Date: 6^th- Feb 2021

Dear Friends,

I am happy to share the following work that we did at the Alumni Association IIT Kanpur. There are a number of threads that we worked on and the areas where we could accomplish. These areas have helped us set us as a stronger brand , positioned for growth and positive outcome. All these activities have been supported by chapters, individual alums, students, Faculty, Director and DORA. Look forward to your inputs and areas which we need to further strengthen.

Key Activities and outcomes

1. Improve relationship between AA & the institute
1. Invite to AA events as Academia participant or expert.
2. 3 professional events in the institute per year bring in the incubation centre, eCell and the faculty participation
3. Have an alum as an Officer on Special Duty who then lead the strategy and fund development thoughts.
4. Invite to the Industry events like MEITY, NASSCOM, Industry round tables.
5. Chapter & Institute interactions at Hyderabad, Singapore, Bangalore, Pune, West coast, East coast, Mumbai , Delhi, Outer Delhi.
6. DORA restarted the quarterly newsletter.


2. Improve chapter integration & activities.
Chapters allow the face to face connect at the same location. There are a number of events that happen and create a good feeling and bonding.
1. Chapter activities increase and Chapter Accreditation.
2. Proposed both the professional events for engagement in addition to the family events.
3. Cross chapter events , invitations and participations
4. Communication groups within the chapter and across the chapters.
5. Almost all chapters had the regular family sessions. Active chapters include those in Singapore, London, Silicon Valley, East coast, Delhi, Outer Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Canada.
6. There are groups which are active in Gujarat, Midwest, Los Angeles, Boston, Toronto. However, interactions & integration needs to be done and the plan has been defined to get that going as well.


3. Batch coordinator, Database, and web interactions
Along-with Dora & Alumni office , continue to stream line the process.
1. Overall listed member records went up from Approx 25K to 37K
2. Corrected records from 22K to 29K. We are sure that the communication shall continue to improve as we now step up the pace.
3. Website, interactions will be higher. The Alum community will continue to get far more engaged is a more LinkedIn like interactions.
4. Digital conferences (Specially after COVID-19)
1. Vox meet framework for webinar ready.
2. Batchwise, chapter wise or initiative wise activities have started.
3. Both the Formal and informal interactions may be organized
4. U & I ( You & the institute )

These are informal interactions along between the Institute and the alums and proposed batch wise to align on the themes, perspective, and attendance. This is the set of interactions which have been launched on the 23rd Jan 21 to allow the institute to connect through the batch coordinators.
We have rolled out the first set of conversations with the first topic on School of Medical Research & Technology ( SMRT ). Total of 6 sessions shall be conducted to cover all the batches Two interactions cover the following set of batches have been completed on the 23rd Jan and 30th Jan.
Reference U & I Session 2

4. Professional Engagements
1. Start-up Master Class (SMC)
1. 20 + Start up Master Class events conducted which brought together the start-ups, entrepreneurs, mentos and investors
2. Participation ranged from 300 people to 1400 people
3. State CM or the Cabinet ministers also participated in the many of these events
4. Regular workshops were started once a month
2. Regular workshops
1. Regular workshops were planned around specific topics and entrepreneurship.
2. Alums also participated in the institute or student led events.
3. Social entrepreneurs & enterprises (SEE)
1. 8 + events across the locations for Social Entrepreneurs and Enterprises . These covered topics like Water, Agriculture, Healthcare, Education, Rural Livelihood
2. Each looked at the impact of the specific area, identify the measure and then help execute the same.
4. Women Inspired Network (WIN)
Our Alumna started the interaction for both career and guidance and has grown to more than 200 alumna regularly interacting on various topics. We hope to have more active participation from the Alumna.
5. Mentoring base and opportunities
1. Dolphin tank as set of mentors who could guide the start ups and across the locations.
2. Golden Gate Bridge which opened the doors for entrepreneurs in India to connect to the Silicon Valley investors and mentors. Around 41 mentors signed up.
3. Mentor framework still needs to evolve. Besides technology, few thoughts are proposed to ensure the matching for the effective outcomes
4. All this has resulted in a vibrant alum community with spirit of collaboration across the locations. We will hit a much higher number of unicorns in the next years.
6. Informal engagements
1. The Family engagement have continued across the chapters and the locations
2. Reunions also kept pace, and number of reunions increased and are organized at the institute. Many batches continued to meet informally even after the reunions are the locations.
3. The celebration around the festivals have also got sizeable alums participating along with the families.
7. Government interactions and institute
Interactions with the government departments is important, both for the visibility and attracting projects from the government. The funding in India has moved from budget approach to the objective driven project approach . The institute has to compete and win project wise
1. Invitations of the speakers in our local engagements within the chapters
2. Executive meeting with the Govt Secretaries and institute organized by Delhi Chapter in Feb 20 . Many of our senior alums participated and contributed
3. Alum Association signed the MOU with Start- up hub of ( Ministry of information technology ) Meity & Niti Aayog for partnering and mentoring
8. Incubation centre
Last 3 years have seen Section 8 company formation. A formal approach , increase in visibility and driving successful outcomes.
1. Propose investors, mentors, start-ups for the incubation centre.
2. Helped in outreach through Invitations to all our events and joint organization at the Start up Master Class Central at IIT Kanpur
3. Regular participation and access to all Alums to incubation centre
4. Promote Incubation centre start-ups within the community & invitation to multiple event both Alum organized and external events
5. Raise funds that helped started a few Entrepreneur – in – residence programs through sponsorships.
9. PAN IIT
1. PAN IIT India
We have two members who are nominated as required. PAN IIT activities have been around organization of conclave and Hackathon.
2020
We were part of the organizing team for the event Tech for Bharath and were able to pull in 17 out of 21 Directors in the Directors workshop. The theme covered the issues in the new IITs, Sustaining IIT operations and Becoming global leaders.
PAN IIT Hackathon
It had around 1000 teams participating from across the India and created strong interest across the community.
2018
PAN IIT meet at Bangalore led by AA IIT K attracted max attendees and focused on the Digital initiatives.

