Category: NEWS

Inspiring Youth Inventor And Budding Engineer- Sidharth Jain

March 28, 2023

18-year-old Sidhardh Jain is an inventor of two novel patents (one granted and one pending), ISEF grand award winner and Microsoft imagine cup 2021 winner. Sidhardh’s journey started when he developed interest in LEGOs at age 13 – much like many other kids of that age. Little did he realize, however, that his interest would later turn into an unimaginable and rewarding career.

Sid saw an opportunity to pursue a career building LEGOs in 2013, when his team qualified for an international championship program; they would represent India in a LEGO competition. Over the years that followed, he pivoted his love for LEGOs into robotics, entering other competitions and finding new and inventive ways to impact people’s lives by building robots. As a side benefit of his love for robotics, he won some prestigious awards.

In 2018, when his grandfather was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, the power of robotics became newly personal to him. He didn’t appreciate the way his grandfather’s privacy was invaded due to his condition. So, he developed a solution based on robotics to help protect the privacy of people like his granddad. That led to inventing his first patent pending project.

Sidhardh encourages young people to take advantage of the opportunities available to them by reaching out to organizations like ASEI. He knows that by doing this, they can turn their passions into careers that change the world for others. He attributes his own success to the support he received from mentors at organizations like OMOTEC who guided him to build innovative products.

As a result of pursuing his interests and finding people to support him along the way, he turned his passion into a rewarding career that is making the world a better place.

This article is based on conversations ASEI president Piyush Malik and Aditya Guthey, an ASEI Silicon Valley chapter member and a career coach have had with Sidharth Jain for ASEI Youth Corner. ASEI has a partnership with Moonpreneur – a Silicon Valley based startup that accelerates youths’ path from STEM education to entrepreneurship. They are offering summer internships for ASEI youth members as well in summer 2022. Click to avail special offers for ASEI community

Youth Corner Featuring Youngest Vc Taarini Kaur Dang

March 27, 2023

Eighteen-year-old Taarini Kaur Dang is an author, high schooler, TEDx Speaker, and the Founder and Managing Partner of the venture capital firm Brave14 Capital, for which she has raised $870k in funding.

Yeah, I know: that’s a lot to accomplish as an 18-year-old! And so, on the July 4th weekend, we sat down and dove into the different things that have made her the person she is today. Taarini’s drive for entrepreneurship was sparked when her parents shared their own stories of their entrepreneurial journey with her when she was just 6 years old. Taarini was fascinated by the impact you can have on others as an entrepreneur.

By the time she was in 8th grade, she started an entrepreneurship club, wherein students were assigned different roles based on their strengths. Learning about entrepreneurship, she was flabbergasted by the comparatively few number of women in the field. She also learned more about disadvantaged women and the lack of VC funding through non-profit organizations such as TIEcon and movements that represent marginalized communities, like the Jakara Movement. All of these events lead to the founding of the venture capital firm Brave14.

However, starting out, she, like many others, would sometimes lose motivation for her work. Her proposals and ideas would be misunderstood or shot down. Even loved ones would be indifferent to her ideas and vision. But what kept her going was her commitment to help other marginalized communities. It is her hope for these communities that propels her forward and inspires her to keep going, especially when the days get tough.

Through her work with her venture capital firm, her association with non-profit organizations, and her Instagram account @classywomenn, she inspires other women to pursue entrepreneurship. From time to time, she has also taken advantage of networking opportunities available through various organizations, which helped her gain more diverse perspectives and refine her presentation skills and the way she spoke about venture capital. That’s why she recommends joining organizations like ASEI, which provide a platform for tech professionals and youth to network and gain inspiration from other industry leaders.

Her advice for youth today is to keep fighting. Continuing to pursue your passions; showcase the fact that you are worthy and capable. She says, “you have no idea how that will impact your life. You may not have all the bells and whistles in the early stages of your journey, but your ability to consistently move forward on your idea keeping the end in mind is the first and most important gateway to success.”

