Tell me a bit about yourself.

I come from a family of educators — my great-great grandfather was the tutor to the princess of Bhavnagar, Gujarat — the same royal family which sponsored students from Bhavnagar to study at MIT in the 1930s. These students made up half of the MIT Indian student population at that time!

Almost a century later, as a high school senior, I applied to and chose to attend MIT over my other acceptances at Harvard, Caltech, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, and the University of Illinois, among other universities. I had received a 5 on AP Calculus BC (a 12th grade course) in 8th grade so a mathematically-oriented university that focused on problem-solving seemed like a great fit.

At MIT, I focused on research and giving back to the community. As an undergraduate, I worked on Paper Dreams, an AI drawing tool that augments human creativity at the MIT Media Lab, under Prof. Pattie Maes. As a master’s student, my thesis was on Secure Inference of Quantized Neural Networks under Dean Anantha Chandrakasan. I also served as President of the MIT Society of Women Engineers (SWE), the largest organization on campus, and taught 90+ middle school students web development, expanded MIT SWE membership, and raised $75K for the continuation of our outreach programs.

I graduated from MIT in four years with a Bachelor and Master in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (6–2) and a minor in Music (21M), with my favorite class being the Music of India. Currently, I am a software engineer at Microsoft, where I work on data analytics and data science in Azure.

I am also co-founder of MehtA+, along with my brother, where we teach AI, app development, data visualization, and other interdisciplinary computational virtual camps to students in grades 5–12. We partner with universities and startups so students can work on real-world projects. We also offer tutoring for subjects and standardized tests, project mentorship, competitive coaching, college consulting, and run an educational YouTube channel, @misspawsandfriends. Many of our alumni are attending MIT, some of whom I have had the pleasure of meeting in person during MITSAAA organized events!

What was your favorite memory at MIT?

I have so many, it is hard to choose! In no particular order, my favorite memories are:

• My friends surprising me each year with a birthday celebration
• Not recognizing Drew Houston (CEO of Dropbox) when he was asking me questions on my research project. Instead, I asked him if he was a current MIT student (yes, I know — huge face palm moment!)
• MIT Physics Prof. Cisse rolling his glass on the table at a restaurant to teach us what rolling friction was, during a student-faculty dinner
• Attending Pandit Jasraj’s concert at Kresge

• Holding Prof. Richard Schrock’s Nobel Prize in my hands
• Attending a Boston Symphony Orchestra rehearsal, going to a play at the Central Square Theater, seeing Isabella Stewart Gardner’s art collection, and visiting the Yin Yu Tang House at Peabody Essex museum with Prof. Emeritus Hale Bradt and my freshman advisory group
• Creating a website for OneMIT where students and alumni can find their names on the wall in 24 hours with my friends, in time for the unveiling of the Nano Building (despite a professor telling us it would take more than three months to create such a website and regenerate all the names and locations, since the relevant text files were deleted; eventually he did create the website, which is the website that we see today, but we did buy him some time :))

It is always interesting for current students and alumni to learn about the diverse initiatives MIT South Asian board members undertake! Would you like to share any initiatives you’re involved in at MITSAAA?

I have had the opportunity to drive several exciting initiatives at MITSAAA during the past three years I have been on the board.

As VP of Communications, I started the Chai Chats Program, where South Asian students, alumni, and faculty would get matched with one another once a month, sometimes based on their interests and sometimes randomly. A graduate student remarked that it was their favorite networking initiative. I learned so much from alumni — their impersonation of animal sounds using musical instruments, their contributions to the Mars Rover Mission, their rim-to-rim backpacking tour at the Grand Canyon, and so on!

During this time, I helped engage and increase the membership on our Facebook group by creating flyers and posting frequently. I also started our Instagram page and Slack page where alumni could have even more opportunities to connect with one other.

In order to engage current students and MIT10, I co-hosted a virtual networking event during IAP. Representing MITSAAA, I also presented a Digital Greeting Card workshop on Global IAP day. For the History Project, I mentored MIT student interns to create a website and created a template for a sponsorship packet.

