BITSAA.org -- The portal that connects us all!

The new website for BITSAA - http://bitsaa.org was launched on 1st November, 2008. This website will surely go on to make the BITS Alumni Association one of the best networked alumni associations in the world. ALL the initiatives (Read: BITS2MSPhD, BITS2BSchool, BITSConnect, BITS Embryo and many more) have all been brought under one roof. ALL the batch registrations, (All the way from Pre-1964 to 2006) are managed on this website too. 

The website also contains the Databases of many BITSians who have made their mark in this world in the field of education, literature, entrepreneurship, leadership etc.:

1. Close to 50 books published by BITSians.

2. Over 320 names of BITSians in Academia out of which 200 odd are in the US itself. In-fact the list contains over 50 Department Heads/Chancellors/Vice Chancellors/Directors at universities like MIT, Purdue, Georgia Tech, Ohio State, Imperial College etc. along with Indian universities like IIT- Delhi, IIT- Bombay, IIM- Ahemdabad, IIT- Kanpur, IIT Madras, Indian School of business et al.

3. Over 230 names of companies founded by BITSian Entrepreneurs. The list includes names like Pennywise Solutions, Microtek, Hotmail, Onida, Bharat Forge, Mindtree, Amkette, LogicVision, Magma etc!

4. Over 225 names of BITSians who are CEOs/CTOs/MDs/Directors/VPs of companies like:

Veritas, Credit Suisse, Yesbank, Sony Ericsson, Cisco, Intel, Mckinsey, Ford Motors, Sun Microsystems, Tanishq, Philips, Dell, Star Sports, L&T, Ranbaxy, Samsonite, Yahoo!, Lehman Bros, CitiGroup, Barclays, Dabur, Idea Cellular, Airtel, Xilinx, Magma, IDBI... (The list continues. It gives a feeling that BITSians run this world!)

The website would not have been possible without the combined efforts and vision of BITSAA Leaders.

We as BITSians, urge all the other BITSians to come and join this website and contribute to the ever growing name of BITS-Pilani. It doesn't matter which batch or campus you graduated from. The only fact that matters is that we are connected together, and are indebted to our alma mater -- BITS-Pilani.

Update: The website had 500 registrations on the first day itself! Way to go!

BITSAA and IPL Partnership! Wow! :D

Ahh! Finally BITSians joined the IPL frenzy!! Here is a first of its kind honor bestowed on ANY college community (read: BITSians!) by IPL, Rajastan Royals. This a mail I received sometime back:::: 

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Dear BITSians 

BITSAA is glad to announce that Rajasthan Royals (IPL Cricket Team based in Jaipur) and BITSAA have signed an exclusive partnership deal to create the first International fan base of an IPL team. A press release to this effect went out to the India Newswire today (see below). 

This deal came to BITSAA through Dreamcricket.com (founded by BITSian Venu Palaparthi- 1987 batch). Given that Rajasthan Royals is the natural home team for BITSians because of the memorable times we spent at Pilani, BITSAA was more than happy to oblige to kickstart a new trend in Indian sport history. 

As part of this deal BITSians around the world will get: 

• 50% discount on all season tickets for all Home Games (Played at Jaipur) 

• 20% discount on purchase of 10 or more tickets for specific games (i.e not season tickets). 

• Free tickets for home games that BITSAA will raffle to its members for specific promotions 

• 50% discount to BITSians who may want to purchase a VIP box for the season 

• Special tickets to RR away games like the ones in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata 

• Discounts on RR merchandise 

• Articles from Shane Warne and other Rajasthan Royals players for the Alumni Magazine, Sandpaper 2.0 

Please watch out for an announcement on how BITSians can avail of these benefits for IPL games. Send your thoughts and feedback to garg@bitsaa.org 

Thanks, 

Ashish Garg 

CEO, BITSAA International 

www.bitsaa.org 

Here is the link:: 

http://www.indiainfoline.com/news/innernews.asp?storyId=66592&lmn=1 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

Rajasthan Royals announces Global Fan Community alliance with BITS Pilani International Alumni Association! 

The first international fan base by an IPL team is launched! 

Jaipur, 30th April 2008: Emerging Media, owners of the Jaipur IPL franchise, Rajasthan Royals announced a first-of-its-kind global fan alliance by signing an exclusive relationship with BITS Pilani International Alumni Association. 

With this association Rajasthan Royals will induct over 30,000 BITS Pilani Alumni into the Rajasthan Royals support base, providing all members of the community with special offers, free tickets and discounted merchandise of the Rajasthan Royals. In addition, the Rajasthan Royals will also contribute to the BITSAA community with special articles written by Shane Warne and a charity auction at a later stage. 

