UMBC Delegates Strengthen Global Ties at Prestigious Tech Conference in India

The UMBC team of (left to right) Ramana Vinjamuri, Anupam Joshi, Upal Ghosh, Karuna Pande Joshi, Govind Rao, and David Di Maria at the PIWOT conference. (Photo courtesy of Karuna Joshi)

A six-person UMBC team built international connections at the “PIWOT – World of Technology” conference, held in late January in Mumbai, India. The conference is organized by the alumni association for graduates of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), and attracts many of the leaders in science and technology in India and around the world. The CEO of Alphabet, Inc. (Google’s parent company), the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, and the CEO of IBM are all graduates of IITs. 

UMBC was represented at the conference by Anupam Joshi, acting dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology; Upal Ghosh, professor in the Department of Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering; Ramana Vinjamuri, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and director of the NSF IUCRC BRAIN Center; Govind Rao, director of the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology and professor in the Department of Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering; Karuna Pande Joshi, professor in the Department of Information Systems and director of the NSF IUCRC Center for Accelerated Real Time Analytics; and David Di Maria, senior international officer and associate vice provost for international education at UMBC. 

Dean Joshi spoke at the conference about the impact of technology on education. (Photo courtesy of Govind Rao)

The UMBC team staffed a well-trafficked booth in the Expo Hall. As an extension of the meeting, they also visited IITs at Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Tirupati, and met with the directors of these institutions to discuss institutional agreements and lay the groundwork for international faculty and student exchanges. 

This year’s PIWOT conference focused on the impact of technology across multiple dimensions of life, from the professional to the personal. Dean Joshi took part as a speaker on a panel about the impact of technology on education. The UMBC booth also displayed the low-cost infant incubator developed by Professor Govind Rao

The UMBC booth displayed the low-cost infant incubator developed by Professor Govind Rao. (Photo courtesy of Karuna Joshi)