LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA · 2016-09-06 · Page1 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA Sheraton Anaheim Hotel 900...

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIASheraton Anaheim Hotel

900 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, California

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Chief Guest:

Dr. N. Nina AhmadMember,

President’s Advisory Commission onAsian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Keynote Speaker:

Dr. Anis UzzamanGeneral Partner and CEO,

Fenox Venture Capital

Editor: Dr. M. Yunus RahiEditorial Advisor: Dr. Ashraf AliCredits: Mukhles Bhuiyan

Mourshad HaiderShafayat M. DewanJalil KhanAKM Tareque

Cover Design: Sharif Abid Rahman

Published by 2014 AABEA Biennial Convention Committee

Highlights

Program 3

Message from Anaheim Mayor Mr. Tom Tate 11

Greetings from Host Chapter President 12

Welcome by AABEA CEC President 13

Message form White House Initiative on AAAPI 14

Chief Guest 15

Keynote Speaker 16

Entrepreneurship Speaker 18

List of Sponsors 23

List of Advertisers and Exhibitors 25

AABEA 2014 Outstanding Awards 27 - 31

AABEA Lifetime Achievement Award 32

Technical Article 34

AABEA Chapter Reports 37 – 49

Technical Seminar Paper Abstracts 51 - 74

Program

10:00 AM – 6:00 PM : Reception and Guest Registration:

11:00 AM – 11:00 PM : Business, Services and Fashion Exhibits (Dorset Room):: Sponsored by Bangladeshi Business Companies, Saree Collections, Fashion andJewelry houses

11:00 AM – 1:00 PM : Students and Youth Programs (Somerset Room) :: Moderated by Syed Ashfaqul Huq, Project Manager, California Department ofTransportation (California) District 7, Los Angeles, California

[Presentations by extraordinarily successful Bangladeshi American professionalsas well as aspiring future professionals of various disciplines]

11:00 - Welcome by Syed Ashfaqul Huq

11-01 - Shariar Momen – Sophomore, University of California, Riverside

11:10 - Tabassum Hyder – Intern, Ellipse Technologies

11:20 - Sarah Ahmed, PE, - Senior Civil Engineering Assistant, LAC-DPW

11:30 - Rifat Farzana Lisa, - Structural Project Engineer, Bolton Engineering

11:40 - Sarahzin Sanjana Chowdhury - Intern, Department of Homeland Security

11:50 - Dr. Shemi Jalil, MD – Resident Physician, USC Internal Medicine

12:00 - Anik Rahman - 9th Grade, North High School Torrance

12:10 - Shadman Chowdhury - Founder and CEO, Premed HQ

12:20 - Nafis Atiqullah - Analyst, Capital Research Global Investors

12:35 - Dr. Habib Rahman - Founding President of Plexstar and Genusys Inc.

12:55 - Question & Answer

1:00 - Closing Remarks

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM : Lunch Break :

2:00 PM – 4:30 PM : Technical Seminars :: Coordinated by Dr. Sadrul Ula, University of California at Riverside, California,and Dr. Zahidul Rahman, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

[Presentation of Technical Papers on Emerging Issues, TechnologicalAdvancements and Challenges for Infrastructure Development and Quality ofLife Improvements in Bangladesh in Concurrent Sessions under Energy/Power,Economic Development/Industrialization, Entrepreneurship/High-tech/Outsourcing, and Infrastructure/Environment Tracks]

2:00 – Energy/Power Track (Somerset Room):Organizer: Ahmed Badruzzaman, Institute for South Asia Studies,University of California, Berkeley, California

: “What Can We Learn from Ashulia and Savar? An Examination ofSafety Issues for the Planned Nuclear Power Plant at Rooppur,” byMohammad Harunuzzaman, Energy Industry Consultant, Columbus,Ohio. [2:00 – 2:15]

: “Fossil Fuels in Bangladesh Energy Mix,” by Golam Kabir, WynnewoodRefining, CVR Energy, Inc., Wynnewood, Oklahoma. [2:15 – 2:30]

: “Rural/Household Energy Sector - Role of Small, Distributed EnergySystems in Addressing Bangladesh Energy Challenges,” by AhmedBadruzzaman, Institute for South Asia Studies, University of California,Berkeley, California. [2:30 – 2:45]

: “Solar Inverter Market in Bangladesh: A Case Study,” by JahangirDewan, President and CEO, sBIT, Inc., Silicon Valley, California. [2:45 –3:00]

2:00 – Entrepreneurship/High-tech/Outsourcing Track (Westmorland Room):Organizer: Shakhawat Hossain, President, AABEA Silicon Valley Chapter,California

: “Bangladesh ICT Industry - Investment & Collaboration Opportunity forNRBs,” by Shameem Ahsan, Co-founder, Akhoni.com Ltd., eGenerationLtd., Benchmark-eGeneration Ltd and Element 5 Ltd; Director of AgraniBank Ltd., Dhaka. [2:00 – 2:15]

: “A Framework for Mobile eLearning (mLearning) with AnalyticalDecision Model,” by Jahangir Dewan, President and CEO, sBIT Inc.,Silicon Valley, California. [2:15 – 2:30]

