Category: 2021

PI-Day-2021

PI Day is Today

It is 3/14/2021 and PI day is upon us. My company had an extensive Pi day event where people demonstrated all sorts of innovative products and ideas. After the event, I started thinking about π, π day and the relevance of π in our life. I found that π (3.14……) is extremely relevant for all sorts of innovation and specifically in space technology.

Did you know these amazing things about PI?

1.Pi day was started in 1998, by a physicist at San Francisco Exploratorium, as a celebration of Pi. Yes, real pies were involved.

  1. National Pi Day (March 14) was declared by the US Congress in 2009. In November 2019, UNESCO decided Pi Day as the International Day of Mathematics
  2. PI is considered the swiss army knife of our universe. It is used to answer questions about anything that is spherical or circular and the number has infinite digits
  3. Ratio of Circle’s Circumference to its diameter is ALWAYSequal to PI. This applies to the largest planets to smallest atoms!!!

 

  1. Pi is ancient. Pi was named only in the 18th century and the symbol Pi was not used until swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler used it in the 1730s.
  2. Even the Bible has a pair of passages about Pi 10 cubits from brim to brim while “30 cubits did compass it round about” – dimensions that place the value of what we now call pi at 3.
  3. As NASA explores space (which is full of spherical and circular things), it uses PI extensively 18 Ways NASA Uses Piand How Pi Makes NASA/JPL Go ‘Round
  4. PI is a cultural icon. Apu, from Simpsons, claimed to know 40000 digits of PI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T34r4AysIw. In Star Trek series Spock foils an evil computer by instructing it to compute pi to the last digit Spock Destroys Evil Computer
  5. PI has been calculated up to 31 trillion digits – 31,415,926,535,897 to be exact. The record for memorizing digits of pi, stands at 70,030. Want to see how many digits of Pi you can memorize? Try for yourself Pi Quiz
  6. Pi Day, March 14this Albert Einstein’s Birthday. Other notable Birthdays on Pi day include composer Johann Strauss. Famous Physicist Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018. 
  7. On Pi day if you feel like eating Pie or Pizza see discounts at Pi Day discount(Pizza for $3.14 and more)

 

For more celebrations of and information try the links below

 

pi day

What is Pi 

NASA Pi Day Challenge

18 Ways NASA uses Pi

how many digits of Pi does NASA need and use

*** Article Contributed by Amrish Chopra,  Life Member, ASEI Silicon Valley *****

Salute To All The Women Members

Salute To All The Women Members Of ASEI!

To celebrate International Women’s month, we are happy to offer FREE month of mentorship to all women out there – members or not. So spread the word in your network.

Connect with Divya Ashok or Ram Ramnanujam on Linkedin if you would like to know more or click here to avail of this FREE opportunty

 

Elevate Women This March

Elevate Women This March

“WOMEN WILL HAVE ACHIEVED TRUE EQUALITY WHEN MEN SHARE WITH THEM, THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BRINGING UP THE NEXT GENERATION.” – RUTH BADER GINSBURG

The first International Women’s Day was celebrated on March 8th,1911. Over a century later, according to the World  Economic Forum (WEF), we will achieve gender parity in another 100 years. Let us take this moment to actively and consciously pursue the empowerment and elevation of women, by each other and our allies.

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is – Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world. Women have been instrumental in shaping businesses and the workforce while keeping their families safe and healthy during this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.

I would like to take a moment to celebrate the economic, political, and social achievements of women in the recovery and rebuilding of our world, and also to generate awareness around the struggles of women worldwide.

It has been a year since most of us went into lockdown and experienced several emotions including disbelief, paranoia, stress, grief, and worry for our families’ well-being. There were many who did not have the luxury of Netflix nor the comfort of instant delivery (think war zones, natural calamities, mental health). 2020 certainly made every mother’s journey hard, juggling work and life and some far more than others. Overall, existing gender inequalities regressed women’s progress in the world (Report).

In the midst of all this chaos, women rose up to the challenge at the workplace, at home, and in some cases for their country. A few highlights were Jacinda Arden and Angela Merkel who proved what a woman at the helm can help a country achieve in this calamity. Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett was instrumental in leading her team to create the Moderna vaccine. Swati Mohan landed the Perseverance rover in Mars, marking a historic win for humanity. There are several women in your own home, workplace and organizations you belong to that you can recognize, celebrate and elevate.

