPTER RELATIONS & OUTREACH
CHAPTER RELATIONS & OUTREACH (Contd.)
Hari Kishore Director
Sneha Nandan Volunteer
Aditya Garg Director
Roshan Mishra Volunteer
Ashwin Gowda
Anuj Kulshreshtha Volunteer
Aashish Takkala Manager (New York & New Jeresy) Basant Choudhary Manager (Mumbai) Disha Sharma Manager Sriteja Burla Team Leader Lakshmi Raj Team Leader Nishamathi Kumaraswamy Team Leader
COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING Bharati Makhijani Director Priya Venkitachalam Team Leader Priyatham Dharmana Team Leader Satyavihar Kothamasu Team Leader Kruthika Sundaram Team Leader
Preethi Myla Vaikuntaraman Dalan Mendonca Team Leader (US West) Team Leader Ashish Kumar Keshav Parashar Team Leader Team Leader Ayush Agarwal Rahul Priyadarshi Volunteer Team Leader Asna Varshney Yashaswy Akella Volunteer Team Leader Raghuram Salguti Pradyumna Kiran Kummamuru Volunteer Team Leader Vinay Iyer Volunteer 4
FINANCE Anmol Gupta Director Gaurav Kothari Team Leader Ishita Aggarwal Manager Deepak Agrawal Volunteer
FUNDRAISING Sashidhar Battu Director Gaelen Pereira Director Shashwat Nandan Director Rohit Suvarna Manager Abhinav Yadav Team Leader Yatharth Chaturvedi Team Leader Aiswarya Iyer Volunteer Siva Banda Volunteer
GROWTH TEAM Reuben George Manager Prateek Sharma Volunteer Mohit Batra Volunteer Koti Mylavarapu Director
LEADERSHIP 2015
OPERATIONS Saagar Gadhok Director Arun Vinayak Manager Hardik Tiwari Manager Ankur Arvind Manager Ankit Surolia Team Leader Srikanth CS Team Leader Sanket Jain Team Leader Sujay Jain Team Leader Sunalini Sinha Team Leader Siddhartha Bahl Team Leader
PEOPLE STRATEGY
SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS (Contd.)
Nidhi Gurnani Vice President
Shreeraman Raghavan Team Leader
Nikhitha Punna Manager
Sai Prajwal Team Leader
Rohit Kulkarni Team Leader
Jitendra Kewalramani Volunteer
Sumit Kumar Team Leader
Harsh Thakar Volunteer
Nishank Varshney Volunteer
Monica Jain Volunteer
Neeti Pokharna Volunteer
TECHNOLOGY
Sahil Aggarwal Volunteer
Rakesh Komuravelli Director
Parth Shah Volunteer
Abhisek Rathi Director
Abhishek Kalantri Volunteer
Gaurab Ghosh Manager
SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS
Aditya Sharma Technology
Sandeep Murisetty Team Leader
Surya Santosh Director
Anirudh Sharma Volunteer
Rama Satya Diwakar Grandhi Director
Debanshu Singh Volunteer
Sowmyavadhana Manager
Sparsh Maheshwari Volunteer
Pavan Kumar Mullangi Manager
Prathyush Reddy Team Leader Srikanth Potipireddi Volunteer Sai Prameela Konduru Volunteer Sumit Binnani Volunteer
Padma Priya Team Leader 5
Scholarships Team, BITSAA Intl.