“Big-data PaaS (Platform as a Service): Analytics at Your Fingertips,” byFuad Rahman, CEO, Compliance Expressware, California. [2:30 – 2:45]

: “Behind the Apps: Opportunities in Data Centers,” by Alimul Haque, Sr.Architect @ Intel, California. [2:45 – 3:00]

3:00 – Infrastructure/Environment Track (Somerset Room):Organizer: Faruq Siddiqui, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore,Pennsylvania

: “Computer Literacy Program Empowers Underprivileged Youths inBangladesh,” by Mohammad Farooque, Computer Literacy ProgramVolunteer, Retired Senior Vice President and Discipline Fellow, FuelCellEnergy, Inc., Connecticut. [3:00 – 3:15]

: “Enforcing Building Design Codes in Bangladesh with LimitedGovernment Resources,” by Sukomal Modak, Computers andStructures, Inc., California, USA and Souren Modak, Engineer, SubastuDevelopments Ltd. Dhaka, Bangladesh. [3:15 – 3:30]

: “Electrical Energy Infrastructure of Bangladesh,” by Sadrul Ula,University of California, Riverside, California. [3:30 – 3:45]

: "River System Restoration and Development along River Banksin Dhaka, Bangladesh," by Enamul Hoque, P.E, D. GE, F. ASCE, Hoque &Associates, Phoenix, Arizona. [3:45 – 4:00]

3:00 – Economic Development/Industrialization Track (Westmorland Room):Organizer: Ashraf Ali, The Boeing Company, Everett, Washington, andBangladesh Development Initiative (BDI), Seattle, Washington

: “Economic Growth and Industrialization in Bangladesh – The Futurefrom a Global Perspective,” by Dr. Zaki Eusufzai, Loyola MarymountUniversity, Los Angeles, California. [3:00 – 3:15]

: “A Global Vision for the Industrialization of Bangladesh,” by ChoudhuryM. Shamim, California State University, Fullerton, California. [3:15 –3:30]

: “Improvement of Investment Climate in Bangladesh,” by MD.Mahmudur Rahman, Director General in the Prime Minister’s Office,People's Republic of Bangladesh. [3:30 – 3:45]

“NOBAYON: A New Agenda for a New Bangladesh,” by Shafi A. Khaled,Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minnesota, Minnesota. [3:45 –4:00]

: “A Nation is Known by the Goods it Produces: Nature ofIndustrialization,” by Ashraf Ali, The Boeing Company, Washington, andBangladesh Development Initiative (BDI), Seattle, Washington. [4:00 –4:15]

4:30 PM – 5:30 PM : Entrepreneurs Meet and Chat Session (Somerset Room):: Moderated by Dr. Yunus Rahi, President and Principal Engineer, Traffic Design,Inc., San Dimas, California

[Engineering Entrepreneurs Discuss Opportunities, Challenges and InnovativeInvestment Options in Today’s Entrepreneurship, and Share their SuccessStories]

4:30 - Shameem Ahsan, President, Bangladesh Association of Software andInformation Services (BASIS), Dhaka, Bangladesh.

4:40 - Zaki Hossain, President, Modern Packaging, Inc., Deer Park, New York

4:50 - Ahammed Akbar Khan, President, Empire Cargo Solutions, Inc., Ontario,California

5:10 - Jahangir Dewan, President and CEO, sBIT Inc., Silicon Valley, California

5:20 - On “Engineered Living Flagellum” by Dr. Taher Saif, Professor ofMechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

5:30 PM – 6:00 PM : Break:

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM : Banquet (Kensington Ballroom):

7:00 PM – 8:00 PM : Speeches, Sponsors Recognition and Awards:

7:00 - Greetings from Host Chapter by Mourshad Haider, President, AmericanAssociation of Bangladeshi Engineers and Architects, Southern CaliforniaChapter

7:05 - Welcome by Dr. Nazmul Ula, President, American Association ofBangladeshi Engineers and Architects, Central Executive Committee

7:10 - Sponsors Recognition

7:20 - Entrepreneur’s Speech by Dr. Habib Rahman, President, Plexstar, Inc.,Lewisville, Texas

7:30 - Keynote Speech by Dr. Anis Uzzaman, General Partner and CEO, FenoxVenture Capital, San Jose, California

7:40 - Guest of Honor’s Speech by Representative Dr. Judy Chu, US Congress

7:50 - Chief Guest’s Speech by Dr. N. Nina Ahmad, Commissioner, WhiteHouse Advisory Commission on American Asians and Pacific Islanders

8:00 PM – 8:30 PM : AABEA Achievement Awards and Recognitions:

8:30 PM – 11:30 PM : Cultural Show and Performances:

8:30 - Bangla Modern and Classical Songs by Tomal Hossain from Los Angeles

9:00 - Bangla Nazrul and Modern Songs by Ferdous Ara from Bangladesh

10:15 - Bangla Contemporary Modern Songs by S. I. Tutul from Bangladesh

11:30 PM – 12:00 AM : Closing:

Biennial Convention Committee, 2014

Convener: Prof. Nazmul Ula (President, Central Executive Committee)Co-Conveners: Mourshad Haider (President, AABEA-SC)

