Asei To Honor Eight At Its 33rd Annual Virtual Convention

Press Release- ASEI To Honor Eight At Its 33rd Annual Virtual Convention

American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) is hosting the 33rd Annual National Convention focusing on Global Engineering & Technologies (GET-2020). This virtual convention will be held starting on December 5th and end on Dec. 6th, 2020 from 1 pm to 4 pm (EST). The objective of this event is to provide a forum to promote and share advancements related to the latest cutting-edge innovations and technologies across various engineering disciplines. The convention is expected to be virtually attended by scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and corporate leaders across the USA and globally. This two-day event will feature keynotes and multiple interactive sessions with prominent business and technology leaders, scientists, media personalities, educators, policymakers, and investment bankers.

The convention will have multiple interactive sessions led by deep subject matter experts providing information and insight on many topics related to the convention theme. Speakers include Viome CEO Naveen Jain, Palo Alto Networks Senior VP & GM Anand Oswal, Prof. Solomon Darwin of UC Berkeley-Haas Center for Corporate Innovation, Halliburton Chief Data-Scientist Dr Satyam Priyadarshy; Surbhi Kaul, GM & Head of Product, Juniper Networks; Space & Robotics Scientist Dr. Sreeja Nag at NASA/BAERI & Nuro.AI, Eclipz Chief Information Security Officer Matthew Rosenquist, Thermo Fisher Scientific VP & Global CTO Manoj Prasad, Autodesk Chief Information Officer Prakash Kota, IBM Fellow Rama Akkiraju, Magna International  VP Deval Desai, SBD Automotive North America Director Jeffrey Hannah, McKinsey & Company Associate Partner Akshay Desai and Quantum Computing VP Robert Sutor, SpringML Senior Vice President, Piyush Malik.

There will be a Youth Technology Exposition (YTE) for young scientists and students from High School to Undergrad engineering during this virtual ASEI National Convention. The objective of the YTE is to provide a forum for young engineers, students and budding scientists to showcase their projects in science, engineering and technology topics that can have an impact on our world.

The convention is put together by ASEI President Jwalant Lakhia along with Convention Co-chairs Rakesh Patel and Bhavesh Joshi. The Convention Technology chair is ASEI Michigan Chapter President Vatsala Upadhyay. ASEI Silicon Valley Chapter President Piyush Malik is serving as the Convention Content Chair.

The convention will end with a finale awards ceremony session on December 6th at 3.30 pm (EST). where eight outstanding achievers and those who contributed to ASEI growth and society at large will be honored. This year’s outstanding achievement awards go to the following:

ASEI Lifetime Achievement Award – Naveen Jain, CEO, Viome and Chairman, Moon Express.

ASEI Entrepreneur of the Year – Jyoti Bansal, Serial entrepreneur and a Silicon Valley technology visionary

Engineer of the Year Award in Mechanical/Solar Energy– Prof. D. Yogi Goswami, Ph.D, PE, Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Clean Energy Research Center at the University of South Florida and in Product Engineering and Operations Management – Deval Desai, Vice President & India Country Head, Magna International

ASEI will also honor four others for their dedicated service to ASEI:

ASEI Service Excellence Award – Rakesh Patel, Former President and Current Treasurer, ASEI; Hari Bindal ASEI Founders Award – Vatsala Upadhyay, ASEI Michigan President, and Leadership and Contribution to ASEI – Rakesh Guliani and Sunita Dublish , ASEI Silicon Valley Chapter

ASEI President Jwalant Lakhia said, “ASEI is very pleased to recognize all awardees for their dedication, hard work, and exemplary contribution in their respective fields. We plan to continue with our annual tradition of acknowledging those who have made outstanding contributions in Technology and Engineering and those who have done extraordinary work to support ASEI”

ASEI Board Member Dr. Thomas Abraham served as Awards Committee Chair. Dr. Abraham said that ASEI is a great organization providing a broad platform for the Indian origin engineers, technologists and scientists and it provides wide networking opportunities for all engineering professionals as well as makes them engaged in new technologies. “ASEI resources can be pooled to benefit in India’s development,” Dr. Abraham added.

