Minutes of the IITM FAN MEETING 10/08/05
The first Faculty Alumni Network meeting was held at Los Altos, San Jose, following the PanIIT Charter meet at about 4:30 PM on Saturday, October 8, 2005. The meeting was held at the initiative of Prof. Ram Akella ('76 BTech) and Bob Nathan ('77 BTech), to tap input from DA’s and key IITM Alumni attending the PanIIT Charter meet, on how to assist IITM in enhancing/preserving its Academic/Industrial Research and Teaching capabilities to meet world class standards. This was one of the critical issues/key initiative that was discussed at the PanIIT meeting. Discussion centered on how to preserve the IIT brand and prevent its erosion in the face of the global threat from the IT Sector, the global marketplace, and the advent of foreign universities establishing campuses in India, and how IITs can continue to attract and retain faculty and graduate research assistants/candidates.
ATTENDEES: Profs. Ram Akella (UCSC) ('76 BTech), Prof. George Verghese (MIT) ('75 BTech); Dr. Desh Deshpande ('73 BTech), Dr. C. Mohan ('77 BTech), Dr. Indi Rajasingham ('77 BTech); Monishi Sanyal ('70 BTech), Subhash Choudhary ('73 BTech), Ram Krishnan ('67 BTech), Dr. Indira Subramaniam ('78 BTech), and Robert Nathan ('77 BTech). Profs. Mohanbir Sawhney (IIT Delhi, Northwestern University), Nitish Thakor (IITB, Johns Hopkins University) also visited the meeting briefly.
GOAL: Share research and best practice to support and enhance quality of research and teaching in IIT Madras.
ROLES:
- Facilitator for Academic and Research Interchange for Institute with US and World Universities and Industry.
- Mentorship- Dept Advisory Groups/ Collaboration in Teaching and Research
- Recruitment support for IITM Faculty
- Visiting Committee: for Visiting Faculty interchange
ACTION ITEMS:
1) Form IITM FAN (Unanimous agreement): Get egroup going with interested US/Global IITM Alumni who are in Faculty and Industrial Research
- Akella has list of alumni-faculty names
- Profs. Satya and Timothy Gonsalves can provide a list of key faculty in IITM (or do we include all current faculty?)
- Recruit other key members for FAN
2) Organization: We need to think and expand this organization under three different Silos or Teams:
- Education, Research, and Technology Team;
- FAN Operations Team;
- FAN Business Team (Marketing, Financing. and Liaisons).
Notes:
- Each Team/Silo will have its own leadership, but will involve all interested alumni that are faculty and involved in research academic or industrial, and others who are interested in management and operations of this network.
- We will need a chair for the whole FAN organization.. (this could be the Director, or whoever we think appropriate); Ram Akella (representing Alumni who are Faculty abroad) has agreed be Chair of the Research and Technology team. Desh, Su Wadhwani, or anybody else, could be the Chairs of the Business Team or the Operations Team, respectively. Bob Nathan (or somebody else) can help run operations.
- We may need to develop an online collaborative information infrastructure for the FAN.
- We need to identify a key faculty leader/prime mover of the FAN from the Institute side:
- Approach 1: Director nominates key IITM Faculty member
- Approach 2: Have competition for the position, as suggested by Desh. FAN reviews credentials, potential and nominates
- Mohan: Find the ‘Prof. Pathak ’ type person in IITM to head or motivate the Institute side of the FAN
- Desh: Smallest action item: Compete for 2 Pathak’s
3) Strategy for Interaction with IITM Faculty
- Non-Intrusive – more supportive and advisiory. As George Verghese of MIT said, we should approach this in a spirit of “Our wanting to learn more” about the needs of IITM Faculty and IITM Research
- Solicit and prioritize ‘portfolio of needs’ from IITM Faculty and Researchers.
- ‘Immerse the institutes’ faculty in the industry (Indy)
4) Priority Agenda Items:
- Portfolio of Needs: Take stock – listen to IITM Faculty and researchers, Solicit and prioritize ‘portfolio of needs’ from IITM Faculty and Researchers
- IITM Growth Fund may be a start
- IITM Research Park can be a useful ‘brick and mortar’ platform for the FAN. Perhaps we should get an office there
- Startup Funding: Follow-up on Su Wadhwani, Narayanamurthy’s etc…commitment to support the FAN
- Visiting Committee: Put together visiting committee for faculty and research interchangeo Incentivize – prize money for good research, FAN
- FAN website with links to each department at IITM, featuring FAN goals, strategies, resources, research projects, papers, organization: membership: IITM departmental FAN reps, FAN activities, FAN sponsored/supported research, Newsletter, etc..
- Recruit: Key IITM Alumni
- FAN Core Technology, Education and Research Team: Faculty and Researchers– in Academia and Research (Industry and University).
- FAN Operations Team: Group Administrators, webmasters, etc. for building and operating the FAN organization and network
- FAN Business Team: Funding, University/Industry Liaisons, FAN Business directors and administrators
5) Meetings and Interactions
- Yahoogroup – or (Google Group?)
- Monthly Online Meetings (MOMs)– We need to have our first MOM soon J Please comment.
Thanks
Robert (Bob) Nathan
President, IITMAANA-DC
December 3, 2005