Mukhles R. Bhuiyan (Past President, AABEA-CEC)Secretary: H. K. Mohammed A. Chowdhury (General Secretary, AABEA-CEC)Treasurer: Dr. M. Yunus Rahi (Treasurer, AABEA-CEC)Coordinator: Shafayat M. Dewan (CEC Rep., AABEA-SC)

Sub-Committees

Registration and Reception: Mahmuda Akhter (Treasurer, AABEA-SC)Khan Akram Hossain (AABEA-SC)

Venue Management: Ahammed Akbar Khan (General Secretary, AABEA-SC)Mohammed Iqbal (Past General Secretary, AABEA-SC)Shafkat Kabir (AABEA-SC)Khondaker Bashar

Finance and Sponsorship: Jalil Khan (Past President, AABEA-SC)AKM Tareque (Past General Secretary, AABEA-SC)

Guests and Speakers: Azmal Khan (EC Member, AABEA-SC)Shafiqur Rahman (Past Treasurer, AABEA-SC)Enamul Haque (AABEA-SC)

Technical Seminars: Dr. Sadrul Ula (AABEA-SC)Dr. Zahidul Rahman (Past President, AABEA-SC)

Cultural Programs: Mohammed Atiqullah (AABEA-SC)Dr. M. Yunus Rahi (Treasurer, AABEA-CEC)Mukhles Bhuiyan (Past President, AABEA-CEC)

Food and Beverages: Jamshed Hyder (AABEA-SC)Publicity/Public Relations: Shafayat Dewan (CEC Rep., AABEA-SC)

Akbar H. Siddiqui (Past President, AABEA-SC)Samprakash Majumdar (AABEA-SC)

Travel and Transportation: Sadiq Hossain (EC Member, AABEA-SC)Students and Youth: Syed Ashfaq Huq (Past President, AABEA-SC)

Shadman ChowdhuryBooths and Exhibits: Jabed Masud (President-Elect, AABEA-SC)

Rashed Hyder (AABEA-SC)Family and Children: Ms. Nasima KhatunPublication and Souvenir: Dr. M. Yunus Rahi (Treasurer, AABEA-CEC)

Shafayat Dewan (CEC Rep., AABEA-SC)Mourshad Haider (President, AABEA-SC)

Awards and Recognitions: Dr. Zakirul Haque (President-Elect, AABEA-CEC)Dr. Rafiqul Noorani (Past President, AABEA-SC)

AABEA Central Executive Committee (2013-14)

Prof. Dr. Nazmul UlaPresident

Nazmul Ula is a Professor and Chair of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at LoyolaMarymount University. He received his BSc in Electrical Engineering from BUET in 1979, his MS inElectrical Engineering from University of Wyoming in 1984 and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineeringfrom University of California, Davis in 1991. After earning his BSc degree, Nazmul Ula joinedEastern Refinery Limited, Chittagong as Instrumentation Engineer and was promoted to ExecutiveEngineer position in 1982. He came to USA in 1984, earned his MS and Ph.D. and joined LoyolaMarymount University in 1991. Professor Ula is an active member of AABEA for more than 20 yearsand served in the executive committee of the Southern California chapter in various capacities,including the chapter president during the 2007-2008 term.

Dr. Zakirul HaquePresident-Elect

Zakirul Haque was born in Bangladesh. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering fromBangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). He then moved to USA to pursue hisgraduate studies. Zakirul earned his MS from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and Ph.D fromthe University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Currently, he is living in Michigan and working for GeneralMotors. His area of concentration is automotive acoustics and emissions. Zakirul is married toTowhida Haque (Polly). They have two sons, Zeeshan (Arnob) Zeemaan Haque (Arco).

HK Mohammed AliChowdhury

General Secretary

HK Mohammed A. Chowdhury graduated with Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1982 fromTrine University of Indiana, USA. After his graduation, Mr. Chowdhury worked in Chicago for a yearand then returned to Bangladesh. He joined Bangladesh Civil Service in 1983 and served in Roads &Highways Department for 12 years. He joined AECOM New Zealand in 1998 as a Senior HighwayEngineer and worked in Auckland office for about two years. He has been working in CaliforniaDepartment of Transportation (Caltrans) since 2001; he has now been serving at Caltrans as aSenior Transportation Engineer/ Design Manager in the Office of Traffic Design in Los Angeles. Heserved in AABEA Southern California Chapter Executive Committee and Central ExecutiveCommittee. Mr. Chowdhury is very much involved with philanthropic work and now serving inBoard of Directors of a Southern California based Charitable Organization.

Dr. M. Yunus RahiTreasurer

Dr. M. Yunus Rahi is a professional civil and traffic engineer registered in the State of California,USA. He is the president and principal engineer of Traffic Design, Inc., an engineering consultantcompany providing expertise in civil, transportation and traffic engineering design, and urbantransportation planning. He graduated from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology(BUET) with a B.S in civil engineering, and received his M.S and Ph. D degrees from WashingtonState University (WSU) in Pullman, Washington in civil engineering with specialization intransportation. He taught civil engineering courses at BUET as a lecturer and at WSU as an assistantprofessor, before pursuing his career as an engineering consultant in Los Angeles, California. Hepublished several research articles in professional journals in transportation on various topics suchas urban morphology as it relates to a city’s transportation infrastructure, and inexpensivetransportation demand modeling for application in traffic planning and congestion mitigation.Currently, he serves as a planning commissioner in the City of San Dimas, a suburb of Los Angeles,where he lives with his wife, Nasima, and son, Ankon. [Email: [email protected]].

