ASIE Recognizes New Missouri City Public Works Director, Indian Media

Shashi Kumar with ASIE Board Members

Shashi Kumar with ASIE Board Members

HOUSTON: The American Society of Indian Engineers and Architects (ASIE), a Houston-based organization for engineers, architects, designers, and engineering technicians, held its monthly meeting on Wednesday, April 19 at the HESS Club. This was the third monthly meeting with over 100 guests in attendance, a new record for ASIE.

The meeting featured a technical seminar on subsurface detention and honored special guests, including Shashi Kumar, recently appointed Missouri City Public Works Director and City Engineer, and members of the local Indian news media. Also recognized were special guests, Rashmi Desai, president of archiCON Construction, and Col. Vipin Kumar, retired Indian Army engineer and currently the Executive Director of India House.

From left: ASIE Board Member Madhu Kilambi, Manisha Gandhi - TV Asia, Koshy Thomas - Voice of Asia, Jay Malhotra - Indo-American News and ASIE President Dinesh D. Shah.

From left: ASIE Board Member Madhu Kilambi, Manisha Gandhi – TV Asia, Koshy Thomas – Voice of Asia, Jay Malhotra – Indo-American News and ASIE President Dinesh D. Shah.

ASIE President Dinesh D. Shah welcomed the audience and special guests. Then, Program Committee Chair Archana Sharma informed the audience that for the first time this year ASIE had booked twelve monthly technical seminars for the entire year, with additional five programs and several field trips. Membership Chair Chaitanya Gampa, reported record membership additions, surpassing the last year’s membership, and doubling from January to March, including the 38 corporate members. Then, Sirish Madichetti and Tej Kour, respectively, gave their report for the ASIE Website Update and Public Relations.

While honoring the local media, Dinesh Shah said, “The local media plays an important role in publicizing ASIE activities. They take our message and broadcast it to the entire community, including engineers and architects. One of the reasons ASIE has made a tremendous progress is due to the positive perception created by the media. This has resulted in increase of our membership and also our monthly seminar attendance.”

Shashi Kumar addressing the ASIE audience.

Shashi Kumar addressing the ASIE audience.

Certificates of Appreciation and ASIE Coffee Mug Plaques were presented to Koshy Thomas of Voice of Asia, Jay Malhotra of Indo-American News, and Manisha Gandhi of TV Asia. Seshadri Kumar of India Herald and Dr. Nik Nikam of All India Radio could not attend but they were recognized. Also, Voice of Asia Chief Editor Shobana Muratee, and Vanshika Vipin Varma and Pramod Kulkarni of Indo-American News were not present, but Shah recognized them and extended his appreciation for their support.

ASIE Vice President Chetan Vyas introduced Shashi Kumar, who holds an MS in engineering from Lamar University, MBA from the University of Houston – Victoria, and a BS in engineering from the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in Bangalore, India. Prior to joining Missouri City, he worked with City of Sugar Land for 13-years, as a Senior Engineer, Drainage Engineer, and Program Manager. The Missouri City Pubic Works department has approximately 40 employees and an annual operating budget of $6.5 million. In addition, the department manages capital improvements projects averaging $18 million, annually. In his acceptance remarks, Shashi Kumar talked about the demographics, growth, diversity and vision of Missouri City.

ADS Seminar Presenter Nelson Stone with ASIE Board Member Sirish Madichetti  and TV Asia Representative Manisha Gandhi

ADS Seminar Presenter Nelson Stone with ASIE Board Member Sirish Madichetti  and TV Asia Representative Manisha Gandhi

The technical seminar on Subsurface Detention Systems was presented by Nelson Stone, representative of ADS. Board Member Madhu Kilambi introduced the speaker.

Special guest Rashmi Desai appreciated the event, “It indeed was pleasure to meet lots of friends…. The event was well organized and dinner was excellent…. The speech by Shashi Kumar was enlightening.”

The other invited guest Col. Vipin Kumar, Executive Director – India House said, “The event was very well conducted and the presentation was very informative. I met many engineers who I had not seen before and made some friends, too.” The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks by ASIE Treasurer Poolkeshi Patel.