IMPACT

NEWSLETTER

BITSAA International

Scholarships Team

Inside this issue

Message from CEO ..................... 1

MCN scholarship ........................ 2

Travel scholarship & loans .......... 3

BITSAA Awards ........................... 4

Acknowledgments ...................... 7

Hello BITSians!! Impact newsletter is BITSAA International’s publication focusing on initiatives be-ing taken by BITSAA to improve avenues of scholarships for students of BITS Pilani across all campuses-Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad and Dubai. The current issue is the first issue of this biannual publication by scholarships team at BITSAA. The scholarships team is dedicated to help students by offering scholarships covering tuition fees, international conference travel cost and grad school application fees. The newslet-ter will be a platform to showcase the impact of these scholarships and to highlight existing gaps in the available funds and scholarship needs. The newsletter will also serve the purpose of recognizing current years’ scholarship winners across differ-ent scholarships schemes. BITSAA International is thankful to all alumni supporting these efforts. In the coming years, we aim to increase the effectiveness of scholar-ships further and will need the help of alumni and current students in scaling up of activities on this front. We would love to hear your suggestions/comments regard-ing the newsletter and the scholarship activities it showcases.

Message from CEO I wanted to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude

towards all donors for supporting the scholarships and award pro-

grams at BITSAA. Since BITSAA's inception in 2002, we have come a

long way in our mission of strengthening the ties, friendship and com-

munication among students, alumni, faculty and friends of BITS. What

started as a small organization with 10 volunteers supporting 1-2 scholarships, has

grown into a virtual organization of 200+ volunteers spending their time and effort

in helping students do innovative projects and showcase their research at interna-

tional conferences; and doing global projects like BITSConnect, BGM, BITS Spark and

more recently BITSConnect 2.0. None of this would have been possible without your

contribution and support, for which I, and the entire BITSAA Board of Trustees are

extremely grateful.

-Rohit Koul

2013 First Edition

Testimonials show that the students have greatly benefitted from the merit-cum-need (MCN) scholarships, as a part of their financial burden is alleviated and they are able to concentrate better on their academics

Merit Cum Need Scholarship

2

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 merit-cum-need (MCN) scholarships, as a part of their financial burden is alleviated and they are able to concen-trate 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 has initiated and manages twelve MCN scholarships helping 14 students in total. Please refer the link for more information http://www.bitsaa.org/?currentscholarships. This year BITSAA supported 12 students with alumni sponsored MCN scholarships. A few of the scholarship winners and their testi-monials have been highlighted below

Ashima Dharembra 2011A8PS234P I am Ashima Dharembra, a first year student pursuing Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering at

BITS, Pilani - Pilani campus. I am an active member of NSS, BITS Pilani. I am an avid reader and am a

part of the Matrix club. I wish to pursue higher studies in the field of electronics after graduation. I have

also been a scholar at school and this scholarship will go a long way in making me strive harder to

achieve my goals. I am genuinely grateful for this scholarship as it eases a lot of the financial burden on

my family. It feels even more special coming from a BITS alumnus. This scholarship is of great help to me

and my family. I thank BITSAA and the donors for this kind gesture.

Ashutosh Pandey 2008A4PS348P I come from Faizabad district in Uttar Pradesh. I got admission in BITS Pilani-(Pilani campus) as a Me-

chanical Engineering (BE-Hons) student in the year 2008. In 2009-10 I was awarded “Hiralal Agarwal

Memorial Scholarship” by BITSAA based on my financial background and the native place. It was a great

relief for my parents as well as to me. I utilized every single rupee of this scholarship in pursuing my

course at BITS-PILANI. I am very thankful to Mr. Bhasker D. Agarwal (1970 Batch) for starting this schol-

arship and providing a great opportunity for the bright and needy students from Faizabad. I am also very

grateful to BITSAA scholarship team and Student Welfare Division (BITS-Pilani) for helping me at each step

Nitin Hiran 2008A2PS522P

I come from a middle class family based in Udaipur, Rajasthan where my dad runs a small company for

recording and distributing Rajasthani folk music cassettes and CDs. My mother is a housewife and I have

two sisters too. I still remember how excited I was when I scored well in BITSAT & knew I had a chance to

go to BITS. However looking at the fee structure, I was worried that it would create an economic burden

on my family. It was only when a few seniors at BITS told me about the MCN scholarships at BITS that I

decided to join the institute. I would like to thank KK Rao sir for this scholarship & all my seniors who

helped me at every stage in BITS.

