Category: 2022

Happy Engineers Week!

February 21, 2023

Hello everyone, and happy Engineers Week!

On behalf of the American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, I am thrilled to be here today to celebrate this special occasion with all of you. My name is Piyush Malik, serving as the founding President of ASEI Silicon Valley and also the National Chair. It’s a milestone year for ASEI being the 40th year of our formation.

As we begin Engineers Week, we take time to celebrate the outstanding contributions of engineers to our society. This week is an opportunity for us to highlight the importance of engineering in our daily lives and to recognize the remarkable achievements of engineers across the United States.

Engineering is the backbone of our modern society. Engineers have played an integral role in designing, building, and maintaining the infrastructure that we all rely on every day. From the roads we drive on, to the buildings we work in, to the water we drink, engineers have helped to create the world we know and love.

This year’s Engineers Week theme, “Imagining Tomorrow,” encourages us to look to the future and the exciting possibilities that lie ahead. As we celebrate the achievements of engineers from the past, we must also look forward to the innovations that will shape our future.

ASEI is committed to advancing the engineering profession and promoting the value of engineering to society. We believe that engineers are critical to solving the world’s biggest challenges, from climate change to infrastructure modernization to public health and safety.

As we celebrate Engineers Week, we encourage everyone to consider the many opportunities that a career in engineering can provide. Whether you’re a student just starting out or a seasoned professional looking for new challenges, engineering offers an incredible range of opportunities to make a positive impact on the world.

At the American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, we are proud to support the engineering community through advocacy, education, and networking opportunities. We believe that by working together, we can continue to advance the profession and create a better future for all.

In closing, I would like to thank all of the engineers across the country for their dedication and hard work. You are truly the unsung heroes of our society, and we are grateful for your contributions. Happy Engineers Week, and here’s to imagining a brighter tomorrow!

– Piyush Malik

Elections 2023: Asei Chapter Leadership Opportunities Open

December 10, 2022

Dear ASEI Members,

To drive our mission forward, ASEI needs dedicated volunteers and Board members who take pride in our past and are forward thinking and belive in taking action and make a difference. All chapters of ASEI need to conduct their annual election to fill the 2023-2024 Board of Directors open positions.

In accordance with ASEI constitution, we have appointed the following Board members to the Election Committee:

Silicon Valley Chapter Board of Election Committee Chairs: Raju Shreewastava & Kanakshila Tandon

Washington DC Chapter Board of Election Committee Chairs: Venkat Gururathnam & Lekha

SoCal Chapter Board of Election Committee Chairs: Sanjay Dalal & Vrunda

Seattle Chapter Board of Election Committee Chair: Srini Vemula

Dallas Chapter Board of Election Committee Chairs : Puneet Dixit & Jayati

Hence, the purpose of this communication is to request nominations from the membership for the ASEI Chapter Board of Directors. There are several open positions in each chapter that will be filled through this nomination process.

You can self-nominate or nominate someone else for the ASEI Chapter Board position. If nominating someone else, please get concurrence from your nominee before submitting the nomination.

To be eligible to become a board member, the nominee must be an ASEI paid member (Annual Professional or Life) in good standing, must have participated in ASEI volunteer activities at local or national level, and must have exhibited leadership qualities from experiences that would add significant value to the board and ASEI. The nominee must be ready and willing to participate in all (or almost all) board meetings and contribute by participating in ASEI activities including membership of various committees of ASEI. The nominees should become familiar with ASEI membership types and Constitution and Bylaws available at www.aseiusa.org

Please click here to submit your nomination. The deadline to submit nominations is Jan 15, 2023.

Leadership Positions Open- Seeking Nominations For The 2023 National Board

November 11, 2022

Dear ASEI Members,

The National Board of ASEI is conducting its election to fill the 2023 Board of Directors open positions. By section VI.2 of the constitution, we have appointed the following Board members to the Election Committee:

Election Committee Chairperson: Rakesh Patel

Election Committee Members: Surbhi Kaul & Shreekant Agrawal

Hence, the purpose of this communication is to request nominations from the membership for the ASEI National Board of Directors. Five open positions will be filled through this nomination process.

You can self-nominate or nominate someone else for the ASEI National Board position. If nominating someone else, please get concurrence from your nominee before submitting the nomination.

To be eligible to become a board member, the nominee must be an ASEI-paid member in good standing for one year, must have participated in ASEI activities at the local or national level, and must have exhibited leadership qualities from experiences that would add significant value to the board and ASEI. The nominee must be ready and willing to participate in all (or almost all) board meetings and contribute by participating in ASEI activities, including membership in various committees of ASEI. The nominees should become familiar with ASEI Constitution and Bylaws available at www.ASEIUSA.Org

Please Click here to submit your nomination. The deadline to submit nominations is December 11th, 2022.