Here are nine simple actions I want to leave you with to elevate women around you in March.

  1. Celebrate 3 women around you and reinforce their impact on your life.
  2. Recognize your female and queer women in the workplace for their contributions to your teams.
  3. Purchase from women-owned businesses in March.
  4. Provide your time or donate to organizations for the betterment of women.
  5. Mentor/Coach at least 1 woman in 2021
  6. If you have a technologist at home, have them take advantage of ASEI’s offer on FREE mentoring for women in March!
  7. Host virtual events for your community and your organization. Several events below can use allies to increase awareness.
  8. Remember, house chores are not gender-specific. They are life skills for everyone!
  9. Last but not least, say THANK YOU to the wonderful women around you, starting with your mom.

 It takes a village to complete a project successfully. It is going to take all of us, taking meaningful action, to elevate and accelerate our progress towards gender equality.

LIST OF EVENTS:

MentorConnect 2023: Mentorship in Challenging Times

Asei 2021 New Initiatives And Launch Of Mentor Connect

The only thing constant in our lives is change and with the turn of the year, a new ASEI Board took shape and we have pledged to make a difference. We did not let the pandemic driven crisis go to waste and launched our social media and digital efforts . Building on the momentum from our recent 33rd National Convention held virtually,  with fresh ideas and new vigour, our 2021 Annual General Meeting with Chief Guest UC San Diego Chancellor Dr Pradeep Kosla kicked off ASEI’s 2021 activities and initiatives  into high gear. 

Feb-2021-MENTOR-cONNECT

 

The four Pillars of our strategy are:

1.MentorConnect (1:1 Mentoring with Engineering Executives)

2.UniversityConnect (Connecting with Indian origin Faculty and Students across Universities & Affiliation with Engineering and Sciences Bodies)

3.KnowledgeSharing (Engineering Tales spotlight series on exceptional ASEI members & Getting Real with Engineering Webinars)

4.Youth & STEM (Continue programs like Scholarships, Science Fairs and Youth Technology Exposition)

On Feb 27th, we had a launch event for Mentor Connect where ASEI Treasurer Ram Ramanujam kicked off with introductions and Sri Gavini moderated a panel discussion with 3 seasoned engineering executives Raj Gupta,  Subu Subramanian and Ankur Ganguli shared  lessons from their respective creer journeys. MentorConnect is a unique member benefit available for Free to all ASEI student and professional members. Registration is open now till March 21,2021

*** Post  by : Piyush  Malik , ASEI President  *** Picture Credit: Divya Ashok, LifeMember ASEI Silicon Valley ***

Inspiring Youth Inventor And Budding Engineer- Sidharth Jain

National Engineers Week – (February 21 To 27)

The celebration of National Engineers Week was started in 1951 by the NSPE (National Society of Professional Engineers) in conjunction with George Washington’s birthday because he is considered as the nation’s first engineer, notably for his survey work. It is observed by more than 70 engineering, education, and cultural societies, and more than 50 corporations and government agencies. The purpose of National Engineers Week is to call attention to the contributions to society that engineers make. It is also a time for engineers to emphasize the importance of learning math, science, and technical skills. 

 

Engineers Week is a time to celebrate their important work and engage the next generation of innovators. Even with social distancing, you can make a difference.

Interesting Fact: The Ferris Wheel is One of the Greatest Engineering Wonders:- The very first Ferris Wheel was created by Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania engineer, George W. Ferris, in 1893. The 140-foot steel towers and 45-foot axle were the largest pieces of constructed steel at the time.

Engg Week-1

Engineering Tales Episode #2 : Dr. Sam Pitroda Joins Our ASEI National Chair Piyush Malik In An Inspirational Conversation On The Path Forward In This World.

Dr Sam Pitroda is an internationally respected telecom inventor, entrepreneur, development thinker, and policy maker. Credited with having laid the foundation for India’s telecommunications and technology revolution of the 1980s, Mr. Pitroda has been a leading campaigner to help bridge the global digital divide. During his tenure as Advisor to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Mr. Pitroda led six Technology Missions related to telecommunications, water, literacy, immunization, dairy production, and oil seeds. He was also the founder and first Chairman of India’s Telecom Commission. In these plural roles, Mr. Pitroda helped revolutionize India’s development philosophies and policies with a focus on access to technology as the key to social change.