As the youngest President of MITSAAA, I proposed the idea of presenting stoles to our graduating class and introducing the graduating students to MITSAAA. We had our inaugural stole celebration in May 2023 and presented stoles to 120 students. These students contributed to a 4% increase in our total MITSAAA membership, which was very exciting. I hope the stole celebration will become a longstanding tradition!

Under my leadership, we compiled a list of MIT awards won by South Asian alumni. We also began a Book Club and started research on the In-Memoriam series that highlights notable MIT South Asian alumni. Our first event kicking off our South Asian Art series will be in July. Internally, I created a standardized operating procedure and transition documents for the board that would help us keep organized. I am honored by a fellow board member’s remarks to me, “Everyday you’re enriching and enlarging South Asian Alumni Association.”

I also continued my communication role — starting a YouTube channel (which currently features our graduation greetings in multiple languages) and Medium page so that we could tell our stories in detail. The “Meet the Board Members” series on Medium was an idea I came up with after talking to board members.

One of my favorite memories was creating our mascot — Tim the Beaver in traditional South Asian garb!

My favorite memories of MITSAAA are of alumni approaching me and other board members for resources! I have been able to connect individuals who have similar interests such as combating climate change, point alumni to MIT related resources to hire talented individuals, and help alumni obtain funding for startups and Hindustani Classical Music events. It really makes me happy that MITSAAA is viewed as a hub for South Asian students and alumni to reach out to — for guidance or help of any sort.

In April 2023, it was announced that MITSAAA was the recipient of the Great Dome Award, the highest honor the MIT Alumni Association bestows upon any of its organizations, and it is given to groups in recognition of distinguished service to the Institute or the Association. This award was the cherry on top of seeing firsthand the impact of our initiatives.

Given your vast experience in AI and education, do you have any advice for students when it comes to using ChatGPT for help?

This is such an interesting question! I have had students ask me if they need to learn how to code, now that ChatGPT exists. Given the current state of LLMs (Large Language Models), I think ChatGPT and generative AI in general is a helpful tool for beginners in any subject. But in my experience, it still cannot perform incredibly complex tasks and often gets confused by long questions.

Tools like Github Copilot (which is powered by GPT-3) can perhaps help you write code more efficiently by writing boilerplate code. But, it can not replace an individual’s creativity and knowledge of coding. Similarly, ChatGPT can write an essay on any topic, but it may not be factually correct or stylistically sophisticated!

I have often heard that ChatGPT is like a calculator — it is simply an educational aide. The only difference is that ChatGPT is not always right! Whether it is coding or writing an essay, I don’t think it is a bad idea to use ChatGPT for ideas, but don’t let it limit your creativity! And always make sure that the output makes sense and is correct!

You are a mentor, entrepreneur, and president. What is your leadership philosophy?

I believe in intentional laissez-faire leadership. While there needs to be some degree of structure and support from the President, CEO, or a leader of any organization, I believe that it is important to give team members space to be creative. It allows for team members to take ownership as they propose and work on diverse initiatives that they are truly passionate about, rather than on mundane tasks that are assigned to them. ∎

Last year, I had my in-person graduation at MIT after a two-year delay due to the pandemic. It was great to finally be able to walk across the stage and see all my friends again. As I looked around and saw the sea of graduates, I realized that there were many graduates wearing stoles, but there were no stoles celebrating our shared South Asian heritage.

As the youngest President of MIT South Asian Alumni Association, I wanted to do something for the graduating students and proposed to our board the idea of gifting stoles to graduating South Asian students. The board was ecstatic about the idea, but we had some obstacles to overcome, with no way of finding out which graduating MIT students were part of the South Asian community, no knowledge of textiles and no funding!

Finding Students

Before we could contact any vendors, we needed to know (at least approximately) how many stoles we needed to order. Initially, we thought MIT would have a mailing list of South Asian students and so, we would be able to reach out to them. However, as we learned, the South Asian identity is a protected category so MIT administrators cannot share with us a list of MIT South Asian students. Instead, we created a form on our website where students could express their interest in receiving a stole.

