IITBHF and IITBAA (http://www.iitbombay.org)

Faculty Academic Network (FAN)
Interested in helping out? Write to office [at] iitbombay.org

Objectives

Assist in making IIT Bombay a world class research and teaching institution
Raise the visibility of IIT Bombay graduate students, and faculty world wide
Help to improve teaching programs at both the graduate and undergraduate levels
Help with faculty recruiting, as IIT Bombay works to grow faculty levels
Help departments and individuals to develop world class research programs, and to disseminate the output of these programs.

FAN - 2004 Update

This year the Faculty Alumni Network (FAN) meeting was successfully held on May 15th and 16th at Rickey's Hyatt in Palo Alto, California. The meeting was attended by 15 IIT Bombay faculty members, 15 FAN members (Professors from US universities), a few faculty candidates, distinguished guests and a bunch of enthusiastic IITBHF volunteers. The distinguished guests included Deans of Engineering from Harvard, UCLA, University of California-Santa Barbara, Florida, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, etc. The primary objective of the meeting was interaction of IIT Bombay faculty, distinguished alumni and FAN members to develop an action plan to work together to assist IITB realize its vision of becoming a world-class research university. The focus for this year's meeting was "Nano-bio Technology and Entrepreneurship". Researchers from both countries exchanged ideas on what research is being done and how IIT can collaborate with universities in the US.

After an entire day of meetings between faculty and FAN members, it was time for some light and informal event. A public event was planned from 5 PM to 7:30 PM, giving bay area alumni a chance to meet the faculty and get an update about the campus. Alumni were seen talking to various faculty members, finding out latest in the campus, departments and asking various questions about other activities in the institute.

FAN - 2003 Update

The 4th Annual Distinguished Alumni Meeting (ADAM), the Inaugural FAN Meeting (FAN) and the Inaugural Faculty Recruitment Initiative Meeting (FRI) were successfully held on June 6 to 8 at Rickey's Hyatt in California. 22 IITB faculty members, 15 distinguished alumni, 25 FAN members (professors from US universities) 25 IITB faculty candidates (PhD students or post-docs at US universities), and 15 IITBHF volunteers attended the event. The primary objective of the meeting was to develop an action plan for IITB faculty and the FAN membership to work together to assist IITB realize its vision of becoming a world-class research university (see a collection of pictures from ADAM/FAN 2003 below).

Highlights

Raj Mashruwala hosted an informal dinner at his residence on Friday, June 6.
On Saturday, June 7
- Mahesh Krishnamurthy and Anil Kshirsagar of IITBHF provided an overview of the event and a progress report of IITBHF.
- Prof. Ashok Misra, director of IITB, gave a talk titled, "Current State, Vision of the Future and Major Challenges"
- Mr. Bruce Darling, Senior VP at University of California, provided a very informed overview of how UC San Diego, which was founded in 1964 (6 years after IITB), developed into a world-class university.
- Prof. Pramod Khargonekar, IITB alum and Dean of Engineering at University of Florida, explained what it means to be a world-class research university.
- The leaders of the five breakout sessions provided an overview of their topics.
  - International Research Collaborations Prof. Sharat Chandran (IITB) Prof. Nitish Thakor (Johns Hopkins University, IITB Alum)
  - Faculty and Graduate Student Recruiting Prof. J. Chandrasekhar (IITB, Dean Faculty) Prof. Gaurav Sukhatme (USC, IITB Alum)
  - Faculty Development Prof. J. Chandrasekhar (IITB, Dean Faculty) Prof. Pramod Khargonekar (University of Florida - Dean Engg, IITB Alum)
  - Systemic Issues and Barriers Prof. Dipan Ghosh (IITB, Dean R&M) Prof. S. Jha (ex-director TIFR, distinguished professor at IITB) Prof. Uday Karmarkar (UCLA, IITB Alum)
  - Department and Curriculum Improvement Prof. Shiv Prasad (IITB) Prof. Vinayak Dravid (Northwestern University, IITB Alum)
- The ADAM met to discuss how they could contribute to the action plan being developed by the FAN members.
- The YPanels team put together a very well attended dinner program and networking opportunity with PanIIT Alumni. The panelists included Uday Karmarkar, Dipan Ghosh, Vasant Prabhu, Arun Majumdar, Jagmohan Mundhra, Subodh Bapat, Avi Nash, Ravi Apte, Hemant Kanakia, and Pramod Khargonekar
On Sunday, June 8
- The breakout groups presented an action plan.
- A closing lunch was held at Passage to India.
- IITB interviewed the faculty candidates.

Results and Next Steps

IITB and the FAN membership prepared a joint action plan. This plan will be refined and published in the next 4 to six weeks. IITB and FAN will also publish a plan to ensure that the FAN activity thrives.
Several ADAM members (Romesh Wadhwani, Shailesh Mehta, Raj Mashruwala, and Avi Nash) committed to support the FAN collaborative efforts for several departments (EE/CS, ME, ChE, and SOM). Avi Nash pledged $1M and Rakesh Mathur pledged $160K to support various activities at IIT.
IITB extended offers for faculty positions to 6 candidates and invited an additional 6 to Bombay for further interviews.
The 5th ADAM meeting will be held on May 15, 2004 in Palo Alto. The 2nd FAN meeting and FRI meeting will be held on May 15/16, 2004.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the attendees to these meetings. In addition to the names mentioned here, we would like to thank the following individuals for their exceptional support to the event: Sandeep Pandya, Dien Yuen, Mona Shah, Subina Desai, Aman Walia, Sumit Roy, Ameet Zaveri, Anil Kumar, Balaji Srinivasan, Prashant Sawant and Hemendra Godbole.

We have started planning for next year's events. There is a lot of follow-on work from this year's meetings and a lot of work to plan next year's meeting. We would welcome volunteers! Please contact us if you have any questions.

Mahesh Krishnamurthy, IITBHF

Anil Kshirsagar, President, IITBHF

June 17, 2003

FAN 2003