The scholarships team at BITSAA is dedicated to support and encourage students by managing alumni supported scholarships and awards. The scholarships cover tuition fees, international conference travel cost and graduate school application fees. The awards recognize the excellent work done by students in various fields of academics and entrepreneurship. The team aims to encourage the students to pursue excellence and ensure that no student at BITS Pilani is denied a holistic educational experience due to lack of funds. 1. BITSAA Merit-cum-Need Scholarships The Merit-cum-need (MCN) scholarships are a category of scholarships offered by BITS to students from weaker financial background based on their academic performance and merit. Testimonials show that the students have greatly benefitted from the MCN scholarships, as a part of their financial burden is alleviated and they are able to concentrate better on their academics. This motivates us to look for more avenues for providing such scholarships to deserving students. Thanks to the generous donations from BITS alumni, BITSAA currently manages ten MCN scholarships helping about 17 students in total every year. Below table presents the list of winners of various MCNs in the academic year 2014 -15. MCN Scholarship winners (2014 – 2015) Name Ramya Mittal Bugade Vishwajit Babasaheb Deeksha Awadh Dadhich Kunal Dharamsi Manek Aishwarya Himanshu Vishal Kejriwal Bhanu Priya Priya Agarwal Neha Agarwal Vrinda Poddar Hardik Verma Ganisha Bhawsar Rakde Abhijeet Kakas Archa R I Patlori Samaritha Ayush Gupta Vyankatesh Sanjay Marathe
Campus Pilani Pilani Pilani Pilani Pilani Pilani Pilani Pilani Pilani Pilani Goa Goa Goa Goa Hyderabad Pilani Pilani
Scholarship Name Class of 1966-71 Class of 1966-71 Rakesh Chandra Rakesh Chandra Scholarship Pendyala Vamsi Krishna Memorial Scholarship SS Sedhadri Memorial Santha E Iyer Santha E Iyer Santha E Iyer Santha E Iyer Bhushan Bhatia Scholarship Bhushan Bhatia Scholarship Bhushan Bhatia Scholarship Bhushan Bhatia Scholarship Ashok Agarwal Scholarship Hiralal Agarwal Scholarship Arun Kumar Agarwal Scholarship
2. BITSAA Awards BITSAA bestows awards to meritorious students, alumni and faculty in various categories. The categories include Research & Development, Arts & Literature and Sports for students. For alumni, the list of categories is much more diverse to include Social Entrepreneurship & Community Building, Entrepreneurship, Invention & Innovation and Leadership as well. As many as 50 people receive awards from BITSAA every year, and this is only possible because of the strong support and funding from the BITSian community.
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The complete list of awards given by BITSAA are as below: Name of the Award Prof SC Rastogi Merit Scholarship Srikant Visweswariah Analog Design Award and Fellowship Prof. Suresh Ramaswamy Memorial Award Shashi Kishore Research Excellence Award R.P. Vaid Award Prabhat Award for Best Outgoing Student in Physics Ranvir Trehan Tennis Trophy Brij Bhushan Badminton Trophy Leuna Herkawat Award Mantra Awards BITSAA Global 30 Under 30 Awards APOGEE Awards(Courtesy-Class of 1966-'71) Distinguished BITS Alumnus Award Batch of 2006 Award for Excellence in Computer Science Prof S.Venkateswaran Faculty Excellence Award
Link to the Award Page http://www.bitsaa.org/?SCRastogiSchol http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=SrikantAnalogAward
Applicable for Students Students
http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=shashi_kishore_award Students
Category Education Research & Development Research & Development Education
http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=SuRa_Award
Students
http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=rpvaidaward http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=prabhataward
Students Students
Education Education
http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=ranvirtrehan http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=bhushan_badminton http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=leunaaward http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=mantraawards http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=bits30under30 http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=apogeeawards
Students Students Students Students Alumni Students
Sports Sports Arts & Literature Entrepreneurship Various Categories Education
http://www.bitsaa.org/?dist_alumnus http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=2006CSaward
Alumni Students
Various Categories Education
http://www.bitsaa.org/?SVenkateswaranAward
Faculty
Faculty
We highlight a couple of the awards in detail below. Professor Suresh Ramaswamy Memorial Award This award is to honor the memory and lasting impact of Professor Ramaswamy in the lives of students he mentored. It aims to institutionalize his legacy, and promote activities that embody his spirit and enthusiasm for nurturing students. A prize of Rs. 40,000 is awarded every year to a team of students (max. 6 students) from any department of Goa campus, in order to encourage and nurture them to work on a student project. The recipients of the award will be chosen by a competitive peer-review process in the previous semester to the award. Interested students have applied to the award with a sound proposal of the project. For the year 2014-15, proposals were restricted to science and engineering. They were judged on their innovation and feasibility. Winners (2014-2015): Project: Mudra- A Braille Dicta Students: Akshay Sonandkar Yash Bardapurkar Vandan Project description: Hitch is a tiny electronic device which can wirelessly connect to mobile devices and enhance bidirectional flow of information and commands. With integration of specific sensors the device can inform mobile about outside temperature, humidity, air pressure, heart rate, speed or movement and most importantly can tell about its proximity to the connected mobile device. Therefore the device can be simply hooked with your belongings. And then your mobile phone will ensure that your valuables remain in your close range and generate an alert notification in case of losing, forgetting or theft.