Jahangir DewanCEC Representative-SV

Jahangir Dewan is the co-founder, President and CEO of sBIT Inc., an IT start-up company in SiliconValley, USA. Recently, he has initiated 200MW Solar Power Plant in Bangladesh in collaborationwith a major US Solar Company, SunEdison. He has worked as Engineering manager in Motorola,Texas Instruments, NXP/Philips and AMD in the past. His research interests include eLearning,Content Security, Digital Right Management (DRM), Physical Design of Application SpecificIntegrated Circuits (ASIC) and Design Automation. Jahangir is the recipient of UNINESCO Fellowshipto Canada and Australian CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization)fellowship award. Jahangir’s education includes BSEE (CUET, Bangladesh), MSEE (Concordia,Canada), MBA (Cornell, USA) and PhD in Information Technology (Deakin University, Australia).

Shafayat M. Dewan, MSCEC Representative-SC

Shafayat M Dewan is a co-founder of Genesis Computer Systems, Inc., a Systems Integrator and anIT solutions provider. He is currently working at his company and had been involved in it since 1994.He received his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from RUET and obtained his Master’s degreein Geotechnical Engineering from California State University, Fullerton in 1993. Throughout hisengineering career he worked for many national and international companies. He is an activemember of AABEA and prior to his current assignment, served as an Executive Member of AABEASouthern California from 2011 to 2012.

Syed MushtaqueAhmed (Raj), Ph.D.

CEC Representative-NE

Ranjit RoyCEC Representative-NY

Dr. Rafiqul IslamCEC Representative-AZ

Shahid Al AlamCEC Representative-DC

Moin AsjadCEC Representative-MI

Lutfur R. KhandakerCEC Representative-SE

GREETINGS FROM HOST CHAPTER :

Greetings!President, AABEA Southern California, Host Chapter

With great pleasure and pride I extend congratulations to all attendees of AABEA Biennial Convention 2014 in LosAngeles, California. I am honored to represent the hosting chapter of AABEA Southern California as President and Co-convener of this convention. I welcome you all to our Golden State of California.

Convention committee is gleefully working to have another milestone and a signature on its accomplishments by havingDr. N. Nina Ahmad, commissioner of US President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission, and other accomplished CEOsfrom different industries. The Convention Committee has come up with a day-long program, including youth programs,technical seminars, speeches, award ceremony, and meet the experts to hear their success stories. Of course, the dayconcludes with a banquet-style dinner and a spectacular musical night with young artist Tomal Hossain, as well asrenowned artists from Bangladesh Ferdous Ara and S.I. Tutul.

AABEA-Southern California chapter was founded in 1992 and since then all of our former executive committees haveworked tirelessly with current executive committee and members for the benefit of the organization. We had severalsuccessful events in past years including picnic, science fair, family night, clothes drive and other activities, such ashabitat for humanity with co-ordination of other non-profit Bangladeshi organization and community members. Wemake connections through our website, facebook account, and yahoogroup account to our entire Bangladeshi fellowengineers living all over the world.

I salute the convention committee, volunteers, sponsors, and community members for their contribution to have asuccessful day-long program. I also thank our spouses and family members who have sacrificed their time and havegiven us the opportunity to work on this convention. As always, your continued participation, support and cooperationwill remain the key factors for the success of our association in implementing the upcoming activities.

Finally, I want to encourage all of our fellow engineers to get involved with AABEA by being active members. Irrespectiveof political affiliation, personal conflicts, and religious belief, let’s all work together hand to hand for a better tomorrow,and I truly believe that together we can achieve greater things and make our American dreams a reality.

Mourshad A. Haider, PE

President, AABEA- Southern California ChapterCo-Convener, AABEA Biennial Convention 2014

WELCOME FROM AABEA CEC PRESIDENT :

Welcome!By President, AABEA Central Executive Committee

On behalf of the American Association of Bangladeshi Engineers and Architects Central Executive Committee, I wouldlike to welcome you to the 2014 AABEA Biennial Convention. This convention was put together by a conventioncommittee consisting of devoted and hardworking people. It is my honor and privilege to work with such a dedicatedgroup of volunteers.

During the last thirty years through its chapters AABEA has helped its members excel and develop professionally,creating networks among members, and holding numerous professional and social events that have helped to bringlocal members together. Through the Central Executive Committee of AABEA, it has established professionalrelationships with local, federal and national organizations both in the USA and Bangladesh.

The American Association of Bangladeshi Engineers and Architects can make a real difference in Bangladesh. We haveto believe in it.

We are all trying to help Bangladesh and other developing countries individually or through NGO’s. But to attack one ofthe fourteen Engineering Grand Challenges, collective concerted effort is required. I strongly believe that AABEA canmake a difference in three areas of Engineering grand challenges, namely, Provide access to clean water, Provide cheaprenewable energy and Restore and improve urban infrastructure.

