State of the Union: ASEI@40

Over the last weekend, I was priviledged to address the ASEIcon2023 attendees in Michigan gathered for ASEI's 35th National Convention coinciding with 40 years since ASEI's founding in 1983. Sharing with the wider audience what I had submitted for the official brochure.

Dear Friends,

I am honored to welcome all our guests, distinguished speakers, and fellow engineers, technologists and scientists to ASEIcon2023 which is the 35th National Convention in our organization’s 40 year history. Indeed it's a momentous occasion not only for us but for many of you who have come to attend our National Conventions year after year.? I too am getting nostalgic thinking about how I? had my first brush with ASEI over 11 years ago. I had been invited to speak at the National Convention in SoCal and then one request led to another and we ended up establishing an ASEI chapter in Silicon Valley with a bit of initial corporate support and volunteers from IBM. Since then, I have seen this organization flourish with more activities and focussed initiatives and chapters launched. Thanks to the founding fathers of this esteemed organization that laid a solid foundation in 1983!

Last few years have been interesting with Covid which on one hand confined us to our homes, but on the other hand, also led to rapid transformation of our habits and behaviors with the proliferation of digital technologies. We were glad to see speakers from 3 continents and attendees from over 25 different countries at our two-day virtual 34th National convention last year.

ASEIcon2023’s theme is “Next Generation of Engineering Innovations” with talks spread across mobility, energy, infrastructure and emerging technologies.?

With our world in turmoil with raging regional conflicts & the impact of climate change accentuated, it is engineering innovations that provide us some solace. Innovation is a powerful engine for uplifting society and fueling economic growth. Antibiotics, electric lights, refrigerators, airplanes, smartphones—we have these things because innovators created something that didn’t exist before. Our guest speakers at this convention are amongst the most recognized leaders from the various corporations, US government organizations, and academia. This event would not have been possible without them so I am very much indebted to all the speakers?

As mentioned previously, ASEI was founded in 1983. Looking back over the past 40 years, ASEI has come a long way from being a regional organization to the National level with multiple professional chapters and student chapters.

I take pride in mentioning some of its achievements in various programs, including the following 5 key pillars that have guided our strategy :

Content driven Value:? With recent new initiatives such as University Connect, Mentor Connect, Getting Real with Engineering Webinars and Engineering Tales series with achievers, we have made the best use of the curveball that the pandemic threw. We focused on delivering valuable content and events that allow our members to share knowledge as well as learn from invited guests to stay in tune with the current trends.

Newsletter and Social media Savviness:

We were able to revive the ASEI newsletter in 2021 after a gap of a couple of decades and after two years of monthly format, we are doing Quarterly newsletters with more content shared weekly via our social media channels. Our “open” LinkedIn page, Twitter and YouTube channels have become active and prolific.

Academic Excellence Scholarship Program: ASEI has awarded $200 K over the years to engineering undergraduate and graduate students across the US. Additionally, in the past we have awarded scholarships to students in India via our association with SAE.

Technical Seminars and Networking: Talks on the latest advancements in various technologies are conducted periodically. For example, we organized an AI Summit in 2021 focusing on the latest technology trends in Artificial Intelligence and we continued to follow the latest developments by publishing articles on our website as well as? tapping into the Startup ecosystem for Generative AI earlier this month to keep our members uptodate. Likewise our Design Summit in 2021, Cybersecurity Summit in 2022, Aerospace Symposium? and CXO summit in 2022 as well as New Mobility summit &? X-Factor -the Executive Leadership summit in 2023 focussed on a theme by rotation and provided multiple enriching perspectives.

Whether it is Seminars, Talks or virtual Webinars or Engineering Tales or Youth Special programs,? Such events provide a forum for professional networking and an opportunity for budding engineers and student members to observe, learn and grow.

Corporate Awards Program: We are reinvigorating recognition programs further this year with the Corporate Excellence Recognition Program (CERP). This program provides a forum for corporations to recognize their high achievers for their leadership and technical skills. Award categories are Engineering Excellence, Woman Engineer, Young Engineer, Outstanding Achievement, and Service Excellence.

Community service and Philanthropy: ASEI members are encouraged to provide community service in various areas depending on their capability and interests. For example, addressing water conservation and river rejuvenation in partnership with nonprofits in their community such as Overseas Volunteer of Better India, International Association for Human Values, HelpAge India, Sankara Eye Foundation and so on.

Recognition Program: Every year at the convention, ASEI recognizes members in engineering excellence, entrepreneurship, and service to ASEI. We are fired up on growing ASEI through increased collaboration with other engineering organizations, such as PAN-IIT, CII, NASSCOM, TiE, IEEE etc. Additionally, we are challenging ourselves to work with top-notch universities and start ASEI student chapters there in order to bring young engineers to help achieve the ASEI vision.

I am very thankful to the Convention? Co-Chairs Rakesh Patel and Muthu Sivananthan? who along with? many volunteers have put together an exciting and enriching program focused on latest engineering developments. I am sure you will enjoy the convention. Thank you for your attendance and feedback. I wish to acknowledge all the sponsors, speakers as well as volunteers for their hard work and support.

Piyush Malik

Chair/ President ASEI? National & President ASEI Silicon Valley