South Asia and the Institue: Transformative Connections is a research project that showcases the rich history of MIT and South Asia. This history was first uncovered by Ross Bassett, Professor of History, North Carolina State University in his book The Technological Indian. South Asia and the Institute builds on this work with further research, an exhibition, oral history project and digital archive led by Sana Aiyar, Associate Professor, History, Dr Ranu Boppana '87, Past President, MITSAAA , and Nureen Das, Associate Director, International Outreach, MIT Alumni Association.
Rights and Reuse
Digital images used in this exhibit site are subject to copyright and licensing terms. This information can be found in the item record for each image (accessed by clicking on the image on an exhibition page) in the "Rights" field.
Unless otherwise stated, all other content created as part of this project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license (exceptions: logos and header image).
Project Team
Maihaugen Gallery Exhibit
⋅ Jana Dambrogio, Thomas F. Peterson (1957) Conservator, MIT Libraries ⋅
⋅ Amanda Hawk, Public Services Manager, Distinctive Collections ⋅
⋅ Terra Huber, Conservation Associate, MIT Libraries ⋅
⋅ Alexandra Indira Sanyal of Shrishti Studios, Graphic Design ⋅
Video Production
⋅ Avani Batra, Film Director ⋅
⋅ Meghan Perdue, SHASS ⋅
⋅ MIT Video Production ⋅
Digital Exhibition
⋅ Mikki Macdonald, Collections Strategist, Distinctive Collections ⋅
⋅ Kelly Hydrick, Editorial and Web Production Assistant ⋅
Student Researchers
Amulya Aluru ‘23 ⋅ Shubhekshya Bhandari ‘23 ⋅ Tammy Chen ‘24 ⋅ George Abu Daoud ‘24 ⋅ Mahaam Desai ‘24 ⋅ Jenzel Freeman ‘24 ⋅ Rujul Gandhi ‘22 ⋅ Pragnya Govindu ‘25 ⋅ Catherine Huang ‘22 ⋅ Samir Kadariya '26 ⋅ Jayson Kim, DUSP ⋅ Disha Kohli ‘25 ⋅ Lauryn Kortman ‘24 ⋅ Natalie Mcdermott* ‘25 ⋅ Ashmi Mridul ‘23 ⋅ Rhea Murdeshwar* ‘23 ⋅ Veronica Muriga ‘23 ⋅ Sri Mylavarapu* ‘22 ⋅ Neosha G Narayanan ‘22 ⋅ Prajwal Niraula ‘23 ⋅ Ritik Patnaik '23 MEng '24 Husain Rizvi ‘22 ⋅ Naksha Roy ‘22 ⋅ Ananthan Sadagopan ‘24 ⋅ Samira Salwan ‘25 ⋅ Akila Saravanan ‘23 ⋅ Tara Sarma ‘24 ⋅ Aksaya Seetharaman* ‘25. Jupneet Singh ‘23 ⋅ Emily Sullivan ‘23 ⋅ Sarah Syed ’24 ⋅ Luisa Apolaya Torres ‘21 ⋅ Kathryn Tso ‘22 ⋅ Opalina Vetrichelvan ‘24 ⋅ *Wellesley College students
Thank you to those who made this project possible...
Tuli Banerjee, Office of Vice President of Resource Development ⋅ Moana Bentin, Affinity Communities, Alumni Association ⋅ Bigyan Bista PhD ‘16 ⋅ MIT Libraries Distinctive Collections ⋅ John Dozier, ICEO ⋅ Rod Garcia, Sloan School of Management ⋅ Victoria Gonin, Alumni Office ⋅ Sue Grosel, Annual Fund ⋅ Kim Haberlin, Office of the Chancellor ⋅ *Syed Anwer Hussain ‘76 ⋅ Carl A Jones, MIT Libraries. *G.K. Kalyanaram PhD ‘89 ⋅ Maryanne Kirkbride, ICEO ⋅ Mikki Simon Macdonald, MIT Libraries . Abby MacKenzie, MIT-India ⋅ *Salik Sulaymaniyah Malik ‘89 ⋅ Samip Mallick, Executive Director, South Asian American Digital Archive ⋅ *Haripriya Mehta ‘20 ⋅ Raj Melville SM ‘81, SCD ‘83 ⋅ Raghu Nath PhD ‘64 ⋅ *Reshma Patel ‘93 ⋅ *Aditya Pittie SM ‘18 ⋅ Vasant Prabhu SM ‘63, SCD ‘66 ⋅ Dilip Prasad SM ‘93, PhD ‘97 ⋅ Jeff Ravel, Department of History ⋅ Pramud Rawat SM ‘61, NA ‘65 ⋅ Danielle Reddy, Alumni Office ⋅ *Sudipta Sarkar PhD ‘08 ⋅ Sanjay Sarma, Department of Mechanical Engineering ⋅ *Sarita Shah ‘91 ⋅ Avinash Singhal SM ‘61, CE ‘62, SCD ‘64 ⋅ *Monica Sircar ‘04 ⋅ Abha Sur, STS Program and WGS Program ⋅ Emma Teng, Department of History ⋅ Eve Turnator, MIT Libraries. Urmi Samadar, Sloan School of Management ⋅ Ian Waitz, Vice Chancellor of Undergraduate/Graduate Education ⋅ Aaron R. Weinberger, Office of the President ⋅ *Anu Vendanthum ‘89 SM ‘90 ⋅ David Zarowin, Sloan School of Management ⋅
*MIT South Asian Alumni Association board member
Individual Donors
Gautam M Advani ‘74 ⋅ Asha Aravindakshan '17. Moana E Bentin ⋅ Bigyan Bista ‘16 ⋅ *Ranu Boppana ‘87 ⋅ Ravi B. Boppana ‘86 ⋅ Chaitra Chandrasekhar ‘04 ⋅ Mukesh Chatter ⋅ Nikhil Desai ‘80 ⋅ Anagha V Deshmane '08. Shilpi Epstein ‘94 ⋅ David S Gill ‘87 ⋅ Jabrini S Holloway ⋅ Renganathan G Iyer ‘91 ⋅ Vinod K Kathail ‘90 ⋅ Menezes Foundation Inc. ⋅ Mitul C. Mehta ‘03 ⋅ Gita Mithal ⋅ Arvind Mithal ⋅ Rohan Narayana Murty ⋅ *Reshma P Patel ‘93 ⋅ *Aditya Pittie ‘18 ⋅ Anil Prasad . Lawrence D Poster ‘71 ⋅ Meghan Purdue ⋅ Sumati K RamMohan ‘03 ⋅ Madhusudan Rao ⋅ *K. Hari H. Reddy ‘01 ⋅ *Anuradha Reddy ⋅ Danielle Reddy ⋅ *Sudipta Sarkar ‘08 ⋅ Devang M Shah ‘87 ⋅ *Hemangeeni V. Shah ‘91 ⋅ *Monica Sircar ‘04 ⋅ Ramaswamy Sridharan ⋅ *Anuradha Vedantham ‘89 ⋅ C S Venkatakrishnan ‘86 ⋅ Nitasha Verma.
*MIT South Asian Alumni Association board member
