This Dean left the US to build IITM's entrepreneurial future | Prof Ashwin Mahalingam, IITM

[00:01:56] Professor Ashwin’s Career: Early Academic Journey

[00:05:56] Civil Engineering: What does it encompass as a discipline?

[00:12:22] Scope for Civil Engineering: What does the future of Civil Engineering look like?

[00:17:46] Student Entreprenur in US to E-Cell: How have things changed in this time?

[00:21:21] Entrepreneurship in IIT Madras: How it started and what it looks like now

[00:27:02] Culture of Building at IIT Madras: How is CFI playing a major role in this?

[00:31:37] Best Place to Build: Is IIT Madras living up to that name?

[00:33:38] The IIT Madras Alumni Network: The support for the building ecosystem

[00:40:01] Friend Raising and Fund Raising: The Office of Alumni and Corporate Relations

[00:44:55] Best Way to Utilize Time in University: Professor’s advice to current and future students 

[00:02:05] IIT Madras

[00:02:18] Prof. Ashwin studied at Stanford University after his graduation in Civil Engineering from IIT Madras

[00:17:00] CTIDES [Cell for Technology Innovation Development and Entrepreneurship Support] was later renamed to E-Cell 

[00:21:25] The presence of CFI was part of the reason for the sudden surge in entrepreneurship in the IITM campus

[00:40:54] Prof. Ashwin is the Dean of the Alumni and Corporate Relations [ACE] Office 

[00:40:06] The ACE office is also called the Office of Institutional Advancement 

[00:44:05] IISC Bangalore and IIT Bombay attract a similar quantum of funding as IIT Madras

[00:03:13] Prof. Ashwin stayed at the same dorm as Sergei Brin and Larry Page

[00:04:54] Professor Ananth visited Stanford University towards the end of Prof. Ashwin’s doctoral course there

[00:17:31] Tarun Mehta from Ather Energy was the student head of E-Cell when Prof. Ashwin was the Faculty Head there

[00:21:34] Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi was the Director when alumni abroad were approached to mentor entrepreneurs in IIT Madras (It might have been Professor Ananth as well)

[00:21:58] Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala was heading the effort to encourage entrepreneurship among students

[00:23:45] Venky Hariharan, Anand Rajaraman and Rajan Srikanth were part of the committee of alumni from the US encouraging entrepreneurs 

[00:24:07] Seshan Rammohan said they would get alumni to form a body to mentor new entrepreneurs

[00:24:20] Swapnil Jain was also the student head of the E-Cell when it had just started

[00:43:22] Professor Ramamurthy Nagarajan was the first Dean of Alumni and Corporate Relations

[00:43:31] Professor Mahesh Panchagnula was the second Dean of the ACE office before Prof. Ashwin took the post

[00:03:17] The founders of Google were at the same dormitory as Prof Ashwin in Stanford University

[00:20:27] Prof. Ashwin mentions his friend joined a FMCG company which could have been Hindustan Unilever

[00:22:42] Infosys was shown as an example for entrepreneurship for students

[00:24:52] Tarun and Swapnil dabbled with a few ideas before they finally hit upon the idea for Ather Energy

[00:25:00] Flipkart and Zomato became high-profile and made entrepreneurship desirable

[00:29:45] Prof Ashwin mentions Amazon as an example of a company where it’s not just the founders who know how to build but also the people working there 

[00:34:38] People think of Microsoft and Walmart when they think about top technology companies

[00:34:50] The head of engineering at OpenAI is an IIT Madras alumni

[00:34:57] Many of the top executives at the Tata Group are also from IIT Madras

[00:45:49] Professor Ashwin was the winner of the Lone Wolf Quiz competition conducted in IIT Saarang.