Sincerely,

Executive Committee of the ASEI National Board of Directors:

Piyush Malik – President

Ram Ramanujam – Vice President

Jwalant Lakhia – Treasurer

Vatsala Upadhyaya – Secretary & IT Director

Highlights From November #ASEI Newsletter: Let Us Know If You Are Not Getting It In Your Email Inbox

November 5, 2022

The latest edition of the newsletter has been sent to all members on the first of November and the online edition is available here.

Happy reading and catching up on all that happened in the last month and what lies ahead with your society.

Highlights from November:

ASEI Awards Nominations Open – Last Date November 10th Check out further on our website and nominate someone today
ASEI Making grassroots level efforts for STEM in Indian schools though partnerships
ASEI Elections: Board Positions are open for nominations for forming the 2023 board. Nominations Due by Nov 27
Engineering Entrepreneurship & Mentoring in full flow at FalconX Accelerator
University Connect makes progress with new campus Ambassadors- Praveen Vayalamkuzhi, Ph.D. and Ashdeep Seth
Replay of Engineering tales #8 with Rajeev Kapur
New Mobility Summit coming up in Michigan on Nov 19th
Youth Corner with Aditya and Ashdeep Seth on Nov 26th
Do provide feedback as to what activities and programs you would like to see more of.
Also, do tag your friends and ask them to follow this American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) page so as not to miss any of our upcoming exciting activities and updates.
A big THANK You to all our achievers, expert speakers, content contributors, community builders and collaborators highlighted in this edition

Please Click here to submit your nomination. The deadline to submit nominations is December 11th, 2022.

Sincerely,

Executive Committee of the ASEI National Board of Directors:

Piyush Malik – President

Ram Ramanujam – Vice President

Jwalant Lakhia – Treasurer

Vatsala Upadhyaya – Secretary & IT Director

Election 2023- Leadership Opportunities

October 31, 2022

Dear ASEI Members,

ASEI continues to build and grow on its foundational principles of nurturing, mentoring connecting, and developing networks of technology and STEM professionals. The ASEI National and Chapter Boards are now taking nominations for 3-year board membership, starting in the calendar year 2023.

Those who may be interested in serving in leadership positions in the different chapters or at the National level, please approach your chapter leaders. By the ASEI constitution, we will appoint the Board members to the Election Committee soon who will carry out the election/nomination process.

There will be additional information on the nomination process forthcoming

Asei Simplifies Annual Professional Membership – By Jwalant Lakhia

October 31, 2022

If you are not a Lifetime member of ASEI, this is a great time to become one at a one time $500 .

The next best thing is to become a Professional Member of ASEI and still enjoy all the benefits ASEI offers. Why you ask? The Professional Membership dues are a bargain at just $50 per annum.

And the timing couldn’t be better than now! We have made a change in the way this annual professional membership is considered valid. It used to be that this annual membership would expire on December 31st of the year regardless of when someone became a member. We have changed this to a rolling membership which means that members will get one full year from the day dues are paid. This will allow the members not to lose the benefits of ASEI membership on December 31st. We look forward to seeing everyone taking advantage of this change and not holding out from becoming ASEI Professional Member. ASEI membership provides a unique opportunity to be a part of many activities such as Mentor Connect, University Connect, National ASEI Conventions, ASEI Chapter networking events, and many more. For more details and to sign up for ASEI Membership, please visit http://www.aseiusa.org/Account/CreateMember

– Jwalant Lakhia

Treasurer – National ASEI

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwalant-lakhia-6b83274/

Asei Youth Corner: Meet University connect Ambassador – Ashdeep Seth

October 31, 2022

Ashdeep Seth is an independent designer, engineer, and educator who works on social innovation projects in Africa and Asia, with a focus on India. She designs and develops hardware and software technologies in agriculture and healthcare for low-resource communities. She is also a university connect ambassador for ASEI and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Development Engineering at UC Berkeley.

Ashdeep is North Indian; born and raised in Dubai, she moved to the United States in 2015 to study Product Design at Stanford University. She discovered her passion for social innovation while at IIT Madras Research Park working in their Healthcare Technology Innovation Center. Her motivation from working at IIT spawned her interest in several other similar projects. Currently, she designs affordable greenhouses for Indian smallholder farmers in association with Kheyti in Hyderabad. She works with Clinic+O in Guinea developing a mobile application used by a network of local community health workers to provide primary care services to marginalized communities. She is also a Senior Expert Fellow at Engineering for Change.

As Ashdeep says, growing up in an international expat area like Dubai allowed her to encounter various cultures and outlooks at a young age, and made her wonder who she wants to be. Her parents’ work as architects and community builders also laid her career foundations and made her realize what she wanted to do, what her interests were, and how she wished to apply herself in society. This foundation has eventually led her to apply herself at the intersection of technology and social impact.