To find each South Asian student, I reached out to MIT SAAS, MIT Sangam, MITeri, MIT BSA, PaksMIT, MIT Sloan South Asian Club, and all the South Asian singing and dancing groups so that they could spread the word to their group members. I also scoured through MIT Alumni Directory (which even current students are on) and LinkedIn for hours to find graduating South Asian students. Board members posted in MIT-related social media groups that they were a part of to get the word out.

Eventually, we had 120 signups on our form! Around 41% were undergraduates, 53% were masters students and 6% were PhD students from a myriad of courses including Course 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, MAS, IDM, SCM etc.

Usually, the process of joining MIT South Asian Alumni Association via the Alumni Association’s website and receiving our newsletters is a cumbersome one. However, students who signed up on our form were added automatically to MITSAAA’s mailing list, and MITSAAA’s membership grew by over 4% just in this one year.

Textile

We wanted to present a stole with a South Asian print, so that it would be meaningful to the graduating students. Since we had no knowledge of textiles, the board members and I decided to reach out to vendors on Etsy and other textile platforms as well as our network — to our friends, our aunts and friends of our aunts, you know how it goes 🙂 — to find someone who could create the perfect stole. We needed a sample design idea for the stoles in order to reach out to vendors, and Ms. Nureen Das, the Managing Director of MISTI South Asia helped us with that.

We even considered gifting students shawls instead of stoles to wear on their big day, since most of the vendors only created shawls. I often spoke in English and broken Hindi to South Asian vendors in the wee hours of the morning — due to the time difference — to try to negotiate prices and communicate the board’s vision for the stole. I learned about so many textiles and fabrics — bandhani, ajrak, zari, gota, etc. in the process!

Finally, my aunt reached out and said her cousin’s neighbor, Ms. Laju Shaparia, was a female entrepreneur from Gujarat, India who had her expertise in designing hand woven patola sarees. She agreed to create patola print stoles for the South Asian graduating students. Patola is a 700 year old art form, made using a double ikat weave. We were looking for a stole that represented the inextricable connection that South Asians have with each other, and those who paved the way before us, and a textile design with a rich history seemed like the perfect choice.

Over the course of several weeks, we went through several iterations of the stole. Depending on the availability of resources and what colors looked nice on a print medium, Ms. Laju would propose a design and I would share the design at board meetings, where the board members would provide their input. Eventually, we decided on a design that we all loved!

Funding

The students were receiving the stoles as a gift. So, with the design all set, we needed some way to fund our stoles to ensure we would receive them in time.

The Alumni Association helped front our costs, while I found out that my employer would match my volunteering hours and donate $25 for each hour I volunteered, to cover the cost of the stoles. Ms. Moana, the Alumni Association liaison for MITSAAA, expedited the onboarding of the new vendor, and we were able to receive the stoles on time.

We are still looking for funding sources in the future, so please do reach out to us if you wish to donate to this cause to bring South Asian students together!

Preparing for the Ceremony

As soon as the stoles arrived, MISTI South Asia and MITSAAA started organizing the stole ceremony. The President of MIT SAAS, Sarah Syed, helped us choose a date for the ceremony that would work for the students. Ms. Nureen and Ms. Abby MacKenzie from MISTI South Asia booked the room and reached out to Prof. Pawan Sinha (Course 6, SM ‘92, PhD ‘95) of the Brain & Cognitive Science Department to say a few words on the graduating students’ big day!

Meanwhile, I reached out to Dean of Engineering Anantha Chandrakasan to serve as the keynote speaker of the stole ceremony. I also requested the board members to send in a graduation greeting, so that board members who could not participate in the physical ceremony could participate in the virtual ceremony. I pulled multiple all-nighters compiling the graduation greetings and writing my own speech for the video.

The Stole Ceremony

Everyone was invited to the stole ceremony — graduates, as well as members of the community. Members of the Asian American Initiative and friends of the graduates attended the event.