AWARDEES 2020

 

ASEI Lifetime Achievement Award – Naveen Jain, CEO, Viome and Chairman, Moon Express

Naveen Jain is an entrepreneur driven to solve global grand challenges through innovation. He is the founder of several successful companies including Moon Express, Viome, Bluedot, TalentWise, Intelius and InfoSpace. Moon Express is the only company in the world to have the permission to leave earth Viome is focused on disrupting healthcare with the goal of “making illness elective” by identifying microbial biomarkers that are predictive of chronic diseases and to adjust the microbial imbalance through personalized nutrition. Naveen Jain has been awarded many honors for his entrepreneurial successes.

ASEI Entrepreneur of the Year – Jyoti Bansal, Serial entrepreneur and a Silicon Valley technology visionary

Jyoti Bansal is a serial entrepreneur and a Silicon Valley technology visionary. An alum from IIT Delhi, he believes passionately in software’s ability to change the world for the better. In 2008, he founded AppDynamics, an application intelligence company that was acquired by Cisco for $3.7 Billion. Since then, he founded BIG Labs and is CEO & Co-founder of Harness, and CEO & Co-founder of Traceable – a software cybersecurity company. Also, he founded Unusual Ventures, a new $400 Million venture capital fund focused on helping early-stage technology entrepreneurs. 

Engineer of the Year Award (Mechanical/Solar Energy) – Prof. D. Yogi Goswami, Ph.D., PE, Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Clean Energy Research Center at the University of South Florida

Dr. Goswami is the Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Clean Energy Research Center at the University of South Florida. Professor Goswami is the Editor-in-Chief of the Solar Energy journal, and Progress in Solar Energy. He is an author or editor 16 books and more than 300 refereed technical papers. He is a recipient of many distinguished awards for his outstanding work. Dr. Goswami is a recipient of the highest energy-related awards of ASME, ASES, ISES and AAES and more than 50 other awards and certificates from major engineering and scientific societies.

Engineer of the Year Award (Product Engineering and Operations Management) – Deval Desai, Vice President & India Country Head, Magna International

Deval Desai serves as Vice President and India Country Head at Magna International, a global automotive supplier that designs, develops and manufactures components and systems for the world’s leading automakers. In this position, Desai is responsible for digital marketing, strategic business development and continued expansion in India, and serves as one of the senior representatives for Magna in India.

ASEI Service Excellence Award – Rakesh Patel, Former President and Current Treasurer, ASEI

Rakesh Patel is an engineer, entrepreneur, board advisor, and IT consultant for the various domains of emerging technologies. He has been working as a Global IT compliance at General Motors for the past 8 years. Previously, he has provided IT consulting to IBM, Chrysler, EDS, HP, Ford, and various other industries. Serving as Board Member, Vice President, President and currently as Treasurer, Rakesh has also been serving as executive and board member at various professional and non-profit organizations. Rakesh has an Engineering Degree from India and MS in management technology from the University of Phoenix.

 Hari Bindal ASEI Founders Award – Vatsala Upadhyay, ASEI Michigan President

Vatsala Upadhyay is the IT Systems Architect at Seco Tools. She has almost 30 years of experience in collaboration solutions and CRM applications across multi-platforms. Master’s in computer applications from BIT, Mesra with Executive MBA degree, she has professional certifications in Project Management, ITIL, Scrum, and Six Sigma. Vatsala is extremely passionate about life and values each moment as a beautiful gift. She has been a national level volleyball player back in India and is a techno-geek, who believes that there is a solution for every problem, we need to just look deep enough.

Leadership and Contribution to ASEI – Rakesh Guliani and Sunita Dublish , ASEI Silicon Valley Chapter

Rakesh Guliani is Vice President at Park Computer Systems and has served as director at ASEI Silicon Valley chapter focusing on  STEM  and internship initiatives. With education and background in software engineering and entrepreneurial experience of building a job board and application tracking system, he drives innovative solutions, coaches leaders to be successful, and develops strong, diverse teams. Attracting, retaining, mentoring, and developing talent is his key strength. 

Sunita Dublish is a web developer with front-end as well as back-end skills and more than 15 years of experience in web development. She believes in creating great experiences for end-users. She has worked at start-ups, nonprofit and for-profit companies. She has a Computer Science degree from IET, Lucknow. She also serves and has served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations. Sunita has served as ASEI Silicon Valley volunteer for a few years and is now Director IT.

