The Director is pleased to announce the Distinguished Alumni Awards for the year 2007-08. The awards will be presented on Alumni Day scheduled on Saturday, May 3, 2008.
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE Dr. Chetan Sankar received his BE degree in Mechanical Engineering from NITT (RECT) in 1971. He obtained his MBA from IIM Calcutta and Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania. He is Professor, Department of Management, College of Business, Auburn University. He earlier worked as Assistant Professor at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. He was also Member of Technical Staff, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ. He has won several Awards and Recognitions which includes iNEER Recognition Award by the IntlNetwork for Engg Education and Research; Outstanding Research Award, College of Business; ASME Curriculum Innovation Award; I prize Decision Sciences Institute Instructional Innovation Education Award; American Soc. for Engg Education Instructional Unit Competition. He has 11 Full books by Tavenner Publishers & 11 Books with few Chapters. He has several Articles in Refereed Journals and over 100 Published in Conference Proceedings. He has served in several Editorial boards like Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education; Americas Conference on Information Systems, IT in Education; Journal of STEM Education: Innovations & Research; Journal of Global Information Technology Management; Case Research Journal; Technology/Engineers Track for the Case Research Journal. He has several sponsored projects with a Total Budget of $2.2 Million. 
Dr. Baba C . Vemuri received his BE degree in ECE from NITT (RECT) in 1979. He obtained his MS and Ph.D. from University of Texas, Austin.He is Professor & Director of Center for Vision, University of Florida Research foundation, Dept of computer &Information science, and Electrical Engg, University of Florida at Gainsville. He is Visiting Faculty, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY and Visiting Research Scientist, The German Aerospace Research Institute, DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. Won University of Florida SPP award & Research foundation professorship. Received NSF Research Initiation Award & Whitaker Foundation Award; IEEE Fellow and Outstanding Service as an Associate Editor of IEEE TPAMI. He is member of several External Technical Committees & Editorial. He is Associate editor of several Journals. He has 11 Book chapters / Edited books Published at international level. He has been Plenary Speaker at Several Conference. He is serving in several Directorship of Dissertation/Thesis Committees. He has guided Projects worth $50 Million. 
Dr. Krishna V Palem received his BE degree in ECE from NITT (RECT) in 1979. He obtained his MS and Ph.D. Univ of Texas Austin.He is Professor, Department of Computer Science, Rice University; Director, VISEN center. He was earlier Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology; Associate Professor at New York university; Chief Technology Officer of Proceler Inc. He was a Schonbrunn visiting professor in Hebrew University, Jerusalem wherein he got a Teaching Excellence award; External recognition Award from IBM Research division apart from Hewlett Packard research award and Panasonic research award. He is Fellow of ACM and Fellow of IEEE. He has been Editor of many International Journals. He has held visiting positions at the National University and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He has Research grants wroth $6.8 Million. 
Dr. Ramesh R Rao received his BE Honors degree in ECE from NITT (RECT) in 1980. He obtained his MS and Ph.D. from University of Maryland.He is Director, California Institute for Telecom & IT, San Diego. He has also worked in various faculty positions at UCSD, ECE Dept. He is also Board of Directors- San Diego software industry council. He has authored over 100 technical papers, contributed two book chapters and delivered invited talks and plenary lectures. He served as the Publications Editor, Web Editor, Newsletter Editor and Board of Governors’ at IEEE. He served on the Information Theory Society Board of Governors. His research activities have been sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office, the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, the TRW Corporation, the Astroterra Corporation, the Industrial Affiliates of the Center for Wireless Communications, and Calit2. He has served on a US Government panel to review the current status of research, development, and applications in wireless communications in the United States, Japan, and Western Europe. 
Dr. Guruswami Ravichandran received his BE honors degree in Mechanical Engineering from NITT (RECT) in 1981. He obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Brown University.He is Professor of Aeronautics & Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology. He earlier worked in University of California, San Diego. He is a visiting professor in IISc, Bangalore and Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has served as Associate Technical Editor of ASME Journal of Engineering Materials & Technology and experimental mechanics; Editorial board member of Mechanics. He has won several awards which includes Doctor Honoris Causa (Dhc) from Paul Verlaine University, Metz, France; B.J.Lazan Award from Society of Experimental Mechanics; Presidential Young Investigator Award from National Science Foundation, and Most Outstanding Professor Award, University of California, San Diego; Fellow ASME. He has presented more than 150 invited lectures / seminars in academia, industry, and at international conferences. He has edited 3 Book Chapters and 3 Edited Book Volumes. He is Associate Editor of 2 International Journals. He has 7 patents in various fields of mechanical engineering. 
Dr. K . Ramesh received his BE degree in Mechanical Engineering from NITT (RECT) in 1982. He obtained his ME from IISc, Bangalore and Ph.D. from IIT-Madras.He is Professor and Head, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras and also a visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island. He won Outstanding young person award by Indian Junior Chamber; Outstanding Young Individual of Kanpur instituted by the Kanpur Industrial Junior Chamber and also won President of India Cash award. He has served as member in several International Advisory Committees. He has published 3 books. He is a Member of ICEM 13, Alexandroupolish, Greece; Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering. He is member of Editorial Board of STRAIN - journal of British Society for the Strain. He is Journal Referee for several journals. He has several Sponsored projects, Consultancy Projects, and a total funding of more than Rs.4 Crores received through projects. 
CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT Mr. S.Chandrasekaran received his BE degree in Chemical Engineering from NITT (RECT) in 1973. Director (technical) of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (CPCL), a group company of IOCL. He earlier worked for Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCI) and as General Manager of the entire Manali Refinery. He was instrumental in implementing various new projects like Windmill Farm, 2.5 MGD Sewage Treatment Plant, 5.8 MGD Sea Water Desalination plant, New 20 MW Gas Turbine, Auto Fuel Quality Upgradation. He played a key role in the development of grass-root Cauvery Basin Refinery (CBR) at Nagapatnam. He was also deputed to Kuwait National Petroleum Company’s Shuaiba Refinery as Operations Section Head. 