Ms. Nureen served as emcee for the event. Five MIT South Asian board members from the Boston and New York area attended the event — Dr. Ranu Boppana (Course 7, SB ‘87), Dr. Gurumurthy Kalyanaram (GK — Course 15, PhD ‘89), Mr. Archan Basu (MBA ‘99), Mr. Venkat Maroju (MBA ‘07), and Dr. Monica Sircar (Course 10, SB ‘04). In fact, many of the board members had other plans for that day that they made a long time ago, but they canceled them in order to be there for the students!

While all the students could not make it due to other classes at the same time, 70+ students attended the stole ceremony. We had suggested students wear South Asian or Western formal wear and around three-fourths attended the event wore traditional South Asian clothing.

Prof. Sinha congratulated the graduates and introduced Dean Chandrakasan, who shared details of his journey from growing up in Chennai to becoming Dean of Engineering at MIT. He reflected on some of the remarkable accomplishments of MIT’s South Asian alumni and faculty. The speeches were very well-received, and I was fortunate to listen in as Mr. Archan phoned me in for their speeches.

Then, the students watched the MITSAAA Board Members’ graduation greetings video. I (Course 6–2, SB ‘20 MNG ‘20) spoke in Gujarati and English and talked on the topic of storytelling from Chicago. Dr. Ranu spoke about the importance of networking from Boston. Dr. GK congratulated the students in Sanskrit and English from New York. Mr. Archan gave thoughtful remarks on “being true to yourself” from Boston.

Mr. Anwer Hussain (Course 14, SB ’76) congratulated the parents of the students who were part of their journey from Houston. Dr. Anu Vedantham (Course 6, SB ’89 SM ’90) reassured the students that they are fully ready for the future ahead from Princeton, New Jersey. Mr. Salik Malik (Course 2, SB ’89) congratulated the students in Urdu and English from Karachi, Pakistan! You can view our greeting on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxw82dvorbk

Once the video was shown, Ms. Nureen asked each graduate to come up to the front of the room, announce their name, major, and the South Asian country they represented before being presented with a South Asian stole. Ms. Abby took pictures of each of the students, which can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/n86yrppb7zeydj4/AACwLbe1gU_W5Jf_o7kKwQyXa?dl=0

We had representation from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal! At the end of the ceremony, the students, Ms. Nureen, MITSAAA Board Members, Prof. Sinha, and Dean Chandrakasan took a group picture.

More than one graduate told our board members that this was the largest gathering of South Asians at MIT they have seen! The stoles truly caught the imagination of everyone. The event was a huge success, and we can’t wait to do it again next year.

Commencement Day

On the day of graduation, South Asian graduates proudly wore their stoles and took lots of pictures. The President of Sangam, Nidhish Sagar and MITSAAA Board Member, Dr. GK took wonderful group pictures of graduates!

We certainly hope that this is a tradition that not only continues at MIT, but that other universities around the world will adopt.

MIT alumni entrepreneurs have launched tens of thousands of companies, employed millions of people and generated almost 2 trillion dollars in annual revenue — making our contributions at par with the world’s 10th largest economy.

MIT students are familiar with the vast mentorship and funding opportunities that MIT — specifically the Martin Trust Center — provides, such as MIT Sandbox. However, such opportunities for MIT Alumni are a little more difficult to find since these opportunities are geographically distributed. We hope the following list will help MIT Alumni in their entrepreneurship journey.

Funding Opportunities

Many startups need funding to get their ideas off the ground or to make their ideas scaleable. With funding, startups can potentially attract more attention from potential customers. MIT offers several funding opportunities for alumni.

MIT Alumni Angels

Founded in 2014, MIT Alumni Angels connects investors with MIT affiliated startups. Pitch events take place at least one each quarter, where startups (who do not need to be MIT affiliated) can pitch to MIT alumni angel investors. A third of the startups who have pitched, have received an investment from MIT Alumni Angels. Over millions of dollars have been invested in startups by MIT Alumni Angels in the past decade.