 About ASEI

The American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) is a not-for-profit organization that provides a platform for networking, career advancement, community service, mentoring and technology exchange for professionals, students and businesses in the United States and abroad. Members are guided by several objectives, including the creation of an open, inclusive, and transparent organization; providing positive role models, awarding scholarships, and remaining socially responsible. ASEI was founded in 1983 in Detroit, Michigan by a handful of visionaries. Today, the organization also has chapters in Michigan, Southern California, Silicon Valley, Seattle, and Washington, DC. For more information, visit www.aseiusa.org.

 Note to Editor – If you need more information, please contact Dr. Thomas Abraham at 203-329-8010 or [email protected]

Award-2021

2023 ASEI Awards Announcement

ASEI to honor Engineers, Scientists and Community leaders at ASEIcon2023, celebrating 40 years since inception

The American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI), a 501 c3 non-profit, is hosting ASEIcon2023 – it’s 35th National Convention focusing on NextGeneration Engineering  Innovations. The awards banquet following the convention will be held on September 30th, 2023 at Hotel Radisson, Southfield, MI.

This convention co-chaired by Rakesh Patel and Muthu Sivanantham will consist of keynotes as well as parallel tracks covering Automotive, Mobility, Infrastructure and Energy. It is being hosted by the ASEI Michigan Chapter and is a milestone event of significance as it is returning to the birthplace of ASEI in its 40th year after several years of being hosted in other chapters.

After an open public solicitation where both ASEI members and non-members were eligible to nominate in different categories, a rigorous vetting process by the ASEI awards committee ensued. As a result, this year’s outstanding achievement awards go to the following individuals:

ASEI Lifetime Achievement : Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud

ASEI Entrepreneur of the Year: Dheeraj Pandey, Founder & CEO, DevRev

ASEI Scientist of the Year : Dr Nina Tandon, CEO, Epibone

ASEI Engineer of the Year- AI: Rama Akkiraju, Vice President, NVIDIA

ASEI Engineer of the Year- Transportation & Sustainability: Dr Praveen Vayalamkuzhi, CEO MobilityVision

ASEI Service Excellence Award : Surbhi Kaul, Vice President, Juniper Networks

Hari B. Bindal ASEI Founder’s Award : Muthu Sivananthan, Energy & Materials Industry Solutions Leader, Dassault Systèmes

ASEI President Piyush Malik said, “ASEI is a great organization providing a broad platform for the Indian origin engineers, technologists and young scientists providing wide networking and learning opportunities for all technology & engineering professionals. On behalf of ASEI, I am very pleased to recognize & congratulate each awardee for their dedication, hard work, and exemplary contribution in their respective fields.”

Further Details about the ASEI award winners:

ASEI Lifetime Achievement

Thomas Kurian

CEO,  Google Cloud

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kurian-469b6219/

Thomas joined Google in 2018 as the CEO of Google Cloud and through remarkable efforts has led it to profitability and fastest  growth amongst public cloud providers.

Prior to Google, Thomas spent 22 years at Oracle, where most recently he was President of Product Development. His nearly 30 years of experience have given him a deep knowledge of engineering, enterprise relationships, and leadership of large organizations.

ASEI Engineer  of the Year – AI

Rama Akkiraju

Vice President, NVIDIA

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramaakkiraju/

Rama Akkiraju, VP of AI & Automation at NVIDIA IT, previously held leadership roles at IBM for two decades as IBM Fellow, Master Inventor and the CTO of IBM Watson AI Operations.

 Rama was recognized by Forbes’ as ‘Top 20 Women in AI Research’ in 2017. ‘USA Industry Innovator of the Year’ and ‘AI Industry Leader of the Year’ are only a few among the many industry awards received by Rama over the years. Rama was a featured speaker at ASEI’s 33rd National Convention in 2020

ASEI Entrepreneur of the Year

Dheeraj Pandey

CEO, DevRev & Board member Adobe

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpandey/

Dheeraj is a serial entrepreneur, Founder & CEO at DevRev and a board member at Adobe.Prior to this, he founded and led Nutanix as CEO & Chairman for 10 years. Previously, Dheeraj was the VP of Engineering at Aster Data (now Teradata), where he helped build the product and its engineering team from the ground up.