Her message to young people is to ‘stay hungry and stay humble’: be deeply curious, be grounded, find opportunities, especially amidst seeming difficulties, and nurture relationships. She attributes her success to the great relationships she has developed over the years. If you wish to take her advice, ASEI is one of the organizations that can help you build connections with industry professionals and leaders.

Website: www.ashseth.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashdeepseth/

* This Article is contributed by Aditya Guthey – ASEI youth coordinator. He is available via linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaguthey/

ASEI Awards For The 35th National Convention

October 25, 2022

The American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) is a national organization of professionals of Asian Indian diaspora in the USA that shares knowledge among its members, shapes the next generation of engineers, entrepreneurs, scientists and technologists and performs community service helping the disadvantaged and underprivileged.

American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) is hosting the 35th National ASEI National Convention focusing on Emerging Technology Innovations. This virtual convention will be held on Dec 10, 2022. The objective of this convention is to provide a forum to promote and share advancements related to technologies that contribute to our society with innovations. Keynotes, Fireside chats and Panel discussions covering some of the most pressing problems our world is facing today. The convention is expected to be attended by over 1000 professionals including scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and corporate leaders across the USA. This convention will feature multiple interactive sessions with prominent business owners, technologists, media personalities, educators, policy makers, and venture capitalists. This event will be covered by the local and national media outlets and leading social media platforms.

The convention will culminate with award announcements where those who have made outstanding achievements in engineering and technology and those who have contributed to society at large and to ASEI organization will be recognized. An award dinner banquet shall follow keeping current pandemic protocols in mind.

Nomination Process

Please fill in the appropriate nomination form and send it in with a bio and other supporting documents such as press cuttings of any achievement or previous awards. Nominations can be for self or by a colleague, except for ASEI Service Excellence and Lifetime Achievement Awards, which have to be nominated as instructed in the nomination forms. All nominations must be received before November 10th, 2022.

ASEI Lifetime Achievement Award

This award is presented to an individual who has been a member of ASEI for at least 15 years, served and participated in various capacities in the activities of local and national chapters and contributed significantly to promote the vision and goals of the ASEI organization. This candidate is selected by the recommendation of the Award Committee and approval by the Chairman of the ASEI board.

ASEI Professional Excellence Award Categories

ASEI Entrepreneur Of The Year Award

This award recognizes the achievements of an ASEI member, who best exemplifies the ideals of entrepreneurship by starting and successfully managing one or more businesses in a way that demonstrates notable entrepreneurial characteristics and achievements. An Intrapreneur who works along the same line but within the umbrella of a larger organization and has scaled innovations and business may be considered as well.

The company should demonstrate profitability.
The company should demonstrate significant growth and long-term potential.
The entrepreneur should note contributions to the community through charitable or leadership roles.
The company should demonstrate innovative employee programs and corporate culture.
The entrepreneur should demonstrate the ability to overcome adversity.

Engineer/scientist Of The Year Award

The nominee should have demonstrated significant achievements in cutting-edge technology in their field of engineering or related science, managed and directed an organization or founded a company and made noteworthy contributions in design, manufacturing, production or service through the use of engineering principles and applications.

Asei Service Excellence Award

This is the highest recognition that ASEI bestows upon an individual who has exhibited exemplary leadership that has benefited ASEI organization and ASEI members at large. The recipient should have been responsible for one or more major initiatives, which have resulted in notable and/or highly innovative achievements or expansions of the ASEI mission (ASEI Mission: “To promote growth and development of programs and initiatives that foster career and professional development for ASEI members and cultivate engineering, scientific, and technical exchanges between USA and India”). The recipient is required to have served in one or more responsible positions within ASEI. The award honors an individual who has:

Played a key role in establishing and building the ASEI Value.
Made notable contributions to the advancement in the field of engineering.
Given selflessly his/her time and energy to the ASEI national and local chapters.

ASEI Founder’s Award

Open to the ASEI national officers and committee members. The person who has contributed the most in the previous year will be recognized. Recommendation has to come from previous year’s officers as well as current officers and sent to Dr Neeraj Bindal and ASEI National President to finalize the award. The award consists of a plaque, memento and a cash award of $1,000 presented at the ASEI Annual National Convention banquet event.

ASEI Corporate Excellence Recognition Program (Cerp)

Developed in 2005, the CERP awards are a result of ASEI collaborating with leading US corporations. The vision of CERP is to salute the innovative strength that comes from a diversity of human capital. This award recognizes corporate excellence of outstanding engineers of Indian origin who are employed in industry, academia or government entities. Candidates are nominated by their managers and approved by their Human Resources department.

The CERP awards are presented for five categories as follows:

Corporate Engineering Excellence Award (Professional achievement)
Corporate Woman Engineer of the Year Award (Gender specific)
Corporate Young Engineer of the year Award (under 35 age, less than 10 years experience)
Corporate Outstanding Achievement Award
Corporate Service Excellence Award

The CERP awards criteria is based on achievements, innovation, leadership, teamwork, integrity, community service, and leadership roles in other professional societies such as SAE, AIAA, ASME, TiE, ISSIP etc.