2. PAN IIT US
Interactions have been limited so far, coz at best the interaction was access to database. During this PAN IIT US in December. AA IITK team supported the outreach and participated as speakers and event. There is a room for increasing the participation there given that many of our members have been active in the past.
10. Faculty Area Network
One of the areas that needed to be improved was the access to the universities in the US . This was required to support the following two areas
1. Attract the foreign faculty . Institute needs to recruit 300 faculty in the next 3 years . Meetings and interactions we facilitated and planned in 2019 and 2020
2. Internship for Students. This is the second areas where good healthy internship would help
Both these activities help improve diversity , will assist in the ranking and the improve the attractiveness of the institute for the new students.
11. Student and the recruitment support
By far and large the activities are conducted by the Student placement office . However there are multiple areas where the alums could contribute
1. Support for internship
2. Heading out for recruitment
3. Urgent support during Covid times for students who lost internship assignments or the jobs.
12. Diamond Jubilee
1. Locations planned included Bangalore, Delhi , Mumbai, Pune, Zurich, West coast , East coast , Toronto . Each of the locations ran to the specific theme to cover to full spectrum of activities relevant to the Alums and the institute
2. Bangalore focused on Global research bring together 40 R&D Heads face to face with Alums and institute members on round tables View DJ event at Bangalore 8 industry verticals & included technology , industry interactions with the institute and work to get home the Nobel prize
3. Mumbai event got the industry leaders together and views on building a 5 trillion dollar economy
4. Other planned Diamond Jubilee events had to be cancelled after complete preparation done for most of them
5. Initiatives Batches, chapter and individual led various initiative and one of them which is ongoing is planting 40 K trees. One tree for each Alum Pune chapter is driving the initiative and project is well under way
13. Office on Special Duty and progress
One of the areas where we worked together with the institute was having our Alum in special duty. The basic goal being look at all inputs that would helps us put the strategy right and vision along with the institute.
These include the vision, the plan to cover the
1. Ranking
2. Branding
3. Revisit KIAP
4. Institute next 10 year goals
The progress is good and outcomes are visible as the initiatives
14. Foundation & Fund raise
Funding has been a concern for all IITs . Government has been curtailing funds in the last 10 years. At the same time there are imperatives for growth.
Whether its ranking or infrastructure or increasing student count or setting up core labs, all activities need funds. Two areas became important
1. Fund body that drives fund raise in a formal manner . The structure has been defined , the section 8 company created, CEO selected.
2. Reintegrating with IITK foundation as the prime relation driver in US
3. All initiatives shall be routed via IITK Development Foundation and raise shall be organized.
15. Constitution review
The Constitution was reviewed and approved by the General body. Key changes covered to include and the implantation was carried out
1. Involvement of younger Alums ( 5 year from graduation ) as part of the board.
2. Participation of student President and chairman as attendees
3. Broad basing participation to be more gender inclusive
4. Structure of Standing committee to get the right experts Alums to lead initiatives in multiple areas.
16. School of Medical research and Technology
One of the initiatives taken by the institute and part of the institute growth plan has been the School of Medical research and technology and which Alum need to support
1. It shall again help back in leadership position at the institute
2. Leverages multiple disciplines covering Bio medical , Mechanical, , CS, Material Science, Electrical and Chemical Engineering
3. Research Areas cover AI in Diagnostics, Cancer , Orthopaedics, Prosthetics, Vaccine & Drug developments
4. Spread over 25 Acre Campus it allows integration to the Research centre and the incubation centre as well
5. Total fund requirement is 1000 Cr ( 150 mio USD)

As the number of activities increase there are various ways Alumni Association shall be happy to engage and seek your involvement . Various areas include

1. Working as part of the standing committee within AA IITK BOD eg Entrepreneur
2. Involvement with the incubation centre
3. Strategic input and feedback
4. Be part of the IIT K development foundation.
5. Rejuvenate or lead the chapter or cross chapter initiatives.
6. Support SMRT and other new initiatives
7. Join the U & I sessions and share your expertise and perspective

Alumni Association shall be happy to continue to take forward with the right members to ensure the involvement and execution.