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Testimonial (SuRa award winners): “We consider ourselves very fortunate to receive this highly reputed award from BITS. It is our honour to gain such recognition for our project. This award has helped us get access to Technology Business Incubator of BITS as well as permission to use Labs and 3 D printer for prototyping. The fund will help us manufacture our first finished product and buy new equipments for further research and development. We are grateful for such a support from college and hope that we will create a great impact on the society with the accomplishment of our project.” BITSAA Global 30 Under 30 Awards The recipients of BITSAA Global 30 Under 30 Awards represent the very best of the young BITSian Achievers. The group was chosen from 130 nominations, of which 102 were nominated by others – and for that we are grateful to all BITSians for recognizing the superstars in their midst. We’d also like to thank the judges and the team for a rigorous three-month process of selection. The selection committee for 2015 is, 1. Mukesh Chatter (Chairman Neosaej & Serial Entrepreneur) 2. Ajay Chaturvedi (Founder, HarVa) 3. Ajay Chopra (General Partner, Trinity Ventures) 4. Rajat Gupta (Director, Mckinsey) 5. Anu Hassan (Actress & TV Personality) 6. Sanjay Nath (Managing Director, Blume Ventures) 7. Punita Pandey (CEO, Netcustomer) 8. Kris Ramachandran (Advisor to Chairman, Aditya Birla Group) 9. Jayan Ramankutty (Chairman, BITSAA International) 10. Prof G Raghurama (Professor & Former Director, BITS Pilani) 11. Mani Shankar (Movie Director) 12. Prof Balagopal Vissa (Professor, INSEAD) The 2015 30 under 30 Winners The year of entry at BITS is given is brackets next to the candidate name. Academia / Research & Development Saniya Deshpande (2006) –Creating optical devices and nano-LEDS. Shivani Gupta (2011) - Developing solutions for early detection and diagnosis of infectious diseases. Rakesh Komuravelli (2002) - 450 citations and 8 patents in computer science. Deepan Kishore Kumar (2010) - Winner of 17 awards for research; currently at Caltech. Sundar Murugappan (2001) - User Experience Researcher at GE Global Research. Arts, Literature & Culture Akhshay Gandhi (2005) - Performance artist and cofounder of the Sva Collective initiative. Uttam Grandhi (2005) – Art work using metal, electronics and paper has been exhibited internationally. K R Bhavani GuruCharan (2003) - Extraordinary street photographer. Mohamed Ahasan Karim ( Ehsaan Nashad ) (2003) - Novelist with three books. Social Entrepreneurship & Community Building Chandra Sekhar Putchakayala (2003) - President of Nirmaan & CEO of Vidya HelpLine. Aswini Sivaraman (2004) - Digital Engagement Campaigner at Greenpeace India. George Tom (2004) – Director of Projects at the Kenneth Anderson Nature Society (KANS). Nishank Varshney (2009) - Right to Education Resource Centre (RTERC) coordinator.
