Our Bureau
Fremont, CA
The American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) has adapted to the pandemic well and digitally transformed itself by holding all programs virtually and making more of them freely available to all. Here’s a glimpse of its last 30 days:
At the Annual General Meeting held Feb 6th, presided by Dr. Pradeep Khosla, Chancellor at University of California San Diego, ASEI members from all chapters across the US joined via Zoom to witness the inauguration of the new National Board of Directors. ASEI President Piyush Malik announced his executive team and launch of new programs and initiatives for 2021.
A distinguished alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and Carnegie Mellon University, the Chief Guest Dr Khosla is an internationally renowned electrical and computer engineer recognized for his seminal contributions in secure software and intelligent robot systems. He congratulated Piyush and the new ASEI board members on the important role they play in nurturing the next generation of engineers and technologists. Sharing his career story and how despite being an immigrant person of Indian origin with accent and color disadvantage, he broke the prevailing stereotypes and went on to become the CEO of one of the top US Public Universities with annual budget of $6.1 Billion
“People of Indian origin are excelling in engineering in the US in companies all around the USA and they have broken the glass ceiling multiple times and very successfully and got visibility. With visibility comes great responsibility towards the broader community to give back and that’s where ASEI fits in” – Dr. Khosla said during his speech
Chancellor Khosla complimented ASEI for the significant role it plays in bridging the Industry- academia gap as well as skill gap through its knowledge sharing events, youth programs, student chapters and the new initiatives such as University Connect and Mentor Connect which aim to help budding and early tenure engineers with career and professional guidance.
ASEI National President Malik emphasized how while rejuvenating the chapters and bringing in more diversity, all of them will work together as “One ASEI“ within the framework of new programs like Engineering Tales, Mentor Connect, University Connect as well as continue the successful webinar series “Getting Real with Engineering” and STEM programs such as “Youth Technology Exposition”
The event brought out the exuberance of ASEI National Board Members each of who spoke why they choose to volunteer with ASEI. Later, chapter presidents from Michigan (Muthu Sivananthan), Southern California (Sri Gavini), Washington DC (Venkat Gurunathan) and San Diego (Ashish Mehta) introduced their respective chapter’s board members. Wearing a dual hat as the Silicon Valley chapter President Piyush Malik went on to introduce an expanded and diverse chapter board comprising of seasoned executives, entrepreneurs, educators and technologists.
The launch event showed the attendees the depth of experience amongst ASEI board members and gave a glimpse of the richness of the upcoming programs in the months ahead. It concluded with an interactive “open mike” networking session with all members coming on camera expressing their thoughts and shared excitement for ASEI’s bright future.
The interactive panel discussed topics ranging from sustainable development, investing in India to immigration related issues. “Just in the last year alone, India received around 57 billion USD of investment focused on Digital space,” said Amb. Kumar.
In conclusion, the Consul General has said that he is looking forward to collaborating with ASEI and connecting the organization with India based entities to help leverage each other’s strengths in fostering investments, growth and youth development.