Dheeraj’s entrepreneurial spirit has been recognized with a number of prestigious awards including Dell’s Founders 50 and the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year.

ASEI Scientist of the Year

Dr Nina Tandon

CEO, Epibone

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-tandon-phd-mba-03595315/

Nina Tandon is the co-founder and CEO of EpiBone, a biotech company that grows bone and cartilage for skeletal reconstruction. With decades of experience as a scientist and entrepreneur, Nina is known for her TED Talks, has published in Forbes magazine, and was featured on the Netflix series “Human: The World Within.”

Recognized for her accomplishments as a female scientist and entrepreneur, Nina was named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company Magazine; an Ernst & Young Winning Woman; and Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs, among other awards. Nina holds a Master’s in Bioelectrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and two advanced degrees from Columbia University – an MBA and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering.

ASEI Engineer of the Year – (Transportation & Sustainability)

Dr Praveen Vayalamkuzhi

CEO, MobilityVision

https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveenvayalamkuzhi/

Dr. Praveen, an engineer-turned-entrepreneur, possesses extensive international experience in transportation safety research, with a focus on engineering and education measures. As the Founder and CEO of MobilityVision Inc. he leads a science-driven organization dedicated to safe and sustainable mobility.

For his impactful contributions he has received honors like the Rising Star of Safety 2022 by the National Safety Council and Forty Under 40 in 2022 by the Association Forum. His pioneering transportation safety research earned him the title of Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in 2023, contributing to social advancement.

ASEI Service Excellence

Surbhi Kaul

Vice President, Juniper Networks

https://www.linkedin.com/in/surbhikaul/

Surbhi’s leadership role at Juniper centers around enhancing customer experiences through the integration of Juniper’s Experience-First Networking initiatives

across every facet of the customer journey.

With over two decades of impactful leadership in product design, development, and strategy within Fortune 500 companies, Surbhi is a seasoned professional who has

spearheaded visionary product and engineering teams at tech giants such as Google, YouTube, Netflix, and Cisco.

Surbhi has not only served ASEI as its National Board member and on several ASEI committees, over the past ten years she has served several other community and alumni non profits.

Hari B. Bindal ASEI Founder’s Award of the Year

Muthu Sivanantham

Industry Solutions Leader;

Dassault Systèmes

https://www.linkedin.com/in/muthusivanantham/

Muthu has been serving ASEI for the past 3 years as the President of the Michigan Chapter. Professionally, he is responsible to provide game-changing Industry solutions to Energy, Materials & Manufacturing customers, act as their trusted advisor and promote Digital Twin Solutions in the Industry.

Muthu is a passionate Technology Leader focused on sustainability, climate tech, and carbon free energy with a special eye for advanced nuclear power. He has over 28 years of Industry experience serving customers from Automotive, Aerospace and now the Energy Industry with a strong acumen in Digital Manufacturing and Product Lifecycle Management.

Table : ASEIcon2023 Awardees

 Registration to the conference & ASEIcon2023 Award Ceremony is available here.

The evening of Sept 30th, 2023 will consist of a banquet  dinner and entertainment program celebrating winners of the prestigious ASEI annual awards and revival of the corporate excellence recognition program (CERP). The CERP awards sponsored by GMS Registrar, DEP and GHD will also be awarded by their management.

About ASEI

The American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) is a 501 c(3) non-profit aiming to foster engineering and scientific temper in the next generation of technologists, engineers and scientists amongst the Indian diaspora for the past 40 years. Through a variety of strategic programs such as UniversityConnect, MentorConnect, YTE, CorporateConnect and more, ASEI provides a platform for networking, career advancement, community service, mentoring and technology exchange for professionals, students and businesses in the United States and abroad. Members are guided by several objectives, including the creation of an open, inclusive, and transparent organization; providing positive role models, awarding scholarships, and remaining socially responsible. ASEI was founded in 1983 in Detroit, Michigan. Today, the organization also has chapters in Dallas, Southern California, Silicon Valley, and Washington, DC. For more information, visit: https://aseiusa.org

Media Contacts: Dr Thomas Abraham, Chair Media Relations [email protected], 203-329-8010 or Piyush Malik, President, ASEI  510-304-9890, [email protected]

Design Thinking And User Experience Design For Innovation Highlighted At ASEI

Design Thinking And User Experience Design For Innovation Highlighted At ASEI’s Design Summit

Question: What do you get when left brained engineers and scientists meet right brained creative designers?