3

Although BITSAA strives to reach all deserving and meritorious students with requirement for MCN scholar-

ships, many students are left out, primarily for the lack of funds. The info-graphs below depict the existing gaps

in the number of MCN scholarship applicants and scholarship winners. We aim to fill in the existing gap with

fundraising activity within the BITS Pilani community and through external sources.

Comparison of MCN statistics over 6 semesters

Pilani Campus Goa Campus

Hyderbad Campus

Applicant-Funding Gap

* Based on statistics from 2011-2012 first semester

Travel Scholarship and Loan BITSAA offers scholarships to students planning to participate in international conferences and symposiums in

the field of engineering and technology. These scholarships partially cover travel expense for the students.

Through travel scholarships, BITSAA aims to encourage participation of students in reputed technical confer-

ences and help engage students in cutting edge research. Please visit http://www.bitsaa.org/?

page=partial_travelschol for more details. BITSAA also offers 0% loans which gives partial financial support to

students attending non-technical or business or social entrepreneurship conferences/summits/fellowships

abroad. It is a Travel Loan with a "return-with-zero-percent-interest” clause (within 1 year from graduation).

Please visit http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=loans for more details.

With the support of alumni of BITS Pilani, BITSAA currently offers following travel scholarships

Anurag Jain 0% Loan Fund

BITSAA Yugaa & General Loan Fund

BITSAA Travel Scholarship

Select testimonials of awardees of travel scholarships and loan have been highlighted below

4

Via travel scholarships, BITSAA aims to encourage participation of students in reputed tech-nical conferences and help engage students in cutting edge research.

Jinal Shah (2009A3PS010G)

BITSAA scholarship covered my travel expenses to United States for my thesis. I sincerely thank BITSAA

for providing this support. I strongly encourage every interested candidate to apply and take benefit of

this scholarship.

Deepan Kishore Kumar (2010AAPS068U) The BITSAA Travel Loan was indeed of great help to me, as it reduced the financial burden on me and

aided me in representing BITS at this International Forum with over 700 delegates from all over the

world. The 0% Loan scheme is also an innovative way by which more students can be encouraged to par-

ticipate in International Conferences, so as to gain a professional network and present their research

findings.

Travel Scholarships and loan scheme receive a large number of applicants every semester. The applicants are thoroughly

screened by respective campus faculty-in-charge before recommending them for the scholarship and loan. However, the

amount of available funds limit BITSAA’s ability to help many deserving applicants. The graphs below show the huge dis-

parity in number of applicants and available scholarships to the students. We believe there are many more students who

deserve to be assisted and encouraged and would like to call BITS alumni to support us in this effort.

Travel Loan Travel Scholarships

BITSAA Global 30 Under 30 awards

BITSAA Awards

The 30 Under 30 awards were created after encountering many amazing young BITSians, who had done so much but were not

yet known. These global awards are a way to not only recognize and honor outstanding BITSians under the age of 30 who have

demonstrated excellence in their respective fields, but more importantly, to showcase these beacons of inspiration to the oth-

ers around them.

*Data from 2011-2013 *Data from 2011-2013

Total Applicants:

48

5

2012 hosted the third season of 30 Under 30 awards with the following members on the judging panel.

Prof. B N Jain – Vice Chancellor, BITS Pilani

Kris Ramachandran – Advisor to Chairman, Aditya Birla Group

Ashok Agarwal – Entrepreneur, Adjunct Professor, BITS Pilani-Hyderabad

Prof. Reena Aggarwal – Professor, Georgetown University

Prof. Krishna Saraswat – Professor, Stanford University

Anurag Jain – Serial Entrepreneur & Former SVP of Dell/Perot

Raju Reddy – President & Chairman, BITSAA International

Phanindra Sama – Entrepreneur; Winner of 30 Under 30, 2009

Manoj Saxena – Tech Entrepreneur; General Manager, IBM Watson

Prabhu B Doss (1999) Dushyanth Sridhar (2004) Sarvani Yadavalli (2004)