We have AABEA member engineers with vast experience in water resources management in this country. Thatexperience can be applied to improve clean water sources in Bangladesh. We have senior executives, academicians andresearchers in the fields of power and renewable energy systems. We have a vast resource of urban infrastructureengineers working at various federal state and city government organizations. I believe that if we all start workingtogether, we can solve the problem of rapidly depleting ground water sources in Bangladesh, and alleviate the trafficsituation in the capital city, thereby reducing the carbon footprint, and improving the perpetual power shortage inBangladesh.

In the last two years AABE has collaborated with multiple professional organizations in Bangladesh and has signed anMOU with three professional engineering organizations in a joint venture to work on engineering safety issue ofBangladesh. AABEA has also opened a new chapter in the South East United States.

Thank you for attending this convention.

Dr. Nazmul Ula

PresidentAABEA Central Executive Committee (2013-2014)Convener, AABEA Biennial Convention 2014

AABEA 2014 BIENNIAL CONVENTION CHIEF GUESTS :

Chief Guest Dr. Nina N. Ahmad

Dr. Nina N. Ahmad is the first ever Bangladeshi Member of US President Barack Obama’s 14-member AdvisoryCommission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). This Commission is charged with working to improve thequality of life of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through increased participation in and access to federal programs.Nina Ahmad and 13 other individuals advise the President on innovative ways to engage AAPIs across the country and toimprove their health, education, environment, and well-being.

Of Bangladesh origin, Dr. Ahmad is founding member of APA for Progress, a grassroots, internet-empowered, nationalnetwork of Asian Pacific Americans and friends for Progressive Action.

Dr. Ahmad is a co-owner and executive vice-president of government affairs for JNA Capital - a Philadelphia-based realestate finance and development company. Her company sources debt and equity for commercial and urban mixed-usecommunity development projects anchored by academic institutions. She directs all matters pertaining to governmentand public affairs.

She is the President of PrymeJenomix, LLC, an emerging life science company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr.Ahmad also serves on the Board of the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition. She served on theInstitutional Review Board at Wills Eye Hospital, which is responsible for scientific integrity of research projects and thesafety of human subjects. In 2009, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter appointed her as the Chair of the newlyreconstituted 25-member Commission on Asian American Affairs.

Dr. Ahmad received her Doctoral degree in 1990 in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. Her postdoctoraltraining was with noted collagen expert, Darwin Prockop, MD, PhD at Thomas Jefferson University.

Dr. Ahmad discovered the first direct evidence of collagen type II gene mutation in the Stickler syndrome (joint-eyedisease), which expanded the field by providing a starting point for molecular genetic research into the generalizeddisease of osteoarthritis. She is one of the patent holders of “Methods of Detecting a Genetic Predisposition forOsteoarthritis”. Dr. Ahmad is a court-qualified expert witness in forensic DNA analysis. She provides testimony as well asreviews DNA typing results and interpretation.

She resides in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia with her husband Ahsan Nasratullah and two daughters.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER :

Keynote SpeakerDr. Anis Uzzaman

Dr. Anis Uzzaman is the Co-Founder, General Partner and CEO of Fenox Venture Capital, a Silicon Valley-based globalVenture Capital Company with $1.5B under management. He has invested in more than 50 startups located in US SiliconValley, Japan and South East Asia in the areas of internet, mobile, social media, cloud, big data and emerging disruptivetechnologies.

Some of Dr. Uzzaman’s recent portfolio companies in the USA include Sidecar, Genius, META and ShareThis. He has alsoinvested in startups from Japan and South East Asia, such as Terra Motors, a leading Japanese EV bike companyand Tech in Asia, the largest tech media company in Singapore. Anis sits on the board of many corporations, includingLark, a leading company in Healthcare IT, Dream Link Entertainment (DLE), which went IPO in Tokyo Stock Exchange inMarch 2014, Jetlore, Kii, Tech In Asia, Infoteria which is listed in Nikkei Tokyo Stock Exchange, etc. Having been a serialentrepreneur himself in the retail and technological sectors, Dr. Uzzaman provides mentorship in fundraising, operationsand exit strategy to entrepreneurs.

Prior founding Fenox Venture Capital, Dr. Anis Uzzaman served several executive management roles in BusinessDevelopment, Merger and acquisitions (M&A) of technological companies for large global corporations such as IBM andCadence Design Systems.

Dr. Uzzaman holds B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, M.S. in Electrical Engineeringfrom Oklahoma State University, USA and Ph.D in Computer Engineering from Tokyo Metropolitan University in Tokyo,Japan. He has also published numerous papers, written books, delivered keynote speeches in many internationalconferences and seminars.

KEYNOTE SPEECH :

Bangladesh can give birth to the next Facebookand Google of the World

By Md Anis Uzzaman, Ph.DFounder and CEO

Fenox Venture Capital, Inc.www.fenoxvc.com

Today there are 196 countries in the world and Bangladesh is ranked the 8th by population. Population of a country canbe a huge power and many of the countries today have been proving that point. Countries like China, India, Indonesiaand Brazil which rank within the top 10 in the world population are growing exponentially as they are utilizing theirpopulation, internet and cell phone growth in the most effective way. These countries have been growing a new class ofnew internet, software and hardware companies in a very rapid pace and trying to create the next world class brands.Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent are some of such companies which already came out of this new wave.