ASEI and Sam Pitroda  have a long time association. In addition to being the ASEI  lifetime achievement award winner in 2016 , he has spoken at 2006 and 2016 National Conventions as well as the 2020 convention  featured a special message from him for the YTE participants and attendees. However, Piyush has an even longer association with him dating back to 1989 when Mr Pitroda was the Chairman of CDOT and Telecom Commission in India! 

SAM-PITRODA2

In his conversation, Dr Pitroda shared the essence of his 55 year journey as an engineer, inventor and entrepreneur in US and covered broad technology & policy  trends that he feels are likely to shape the world going forward. 

He pointed out how science and technology has improved all aspects of our life. Science and technology have improved our health, communication, education, transport, and infrastructure. Even with these amazing changes that science has given us, there is still more to do. So where do we go from here?

Current World

 Current world order was created post world war 2 and was built around five major area: Democracy, Human Rights, Capitalism, Consumption and Military. These areas gave us worldwide institutions such as the United Nations, World Bank and GDP. However, this world design is now 75 years old and is built on a world view that does not exist anymore. Post-World War we have seen the dismantling of Soviet Union, rise of countries gaining independence, China being a major player in world politics, energy and huge leaps in technology. Downside of this world order is that inequality around the world increased. Finally, we have a major event of COVID-19 pandemic which highlighted the fact that everything is interconnected. So where do we go now?

Future World

As per Dr. Pitroda, world order should be based on two P’s:

  • Planet – We all live on the same planet and cannot ignore planet. Focus should be on global warming, pollution, etc.
  • People – We need to respect every human being. We live in an economy of surplus not an economy of scarcity.
  • Based on the 2 P’s, we need to have a more inclusive world. Some changes suggested by Dr. Pitroda were:
  • Democracy needs to be more inclusive.
  • Reform Capitalism such that it does not create inequality. Provide incentives to solve poor people problems not rich people problems.
  • Change thinking to Conserve not Consume
  • Non-violence should be the foundation we build everything on.

In his final comments, Dr. Pitroda said science and technology can lead us to this new world, just as science and technology has shaped our current world. He was very complimentary of the Engineers of Indian Origin in America and commended us all for choosing this noble profession where we have the ability to innovate and positively impact not only US but also India and ultimately the world. 

You can  see the full video of this EngineeringTales here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRt_WCXWyLI

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Author: Amrish Chopra, Life Member ASEI Silicon Valley 

Image credits : Piyush Malik, Sam Pitroda

Mars Perseverance, Ingenuity & The Indian Connections

Mars Perseverance, Ingenuity & The Indian Connections : Kudos To Nasa ‘s Dr Swati Mohan, Dr Bob Balaram

Dr Sam Pitroda is an internationally respected telecom inventor, entrepreneur, development thinker, and policy maker. Credited with having laid the foundation for India’s telecommunications and technology revolution of the 1980s, Mr. Pitroda has been a leading campaigner to help bridge the global digital divide. During his tenure as Advisor to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Mr. Pitroda led six Technology Missions related to telecommunications, water, literacy, immunization, dairy production, and oil seeds. He was also the founder and first Chairman of India’s Telecom Commission. In these plural roles, Mr. Pitroda helped revolutionize India’s development philosophies and policies with a focus on access to technology as the key to social change.

Dr Sam Pitroda is an internationally respected telecom inventor, entrepreneur, development thinker, and policy maker. Credited with having laid the foundation for India’s telecommunications and technology revolution of the 1980s, Mr. Pitroda has been a leading campaigner to help bridge the global digital divide. During his tenure as Advisor to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Mr. Pitroda led six Technology Missions related to telecommunications, water, literacy, immunization, dairy production, and oil seeds. He was also the founder and first Chairman of India’s Telecom Commission. In these plural roles, Mr. Pitroda helped revolutionize India’s development philosophies and policies with a focus on access to technology as the key to social change.

After 8 years of hard work, on February 18th, NASA landed the Rover on Mars at the bottom of the deep valley. Named Perseverance, rover will search for signs of microbial life. Rover’s landing zone is assumed to be a riverbed that may indicate signs of life. Rover will collect rock core samples in metal tubes. Future missions will return these samples to Earth for extensive study.

Perseverance journey to Mars took seven months and about 300 million miles (480 million kilometers). Perseverance was launched on July 30 2020 and multiple trajectory corrections maneuvers were made to point the rover to the bottom of the deep valley. Perseverance’s Route to Mars is shown below.

