(Buckle-up Folks!)
My entire schooling was undertaken in the central schools of India. I remember joining the ranks of class one at the central school in Tezpur, Assam. At times it almost seems like an other life, the school uniforms and the strict teachers. Punishment used to often mean whipping of the palm and for some reason or the other I used to be on the receiving end often. I guess as most of my time there was spent in making cricket balls from semi-liquid tar, not singing the national anthem during morning assembly but instead watching the MIG's flying overhead from a nearby airforce base, bringing frogs into the classroom, and cutting class to explore the countryside.
I was at Tezpur for two years and then moved onto Barrackpur (W.B.), where I spent the next four years. Here, I broke my arm, had my leg operated on, battled a king cobra, explored forbidden parts of the school such as sealed towers and underground tunnels etc. I then moved to Secunderabad (A.P.) for four years and then onto Lucknow (U.P.) for the final two years of schooling. Had tons of fun during this period and made some great friends.
That year (1991), I completed schooling and made it through the Kerala Engineering Entrance Examination with
a place in Mechanical Engineering at Government College of Engineering, Kannur. The time spent at Kannur was joyfull and different. The atmosphere was different for me and I am sure was/is different for people like me who have done most of their schooling outside Kerala. I lived in the college hostel in town for a while and then at a lodge, and then again at the new hostel on campus. All places had their charm. I particularly enjoyed the Kannur beach and the old hostels beautiful location by the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea, not to mention the cricket, vollyball, and football matches in the hostel compound and the sandy shores.
On completion of my course, I returned home to Cochin and obtained a job as a team leader at a local firm. Later that year, I wrote TOEFL, GRE, and GMAT in order to pursue higher studies abroad. I recieved admission from Drexel University and King's College London among others. I also recieved a British Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue studies in the U.K. and won a free British Airways ticket to the U.K., courtesy of the British Consulate. At this time, I was hired by the Singapore Merchant Navy as a marine engineer. Among the different avenues , I decided to pursue my master's in the U.S.
In 1997, I arrived here and joined the Mechanical Engineering Department at the South Dakota State University.
A semester later, I moved to the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. The University is nestled in a beautiful hilly region called the Black Hills. Mount Rushmore, a national monument, is only about 30 miles away. In and close to Rapid City, there are many theme parks, museums, lakes, and small historic towns. Badlands, a national tourist attraction, is about 40 miles away and Wall Drug Store, one of the most visited drug stores in the world is about 30 miles away. The time spent in Rapid City was serene. It is a quite place where crime is among the lowest in the U.S. The people are friendly and hospitable. The University is near downtown and therefore the movie theaters, restaurants, and shopping complexes are only a walking distance away. At Tech, I was offered
a research assistantship to pursue a master's thesis on a project funded by the 'Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)'
of 'National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'. Subsequently, based on my research, I published technical papers in the journal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), conference of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). It is while pursuing graduate studies that I met my better half, who was also a graduate student in engineering.
In my third semester, I was accepted by Virginia Tech into their Ph.D. program and also their M.B.A. program.
I was offered a graduate assistantship by the University of Kansas to pursue their M.B.A. program. In the final semester, my fiance and I, applied for full-time positions and were offered jobs in Michigan. After graduating together in the summer of 1999, we moved to Michigan and got married. I joined the 'Jeep Division' while she joined the 'Car Division' of DaimlerChrysler Corporation. I am currently pursuing a second graduate degree in manufacturing at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. If you are interested in engineering school rankings,
click here and for manufacturing rankings, please click here. Well folks, that's pretty much it. Hope it was not
too boring. Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful day!
--Mahesh Tampi