Indonesia which has lots of similarities with Bangladesh has been growing today in rapid speed and attracting a lot ofcapital from world class investors known as Venture Capitalists. Today Indonesian young generation is buildingnumerous Internet, software and hardware companies and working with the global investors/venture capitalists to growthem exponentially. As these investors are gathering around the new generation internet, software and hardwarecompanies in Indonesia, they are not only providing these companies with capital to grow, but also providing them withworld class advice and mentorships. These investors are well connected to all major corporations and parties of theworld and they are hooking these Indonesian new generation companies with the right parties so that they can grow inexponential speed.

Bangladesh with world class top engineers and scientists deserve much more than Indonesia and stands a huge potentialthat can be achieved by connecting a few simple dots. If you look into Bangladesh new generation internet andsoftware, hardware companies, they are no inferior (in terms of technology) than any of the other similar companiescoming out of US Silicon Valley and other developed countries. The only thing that these new generation companiesfrom Bangladesh is missing is smart capital from the global investors and their mentorship that can help these localBangladeshi companies to become global brands like Google and Facebook.

Now, how can these global investments and mentorship can go to Bangladesh and help the next “Google” and“Facebook” to come out of Bangladesh?

The NRBs (non-resident Bangladeshi) can play a significant role in this. Using a “Venture Capital’ vehicle or platform, theNRBs can not only invest into the next generation internet, software and hardware companies of Bangladesh and butalso can contribute to their growth using their talent and expertise earned in different foreign countries. Many of thetop talented NRBs can help grow these next generation Bangladeshi companies to become global brands like Facebookand Google. They will not be able to own a piece of the Bangladeshi potential through this venture capital platform, butalso be able to participate in their home country re-building.

During this presentation, the speaker who is a venture capitalist from USA Silicon Valley and an NRB himself will explainhow the NRBs can put together a “Venture Capital” platform/vehicle and how they can be part of the next revolution ofBangladesh.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP SPEAKER :

Entrepreneurship SpeakerDr. Habib Rahman

Dr. Habib Rahman is the founding President of Plexstar Inc. and its parent company Genusys Inc., the positions hecurrently holds. Prior to his arrival in Dallas, Texas in 1996 he was serving in the Bangladesh Army in the Corps ofEngineers. Dr. Rahman attended Southern Methodist University, Dallas where he earned his Doctoral and Masterdegrees in Operations Research. Dr. Rahman has an MBA degree in Management of Technology from Asian Institute ofTechnology (AIT), Thailand, and a Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from BUET, Dhaka. He attended British ArmyCommand and Staff College, Camberley, UK during his military service.

Following completion of his graduate studies he started his carrier in the USA by joining former GTE (now Verizon) andlater Level 3 Communications. He left his US corporate job in 2003 to co-found Genusys Inc. During the past 11 years hehas led Genusys from a small telecom service providing company into a medium sized telecom software developmentand services providing company. In 2010 he co-founded Plexstar Inc., a hi-technology startup company focused ondeveloping next generation telecommunications equipment. He has been instrumental in instilling the value of R&D andgood corporate governess at Genusys and Plexstar. Dr. Rahman has a good perspective of various cultures andmastered the art of doing business successfully across cultural boundaries.

ENTREPRENEURHIP SPEECH :

Enterpreneur’s LectureBy Habib Rahman, Ph.D

President, Genusys Inc. and Plexstar Inc.

Honorable Dignitaries, ladies and Gentleman - Good Evening. I am Habib Rahman, President of Plexstar Inc. andGenusys Inc. I thank AABEA for inviting me to say a few words on Bangladeshi American Entrepreneurship. I do notclaim to be an expert on the subject. However let me give it a try from the perspective of my own experience.

Let us first understand who is an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is someone who identifies a need and fills it. S/heinvests time, talent and risks treasure to realize his or her idea or vision. By this definition every first generationimmigrant has what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Every one of them had a vision and took great risks in moving to anew land to settle. No wonder why first generation immigrants, as a group, constitute higher percentage ofentrepreneurs among US population.

I came to America in 1996 to pursue graduate studies. From the onset I was determined to start a business at theearliest opportunity. On graduation I worked in couple of telecommunications companies. Later in 2003 I left my job tostart a technology based business with three other like-minded and talented partners. Advent of the Internet age andassociated business opportunities was the inspiration for us to start the business. We believed in our technical ability tocapitalize that opportunity and thus took a calculated risk.

In early 2003 we observed with keen interest mushrooming growth of mom and pop owned telecom companies aroundthe globe. This was made possible by the introduction of software- based switching and billing systems. Suddenly entrybarrier to joining exclusive club of multi-billion dollar telecom service providing companies evaporated. Now anyonewith business acumen and little technical knowledge could start a telecom service company with tiny amount of capital.