Mr. Jacob Kurian received his BE degree in EEE from NITT (RECT) in 1978. He obtained his MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur. He is a Partner of New Silk Route Advisors, a firm that advises the NSR Private Equity Fund (a US$1.4Bn PE Asia focused Fund). He earlier worked as Managing Director, India Consumer Growth Fund; as President of Sylvan Learning India Pvt Ltd; as Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Titan Industries's Jewellery Business Unit. He also worked as Director and Country Manager at Tata Unisys Ltd., Computer Consultancy Div, Blue Bell, USA apart from this he also worked for Tata Sons Ltd., M.N.Dastur & Co., and Grindwell Norton Ltd. He turned Tanishq into India's largest specialty retailer and has built some of India’s largest and most profitable brands. He conceived and launched the country's largest volume watch brand apart from launching Titan in US and Europe markets. He is a frequent guest speaker at industry seminars, institutes of management and published writer on business and marketing topics. 
Mr. R. Chandrasekaran received his BE degree in Mechanical Engineering from NITT (RECT) in 1979. He obtained his MBA from IIM, Bangalore. Currently, he’s the President & Managing Director, and one of the four Executive Officers of Cognizant Technology Solutions (Cognizant), the only top-tier offshore IT Services and BPO company to be on both the NASDAQ 100 and S&P 500 indices. One of the professional founders of Cognizant. Prior to Cognizant, he worked with Tata consultancy Services (TCS) and Ashok Leyland. Cognizant has grown to become the fastest top-tier IT services and BPO company globally, and has created over 50,000 direct jobs and over 150,000 indirect jobs. He was responsible for all CTS global development centers in India, USA, Europe and Asia Pacific. He is a key resource person at NITT providing guest lectures and was one of those instrumental in setting up finishing schools in association with NIT-Trichy. 
Dr. Siva Sivaram received his BE degree in Mechanical Engineering from NITT (RECT) in 1982. He obtained his Masters and Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y.He worked as General Manager of Intel’s IC Procurement and Enabling Division, He then was the Chief Operating Officer of Matrix Semiconductor, a path breaking start-up company focused on high density memories. Matrix was eventually sold to SanDisk Corporation where he was a Vice President and General Manager. He is currently the Founder, CEO Twin Creeks Technologies, Santa Clara, CA - a pioneering technology firm developing novel photo-voltaic cells, prior to this he was with Crosslink Ventures, a well-known venture capital firm in San Francisco. He also wrote a graduate level textbook on CVD. He is a visiting scholar at Matsushita Electric in Osaka, Japan. He he has over 50 technical papers and patents. 
ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCELLENCE Mr. V. Ramakrishnan received his BE degree in Mechanical Engineering from NITT (RECT) in 1970. He is the Chief Executive and Managing Director of Veesons Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd., Trichy. One of the pioneers in providing large employment opportunity at Trichy, he increased the turn over by 400% in the last 4 years. He has developed Package Type Boilers and Water Tube Boilers for Industrial and Power Applications. The company has Turn over of Rs. 75 Crores. He served for 10 Years as Executive in M/s. Bharath Heavy Electrical Ltd. (BHEL), Trichy. He was the Vice President, Indian Boiler Manufacturers’ Association, Mumbai; Chairman of CII - Trichy Zone and President of Lions Club. 
Mr. Rajan Raghavan received his BE degree in ECE from NITT (RECT) in 1978. He obtained his MS from Clarkson University and MBA from Syracuse University. He started 5 companies in the high-technology space and all the five did well.He is the Principal at Nokina Networks, Evangelist & Advisor at Watch360. He earlier worked as VP marketing at Xambala; Founder & CEO at Realchip communications, and Vice president at Phoenix Technologies, Ltd. He created the industries first integrated voice over IP chip. He started the company “Virtual Chips” & presently named as “Insilicon” He was part of 3 startups: Avasem (later ICS), Cirrus Logic, Chips & Technology. 
Dr. KR Sridhar received his BE Honors degree in Mechanical Engineering from NITT (RECT) in 1982. He obtained his MS and Ph.D from University Of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is the Principal Co-Founder and CEO of Bloom Energy – a California Based Fuel Cell Company, whose mission is to develop and commercialize products that enable electricity to be available abundantly, sustainably, reliably, and in an affordable manner globally . He earlier worked as Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering as well as Director of the renowned Space Technologies Laboratory (STL) at the University of Arizona. He led a team developing technologies to Sustain Life on Mars for NASA. He has served as an advisor to NASA on Mars missions and nanotechnology. Fortune Magazine recognized him as "One of the Top Five Futurists that are inventing tomorrow, today". He has served on many technical committees, panels and advisory boards. He has over 50 publications. 
ADMINISTRATION Mr. A.Sekhar received his BE Honors degree in Civil Engineering from NITT (RECT) in 1969. He obtained his M.Tech from IIT-Madras.He was the Chairman & Managing Director, National Project Construction Corporation, Chairman, Tungabhadra Board, Member (Rehabilitation), Narmada Control Authority and Adviser (Water Resources) in the Planning Commission in the rank of Additional Secretary. He got All India 17th Rank in Central Engineering Services Examination. He was allotted Central Water Engineering Service and joined the Central Water Commission. He was involved in the implementation of the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan. He was a key Member in the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (which is the first of its kind in the country). He has participated in several seminars & workshops on water & environment in the country. 
For past Recipients of DAA for the Year 2006-07 click here.
To know more about Distinguished Alumni Award click here
