IIT Alumni of Greater Houston (IITAGH)

IITAGH is an “inclusive” organization that is open to the community. The goals of IITAGH, a 501c3 organization, are:

• Mentor younger alumni/ university students from campuses in the Greater Houston area- Career Development, Entrepreneurship, Soft Skills
• Educate- Giving back to the local Community

• Network ( Social and Professional)

Lee High School officially recognized the contribution of IITAGH in making a difference to the Texas School Board Exam results. Also, IITAGH was given an award for “Advancing Literacy” in June 2007 at their annual gala.

The strength of IITAGH has been in its leadership and an excellent working relationship with all team members.  There is no membership fee. There are eight trustees who contribute annually. There are university representatives and individual IIT reps who are board members. They help to bolster attendance of students. Students typically volunteer for the events. Because of the mentoring program, business schools have sponsored events and are interested in partnering with IITAGH. There are 3 social events a year: Family bowling night, 4th of July celebration and an Annual picnic. Joint events with other organizations include American Society of Indian Engineers (ASIE), Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACCGH) and Association of India’s Development (AID) etc. A close relationship with TiE has been established, so that there is no conflict in events. Younger alumni interested in entrepreneurship are passed on to Young TiE.

Some of the past speakers include:

• Aruna Viswanathan: “HTC, Entrepreneurship”
• Prof Wade Adams : “Nanotechnology”
• Prof Sainath : “Globalization and Inequality”
• Prof M. Economidies: “Is there an impending oil shortage”
• Prof Rob Jensen: “Who’s Democracy is it anyway”
• Hubert Vaznayak: “Applying to Business Schools”
• Ashok Rao: “An Insider's Behind the Scenes look at Movie Making"
• John Elbon: “An Overview of NASA's Constellation and Space Exploration"
• Prof Rob Jensen: “Iraq, Iran, Israel: Contemporary Crises in a Historical Context”
• Rajiv Malhotra: “India’s Contribution to Science and Technology”

Dr Roopa Gur, President, IITAGH, Houston

• B.Sc. (Hons) Physics, Delhi University, 1971
• M.Tech. in Applied Geophysics, IITR, 1974. University Gold Medal,
• Ph.D (Doctorat d’Etat) in Seismology from the Institut de Physique Du Globe, France

Working for over 25 years for Schlumberger, starting in Houston, as a Sr. Dev. Engineer. Worked in overseas operations for 17 years in South East Asia, in various capacities including Business Development Manager for the Asia Pacific region. From 2000-2004, worked as Business Development Manager for North America in Data and Consulting services. From 2004-2007, worked in the Corporate Comm. Group as Scientific Advisor and Editor, Oilfield Review. Currently, working as Director, Technology Watch for the corporate group. Received “Performed by Schlumberger” award in 2001, for developing “QuickSeis” for rapid prospect generation and in 2003, for “Real Time Reservoir Management”.

Alumni activities include:

• President, IIT Alumni of Greater Houston (IITAGH) from Jan 2007, representing over 1,000 IIT Alumni in the greater Houston area, with the goal of: Mentor, Educate and Network.

• Leading the education initiative with Pan-IIT, SEED - Stimulate Education for Economic Development- an outcome of Distinguished Alumni (DA) conferences held in India and DC.

• VP (South) for IIT Roorkee Alumni Association of North America (IITRAANA).
• PiTech Magazine editorial board member, a PAN-IIT Technical Review magazine(http://www.pitechmagazine.com/pitech/default.asp)
• Board member as Vice President/ Secretary of Pan-IIT USA

Other activities are: Advisor to AID (Association for India’s development) and Treasurer, Oil Patch Democrats (OPD) in Houston.