Answer: A melding of logical and creative minds to bring together an inspirational event titled ASEI Design Summit.
On October 9th, the American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) convened this Design Summit with a number of academics, authors, speakers and practitioners covering innovation in Design from multiple perspectives.

After a brief introduction to the organization  by ASEI executive council member Vatsala Upadhyay, and a tribute to design maestro Steve Jobs marking the 10th anniversary of his passing by ASEI President Piyush Malik, he shared his forward thinking views on Design based on his field experiences and learnings working with nimble silicon valley startups as well as fortune 500 corporations around the globe. These opening remarks centered around the importance of Design as a discipline and Design Thinking methodologies adapted from IDEO, Stanford’s d.school and IBM’s enterprise design thinking approach a.k.a  IBM Garage, which is an end-to-end model for accelerating digital transformation. 

The keynote speaker Prof Sanjay Gupta who is the founder and Vice Chancellor of World University of Design (WUD) shared his vision illustrating the difference between User Interface (UI) and User Experience  Design (UXD). He also  spoke  about applications of emerging concepts  such as AR/VR (augmented reality /virtual reality ) and innovation in design  in his talk titled “Importance of design for engineers”  based on his many decades of multidisciplinary design experience across Engineering, Architecture, Fashion and Academics.

Engaging Dr Gupta in a fireside chat following this address, Piyush shared some industry trends based on analyst reports and they discussed the impact of design on creator economy with NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens), Blockchain,  AR/VR  etc. Dr Gupta acknowledged the ASEI community and shared the impact WUD has had in its nascent life since inception and cited the importance of partnerships with industry bodies including Assocham, CII and now ASEI to expand its sphere of influence.

Dolly Parikh, Founder and CEO of Aloki Labs, a boutique design studio in California traced her inspiration to the 1977 film “Power Of 10” and shared learnings  from her UX Strategy and Design career across companies such as Apple, Verisign, Experian, Intuit, Medallia, Aviso, Automation Anywhere, InfoStretch, ARM and MindTickle.

UX Architect Noah Iliinsky,  a popular speaker and author of 2 O’Reilly books on visualization enthralled the audience with his data storytelling approach and  emphasised the 4 pillars of effective design viz. purpose, content, structure and formatting. His versatile technique can be applied to not only data visualization but all forms of communications. The illustrations of data in tables versus charts and graphs and when to  choose pie versus line versus bar graphs were eye opening. 

In the next section of the Design Summit focusing on career guidance, Sabira Gupta who is a Software engineer turned Principal UX Designer at Informatica shared her tips for those transitioning into Design careers. She showcased formatting as well as language do‘s and don’ts to inspire the budding designers aspiring for new opportunities  amongst the audience. 

Shrinali  then moderated the brief panel discussion with speakers after which Surbhi Kaul acknowledged all volunteers  and proposed the vote of thanks to the speakers. 

Surbhi,  a Vice President  at Juniper Networks was a speaker at ASEI’s 33rd National Convention  and is an ASEI Life Member who serves on the Silicon Valley chapter board. She also gave a “heads-up” & call for volunteers as well as  next year’s board member nominations across all 5 professional chapters.

The moderated Q&A session then “graduated” to  social audio Clubhouse room “Engineering Tales”, where the event continued with a few of the Design summit speakers. It included more non-ASEI members too, all of  whom  were given a chance to interact with speakers of this Summit. John Rodriges moderated the session, sharing his experiences as a UX designer with Citigroup and past jobs. The quality of conversations there once again proved the value of this topic and popularity of design as a discipline  amongst techies as well as non -technical folks.

The Design Summit showed the attendees the depth of Design experience and thought leadership amongst ASEI community members and gave a glimpse of the richness of  its collaborations with national and international professional bodies. 

As is evident from recent activities  and newsletters, ASEI has had an action packed 2021 so far with a large number of educational and networking opportunities  and new programmes such as MentorConnect, UniversityConnect and YouthPrograms to serve its members’ interests and inspire the next generation of engineers and technologists amongst the diaspora.