Category: Alumni in News

Prof. Zubin Jacob is an Associate Professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University in USA. He obtained his B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering  from  IIT  Bombay  in 2004, Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (M.S.E.E.) degree from Princeton University in 2007, and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University in 2010.nnProf. Jacob and collaborators pioneered the research area of hyperbolic photonic metamaterials. These are a special class of photonic media which  control  the propagation of light in ways beyond the ability of conventional materials. During his Ph.D. (2004- 10), Prof. Jacob and collaborators proposed the concept of the Optical Hyperlens, a metamaterial device that breaks the diffraction limit for super-resolution imaging. His original hyperlens paper ranks as the 6th most cited paper in the 20 year history of Optics Express, out of more than 30,000 articles. He has also led international multi-university experimental teams to demonstrate proof-of- concept devices in the CMOS photonics foundry platform. The framework introduced by Jacob and collaborators is widely used today for designing new materials and devices far beyond optics in the THz, microwave and infrared frequency ranges.

Mr. Sachin Galgalikar is working as a Senior Solution Architect – Aerospace and Defense at Dassault Systèmes in Seattle, USA.nnMr. Galgalikar pursued his Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1986. He completed his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University in 1988. He has received J.N. Tata Endowment Scholarship for the Higher Education of Indians and scholarship from Cornell University for Graduate Studies.nnMr. Galgalikar started his career as a software engineer in Boston. After three years, he moved to Michigan and worked in the automotive industry, with different departments of Ford Motor Company. In 2005, he moved to Seattle for an opportunity with The Boeing Company. He spent nine years with Boeing and then three years with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) as a Managing Consultant for Aerospace & Defense (A&D). In 2017, Mr. Galgalikar joined Dassault Systemes and is working with various A&D clients.nnMr. Galgalikar has helped in setting up the Detroit Chapter of IIT Bombay Alumni Association in the 90s. He has been actively involved in the Seattle Chapter since 2005, organizing events and hosting the Director and his team on their annual visits. He has hosted IIT Bombay delegations at the local Dassault Systemes office and at Dassault Systemes’ Aero Center of Excellence in Karnataka to discuss various areas of collaboration with the Institute.nnHis hobbies include tennis and aviation.nn 

Mr. Krishnamurthy Raghunandan is a Full-time Consultant, Advisor (Technical/ Marketing) to Murata Machinery, Ltd., Machine Tool Division in Yokohama, Japan. He completed M. Tech. from IIT Bombay in Mechanical Engineering in 1972.nnMr. Ranghunandan’s semi-professional stint started as an under-graduate summer trainee at Bharat Forge in Pune, where he gained first-hand shop floor experience on how a forging factory looks like and works. Similarly, as a post-graduate summer trainee at HMT Bangalore in the Hydraulics systems Division, he learnt basics of industrial design and research in Machine Tools. His very first full professional experience started off at an L&T group company during 1972-73 in Odisha as an engineer, where he was involved in re-building old German machine tools in the shop floor. His guru was a foreman who taught him the basics of scraping beds and machine tool alignment in addition to managing a team of shop floor stalwarts. Due to family circumstances, he shortly returned to Pune to work with the then prestigious TELCO in Machine Tools R&D division. From 1975 to 1981, Mr. Raghunandan worked with a Machine Tools Sales and Service Distributor for European and American machines and instrumentation with multiple roles of selling and servicing on all-India basis. During 1975-81, he went to UK and Japan on a four-months trip to develop new principals and advanced training in variety of machine tools and instrumentation products. In 1981, Mr. Raghunandan moved to Japan with family and started a new way of life but still with Machine Tools as a career. Following typical Japanese work culture, since then, Mr. Raghunandan has been with the same Japanese company till date (post official retirement as well as a full-time consultant).nnDuring this four decade period, he has gained experience in shop floor development; global marketing and sales including travel – from New Zealand to Canada round the world (about 30 countries); lived in Germany (6 years) to set up EU operations; and developed variety of database software for sales and engineering from the onset of computer introduction.nnHe had been recognized by IITBAA as “Volunteer of Month” in February 2015 in the very early stages of his involvement with IITBAA Japan Chapter. He has received several awards and recognitions from his employers as well as associates in the fields of “Introducing innovations in shop floor”, “Introducing digitization pre- and post- computer era”, “Achieving top sales targets in various countries”, “Introducing Product Life Management System in machine tools”, and “Introducing AI database system for metal cutting”.nnMr. Raghunandan has contributed to IIT Bombay mainly in bringing 100+ alumni in Japan together to give a proper structure to Japan chapter, encouraging alumni in Japan to participate as EC members annually, bringing Interns and alumni in Japan together to exchange information about various facets of life, career and culture in Japan, introducing IIT Bombay management to various corporates, and academia and government bodies in Japan to enhance recruitment, and R&D and academic cooperation resulting in MoU between IIT Bombay with NEC Japan. He is also involved in connecting IIT Bombay alumni to Pan IIT circles to enlarge participation in wider range of activities.nnSharing his memories at IIT Bombay, Mr. Raghunandan said, “ After being a day scholar right up to graduation in Pune, getting into hostel life away from family was a totally new experience. Initial few months were in Hostel 6 amidst undergraduates. Witnessing ragging in hostel but not being ragged myself was the first lesson. Subsequent days in the royal PG1 hostel were a totally contrasting experience. The entire period of 2 years life in IIT Bombay was a special memory and I could write a full book someday. I think every student should go through such experience in their life, if circumstances permit”.nnAbout his hobbies, Mr. Raghunandan, says “Driving around in countries has been a passion (now miss the 280 kmph autobahn drives in Germany in Audi A6), visiting religious centres, museums, castles and natural greenery (with wife) in any country, developing database software for variety of purposes (started with Fortran in IIT Bombay) starting with a tri-lingual word processor in MS-DOS era, and reciting Vedas (learnt from school days in Sanskrit)”.nn nn nn 

Mr. Surendra Murlidhar Vaidya is the Executive Vice President and Business Head of Godrej Aerospace, a unit of Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.nnAfter graduating in Metallurgical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1983, Mr. Vaidya chose to work in India and started his career as a welding engineer and developed ASME ‘U’ stamp capable welding practice for pressure vessels, heat exchangers, reactors and then got into special processes like heat treatments, chemical processing for systems used in nuclear, defence and space organizations.