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Entrepreneurship Rohit Agarwal (2007) is Founder& CEO of Framebench, a file collaboration tool. Surabhi Dewra (2003) is the co-founder and CEO of MeraCareerGuide.Com for high school students and their families and teachers. Ankit Gupta (2007) - Product Manager at Uber, Zomato and Founder of a startup sold to Gruner+Jahr. Aakash Jain (2005) - Founder of Cube26, a software firm that develops gesture controls. Shubh Malhotra (2005) - Creator of Teewe, a Chromecast competitor device. Rajagopal Sathyamurthi (2004) - Cofounder of AirPR, a PRTech startup in San Francisco. Vijay Sharma (2006) - Co-founder of Belong.co, a SaaS product disrupting the talent acquisition market. Ankit Taparia (2005) is CoFounder at Teramatrix, a 70-member company focused on telecom network management and enterprise IoT solutions. Invention & Innovation Mahesh Jadhav (2011) holds several patents and has written six books on a wide range of technology and innovation topics. Govinda Upadhyay (2005) CEO of LEDsafari wherepeople make their own electrical rechargeable lamp. Leadership Shruti Shah (2006) Work on $400M HIV/AIDS drugs access program for Cipla. Shrey Sanger (2005) Banking Analyst, former Radio Jockey and Student Union President. Deepali Agarwal (2009) Brand manager at RB & P&G and a range of activities. Pranav Jampani (2004) Leads sustainability issues for Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Sports & Talents Sameer Qayoom (2007) State Football Player and J&K Footaball Festival. Srini Santhanam (2001) is on the US Mens National Cricket Team. Praneeth (2005) is a marathoner and Iron Man. The detailed descriptions about the winners can be seen at https://goo.gl/oU2FhB. 3. BITSAA-IRU Partial Travel Grant BITSAA-IRU Partial Travel Grant supports the travel expenses of students participating in academic events of International repute. BITSAA awarded five travel grants in 2015. The winner details are given below: Student Name PVG Sai Subrahmanyam Sruthi V Ankur Omar Sancheti Chirag Ishwarlal Ajinkya Bhole
Amount INR 25,000 INR 25,000 INR 25,000
Conference IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference. New Orleans, USA International Conference on Surface Plasmon Photonics. Jerusalem, Israel International Conference on Next Generation Mobile Applications, Services and Technologies. Cambridge, UK INR 25,000 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Service Science. Yogyakarta, Indonesia INR 25,000 Sports Engineering Conference, Lisbon, Portugal (http://www.insticc.org/Portal/aboutus.aspx)
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4. Other scholarships and awards 4.1. Graduate Application Scholarship The BITSAA Graduate Application Scholarship provides financial assistance to students for their applications to MS/PhD programs. This initiative is a small step towards ensuring that the financial burden of applications does not get in the way of the students for securing admission to an ambitious program at top universities. The cost of applying to graduate programs has risen considerably in the last few years. Even for people applying to just six universities, the cost of tests and application fees can be easily over 1000 USD. There are additional costs for getting transcripts and applying for visas. Since application process has become expensive, BITSians face greater financial pressure and are often discouraged from applying to many of the top universities. The idea is for BITS alumni to pay for a significant part of the costs, making the application process more affordable, and encouraging more students to apply to top schools. The number of applications for the Graduate Application scholarship increased significantly in the past year. Currently, BITSAA awards three graduate application scholarships of 500 USD each, in every academic year. We hope that the program will eventually become self-sustaining, with people who receive the scholarship in one year paying for the next generation of BITSians to apply. All students who are currently pursuing their undergraduate/graduate degree in any of the BITS campuses are eligible to apply for the scholarship. Winners (2014): Arjun Ram S P - 2012A8PS327P Meghana Bansal - 2012A7PS054P Ujash Dipakbhai Shah - 2012A4TS134G Sarguna Janani Padmanabhan - 2012A7PS148H 4.2. Prof. I J Nagrath Student Project fund The “Prof. I J Nagrath Student Project fund� has been instituted by Brij Bhushan, an alumni from the class of 1964 in honor of Prof. I J Nagrath, who served various roles at BITS from 1952 to 1999. Prof. I J Nagrath retired as the Deputy Director after serving at BITS in educational, administrative and managerial roles. He is an excellent academician who taught many generations of BITSians and also the author of several well known books in Electrical & Electronics Engineering. The project fund aims to encourage students and faculty in EEE department at Pilani campus to undertake projects in labs of their choice and gain a hands-on experience. Winners (2015): Project: Headlight beam optimization and Speed control for Vehicular Systems for Road accident prevention Students: Rishabh Choudhary (2012A3PS156P) Naman Gupta (2012A3PS080P) Faculty: Prof V K Chaubey, Professor, EEE Project Description: Majority of road accidents occur mainly due to over speeding of the vehicles leading to head on collision or unregulated headlight intensity during night which causes glare in the eyes of the driver leading to disorientation in driving. The proposed project idea aims to develop a system which can automatically adjust the headlight beam intensity of the approaching vehicles to an optimum level to reduce any unwanted glare. We also aim to implement speed control mechanism in vehicular systems where approaching vehicles, if moving at a relative speed higher than the safe threshold will be automatically able to reduce their speed to a optimum level to avoid any head on collision. This hybrid vehicle safety system if deployed at a large scale can minimize the possibility of road accidents to a large extent.
