ASIE: Year 2017 Started With Full Slate of Events due to National Engineers Week Celebration

HOUSTON: American Society of Indian Engineers and Architects known as ASIE started year 2017 with by participating in several technical and educational events under the leadership of current President, Dinesh Shah. The first 30 days of ASIE was a very busy period for ASIE, as board members and members volunteered many hours of their time by attending four major events as a part of National Engineers Week, also known as E Week Celebration. One of the goals of ASIE is to participate for promoting the future of students, particularly last several years ASIE had given scholarship to many students.

ASIE volunteers participated as Proctors and Graders at 2017 Regional MATHCOUNTS competition sponsored by Texas Society of Professional Engineers (TBPE), which was held at Flour Corp in Sugar Land. MATHCOUNTS is a national math enrichment, coaching & competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement in every U.S. state & territory. Schools select students to compete individually or as part of a team in one of the more than 500 written and oral competitions held nationwide. Top students advance to the state, and ultimately, national level. MATHCOUNTS challenges students’ math skills, develops their self-confidence & rewards them for their achievements.

The second event was UH EAA Student Awards Banquet.  ASIE presented the award “Indian Engineering Students – Engineering the Future” to Indian origin Ms. Sharon John on Feb 21st at the University of Houston, Engineering Alumni Association E Week Reception. Sharon is currently pursuing Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering (Junior) at UH, expected to graduate in 2018. She is working as Undergraduate Research Assistant in Robertson Research Group at University of Houston – Chemical and Biomolecular engineering Department. ASIE has been a sponsor for UH-EAA Scholarship Program for the past several years encouraging engineering students of Indian Origin at UH. ASIE’s $ 500 award was one among 18 other awards presented that evening.

ASIE representative Ravi Arora and Shankar Roy attended another important and meaningful annual event for ASIE, the 58th Science & Engineering Fair of Houston (SEFH), was held on February 24-25, at the University of Houston. This is a regional fair for all public and private junior, ninth grade and senior high school students in Harris and 16 other neighboring counties.  With over 1,500 student entries from about 150 schools, the Houston Science and Engineering Fair is one of the largest of its kind.  Approximately 28,000 projects are entered in the preliminary school/district fair competitions.  SEFH has more students who actually participate in the judging process than any other science fair in the world. ASIE has been an active participant at the Houston Science & Engineering Fair for since 1998 as a “Special Award Judging Agency.”  Winners in each category will be recognized at the ASIE Diwali event in October 2017.

Texas Society of Professional Engineer Houston Chapter celebrates National Engineers Week with Young Engineers of the Year featuring numerous Houston engineers from various professional societies. The Young Engineer Award is intended to promote the efforts of young professionals as part of their professional development, who has made outstanding contributions to the Engineering Profession in the varying engineering disciplines ranging from civil, chemical, mechanical, petroleum and electrical for their contributions to the economy, the community and to the public’s understanding of engineering during the early years of one’s career, below 35 years. This year Poolkeshi Patel was honored as ASIE 2017 Young Engineer/Architect of the Year. Poolkeshi has earned a Master’s degree in year 2011 in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from University of Texas at Austin. She is currently working as an Engineer at KIT Professionals. She has experience in drinking water and wastewater planning and design and has worked on several high-profile projects with municipal and industrial clients. She is the ASIE Treasurer this year.