Chetan Bansal (2008) Tejas Chafekar (2005)

Suvonil Chatterjee (2010) Siddharth Loganathan (2000)

Ramji Venkatasubramanian (2000)

Vishakha Gupta (2000) Soumya Sen (2001)

Shruthi Sridhar Vembar (1999)

Abhishek Humbad (2005) A R Gopi Krishna (2004) Gaurav Mathur (2000)

Lohit Sahu (2005)

Divya Devarajan (2001) Saurabh Ladha (2008) Satish Polisetti (2002) Akash Raman (2004) Aalap Tripathy (2004)

Tarun Cherukuri (2002) Abhijeet Gan (2000)

Keerthi Kiran K (2004) Ankur Kumar (2006) Divya Nawale (2003) Mayur Patnala (2002) Yashveer Singh (2004)

Srinath Nagarajan (2001)

Raman Garimella (2006) Mahesh Krishnamurthy (2000)

Arts, Literature & Culture Invention & Innovation

Academia / Research & Development

Leadership

Entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship & Community Building

Professional Achievement Sports

Winners of 2012 BITSAA 30 under 30 awards have been tabulated below. More details about the winners at :

http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=bits30under30

Agam-Contemporary Carnatic Rock band

Special Team Award

6

The Prof. Suresh Ramaswamy Memorial 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 activi-ties that embody his spirit and enthusiasm for nurturing students. Prof. Ramaswamy always believed that every student, when trusted and given the right encouragement can be successful in any venture of his/her choice. A group of students who were very close to Prof.Ramaswamy realized that the best way to honor him and continue his legacy is to initiate an award that encapsulates his vision, and remove all barriers that impede the progress of student projects in BITS. The award will be com-

menced in Sem II, 2012-’13 academic year.

Prof. Suresh Ramaswamy Memorial Award

Shashi Kishore Research Excellence Award is aimed at promoting research in the field of Economics. Ankur Kumar

(’06B3A7G, M.Sc. (Hons.) Economics & B.E. (Hons.) Computer Science Engineering) instituted the award in name of his

parents – Mrs. Shashi Prabha (Mother) and Mr. Kishore Sah (Father) to honor students who have demonstrated excellence

in research as part of academic research or independently in the field of Economics.

The applications for the award is scheduled to be called for in Sem II, academic year 2012-13.

Prof. SC Rastogi Merit Scholarship is funded by Mr. Parag Rastogi who graduated from BITS Pilani, in the year 1990. He is

currently working with Bharti Walmart. The award is instituted for his dad, Prof. SC Rastogi who retired in 1993 as the

Head of the Department of Biological Sciences Group from Pilani. Mr.Parag got the idea about the award during a recent

visit to Pilani with his father. The scholarship will be given to the student in the final year with the highest GPA in all cours-

es offered by Biological Sciences Dept. The award is scheduled to start in Sem II, academic year 2012-13.

Apart from the awards described above, BITSAA manages ten other awards given for acknowledging both students’ and

faculty members’ contribution in enriching the BITS Pilani experience. A summary of awardees for 2012-2013 has been

tabulated below.

Shashi Kishore Research Excellence Award

Prof SC Rastogi Merit Scholarship for Biological Sciences

Award Name Campus Awarded for Winner

Leuna Harkawat

Memorial Award Pilani

Tarang Winner at

OASIS

Music Club, BITS, Pilani http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=leunaaward

Brij Bhushan

Award Pilani

Badminton Tour-

nament Winner

of BOSM

Girls: BITS-Pilani- Team A

Boys: TIT&S

Ranvir Trehan

Memorial Award Pilani

Tennis Tourna-

ment Winner of

BOSM

Girls: JMC

Boys: IPS Academy, Indore http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=ranvirmemorial

Srikant

Visweswariah An-

alog Design Award

and Fellowship

Pilani

Analog Design

Contest at APO-

GEE

1st Prize – Siddharth Garg

2nd Prize – Rishabh Gupta

3rd Prize – Chetan Suresh http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=SrikantAnalogAward

