FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Gagan Sharma
Gagan.sharma@iitdef.org
267-257-8417
Sandeep Tyagi
styagi@iitdef.org
908-743-1111
Alumni Contribute to IIT Delhi through Financial and Time Contributions
New School of Information Technology to be created with the help of a $5 million gift from Vinod Khosla
Delhi, INDIA and Palo Alto, CALIFORNIA – September 1, 2004 – IIT Delhi announced the creation of the Amar Nath Khosla School of IT at IIT Delhi. The school has been supported through a $5 million gift from Vinod Khosla, General Partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers and a 1976 graduate of IIT Delhi. The school will promote cutting edge research, goal-oriented innovation and advanced learning in technologies that have strong inter-disciplinary links with Information Technology, including dependable computing, embedded systems and sensor networks, GIS, nano-technology, and bio-informatics.
Over the past 18 months, IIT Delhi has been working actively with its alumni in the US in establishing the IIT Delhi Excellence Foundation (IITDEF). The foundation has been created by alumni like Rajat Gupta (ex-Managing Partner, McKinsey & Co), Naren Gupta (Vice Chairman, Wind River Systems), Sandeep Tyagi (founder, Inductis) and others to serve the dual purpose of providing exceptional alumni services and contributing to the continued success of IIT Delhi.
“We welcome our alumni to come forward and support current activities and students at IIT Delhi. Along with large initiatives like the School of IT, alumni have come forward and supported loan scholarships and research chairs. We are looking forward to working with IITDEF in further improving our alumni reach-out activities”, said Prof R. S. Sirohi, Director, IIT Delhi.
Along with facilitating the creation of the Amar Nath Khosla School of IT, the foundation has helped alumni create research chairs in various departments as well as establish loan scholarships for current students at IIT Delhi. The foundation is working with alumni association of other IITs in creating a strong PAN-IIT organization to serve alumni in various parts of the world including USA.IIT Delhi Excellence Foundation played an instrumental role in the creation of the Khosla School of IT. “With the help of Vinod’s gift, we will be able to deepen our research and innovation capabilities in Information Technology and its inter-working with other disciplines, such as transportation, environment, and energy” said Prof. Bijendra Jain, the present Head of the School of IT.
“IITs are known for the success of their undergraduate program. Our goal is to help expand and deepen research capabilities at IITs through cross-departmental graduate and doctoral programs. IITDEF helped me in working together with IIT Delhi to realize this vision” said Vinod Khosla.
“ Amar Nath Khosla School of IT is the perfect example of IITDEF helping IIT Delhi maintain and improve it position as one of the leading technology universities in the world. The alumni community is willing and keen to support each other as well as IIT in various initiatives. We expect to announce additional successes of the foundation over the coming months” said Naren Gupta, the President of IITDEF.
About IIT Delhi Excellence Foundation
IIT Delhi Excellence Foundation (IITDEF) was launched in December 2002 by several IITD alumni with two key goals: 1. To make IITDEF the center for exceptional alumni services, both from a professional perspective as well as on the personal front; and 2. To contribute actively towards strengthening and contributing to the continued success of the institute and its alumni.
Towards these goals, IITDEF is set up as a public charity in New York state and has tax exempt status under section 501(c)3 of IRS. We have formulated some basic policies (including privacy policies) which can be viewed at its website http://www.iitdef.org. We have attempted to make the organization broadly inclusive, with all executive positions voluntary and of limited terms.