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This article is based on conversations ASEI president Piyush Malik and ASEI youth coordinator Aditya Guthey, a Silicon Valley chapter member and a career coach have had with Taarini Kaur Dang for ASEI Youth Corner via Youtube on 7/4 and on Clubhouse 7/24.

ASEI has a partnership with Moonpreneur – a Silicon Valley based startup that accelerates youths’ path from STEM education to entrepreneurship. They are offering summer internships for ASEI youth members as well in summer 2022. Click to avail special offers for ASEI community

ASEI Engineer Of The Year 2013 Padmasree Warrior Speaks With Us!

March 26, 2023

In the Indo-American community, who doesn’t know Padmasree Warrior? Well at least in the silicon valley, her name is synonymous with womanpower.

For those who are from a different generation or my not be familiar, let’s give a brief introduction.

Padmasree Warrior is the Founder, President and CEO of Fable, a mobile-first company that brings stories for everyone, anywhere. Previously, Padma was the Chief Executive Officer of NIO U.S., Chief Development Officer and Board Member of NIO Inc., a manufacturer of smart, electric and autonomous vehicles. In this role she scaled the company from start-up to a successful IPO NYSE:NIO in 3 years.

Padmasree Warrior has been widely recognized for her creative, visionary leadership. Forbes has named her one of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” for three years running. In 2013, The International Alliance for Women gave her the World of Difference Award. In 2012, Business Insider called her one of the “25 Most Influential Women in Wireless”. The Wall Street Journal has called her one of “50 Women to Watch.” Fast Company included her among the “100 Most Creative People in Business.” The Economic Times listed her as “the 11th Most Influential Global Indian.”

Originally from south India, after graduating from IIT Delhi, she came to the US for her masters at Cornell. Padma has been a member of Microsoft’s board of directors since December 2015. She is also a board member at Spotify .She was a member of the Gap Inc. board from 2013 to 2016[23] and the Box board from 2014 to 2016.

Apart from numerous commercial accolades and those from ASEI, she was recognized by National Association of Asian American Professionals NAAAP with a Lifetime achievement award NAAAP100 in 2021

In our Engineering Tales Episode 7 last week, Padma spoke with ASEI members and complemented us on continuing to inspire the next generation of technologists amongst the indo-american diaspora. She thanked ASEI for her 2013 Engineer of the Year award. Then she shared pertinent learnings from her career especially embracing change:

“Throughout my career, I have journeyed as an engineer to a technology executive to a CEO, not only changing roles along the way, but also industries—from Motorola to Cisco to Nio, and now Fable.”

As she has embraced change herself along the way, she also observed an evolution of how people learn and interact with one another, which inspired her to think about how we 1) apply technology to bring humanity back to each of us, and 2) make mental wellness through reading a priority.

She further shared the inspiration behind her current venture, as the founder and CEO of Fable – a social reading app platform. She also added that Indian-American Titans of Industry—like Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, and Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo—curating book recommendations which you can find on Fable.

She invites all ASEI members to read along with her in her own club, or join one of the many other free clubs you can find in the Fable app.

Additionally, she mentioned that they have amazing Career Development Book Clubs, which are designed to help you get to the next professional level, and are reimbursable through your company. In these clubs, you’ll study must-read books, get coaching from world-renowned leaders and authors, and connect with like-minded professionals, all on your schedule. You can learn more about these clubs at fable.co/career-development

In closing, Padma left us with her top 3 pieces of advice to young students or budding engineers and the importance of building networks through organizations like ASEI:

Invest in upskilling and reskilling yourself – (eg making career coaching available through our Career Dev clubs)

Seek new opportunities – don’t wait for the perfect job to land in your lap
Growth mindset – be curious and expand your areas of expertise

We are thankful for Padmasree Warrior in continuing to be a friend of ASEI as much as being a role model for not only all women of color but all Asian American Professionals.