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4.3. BITSAA BITSMUN Travel scholarship The BITSAA-BITSMUN Travel scholarship has been initiated with a purpose of supporting BITSians participating in leadership, public speaking, entrepreneurship events, both within India and abroad in 2014 by two BITS Pilani graduates Sachin Jain (class of 2011) & Aman Gupta (class of 2012). The winner details for the year 2015 are given below:
Name ID No. Shrikant Sushil Sharda 2014A7PS046P
Amount INR 20,000
Shubham Arora
INR 10,000
2012B3A7522P
Event International Student Energy Summit 2015, Bali, Indonesia World Business Dialogue, Germany (2016)
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BITS2BSCHOOL
BITS2BSchool is a closed group of more than 3000 BITSians. Over time we have started many initiatives to bring the alumni together with the purpose of increasing the BITSians intake in the top business schools of the world. Such initiatives include organizing coffee meet ups, audio conferences, writing blogs, publishing e-interviews, maintaining and sharing alumni databases and forums for MBA admit related discussions. It also includes a holistic analysis of the BITSians admitted to business schools and understanding the admission trends. Coffee Meet Ups Team usually organizes one coffee meet up every 2-3 months. Recent invitees of the meet ups include alumni from Duke, Kellogg and INSEAD MBA programms. Every coffee meet up sees a participation of around 8-10 MBA applicants. InterviewBay deal With support from fundraising team, we have signed an agreement with InterviewBay.com to assist BITSians with B-school interviews and also act as a FR avenue to BITSAA. Salient features of the deal include: •
10% discount offered to BITSians on services offered by InterviewBay
•
10% sale proceeds donated to BITSAA
Going digital We have collaborated with Career Center team to leverage the technology platform provided by CC team. Primarily BITS2BSCHOOL has shifted its alumni database on to the wordpress platform and also is using ‘Knowledge Center’ (KC) platform to engage with audience through blogs, application advice and e-interview. Alumni Database We continuously strive to update our database with the latest MBA admits. So far we have captured more than a total of 430 BITSian admits across the globe. Last application year saw ~30 BITSians enter the top 20 global schools such as Wharton, LBS, Tuck, Darden, Duke etc. Currently the online data base has the following features: •
List-view report of the entire directory
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Detailed view of each BITSian on a single click
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Search to the directory based on specific criteria
Blogs/ E-Interviews We target to write one blog entry/ e-interview each month and share it with the BITS2BSchool group. In the recent past alums from LBS, Wharton etc have contributed in such interview sessions. Thanks to WordPress technology of ‘Knowledge Center’ platform, publishing articles is now a self-administered job handled by BITS2BSCHOOL independently. Forums/ BITS2BSchool Portal Going forward we will provide extra push to the ‘go-digital’ goal. We intend to publish more interactive content, enhance
existing functions and ultimately, engage with users in a sustainable manner.