There are many MIT Alumni Angels chapters across the US including Boston, Northern California, Washington DC and New York as well as in Brazil and the UK. There is even one Alumni Angel club dedicated to Life Sciences. The managing director of the MIT Alumni Angels Club of Northern California is led by an MIT South Asian alum — Ronjon Nag: http://www.mitalumniangelsnorcal.com/entrepreneurs/

E14 Fund

Born at the MIT Media Lab, the E14 fund invests in startups founded by MIT alumni. The E14 core investment in the company often ranges from $500K and $2 million and the fellowship investment ranges from $50–100K. Companies need not be located in Boston and can apply here at any time: https://www.e14fund.com/apply

Mentorship Opportunities

How do I monetize my idea? Should I start a non-profit or a for-profit? How do I market to my target demographic? These questions (and many others!) often come to entrepreneurs’ minds. While Google Search, books or even asking ChatGPT can be helpful to answer these questions, it is always great to receive additional insight from other entrepreneurs who have undergone a similar process.

Venture Mentoring Service (VMS)

For those in the Boston area, the Venture Mentoring Service provides free mentoring service for entrepreneurs in the MIT community (students, alumni, faculty, etc.) who are looking to turn an idea into a venture. VMS offers mentoring sessions, office hours with legal team, account team, IP team, etc., bootcamps in sales, marketing, UX, etc. and demo events. Applications are on an on-going basis. Check out the program here: https://vms.mit.edu

Alumni Advisory Hub

MIT Alumni can volunteer to be a mentee/mentor at the Alumni Advisory Hub. If you are looking for mentorship for startups, you can filter by startups and businesses as well as by industry, location, etc. and schedule a virtual consultation. Startup advisors may have their expertise in specific areas, such as industry insights, fundraising advice, developing a business plan, etc. which you can filter by. You can sign up for a consulting session with a mentor of your choice here: https://alumniadvisors.mit.edu/

Founder Circles, MIT Alumni Startup Network

The MIT Alumni Startup Network has been founded by an MIT South Asian alum, Shuja Keen! In the Founder Circles as part of this network, a group of 7–10 MIT Alumni in similar stages of their careers get matched and meet virtually every 2 weeks for an hour over 6 months to give and receive advice. MIT Alumni must apply to participate in the program, and the program costs $314. Check out the program here and the application deadline: https://mitas.org/founder-circles/

MIT South Asian Alumni Association (MITSAAA)

There are several opportunities to connect with MITSAAA on our various platforms and learn about the journeys of other alumni. Our “Meet the Board Members” Medium series gives good insight on the careers of our board members, many of whom are entrepreneurs. Our Chai Chats program and networking events provide an opportunity to network with other MIT South Asian Alumni. Connect with us on our various social media platforms: https://linktr.ee/mitsaaa

Finding Talent

Once you have funding and mentorship, you need dependable people to make your company a success. You can reach out to the MIT community to find people who are hardworking and committed.

MIT Alumni Employer Job Board

If you’re looking to hire someone, the MIT Alumni Employer Job Board is a great place to post opportunities for MIT alumni with a Bachelors, Masters or PhD degree along with current and past postdocs. Post a job listing here: alum.mit.edu/hire

Hopefully, this list of resources is helpful to budding entrepreneurs. If you know of any other resources, please feel free to post in the comment section! Wishing you the best of luck in your entrepreneurship journey!

Tell me a bit about yourself

I’m a proud son of Bengal, who grew up in Abu Dhabi and first came to Cambridge in 1989 at age 17. MIT and Princeton, the only colleges that interviewed me back then, both rejected me, so I contemplated attending Caltech, then ended up at Harvard. I studied applied math and computer science — and cross registered into Pat Winston’s 6.034 — while also serving as founding tech director of Ghungroo, now Harvard’s largest annual cultural show.

My career is in quant investing; I’ve served in leadership roles at JP Morgan, Fidelity and Bernstein and have also founded 2 entrepreneurial businesses — one of which grew out of my masters thesis at MIT (Sloan MBA ’99) and became the fintech unicorn Vestmark. My wife Madeline, who is Shanghainese, also attended Harvard College and the MIT Sloan School. Our kids are 20 and 15 and we live near campus in Lexington, Mass.