Join Padma in your reading journey with her featured club on Fable for free to learn about her career journey as well as leadership tips.

NEWSLETTER 2023 ISSUE#1

March 21, 2023

Dear ASEI Community

Hope you are as excited about the new year as I am. ASEI turns 40 this year and that’s a big deal!

As we say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, reflecting on the past, I’m filled with gratitude for all that we have achieved. Despite the challenges, we have also experienced many joys and moments of growth. While plenty of details have been shared via our monthly newsletters and mailings in the past 12 months, let me share a few highlights today.

2022 started with a bang for us with a well-attended and successful ASEI 34th National Convention with Aerospace Symposium, YTE, and CXO Summit and the National Awards event in Q1’22. In Q2’2022, in addition to high powered meeting with India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman, we hosted a Cybersecurity Summit with 20+ speakers that were covered widely by media outlets

We continued with our flagship MentorConnect program this year and paired up 25+ senior ASEI Life members who are engineering executives with early career engineers and aspiring engineering leaders. Here’s a fireside chat from one of the MentorConnect events.

In the second half of this year, we started holding in-person events again including successful University career programs in Washington DC, Silicon Valley, and Dallas as well as the New Mobility Summit in Michigan. Of course, we continued to partner with other organizations such as TiE & PanIIT in Silicon Valley, Orange county food bank in SoCal, NCWIT, STEM startups like Igebra in India, FalconX accelerator & Moonpreneur in silicon valley for internships and Asian American groups like GOPIO, Indiaspora, ISSIP and NAAAP to further our mission through partnerships.

Our Indo-US collaboration objectives were met with several opportunities to interact and collaborate with Consul General Dr TV Nagendra Prasad, Consul General Amit Kumar and Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu as well as Indian Cabinet Minister Hon. Piyush Goyal

Our expansion this year led to the formation of the Dallas Chapter and several UniversityConnect Career events across chapters in addition to Engineering Tales, Webinars, Youth Technology Exposition events and Virtual YouthCorner showcasing promising Indo-American Youth Ambassadors. Finally, our social media presence and growth with Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin expanded into Clubhouse social audio in addition to monthly newsletters with a reach of over 6,000. One of our posts even went viral with over 211,000 views!

As we enter this new year with the recent good news of formation of ASEI Foundation (a 501 c(3) non profit -which means your donations and contributions to ASEI are now deemed tax deductible) lets set intentions and goals that will bring us closer to our dreams and aspirations. Let’s focus on the positive and embrace all that the future holds. I look forward to your ideas and active engagement. We have a lot of exciting things to look forward to as we start celebrating our 40th year of ASEI’s formation.

Thank You!

Piyush Malik
President ASEI

ASEI at the 66th Annual Michigan Science Fair

March 15, 2023

ASEI has been one of the supporting professional organizations at the Science Fair of Metro Detroit since a few years.

The Science and Engineering Fair of Metropolitan Detroit, established in September 1956, is a nonprofit organization established to give students in the seven county area (Lenawee, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Washtenaw, and Wayne counties) an opportunity to develop and exhibit science fair projects.

Event Name : ASEI at the 66th Annual Michigan Science Fair

Event At : Virtual & Huntington Place Convention Center, Detroit MI

Address : 1 Washington Blvd Detroit Michigan 48226

Event Date : Mar.15.2023

Contact : Muthu Sivanantham

Email : [email protected]

Conditions Of Employment To Work While On Opt And Stem Extension Opt

March 5, 2023

There have many been restrictions involved while working on OPT and STEM extension OPT.According to the USCIS, students are not supposed to work through the third party client sites and must work onsite at the employer’s workplace in order to have the STEM extension.
More information in the link below
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/uscis-restricts-third-party-placement-stem-opt-students.aspx

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

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

February 18, 2023

After 8 years of hard work, on February 18^th, 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 11^th 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

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

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