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 Traditionally RUAA organises a technical
seminar at the time of Alumni Day Celebrations. This year the Association
has adopted e-Business as the theme the seminar.
Seminar on state of the art
technologies e-business was held on Nov. 23, 2000. About 250 delegates
attended the seminar including visiting Alumni , staff and students of the
University. The
seminar was
sponsored by Khatima Fibres, Punjab National Bank(UOR branch), Motorola,
Sarswati Dynamics, Lucent Technologies and TCIL.
The seminar was inaugurated by
Dr. D.V. Singh, Vice Chancellor, University of Roorkee and Er. H.S.
Agrawal, President, RUAA preside over the function.
The guest speakers of the seminar were
from leading IT organisations. Er N.S. Kalsi, IAS, Special Secretary and
Director Technical Education Govt. of Punjab coordinated the technical
deliberations of the seminar and also delivered the key note address. The
guest other speakers included Mr. Rajbir Singh from IBM, Mr. Amuleek Singh
Bijral, from MICROSOFT Mr. Dinesh Parekh and Mr. Anurag Dube from ORACLE,
Mr. Sunil Bhat from NOVELL and Mr. Amrit Pal Singh from SCO Mrs. Namrita
Kalsi delivered a very informative lecture on IT in Architecture, and was
attended by a large number of students and Staff of Architecture.
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Alumni Directory
The association is
actively pursuing the publication of a directory of its alumni with their
current addresses. About 15,000 addresses have already been updated and
the harddisk copy of directory is already printed and was released during
Alumni Day 26 November '99. The directory is likely to be printed in the
month of September 2000. Alumni are requested to communicate latest
addresses of fellow alumni known to them in order to support this
effort. |
Sponsor Your
Newsletter
The RUAA Newsletter is
circulated to members of Alumni Association (more than 13,000). These
alumni occupy high positions in India and abroad. We invite the
sponsorship of the newsletter by Industries. An advertisement highlighting
the activities and profile of the company will be published on the last
page (two-third of a page) at a sponsorship fee of Rs.10,000/- per issue.
It is also possible that two companies may share the sponsorship for
Rs.5,000/- each. |
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Our Alumni
Excel
Raj Singh
Age 54
Place of Birth Idrishpur
village in Meerut district, Uttar Pradesh
Residence Los Altos,
CA
Family Wife Swadesh and
daughters Mona, Rachna and Shinu
Went to the U.S. March
1980
Education BE (Electrical),
Roorkee University, 1968: post graduate diploma inapplied Mathematics, IIT
Delhi, 1970: MSCS, University of Minnesota 1981
Companies started Inter
HDL, Automata Publishing: Advance logic; Fiberlane (spilt into Cerent and
Siara); Stratumone Communications; Roshnee Corp.; Redwood Venture Partners
(VC firm) and redwood Corp. (incubatar for telecom/ internet
infrastructure startups)
Favorite Charity
Education
Lifetime Goals: Improve
education to masses in India
Philosophy of Life Don’t
do something that hurts others
Most inspired by Suhas
Patil, Atiq Raza, Vinod Khosla
Most excited by Anything
new that is mysterious |
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Raj Singh has journeyed a long way in a
life that began in Idrispur, a village near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, about
54 years ago. Since upbringing as the son of a farmer could explain his
hard - driving yet simple and down - to - earth philosophy on life and his
considerable successes. His background may have also taught him something
about risk.
He says that "continuous dreaming of the
future, dedication to work, being persistent and passionate about the
enterprise," are some of the reasons that he is successful, as well as,
even more importantly, the advantage of having "worked in startups" for
people like Suhas Patil, Atiq Raza and VCs like Vinod Khosla.
The young man who once contemplated
dedicating his life to the Indian Navy is now a partner with Redwood
Venture Partners. With the sale of his companies Siara, Cerent and Startum
One, Singh made close to $ 300 million in 1999.
After completing his engineering education
in India, he began his career as an engineer for the Libyan Electricity
Corp. in 1980, he moved to the United States to study computer technology
at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Then, in 1981, he moved where every would
be technology mogul should : Silicon Valley. In December of that year, he
joined several startups, one of which was NexGen, a microprocessor company
later purchased by Advanced Micro Devices.
It was not
until 1996, however, that he founded the company that would catapult him
to his greatest success to date-
Fiberlane Communications. By focusing on wide area network, Singh
addressed a crucial niche, ensuring that the company that was started with
$250,000 from Kleiner Perkins, Caufield & Byers caught the eye of other investors, like
Advanced Fibre Communications and Integral Capital Partners.
In 1998, Fiberlane was split into two
separate entities. One, Cerent Corp., would focus on TDM multiplexors,
whereas the other, Siara Systems, would add IP routing capabilities for
those multi-plexors.
This busy father of three is poised to
take another company to the top. His latest venture is Roshni Corp., whose
focus is the optical networking market. His busy and highly successful
career might be the reason he says that he has little free time. When he’s
able to make time, though, he likes to spend it socializing with friends.
He credits a large part of his success
to taking risks and working with people who are smarter than him and by
"not micromanaging but empowering your subordinates."
* Courtsy: Jawahara Saidullah -
April 2000 Issue,
Siliconindia |
| Alumni Day Celebrations
The Alumni Day was celebrated on 24th November 2000. This
year apart apart from the normal tradition of inviting the Diamond (1940),
Golden (1950) and Silver Jubilee (1975) Alumni, Alumni of 1960 (Emerald
Jubilee) also attended. A total of 154 Alumni registered on this occasion
with most of them accompanying by spouse. The celebrations started with
games and sports at Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium. A variety of games for
alumni and their families were organised alongwith the traditional cricket
match between Vice Chancellors’ XI and Presidents’ XI. The Cricket match
ended in a traditional tie. Mrs. Usha Singh distributed prize to the
winners after the function.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. D.V. Singh hosted a lunch at the
VC’s lodge for the alumni and their families. In the afternoon, the alumni
went around the University, visiting various places including ES Club. A
few of them charised the old memories with cue. Mrs. Usha Singh hosted a
function for accompanying ladies and presented them with mementos.