How has attending MIT impacted your life?

MIT transformed my life. A Sloan MBA distills down to the simple maxim, when faced with a problem, examine the underlying structure. To an engineer this sounds pretty basic — but it’s quite a contrast to the usual stereotype of managers who fire from the hip! For me, as an applied math grad who made his way into the investment business, and then grew inspired to help shape the industry’s evolution, these are fighting words.

I’m also moved by President Reif’s call to graduates to “hack the world — until you make the world a little little more like MIT.” He goes on to explain what it means to be a little more like MIT: “more daring and more passionate; more rigorous, inventive and ambitious…” Reif’s words authentically capture the ethos of our classmates, faculty and alumni over the years and around the globe — indeed I’ve observed that the Institute community itself becomes a little bit more like MIT each year!

It’s always interesting for current students and alumni to learn about the diverse initiatives MIT South Asian alumni undertake! Would you like to share an initiative you’re particularly proud of?

MITSAAA catalyzed an amazing oral history project that chronicles our alumni from the subcontinent and is currently on display at the Maihaugen Gallery (14N-130) thru October 13. Recently we also participated in a permanent installation of a bust of peerless mathematician Srinivas Ramanujan in the Infinite Corridor (near Course 18 faculty offices).

I see great potential to build upon MIT SAAA’s recent webinars on art. While most of us grew up focusing on STEM, entrepreneurship, or the professions, it’s undeniable both that art profoundly shapes one’s entire worldview, and that our ancestral region is extraordinarily rich in art and cultural stimuli. A handful of US museums that hold significant Indic collections are always looking to reach new enthusiasts, so MIT SAAA can productively connect these dots. We’re currently working on that, so stay tuned!

Given your vast experience in investing, do you have any predictions for the future of the investment industry?

In financial services, too much attention is focused on short-term market movements, on technological efficiency, and on quarterly or annual profits, and on long-lived non-taxable institutional clients. When you focus instead on the financial needs of families, who pay taxes and must look decades out, you find tremendous neglected upside.

Now wealth management is perhaps America’s best business, whether you measure market size, typical profit margins, or growth. Despite or perhaps because of those highly attractive fundamentals, wealth management has tended to breed mediocre outcomes, resulting in low client trust. Almost no player has the right tools, training, structure or mindset to actually deliver the concrete outcomes that every client needs and expects.

In short, it’s an area that needs to look a little more like MIT. Sloan famously pioneered modern finance, yet so far almost none has percolated into wealth management. It’s about time someone armed families to approach their quantifiable tradeoffs with precision and clarity over their needs, goals and aspirations. And of course the investments should be managed with rigorous control over risks and taxes. I’m currently hacking away at this significant opportunity with the finest team I know — we call ourselves Altar Rock and it’s been a thrilling, intellectually rich journey.

You are a mentor, entrepreneur and a board member. What is your leadership philosophy?

I frequently quote the late Alfred Sloan: “a manager’s job is not to like or change people: it is to put people’s strengths to work!” Too many managers, even or especially at the highest levels, don’t seem to get this; inordinate effort is expended evaluating employees rather than discovering, honing and applying their strengths. Experience plus research have taught me that each of us has, alongside our inevitable flaws, one or two superpowers. So my favorite interview question is “tell me about a moment that captures you at your personal best.” I try to function less like a factory foreman than a Hollywood talent agent. I’ve found this approach, which is rooted in positive psychology, to be wonderfully empowering.

Of course no single person has the complete package — hence, on any team, diversity is a meaningful asset. By unleashing each person’s superpowers, while aligning the team toward a collective sense of purpose, you create a community of leaders and enable breakthrough achievements. The remaining ingredients for sustained victory are empathetic coaching, plus metrics and transparent communication. And of course a well-crafted strategy is a must: remember that good organizations observe and follow their customers, while great organizations know and lead the market.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am an entrepreneur, angel investor, and mentor with an additional focus on social impact innovation and public policy. I am the founder and CEO of the Pittie Enterprises Group, a multi-faceted conglomerate with interests in precision automotive and aerospace component manufacturing, solar photovoltaic and thermal energy solutions, Fintech, real estate, and angel investment.