Leading the NASA Rover Landing is Swathi Mohan, the guidance, navigation and control operations lead, and mission commentator for the Perseverance project. She has been working on Perseverance for 8 years and flying the Rover for last seven months. “Perseverance will be the first mission to fly terrain-relative navigation so while she is descending on the parachute she will be actually at the ground with a camera, seeing where she is with respect to the Martian surface, and choosing a safe spot to land”, said Swathi Mohan.  Terrain-Relative Navigation captures photos of the Mars terrain in real time and compares them with onboard maps of the landing area, autonomously directing the rover to divert around known hazards and obstacles as needed.

Landing test can be seen here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaVTxc8uxOw&feature=emb_logo

Another major accomplishment in this mission is to test the first powered flight on Mars, aka Mars helicopter. Vaneeza Rupani, an 11th grader from Northport Alabama was bestowed the honor to name the helicopter. She submitted her essay into NASA’s “Name the Rover” contest and was chosen among 28,000 essays and named the helicopter Ingenuity. Ingenuity team was led by Dr Bob Balaram. A Principal member of Technical Staff at JPL robotics. Mars has very little atmosphere, only around 1% of Earths. “Flying this kind of helicopter is equivalent to flying a similar helicopter on Earth at a hundred thousand feet” said Dr. Bob Balaram. Helicopter was built using Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and Linux operating system and has a high resolution downward-looking camera for navigation, landing, and science surveying of the terrain, and a communication system to relay data to the Perseverance rover.

Kudos to Indian diaspora to assist in this monumental task of finding life on Mars!!!

Onwards to Mars!!

References:

Mars Landing – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm0b_ijaYMQ

Mars Mission team 

Swathi Mohan BIO 

Landing test

Mars Helicopter 

 

Insane Engineering behind the Rover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqqaW8DCc-I&feature=youtu.be

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By Amrish Chopra, Director VMWare

Life Member, ASEI Silicon Valley 

Pressrelease 2021

Press Release – Annual General Meeting

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. 

PRESS RELEASE

 UCSD Chancellor Khosla kicks off ASEI’s National Board and key initiatives at its 2021 Annual General Meeting
Fremont, CA Feb 7th, 2021

 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 revenue of $5.4 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.

Dr. 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, MentorConnect, University Connect as well as continue the successful 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), Waington 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 owed 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.

 Last month, ASEI hosted Ambassador Amit Kumar, Consul General of India, Chicago on  Jan 28 2021, on the heels of India’s 72nd Republic Day, for a virtual Fireside chat. ASEI Michigan chapter president, Muthu Sivanantham, opened that event by welcoming Mr. Kumar as well as Radha Krishnan, President, DEP Inc.

Amit Kumar addressed the audience by talking about “Technology and Development” and elaborated the rapid growth that is underway in India. He emphasized how significant India-US relations are and highlighted their collaborative efforts in the areas of Energy, Science and Technology. Radha engaged in a fireside chat with Amb. Kumar and ASEI-MI director Anjali Tiwari moderated the session.

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.

ASEI launched has also “Engineering Tales” a series of conversations to highlight the accomplishments of its longstanding members and distinguished professionals amongst its member community. The inaugural Episode on Jan 9th featured advanced materials and nanotechnology expert Dr Thomas Abraham who besides being a successful engineering entrepreneur is also a serial community builder and has been an ASEI Board member since 2013.
Visit https://youtu.be/NZ6ndRV5mDc.

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 has active chapters in Michigan, Southern California, Silicon Valley, San Diego, and Washington, DC with more in the pipeline.

For more information, or to join this professional body, visit: www.aseiusa.org.

 Links for media coverage of the event:

New India Times

India West

Convention Media Coverage

Asei Virtual Convention Media Coverage

American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) hosted its 33rd Annual National Convention focusing on Global Engineering & Technologies (GET2020). This virtual convention was held on December 5th and 6th, 2020. While the speakers and participants were on the Zoom platform, it was live-streamed worldwide through YouTube.

Attended by scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and corporate leaders across the USA, the two-day event featured keynotes and multiple interactive sessions with prominent business and technology leaders, scientists and engineering entrepreneurs. At the Finale session on the second day, ASEI recognized four engineering achievers and four service excellence and contributors to ASEI.

Links for extensive media coverage of the convention:

News India Times

The American Bazaar

The UNN

India West

South Asia Monitor