Team profile: Anurag VNVJ 06B3A3G Animesh Tambi 07A1PSP Prateeek Chaudary 07A7PSP
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BITS2MSPhD
Vision • To help BITSians make a well informed decision on pursuing higher studies abroad. • Establish a community of BITSians (students and alumni) to engage in communication about graduate studies and programs. • Guiding BITSians on ways to improve their profiles and get better admits. BITS2MSPhD forum [1] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bits2msphd [2] https://www.facebook.com/groups/bits2msphd The Yahoo group still serves as the primary communication forum between aspiring BITSians and BITSians currently at graduate school. The forum has more than 5000 members and increasing. The group contains 1000+ messages over the years on various aspects of the application process. There is also a Facebook group for similar discussions. The Facebook group has more than 2200 members of the BITS community. Of late, the Facebook has picked up in terms of messages and is poised to take over as the primary form of communication in some time. Campus Talks BITS2MSPhD team conduct one main campus talk before the application process starts, for MS or PhD to make sure the juniors on campus aspiring to study abroad have all the information and resources to guide them through the application process. Starting with selecting the right universities, we focus on all the major categories of the application like Statement Of Purpose, resume, recommendation letters and also, on the job prospects after graduation. This approach, we believe, gives an overall perspective to the ones who want to pursue higher studies. Campus talks were held at all 4 BITS campuses. We also try to address the students in their initial years at BITS by helping them prepare themselves best for getting an admit in their dream school. We hope to achieve this by talking about the opportunities one can make use of, while they are at BITS. In this regard, we talk mainly about internship opportunities in India and abroad. Monday Learning Articles A popular weekly article series for the graduate school applicants to throw light on all aspects of the graduate school application process. 13 Articles were published as a part of this and posted to the Career Center Blog. This initiative has been run for the 5th consecutive year successfully. Discipline Talks Apart from this main talk which covers all the general aspects of the application process, we also organized and planned many discipline-wise talks for the coming year. A pilot talk was conducted at the Pilani campus on Cognitive Neuroscience. These talks concentrate more on a particular stream or discipline in collaboration with many BITS alumni who are interested in sharing their experiences and giving advice to the juniors. Thus, through this campus talk initiative, we try to reach as many students on campus as we can and provide them with reliable information before they make their decisions and to let them all be aware of the resources (BITS2MSPhD yahoo group, Facebook group, MLA series etc.) we provide as a part of BITS2MSPhD initiative, to help them with this whole process.
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BITS Alumni Mentoring Program
BITS-AMP (BITS Alumni Mentoring Program) that has been launched during BGM 2014 is successfully progressing toward reaching out to larger audience and providing mentoring to the Alumni who are in need of guidance from accomplished Alumni in the desired career field. Through this article, we the team of BITS-AMP would like to share the progress time line and about what’s in-store for future. The program was launched during BGM 2014 in Hyderabad campus, where Venu Palaparthi (BITS Class of ‘92, co-Founder of BITSAA) has designed and brought this initiative into action. Sandeepa Garlapati (BITS Class of ’06, Manager of BITSAMP) along with Volunteers from the campus worked with him and matched around 20 pairs from among those who attended the session, giving it a kick start. Post the pilot launch session, BITS-AMP team expanded with new members to focus more on reaching out to more BITSians around the world. The team created its new Facebook page for anyone to connect and reach out to the team, with the page’s fane base increasing rapidly. The team created its new logo and a new tag line, standing unique on its own.
Overview of the program BITS-AMP facilitates exclusive one-one interactions between a successful alumnus (mentor) and a budding alumnus/student (mentee) who is seeking inroads in the same industry or similar area of expertise. These interactions will be facilitated across various cities or via a virtual medium. Following that, the mentors and mentees continue to interact. BITS-AMP evaluates the mentoring relationship after the first meeting and periodically there-on making proactive changes to the pairing depending on a suitability assessment. Throughout the session, the BITS-AMP team supports the pairs to achieve the objectives.
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During its session in 2015-2016, BITS-AMP matched around 50 pairs from the applications received (mentee application: mentor application (1:2)) from around the world. Match-making was done very carefully, by catering to each of the mentor and mentees goals. The program has been well received by everyone and is being reached out fast to the BITSians through word of mouth. The following are the excerpts from what our mentors and mentees from the previous session had to say. “I feel very glad to be a part of the BITS-AMP Mentor-Mentee program. I signed up for the program in September and in October I was matched with SrikarGoudNagelli, a scientist in Boston. Our goals matched, he was willing to help me in my applications for higher studies. I started applying to several universities in the USA from November to January. He helped me in presenting my profile in the best way through my Resume . I used to Skype him and he used to give a lot of tips on applying to universities and writing personal statements. I also got to know a lot of information of graduate school admission process in the USA through my mentor. I got many rejections in December and January through which I learnt to accept rejections. In March I was accepted into Masters program in Immunology at Harvard Medical School. The BITS-AMP Mentor program is a really great initiave and I believe It will help more and more students who sign up for this program !! BITS-AMP program gave me moral support and confidence when I was going through my higher studies application process and I learnt a lot of valuable lessons in life through this program and through my mentor !” -- Gayathri Ganesh(BITS-Pliani Dubai, Class of ‘2016, mentee) “Whatever my mentee achieved is all due to her hard work and dedication. Good luck for the future. And yes about the BITS-AMP program, I am very confident it will help a lot of people.” -- SrikarGoudNagelli (BITS-Pliani, Class of ‘2011, mentor) For the upcoming mentoring sessions, BITS-AMP focuses on receiving very strong applications, analyze the applicants profile and determine the eligibility based on the program requirements. It also plans on automating the program to enable a smooth application and match-making.