BITS Pilani, the premier engineering and sciences institution is located in Rajasthan, only 5 hours away from Jaipur. Rajasthan Royals is also extending the benefits of this alliance to over 5000 students and members of faculty of BITS Pilani. 

Manoj Badale, Chairman of the Rajasthan Royals said, “We are extremely excited about this partnership. BITS-ians worldwide are a fine representation of India, highly educated, well settled and truly global citizens, yet deeply connected by a certain bond they share. With this alliance, we hope to provide them another reason to bond: supporting a fierce team in the Royals.” 

“BITS Pilani alumni around the world are rooting for Rajasthan Royal’s victory in the IPL tournament. Go Royals!”, said Professor S.P.Kothari, Chairman of BITSAA, who is currently Deputy Dean at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

“This is the foundation of what will be a huge community for us in due course. We have a number of initiatives on the anvil, both online and offline for increased interaction between our global members and of course, the Warnie Army has begun to take shape”, said Ravi Krishnan, Vice Chairman of the Rajasthan Royals 

Commenting on the relationship, Fraser Castellino, CEO of the Rajasthan Royals said, “Of course, the fact that Pilani and Jaipur share a home in Rajasthan was the primary connection between us. This is another first for us and we look forward to support from the BITS-ians.” 

With Shane Warne being the only international captain of an IPL franchise and a few fine winning performances, the Rajasthan Royals are already attracting fans from all over the world. 

"Rajasthan Royals is the natural home team for the global BITS Pilani Alumni because of the memorable times we spent at Pilani, Rajasthan. BITSians all around the world are rooting for Shane Warne and the team", said Ashish Garg, CEO of BITSAA. 

BITSians of Note - I

Here goes the inaugural profile:

Name: Mr. Mahesh Ramasubramanian

Batch: 93, Computer Science

Present designation: Digital Effects Supervisor

Company: Dreamworks Animation, Greater Los Angeles, USA

After completing his under-graduation from BITS in 97 Mahesh went on to the Cornell University to do an MS in Computer Graphics. After completing his MS he went on to work at Pacific Data Images as a Visual Effects Animator where he worked on movies like Shrek, Shrek-2. The company was then bought by Dreamworks SKG where he worked on movies like Madagascar. Presently he is working at Dreamworks Animation and has also worked on movies like Over the Hedge, The bee movie, etc. (Been the lead!)

Mahesh has his own IMDB page (Wow!) which lists:

1. Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) (digital effects supervisor)
   
   
   
2. Bee Movie (2007) (head of effects)
3. Over the Hedge (2006) (head of effects)
4. Madagascar (2005) (visual effects lead)
5. Shrek 2 (2004) (visual effects)
6. Shrek 4-D (2003) (visual effects)
   
   ... aka Shrek 3-D (USA: DVD title)
   
7. Shrek (2001) (effects artist)

In 2005 Mahesh also won the "Global 30 under 30" award under Arts and Culture category instituted by BITSAA in recognition of thirty students or alums for their extraordinary achievements before the age of 30.

Hats off to you Sir!

Updates: Facts!

This one is going to be a regular one. 

1. 25% teams in Eureka finals (2 out of 8 teams in finals, one from Goa and another from Pilani)

2. The first book on verilog was written by a BITSian. (Mr. Yatin Trivedi, Director Industry Partnership Programs, Magma Design Automation, USA)

3. The two indians on the 50 topmost connected people on Linked in: BITSians. :)

4. Ipv6 standard developed at BITS-Pilani.

5. Only college in India to have not agreed to reservations based on caste! BITS only entertains reservations based on Merit!

6. The first online examinations in India: BITSAT.

7. The admission selectivity is around 2%.

8. The Entrepreneurship Cell, Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership is one of the Top-5 such cells in India.

9. Companies like Onida, Tanishq, Amkette found by BITSians (Full list will be up soon!).

10. ISB topper for this 2008: BITSian, Chitra Raghunath (http://www.isb.edu/gradday2008/ScholarsofExcellence.shtml)

More to come...

Finally!

Ahh! It's two in the night, I have lots of work to do and have office tomorrow. But I have something sacred to do! I am writing this post! Why you ask?!

Well, I love BITS-Pilani and this has been the blog I've always wanted to write/compile! I am damn proud to be a BITSian (some people tell me that i'm infatuated with it!) and I just love it when I read news about BITS! I've always wanted to compile it all under one roof and this blog is an effort exactly to do that. And of-course as long as you are related to BITS, you are invited (read: urged!) to contribute. Just send a mail to akaash[dot]bits[at]gmail[dot]com and I will add you in the authors list.

The journey begins here...