New Awards being introduced in 2012-2013 are as follows

Award Name Campus Awarded for Winner

R P Vaid Award Pilani Best Outgoing Student

– Chemical Engineering

Jasneet Singh http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=rpvaidaward

Prabhat Award Pilani Best Outgoing Student

– Physics

Pratiksha Digambarsing Dongare http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=prabhataward

Mantra Awards

Pilani, Dubai,

Goa, Hydera-

bad

Outstanding leadership Winners: http://www.bitsaa.org/?

page=mantraawards

APOGEE Awards Pilani

Best project Awards

instituted by Class of

1966-‘71

Dhiti: Raghav maheshwari

Design Appliances: Adnan Husain Health & Nutrition: Maharshi Vyas Energy & Env.: Shreevar Rastogi

Financial Assistance

for paper publica-

tion

Pilani, Dubai,

Goa, Hydera-

bad

Paper publication

Graduate Students : Nishad Kamdar, Akhil Mohan

Under Graduate Students : Soumendu Sinha, Shreyas Vatsa (http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=paperpublication )

Prof. S Venka-

teswaran Faculty

Excellence Award

Faculty mem-

bers across all

BITS campus-

es

Faculty Excellence Prof. D M Kulkarni

(http://www.bitsaa.org/?SVenkateswaranAward )

Acknowledgements

BITSAA scholarships team is thankful to BITS Pilani Faculty in Charges (http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=partial_travelschol) and

BITSAA expert panel (http://www.bitsaa.org/?page=expertpanel ) for devoting their valuable time in evaluating applications

from across the BITS campuses and recommending students for travel and graduate application scholarships.

BITS Pilani Faculty in-charge

Prof. Arya Kumar (FIC Pilani Campus)

Faculty Member, Dept. of Economics and Finance

Unit Chief, Entrepreneurship Development & Intellectual Property Rights

Email: aryakumar@bits-pilani.ac.in

7

8

Prof. Hari Om Bansal (FIC Pilani Campus)

Faculty Member, Dept. of Electrical and electronics engineering

Email: hbansal@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

Prof. Saby John K. (FIC Goa Campus)

Faculty Member, Dept. of Biological Sciences

Email: saby@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in

Prof. Sandip Deshmukh (FIC Hyderabad Campus)

Faculty Member, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

Email: ssd@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

Prof. Priti Bajpai (FIC Dubai Campus)

Faculty Member, Dept. of General Science

Dean Students Welfare

Email: priti@bits-dubai.ac.ae

BITSAA Expert Panel

Dr. Siddharth Rajan Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University

Prof. Bhagirath Narhari

Professor, Department of Computer Science, Interim Associate Dean for Undergraduate Pro-

grams, School of Engineering Applied Science, George Washington University

Prof. Abani Patra

Professor, University at Buffalo, The New York State university

Brij Bhushan

Brij is currently retired from Reston Consulting Group, which he founded in 1986. Brij graduated

from BITS Pilani in 1965 and subsequently taught there from 1966 to 1969 and had a return engage-

ment during Fall of 2006. Brij holds a Masters from Auburn University (1970) and has completed

course work towards Doctor of Engg in EE at Concordia University, Montreal Canada.

Prof. Autar Kaw

Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, University Of South Florida

Prof. Aditya P.Mathur

Professor, Computer Science, Purdue University

The scholarships team at BITSAA is dedicated to help students by managing

alumni supported scholarships. These scholarships cover tuition fees, interna-

tional conference travel cost and grad school application fees. The team aims

to encourage the pursuit of excellence and to ensure that no student at BITS

Pilani is denied a holistic educational experience and the opportunity to com-

pete with the best due to a lack of funds.

About Us BITSAA International

The BITS Alumni Association is an

international organisation with chap-

ters throughout the world. BITSAA is

active in connecting BITSians

throughout the world through net-

working and social events. Fundrais-

ers are organised to give back to their

alma mater and to support other

BITSians.

Appeal to BITS Alumni We at BITSAA are looking for your support in leading our effort to encourage and aid BITS Pilani students. If you are interested

in discussing or establishing a new scholarship or award to support BITSians please get in touch with us at scholarships-

team@bitsaa.org . We are also looking forward to hear any suggestions to improve scholarships team operations.