We started Genusys with a clear focus on Internet based voice services. But the question we faced early on was - shouldwe develop Genusys as a ‘voice services’ company or as a ‘developer of tools’ i.e. soft-switch solutions for voice servicescompanies. The answer to that question was derived from an interesting historical event. During the 1849 Californiagold rush hundreds of thousands of people came to California to prospect gold. Very few of these prospectors actuallymade any money. However a small group of merchants who engaged in the manufacture and supply of tools i.e. picksand pans to the prospectors instead of themselves prospecting for gold have made money, nearly all of them. Wethought the lesson learnt from the gold rush applies to the Internet based voice services as well, i.e. supply the tools tothe service providers rather than be a service provider. So we decided to focus on developing softs-switch and relatedsoftware for new mom and pop telecom companies. Looking back that was a good strategic decision taken. We wereable to rapidly develop our business overseas supporting crowded voice service providers. We started with thedevelopment of soft-switch but relatively quickly developed a host of voice related software for various purposes. Forexample our contact center solution marketed under gPlex® brand is being used by a number of banks and financialinstitutions in Bangladesh.

In 2006 we started gTalk® Pinless calling service which I guess many of you currently use or are aware of. We started theservice with no intention to make any profit but to fill up a void that our softs-switch customers i.e. service providing

companies ignored at that time. The void was demand for a simple, gimmick free, high quality and smart alternative tocalling cards. To our surprise the initiative was a great success. Today gTalk® Pinless service commands respect andsizeable market share for international calling service by first generation immigrants in USA, Canada, UK, and Australia.Last month, Genusys took yet another step by launching gTalk® Home Phone service in the USA, this time formainstream population. We are cautiously optimistic about its success. I invite all of you to consider switching to gTalkHome phone service.

As time progressed we realized the need for having control on the machines i.e. equipment on which our software run.What that meant was getting into highly risky telecom hardware development business which is dominated by giantglobal companies. Guess what we did? In Oct 2010 we launched Plextar Inc., a startup telecom hardware company byteaming up with a legend in the field Dr. Aziz Rahman. During the past 4 years Plexstar has been able to develop a seriesof new generation SONET/SDH and optical technology based equipment. We are actively marketing Plexstar productsglobally. Some of the Plextor developed equipment are being deployed in USA, UK, Singapore, and Bangladesh. We arenow seeking funding for Plexstar to monetize its technical achievements made so far and projecting Plexstar’s businessto the next level.

Let me now try to link our experience as entrepreneurs to entrepreneurship in general. Please note the following pointsin our experience as entrepreneurs:

Determination to Start a Business: This is the necessary condition for being an entrepreneur, Bangladeshi or not.Determination is expressed by your willingness to take financial and emotional risks to realize your goals.

Preparation: One cannot just wake up in the morning and start a business enterprise. It is a good idea for anentrepreneur to study and understand the business sector s/he is interested in. Invest time and resources in preparingyourself or better identify like-minded people who collectively have the skills and knowledge that will be needed.

Team up with Right People: Nothing can be of greater importance than identifying right people to team up with.Businesses get destroyed if people behind are (a) not united in purpose, (b) lack the right skills and knowledge, and (c)not focused on the big picture. An individual alone can propel his business to a limit. But an entrepreneur should aimfor the sky as his or her limit. For that there is no alternative to teaming up with right partners.

Identify the Right Time to Plunge: Launch your enterprise i.e. take the plunge at the right time. There is a saying that‘timing is everything in business’. This is often easier said than done.

Integrity and Ethical Conduct: Entrepreneurs must operate with integrity and high ethical standards for success whendealing with customers, employees, government, shareholders, and society.

Virtue of Continuous Investment: Re-invest bulk of the resources generate from business into your enterprise. This isessential not just for growth but for survival. When business is going well it is easy to get complacent and ignorereinvestment. In fact that is the time an entrepreneur will chose to reinvest in new ideas to develop future cash cows.

Separation of Person from Enterprise. An enterprise flourishes if the entrepreneurs who established it do not think orturn themselves indispensable to the enterprise. The sooner a clear distinction is made between the enterprise and theentrepreneurs running it is better. Asian entrepreneurs particularly may take note of this point.

Support of Bangladeshi Community towards Fellow Bangladeshi Entrepreneurs: Observe keenly the factors behindthe success of the Jewish, Patels, and Aga Khan entrepreneurs. The single important factor in their success is thesupport and cooperation between entrepreneurs within their community and support of their community memberstowards their fellow entrepreneurs.

Bangladeshis as a nation are very entrepreneurial. We are observing positive developments in Bangladesh in terms ofemergence of large number of young entrepreneurs. The same trend is also observed in USA among BangladeshiAmericans. However most of the Bangladeshi American owned ventures are focused on traditional sectors. What wenow would like to see is Bangladeshi entrepreneurs diversifying into IT, technology development and financial servicesbased businesses.

Being an entrepreneur means taking calculated risk, hard work, and long term commitment. However the rewards maybe great. I personally take great satisfaction in the fact that little over one hundred Bangladeshis have foundemployment with Genusys and Plexstar in Dallas and Dhaka. My request to all Bangladeshi Americans will be to keeplooking for opportunities to transform their individual passion into a business. Always be ready to exploit your inherententrepreneurial spirit by risking setup your dream enterprise when the time is right.

Thank you.