I am a scion of the notable Pittie family, founders of The Raja Bahadur Motilal Poona Mills Ltd in 1893. I graduated first in my class from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree (Summa Cum Laude) in Materials Science and Engineering. I also have a Master of Science (S.M.) in Management and Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, I completed the Global Senior Management Program at INSEAD in France.

I’m a member of the University of Michigan Engineering Alumni Board and a founding member of the University of Michigan India Alumni Association (UMIAA). I serve as a mentor for the Government of India’s Atal Innovation Mission, and formerly the MIT Martin Trust Center. In addition, I served as President of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization(EO).

How has attending MIT impacted your life?

My association with MIT has been particularly instrumental in shaping my professional career. MIT is a laboratory of innovation and ideas, and it’s ethos emphasizes and encourages scholarship, hard work, and excellence. These attributes contribute to the future success and prominence of its alumni. Recent data shows that MIT alumni have founded more than 30,000 companies, employing more than 4.6M people and generating more than $1.9T in revenues! I am proud to be a Regional Ambassador for the MIT Alumni Association and a member of the MIT South Asia Alumni Association’s board of directors.

It’s always interesting for current students and alumni to learn about the diverse initiatives MIT South Asian alumni undertake! Would you like to share an initiative that you are particularly proud of?

One of my primary ventures is PYN Autocomp, an automotive and engineering component precision machining and manufacturing company situated in Pune, India. At PYN, we are driven by our core competencies of precision machining and rapid product/component development with the highest quality requirements.

One of our key strengths is our complete engineering and product development expertise, which allows us to rapidly develop new components, establish dependable production processes, and timely delivery with reduced time and cost to our clients. We are a client-oriented company and can anticipate customer needs, backed by our cutting-edge production capabilities and world-class technology. We have been certified with the IATF 16949:2016 Quality Management System by BSI, and we have a lengthy history of supplying essential line items to our clients with zero rejection (PPM).

At PYN, we are early adopters of technology and always eager to try new methodologies. We consistently observe and apply Japanese quality standards and processes and are guided by the Toyota Production System. In fact, I had the wonderful chance to study with Prof. Jeffrey Liker, author of the book-The Toyota Way, and I support and adhere to the rules outlined in it. We are already implementing Industry 4.0, IoT, online monitoring of Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE), Statistical Process Control (SPC), Process Capability (Cp/Cpk), and AI Image Processing.

Given your vast experience in manufacturing, do you have any predictions for the future of the manufacturing industry?

Looking forward, I anticipate that manufacturing will need to be more agile, nimble, and flexible as VUCA (Volatility Uncertainty Complexity and Ambiguity) increases. Companies must also focus on financial stability by keeping overhead and leverage low. As a result, organizations with flexible manufacturing techniques and the ability to swiftly develop new components stand to gain and capitalize on new market opportunities. There are also new opportunities for precision component manufacturers in EVs, defense and aerospace, as well as benefits from the Government of India’s Make-in-India, Atmanirbhar India (self-reliant India), and Production Linked Incentive (PLI) programs.

You are a mentor, entrepreneur and a board member. What is your leadership philosophy?