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BITS2FITNESS
BITS2Fitness came into existence in March 2015 as a result of expansion of BITS2Marathon. The team (Divesh, Siddharth, Kali, Robin) pioneering this expansion wanted to promote healthy lifestyle among BITSians across the globe by not limiting them to just one sport: “Running”. Hence, this ideology led to evolution of BITS2Fitness that aims at building a stronger and more active BITSian community by providing a platform that spans across multiple sports. One of the main driving force behind this change was the freedom to organize many new events/activities across multiple sports (in addition to normal 5K/10K runs which BITS2Marathon provided). Formation of BITS2Fitness Facebook group was officially announced in April 2015 and it superseded BITS2Marathon in the same month.
BITSAA Investment Committee (BIC) As stewards of excess capital and various endowed fundsfor BITSAA International, the BITSAA Investment Committee (BIC) has the primary objective of generating proceeds (via investment income and/or capital appreciation) to administer BITSAA’s current endowed (fully or partially) initiatives. The BIC endeavors to achieve its objectives via appropriate investments within a combined investment portfolio called the BITSAA Endowment Fund (BEF).As of December 31, 2015 the BEF supports the following 12 endowments, with an annualized obligation of around USD 9,300: NAME
CAMPUS
PURPOSE
INSTITUTED
Pendyala Vamsikrishna Memorial Scholarship
Pilani
50% tuition fee to a II year student (merit-cum-need)
2002
S.S. Seshadri Memorial Scholarship
Pilani
50% tuition fee to a III year student (merit-cum-need)
2002
Leuna H Scholarship
Pilani
Rs. 5000 Award to the winner of Tarang-a music competition at Oasis
2003
RP Vaid Scholarship
Pilani
Rs. 5000 Award to a deserving Chemical Engineering student
2003
All
50% tuition fees for 2 students (1 male and 1 female) in III year (need based)
2009
Pilani/Goa/Hyderabad
Fixed amount need-based scholarship towards tuition awarded to a student from Faizabad district, UP
2009
Ranvir Trehan Memorial
Pilani
Trophy & prize money awarded to the winning team of the tennis tournament at BOSM
2009
Bhushan Badminton Award
Pilani
Trophy & prize money awarded to the winning team of the badminton tournament at BOSM
2009
85 Helping Hands-Seema Sood Plus
Pilani/Goa/Hyderabad
As needed by 85HH Officials-currently approx. 1500 USD/Q
2015
Travel Endowment
Pilani/Goa/Hyderabad
Towards travel grant requests, upto 500pa
2015
Opex Endowment
Pilani/Goa/Hyderabad
Towards BITSAA Operational expenses, upto 500 pa
2015
SPARKS Endowment
Pilani/Goa/Hyderabad
Towards SPARKS initiative related expenses, upto 1000pa
2015
Bhushan Bhatia Scholarships Hiralal Agarwal Memorial Scholarship
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2015 Highlights The BEF has grown over the years (since its inception value of approx. $10,000 in April, 2003),via a combination of investment returns and new endowments, to $184,666 (12/31/2015 close) reflecting an average annualized return of +5.1% since inception. $200,000
$184,666 $180,000 $160,000
$149,527 $129,344 $127,699 $122,845 $121,818
$120,000
$109,760
$100,000 $80,000
$61,323
$60,000
$41,537
$40,000 $20,000
$10,005 $11,243 $11,910
$16,265
$22,409
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009*
2008*
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
$0
4/30/2003
BITSAA Endowment Fund (US $)
$140,000
Year