Instituted in 2005 by the ASEI board, these awards are administered under the auspices of the ASEI Award Committee and in cooperation with the Corporate Selection Committee. The awards will consist of a plaque and recognition during the ASEI Annual National Convention banquet. Applications for the CERP awards are submitted by the sponsoring company.

NCWIT Aspirations In Computing Awards Nomination Due By Oct 27

October 16, 2022

ASEI mentors have supported NCWIT Aspirations in Computing (AIC) program for several years now producing several winners amongst our high student members. For those who wish to know more, here is a primer.

Who is NCWIT?

NCWIT (National Center for Women in Technology) is a non-profit community that convenes, equips, and unites change leader organizations to increase the meaningful participation of all women — at the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, age, sexual orientation, and disability status — in the influential field of computing, particularly in terms of innovation and development.

Before NCWIT was chartered in 2004 by the National Science Foundation, programs focusing on women and computing existed mostly in isolation — without the benefit of shared best practices, effective resources, communication with others, or national reach. Today, these programs are part of the NCWIT community, creating a far greater impact than if institutions acted alone.

What is AIC?

The NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing (AiC) honors 9th-12th grade women, genderqueer, or non-binary students for their computing-related achievements and interests, and encourages them to pursue their passions. Award recipients are selected based on their aptitude and aspirations in technology and computing, as demonstrated by their computing experience, computing-related activities, leadership experience, tenacity in the face of barriers to access, and future plans. Since 2007, more than 20,000 students have received an Award for AiC.

The multi-tiered award structure includes Winner, Honorable Mention, and Rising Star designations at National and Regional Affiliate levels, serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, all U.S. overseas military bases, and Canada. Regional Affiliate Award programs are hosted in 79 locations nationwide by NCWIT Alliance member organizations—a powerful, national network of universities, companies, non-profits, and government organizations working to increase the influence and meaningful participation of girls and women from every community.

Why does ASEI partner with NCWIT?

ASEI promotes youth empowerment in STEM and stands for gender equity and non-dicrimination.. We encourage our community to get active and be seen. We highly encourage High Schoolers all across the US to apply for the Aspirations in Computing award 2023. The deadline is now extended till Oct 27th.

Makes Grassroots Level Inroads In Stem For India

October 10, 2022

This grassroots impact program is being championed in collaboration with an Edtech company {igebra.ai} as a pilot. We welcome any suggestions from members on scaling and collaboration opportunities that further ASEI’s mission.

Our research shows that many students at the grassroot level across the world don’t receive even the necessary math education. The Indian education system in rural areas has its own set of challenges like lack of teachers, right studying material, quality of lesson delivery and many more which leads to increased fear of math and eventually kids either fail or leave math after 10th grade.

A lot needs to be done to provide better quality math education for all children at the grassroot level. Because the importance of math in the modern world cannot be overstated. It has applications in every profession, scientific discovery, digital data and AI apart from daily life.

ASEI in the past conducted a few STEM workshops in the US in collaboration with {igebra.ai} which has recently initiated the “Math4ALL” grassroots impact program which aims to solve the above pressing problem by providing well trained teachers who care for kids and make them fall in love with Math.

ASEI is strengthening partnership with {igebra.ai} to take “Math4ALL” outreach to the next level by bringing awareness of this collaboration with members of ASEI and enterprise leaders and Corporate Social responsibility initiatives.

Along with providing math education at grassroot society this partnership is also creating local employment opportunities to the unemployed youth. {igebra.ai} will recruit, train and deploy hundreds of math teachers at grassroot level schools to achieve the outreach mission.

Recently, team {igebra.ai} with support from ASEI conducted a successful Math4ALL workshop in a government school at Bendapudi, Andhra Pradesh, India.

The program also got the attention of collector of Kakinada district Dr. Kritika Shukla, IAS who invited the {igebra.ai} team to meet and understand the program. Dr. Kritika Shukla, IAS was thrilled by the feedback and extended her support to implement the program across the district.

ASEI and {igebra.ai} are in discussion with supporters and exploring the possibility of implementing across the district in phases. Here is a small glimpse of these Math4ALL workshops and kids sharing their experiences.

Bendapudi Math Workshop

ZPHSl, Kammeta Math Workshop

The mission to make math inclusive has just begun! ASEI and {igebra.ai} are exploring partnerships with interested organizations and individuals to reach out to more schools and communities across India and US to Make Kids Fall in Love with Math/STEM.

* Contributed by ASEI Lifemember Sreeni Vemula, who has been on the Silicon Valley Chapter board for several years and also served as founding treasurer