51st Annual General meeting was held in the Civil
Engineering Department Auditorium. Prof. D.V. Singh, Working President,
welcomed the august gathering. He also released two souvenirs in the
honour of Golden and Silver Jubilee batches. During the meeting, the
Working President announced that alumni of 1979 have formed a non-profit
organisation named as Gyan Jyoti Foundation. The objective of this
foundation is to explore avenues to provide resources in order to develop the Alma mater into a
Centre of Excellence.
Vice Chancellor informed the house that Er. H.S. Agrawal
and Prof. A.K. Mathur were re-nominated as President and Secretary for
2000-2001. Prof. Vinod Kumar conducted the election of other executive
committee members.
This year a large contingent of the University students
took part in organising the Alumni Day and allied functions. It provided
an excellent platform for the students to meet and exchange notes related
to the traditions of the University. At the end, a traditional dinner was
hosted by the Association for visiting and local alumni alongwith their
families |
composed and recited by
Er. Arun Misra (1975)
Silver Jubilee
Alumnus on charter day |
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Charter Day
Celebrations
 The
Charter Day was celebrated on 25th Nov. 2000 in front of University Main
Building under the University flag post.
Er. Devendra Kumar Sangal, a 1950 graduate of Electrical
Engineering from University of Roorkee and retired Secretary to Government
of India, Director General Telecommunication and Chairman
Telecommunication Board was the Chief Guest at the function. Dr. Sangal
served the Department of Telecommunications, in various capacities for
over 35 years. This period saw a tremendous growth and technologies
transformation in the Telecommunication service in the country.
When he joined the Department there were only 387
telephone exchanges with 70,288 telephone connection in the country which
by the time of retirement of Er. sangal, the number of telephone exchanges
has grown to 12,971 with over 38 lakh telephone connections. Today there
are about 2.5 crore telephones and about 50 lakhs are likely to be added
annually. Er Sangal is also largely responsible for the present telephone
system of the University. Speaking on his occasion, after his introduction
by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. D.V. Singh, Er Sangal spoke at length on his
experiences while serving the Department of Telecommunication and the
growth of Tele-communication Technology in the country. He spoke highly of
the discipline and the traditions of the University of Roorkee and
expressed his confidence that the faculty and students would continue to
earn good name for the University. Sri Sangal distributed colours and
prizes to students for their outstanding academic and sports performance
and also to the employees of the University in recognition of their good
work. A very sentimental poem befitting the occasion from the audience
wasrecited Er. Arun Misra (1975) on the occasion and was received by a
laud applaud. (presented on page)
Prize Distribution Function
A prize distribution function was held in the Civil
Engineering Auditorium in the morning of November 26, 2000. Shri Suresh
Kapoor, a 1963 graduate of the University of Roorkee, Roorkee and
Commissioner, Income Tax, Govt. of India was the Chief Guest. He gave away
prizes to meritorious degree recipients.
50TH Annual Convocation
 50th Annual Convocation was held on
the 25th Nov. 2000. The Convocation this year had a special significance,
being the first Convocation of the University in the newly formed State of
Uttaranchal. Shri K.C. Pant, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission,
Government of India, was kind enough to be the
Chief Guest. His Excellencey, Shri Surjit Singh Barnala
Ji, Governor of Uttaranchal and the Chancellor of the University presided
over the Convocation and Annual Senate meeting. The annual report was
presented by Prof. D.V. Singh, Vice Chancellor. A glance through the
University is presented herewith.
Honoris Causa Degrees were conferred on Shri F.C. Kohli,
Deputy Chairman, Tata Consultancy Services and Shri N.R. Narayana Murthy,
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Infosys Technologies Ltd. This was
followed by the award of Ph.D. and other Postgraduate and Undergraduate
degrees and the announcement of distinguished National Awards, viz.,
Khosla National Research Award, A.S. Arya - UOR Disaster Prevention Award
and Shamsher Prakash Research Award. The Chancellor, Shri Barnala then
opened the website of the University and addressed the students, staff and
guests who had gathered to attend the Convocation. This was followed by
the Convocation address by the Chief Guest, Shri K.C. Pant who spoke on
the development of the newly formed State of Uttaranchal and the role
which the University should
play in this task. The Convocation was also attended by a number of
dignitaries from the Uttaranchal Government and others which included
S.Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Mohan Singh Rawat, Narayan Ram Das, Prakaksh
Pant, Ram Singh Saini, Prithvi Singh Viksit and Smt. Nirupama Gaur.
Khosla National Research
Award carrying Rs. 30,000/- and a medal is awarded once in three years for
academic excellence. This year it was awarded to Dr. K.G. Ranga Raju,
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Pro Vice Chancellor,
University of Roorkee . The award was presented to Dr. Ranga Raju by the
Vice- Chancellor on Jan. 25, 2000 Dr. Raju deliver a lecture on Alluvial
river Problems was attended by a large gathering
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Mr. H.S. Agrawal, President, RUAA visited U.S.A.
between June and Sept. 2000 and met alumni in various chapters on both
east and west coasts. This was in continuation of the earlier efforts to
mobilize the support and co-operation of our illustrious alumni who have
done well in their professional career and excelled in life. It was highly
gratifying to know that some of the had made the mark to the category of
billionaires /and were occupying prime positions in the Information
Technology Sectors. They have contributed significantly to the U.S.
economy in Information Technology Sector, which has been