In 2015, the BEF, which has investments allocated in similar amounts into equities and fixed income, generated a return of -1.0%, for an unrealized capital depreciation of $2,241. The returns were weighed down by lackluster financial markets in 2015 and to some degree by the larger than normal cash levels sitting in the account for much of the year, as we waited for clarifications on the use of these new contributions. During the year, the rupee depreciated marginally from 63.2/ USD on Dec 31, 2014 to 66.2/USD on Dec 31, 2015. The academic year 2015-2016 saw an increase in tuition to the tune of +6.7% (from INR 1.79 Lakhs p.a. to INR 2.0 Lakhs p.a.), a small rise in USD terms for our obligations tied to tuition fees. We remain in decent shape to weather storms from time to time in the form of USD depreciation or tuition increases or a below expected performance in any given year. Four new Endowments came into effect in 2015, as follows: Travel Endowment, Opex Endowment, Spark Endowment, and 85 Batch Helping Hands Endowment and contributions towards these to the tune of $40,000 were made in 2015. Publication of Investment Policy Statements All of BIC’s/BEF’s activities (including principles and parameters guiding these actions) and obligations are published in detail via periodic reports that are available online at www.bitsaa.org under the endowments section. BITSAA Investment Committee Rajesh Chelapurath (‘88) - Chief Investment Officer KotiMylavarapu (’01)–Director
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Statement of Accounts
Beginning balance Jan 1, 2015 Cash Flow In (Revenues/Donations) Revenues General Fund NASDAQ bell ringing group BITS Spark 9T Fund 86 Batch Silver Jubilee Fund 1985 Batch Help Fund Surekha Banot department fund Mantra Awards Hyderabad Campus project Student Enrichment Sponsorship from 2014 Annual Report Inspired Karters Shell Eco Project at Pilani Income towards new MCN scholarship Prof. Suresh Ramaswamy Memorial Fund Meera Bhavan Facilities Prof I J Nagrath Outstanding Teacher Awards BITSAA Seattle Chapter Faculty Enrichment Total Revenue Cash Flow Out (Expenses/ Disbursements) Operational Expenses YMC Bluepay Fees Neon CRM Hostgator Fees Double the Donation Annual Report Printing Thank you cards to donors Send in Blue Miscellaneous Dropbox Amex Fees Wire Fees Printing and shipping 2014 Tax Filing Disbursements 1988 Batch Go 2 BITS Endowments BITS Connect 2.0 Mana Maali 9T Fund Endowed scholarships 1985 Batch Help Fund Travel Grants Mantra Awards Hyderabad Campus project Graduate Application Scholarship 1983 Batch Help Fund Inspired Karters Excess Pilani funds Prof. Suresh Ramaswamy Memorial Fund Student Projects Fund 2006 Batch CS Award
$ 2,31,360.04 $ 34,916.67 $ 22,000.00 $ 20,000.00 $ 6,707.00 $ 3,676.00 $ 2,366.00 $ 2,000.00 $ 1,830.00 $ 1,600.00 $ 1,510.00 $ 1,250.00 $ 1,200.00 $ 1,100.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 400.00 $ 200.00 $ 200.00 $ 150.00 $ 75.00 $ 1,02,180.67 $ 6,887.93 $ 2,967.14 $ 1,042.00 $ 412.80 $ 399.00 $ 241.88 $ 230.00 $ 157.95 $ 119.00 $ 99.00 $ 87.17 $ 80.00 $ 47.00 $ 35.00 $ 12,805.87
Total Expenses
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
Ending balance, Dec 31, 2015
$ 1,74,682.86
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52,207.66 40,000.00 12,605.00 10,000.00 9,907.00 6,481.51 3,000.00 2,436.86 2,403.86 1,600.00 1,017.68 1,000.00 1,000.00 767.00 643.09 500.00 482.32 1,46,051.98 1,58,857.85
HOW TO DONATE?
BITSAA International Donation Form (USD) Donation from Rest of the World
Donate online at https://www.bitsaa.org/fundraising
BITSAA International,
___________________________________________________________ _______________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________
me instructions
reasonable sized donation. See
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HOW TO DONATE?
___________________________________________________________ _______________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________
me instructions
reasonable sized donation. See
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