As a leader, I believe in team empowerment and delegation, as well as allowing them to develop a sense of ownership and accountability. Data and analytics are essential for monitoring and making informed decisions. I believe in setting and evaluating goals and monitoring progress to keep the team on track. Quoting W. Edwards Deming: “In God we trust. All others must bring data.” I also believe in two of my favorite Peter Drucker quotes: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it” and “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” ∎

I attended MIT in the 1980’s and as my parents had emigrated to the US in the 1960’s I was in the early trickle of second generation students at the Institute at the time. On visits back to campus decades later, I marveled at how things had changed for students since my day with better representation on campus, better gender equity, international internships, and cultural programs that help students feel at home away from home. And I also wondered when did the first desi come to MIT? I was STUNNED when I stumbled across the work of historian Ross Bassett, author of “The Technological Indian” and learned that the first student from South Asia came to MIT in 1880, soon after the Institute’s founding and more than a hundred years before I set foot on campus! Ross had been researching how people from a region left behind by the industrial revolution came to be among the world’s leaders in engineering and technology and all roads led to MIT. As documented in the book, MIT in fact played an outsized role in South Asia’s economic development and even in its struggle for independence from colonial rule. MIT in fact was a beacon for freedom fighters in a colonized South Asia who thought it’s technical expertise represented a way forward for their country and were among it’s earliest South Asian students. Later the newly decolonized South Asian countries used MIT trained professionals to build their infrastructure and set up their institutions of higher learning.

I was President of the MIT South Asian Alumni Association at the time and felt that this history should be more widely known and perhaps showcased in an exhibit. I was able to convince MIT History Professor Sana Aiyar and Managing Director of MIT-India, Nureen Das that this was a worthy project to take on. Professor Aiyar greatly expanded the research Ross Bassett had started beyond Engineering to all five schools at MIT and beyond India to all of South Asia. The pandemic further created an opportunity as students who were not able to travel for their internships at companies around the world could engage with our project. Gradually, we were able to raise some funds for this project and since January of 2020 over 40 student researchers have combed through MIT’s archives and have conducted more than 100 oral histories with alumni. Our exhibition, South Asia and the Institute: Transformative Connections, opened with great fanfare at MIT’s Maihaugen Gallery on 14th October, 2022. The exhibition will be on display till October 2023. Our project, led by current MIT faculty, students and staff, tells the remarkable story of South Asia at MIT and MIT in South Asia to honor the determination and grit of multiple generations of South Asians at MIT. We celebrate their far-reaching accomplishments, technical expertise, and ingenuity that have made significant contributions to the advancement of knowledge at MIT and life beyond the institute, in South Asia, the United States and across the world. We also highlight the ways in which MIT’s past and present have been shaped by histories of immigration and race in America, decolonization and nation-building in South Asia, and globalization and technological revolutions across the world. We also produced a couple of short films with filmmaker Avani Batra about this project and this history which you can check out here! South Asia and the Institute: Transformative Connections gives a historical overview of the long and entangled history of MIT and South Asia and South Asians at MIT is about the making of the project.

This project has struck a chord among many within MIT who generously supported our efforts to put together this exhibition. Recognizing the importance of this project and all that we have planned to do in the near future, MIT’s President Rafael Reif has given us a $100,000 grant to continue our work. This includes launching an online exhibit this Spring, creating a digital archive of more than 100 oral histories that we have collected in collaboration with MIT’s Digital Humanities Lab, hosting seminars on various issues raised in our exhibition including gender, identity, the IIT-MIT network, and experiential learning and policy-oriented programming on South Asia, and taking the exhibition to South Asia. In all this, we continue to work closely with students, MIT India, and the MIT South Asian Alumni Association.

But I also feel that this history is important for those outside of MIT to know. Some of the earliest South Asian Americans were in fact students. And their history and an understanding of how current world came to be, lies within those archives. I would be thrilled if other institutions of higher learning embarked on similar projects to explore their own early South Asian connections. We very much hope that you will have the chance to visit our exhibition and be in touch (ranubo@alum.mit.edu) if you wish to know more or engage with us in spreading knowledge of this important history.

To learn more, check out our webpage https://mitsaaa.alumgroup.mit.edu/s/1314/bp19/interior.aspx?sid=1314&gid=183&pgid=55729 and the following articles related to the History Project.

Uncovering the rich connections between South Asia and MIT — MIT News November 18, 2022

Exploring generations of influence between South Asia and MIT

History class led by Associate Professor Sana Aiyar delves into South Asian experience at MIT via oral histories and the Institute Archives/Distinctive Collections