The Annual Alumni Meet on 28 Dec 2019, brought together fond memories, euphoria and high spirits, lots of questions, suggestions, and, of course, reminiscences! Prof. Vishal welcomed the gathering and spoke about the alumni’s role in leading the way by incorporating sustainability and ‘going green’ in everything they do.
Prof. P J Narayanan shared his views on how every alumnus carries a part of the banyan tree and IIIT-H culture, and the ways in which he or she can or is impacting the world positively.
Prof Jayanthi elaborated on how the alumni can help IIIT-H in every aspect, from operations to expansion, from admissions, scholarships, research to infrastructure.
Prof. Govindarajulu Regeti was the star attraction. He shared his observations on the lack of enthusiasm from today’s students compared to years past and also recalled several details of the older batches much to their joy! Meenakshi Vishwanathan presented a summary alumni related activities of the past year.
A surprise guest at the meet was Prof. Rajeev Sangal! He continued on the theme of student attitudes and talked of Relationships and Goals. Establishing relationships among individuals of different groups – students, faculty and others to get the institution going in the positive direction. And establishing true goals beyond ‘ordinary’ goals. Ordinary goals are about making a livelihood whereas True goals are about doing something memorable and commendable with life, about living a life of meaning.
Alumnus Sugandh Raaka announced a newly launched initiative by the alumni, a IIITH alumni startup syndicate to help fund IIIT-H alumni startups. Many ideas on alumni engagement with the institute were explored including plans on how to fill in information gaps in the alumni database, establishing alumni groups for interaction with prospective students during the admission process, creating a registry of alumni startups, alumni in academia, in industry etc.
Prof. P J Narayanan’s observation quite eloquently sums it all up, “Education institutions are truly owned by its alumni! Studentship, professorship, and employment are ephemeral. However, alumni-ship is permanent. The meet had alumni representation from every batch. What better way to end the year and usher a NEW one in!”