Alumni Initiative

Alumni Initiative

Background:

The EE/EEE alumni of BUET have undertaken an initiative to launch the scholarship project titled ‘EEE Alumni Excellence Award’ and ‘Prof. Mohammad Ali Choudhury Memorial Award’, dedicated to the memory of late Professor Mohammad Ali Choudhury, who envisioned collaboration between EE/EEE alumni of BUET living around the globe and the Department of EEE, BUET. Prof. Mohammad Ali Choudhury sir was a legendary figure, a great mentor as well as a wonderful human being. In his long career of more than 30 years at BUET, he served as the Head and Dean of the EEE department and was known for great teaching, and dedication to continuous enhancement of academic and research environment. His countless instances of helping attitude towards different backgrounds of people sound like stories and myths. A truly inspirational figure who died in 2018 bearing cancer. Before the untimely demise, Prof. Mohammad Ali Choudhury sir envisioned a scholarship project for the undergraduate students which would solely be determined based on academic performance. The initial guidelines and working policies of the proposal were outlined by him. As Prof. Mohammad Ali Choudhury sir became very sick in late 2017 and early 2018, the project could not get started but a team of EEE alumni members kept following up with the Department of EEE, BUET to realize this project. On January 29, 2021, the project finally got launched with modifications to address the present day needs of the department. The target is to achieve a fund of $500,000 raised within the year 2025 for the scholarship project from the contribution of the EE/EEE alumni members.

Objective/motivation:

Although BUET is the best engineering institute in Bangladesh in terms of the quality of teachers and students, there are scopes of significant enhancement in terms of research outcome. One of the major challenges to this end is the lack of sufficient funding for research. Usually, students enrolled in MSc Engg./Ph.D. program carry out the thesis/research work on a part-time basis besides their regular job. This in effect limits their ability to provide enough time and effort in conducting research. The objective of this grant/scholarship is to promote postgraduate research outcomes of the Department of EEE. Besides providing significant financial support to the award winners, it will be a matter of respect for the students in the community and will light up a sense of responsibility towards the community from which the future generation will benefit. Furthermore, the practice of research proposal writing will encourage the students to be updated with cutting edge research. Therefore, the specific outcomes for the awards include:

  • Promote postgraduate research
  • Produce high-quality publications
  • Engage postgraduate students in proposal writing to win funds
  • Build a strong network between EEE graduates/professionals/academics of BUET living abroad with the active BUET faculty members and students
  • Above all, it will give an opportunity to the EEE-alumni living abroad to ‘give back’ to the alma mater for good reasons

Besides, a portion of the collected funds will be used to support the development of ‘Mohammad Ali Choudhury Power Electronics Laboratory’ in BUET.

Who can get the scholarship:

Only current full-time postgraduate students (M.Sc. Engg/Ph.D. (EEE)) of the EEE department are eligible to get the scholarship.

Working policy:
  • Awardees must be the enrolled postgraduate students of EEE.
  • The awards will be given twice every year- at the beginning of each semester. The award disbursed in one semester will be named Prof. Mohammad Ali Choudhury Memorial Award and the award disbursed in the other semester will be named EEE Alumni Excellence Award.
  • The applicants must have an assigned Thesis supervisor. The application will be forwarded by the Thesis supervisor and the Head of the Department of EEE.
  • Full-time M.Sc. Engg students can apply only once for this award, whereas Ph.D. students can apply twice.
  • The application will be accompanied by a proposal mentioning the research background and motivation, objectives, methodology and possible outcomes.
Amount of scholarship:

Every year, one student/students will be the recipient(s) of Prof. Mohammad Ali Choudhury Memorial award and one student/students will be the recipient(s) of EEE Alumni Excellence award. The award money will be approximately 35,000 BDT/month for three academic semesters for MSc Engg./Ph.D. students. Based on performance, Ph.D. students will have the opportunity to apply for the renewal of the award for another three academic semesters. Awardees will also receive a certificate signed by the Head of the Department of EEE (ex-officio) as well. An ‘Award Ceremony’ will be organized in hybrid/in-person mode by the Department of EEE, BUET. The cost involved in the certification process and award ceremony will be carried out by the scholarship fund.

Amount allocation for Mohammad Ali Choudhury Power Electronics Laboratory development:

20% of the collected funds (up to 50 lac BDT) will be utilized for the development of ‘Mohammad Ali Choudhury Power Electronics Laboratory.’ It can be noted that the Department of EEE, BUET has prepared a proposal for establishing this laboratory with the approval of BUGS (Board of Undergraduate Studies). The proposed funds will help to complete the project.

Who will decide the scholarship recipients:

The scholarship recipients will be selected by a Working Committee through blind review process. This working committee will be comprised of the following members:

  • Head or a designated member by the Head of the Department of EEE (Ex-officio) will serve as the Convener of the Committee
  • Two Faculty Members of the Department of EEE, BUET.
  • Two EEE alumni who are working as faculty members in universities abroad.
  • As organizers of the EEE Alumni initiative, Dr. Md Maruf Hossain (2000 batch) and Dr. Md Shofiqul Islam Khan (2007 batch), will serve in the selection committee.

This committee will finalize the list of scholarship recipients at the end of each semester.

Funds Collection:

The EEE Department has taken initiatives to form the EEE BUET alumni association. The EEE BUET alumni association will take the initiatives for fund-raising. If needed, the association will take help of Ankur International for fund raising. A simple one-page website will be created and maintained with information about the mission/vision, committee details, list of scholarship recipients, updates on lab development and link to donate money to the fund. -Donors residing in Bangladesh or living abroad will be able to directly deposit their donations to the official bank account of BUET as described below:

  • Bank Account No: 4404111000212
  • Account Title: EEE ALUMNI AWARD
  • Bank name: Sonali Bank Limited
  • Branch: BUET Branch
  • Bank Address: Sonali Bank Limited, BUET Branch, BUET Campus Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
  • Bank Phone no: 88-02-9660514, 58611807
  • Bank Email address: brbuet@sonalibank.com.bd

-Alternately, donor living abroad can also donate using the following steps:

-go to eee.buet.ac.bd page and find the link to the initiative’s webpage

-find the link to donate through Ankur International from the initiative’s webpage Click Here

-foreign alumni members can use PayPal/debit/credit cards; members in Bangladesh can use ‘sslcommerz’ link for the same. The donor info like name, HSC/intermediate batch, contact details, donation amount will be recorded for book-keeping purposes only.

-Ankur International will update the Department of EEE, BUET and the BUET alumni association on the status of raised funds on a regular basis.

-Upon request from BUET, the Ankur International will transfer collected funds to the mentioned official bank account of BUET.

-Upon request, the Department of EEE will issue a letter of Acknowledgment to the Contributor(s)

How will the fund be maintained:

A new bank account has been created at Sonali Bank, BUET with the name: “EEE Alumni Award” for this scholarship plus the lab development fund.

  • Designated personnel from BUET (the Comptroller of BUET and Head of the Department of EEE (Ex-officio)) will be allowed to sign to withdraw money from this account.
  • The money collected from the donors living abroad will be transferred to the mentioned official bank account of BUET through Ankur International. Donors living abroad can also directly make contributions to the mentioned official bank account of BUET.
  • EEE Department of BUET will update the information related to the scholarship recipients, laboratory development, and the balance sheet of the account on the initiative’s webpage every year.
  • The initiative aims to raise an initial fund of 500,000 USD. The expense of the scholarship will be carried out by the profit of the entire fixed deposited money. The scholarship money will be gathered based on the annual profit/loss (not interest) from this fixed deposit. The fixed deposit will use the profit-loss based mudaraba system.

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