LIST OF SPONSORS :

Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors!EVENT Sponsor ($6,000 - $10,000): Fenox Venture Capital, San Jose, California

GRAND Sponsor ($5,000): Saiful Bouquet Structural Engineers, Inc., Pasadena, California

PLATINUM Sponsor ($2,000): Modern Packaging, Inc. (Zaki Hossain, President), Deer Park, New YorkMAX Group (Mr. Ghulam M. Alomgir, Chairman & MD), Dhaka, BangladeshDr. Nazmul Ula, Los Angeles, California

GOLD Sponsor ($1,000): AECOM (Shafiq Alam, MS, SE, Vice President), Orange, CaliforniaDr. Sadrul Ula, Riverside, CaliforniaDr. Zahidul Rahman, La Crescenta, CaliforniaEmpire Cargo Solution, Inc., Ontario, CaliforniaMizanur Rahman, Santa Clarita, CaliforniaMukhlesur R. Bhuiyan, Cerritos, CaliforniaSamprakash Majumdar, Palos Verdes Estates, California

SILVER Sponsor ($500): Arcadis, U.S., Inc. (Venu Kolli, P.E, Assoc. Vice President), Los Angeles, CADr. M. Yunus and Nasima Rahi, San Dimas, CaliforniaHK Mohammed Ali Chowdhury, Azusa, CaliforniaJabed and Gulshan Masud, Orange, CaliforniaJahangir Dewan, Silicon Valley, CaliforniaMohammed Atiqullah, La Palma, California

BRONZE Sponsor ($300): Abu and Elana Gofran, Fontana, CaliforniaAmin and Yasmin Hoque, Winnetka, CaliforniaAnis Rahman, Downey, CaliforniaAzmal Khan, Corona, CaliforniaDr. Faruq Siddiqui, Wallingford, PennsylvaniaDr. Mahbub Hoque, New JerseyDr. Taher Shah, Dhaka, BangladeshDr. Wallid Kazi, Costa Mesa, CaliforniaDr. Zakirul Haque, Troy, MichiganHafizur Rahman, New York, New YorkJalil Khan, Cerritos, CaliforniaMourshad Haider, Rancho Cucamonga, CaliforniaNafis Atiqullah, La Palma. CaliforniaSaiful Huq, Aliso Viejo, CaliforniaSyed Ashfaqul Huq, Cerritos, California

DONOR: Dr. Sufian Khandker, Washington, DCRana Zaman, Washington, DCShabbir Parvez, Oak Hill, VirginiaTouhid Chowdhury, TexasRamzan Ali, Washington, DC

LIST OF ADVERTISERS AND EXHIBITORS :

Thanks to Our Advertisers and Exhibitors!ADVERTISERS

AECOM 78

Arcadis U.S. Inc. 75

CADENCE Channel Partners 21

DnA Controlled Inspections and

Total Quality Fire and Security Inside Front Cover

Farmers Insurance 38

Fenox Venture Capital 80

Genesis Computer Systems, Inc. 22

Geo Environ Engineering Consultants 26

Little Dhaka Restaurant 78

MAX Group Back Cover

Mexam Enterprises, Inc. 76

Modern Packaging, Inc. 50

New Look Cosmetics 79

PreMedHQ Inside Back Cover

Saiful Bouquet Structural Engineers 26

Shoeba’s Saree Collections 77

ULKASEMI 44

BOOTHS, FASHION STALLS AND EXHIBITORS

Empire Cargo Solution, Inc. (Dorset Room)

Fenox Venture Capital (Dorset Room)

Shoeba’s Saree Collections (Dorset Room)

Silk Katan Saree Sales Dorset Room)

AABEA 2014 OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD :

Zaki Hossain

Born and educated in Bangladesh, Zaki Hossain immigrated to the United States in 1979. After working in the machinedesign industry and earning his Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Brooklyn Polytechnic, he co-foundedModern Packaging Inc. in 1989 where he still serves as the company’s President. Hossain is also the co-founder and VicePresident of PDF Seal Inc, a producer of pre die cut foil lids, used primarily by the dairy, yogurt, juice, & condiment foodpackaging industries.

Raised by his parents in a tradition of service, charity and philanthropy he began his commitment to community serviceby volunteering his time and skills with various organizations. Mr. Hossain's contributions have only increased throughthe years and in 2008 he became the primary benefactor for the Zaki Hossain Center for Hypertension, Diabetes andVascular Disease.

Due to his integral role as a member of the Long Island Foundation, Mr. Hossain was subsequently elected to the Boardof Directors in 2008 where he currently serves as Chairman of the Board. Further acting to improve the lives of localcounty residents, Mr. Hossain also sits on the board as a member for the Diabetic Center.

Although living in the United States for many years and committed to the betterment of his local community, Mr.Hossain is heavily involved in the global community; supporting a computer literacy program as well as providing over 40computers to his childhood school in Bangladesh. He also helped to fund a national infection control program in theBangladesh Hospital System. Locally, he is a financial sponsor of several not-for-profit organizations supporting the LongIsland Community including the Martin Luther King Foundation which honored Mr. Hossain for his philanthropic efforts.

In 2012, Mr. Hossain was recognized and honored as one of the top 50 businessmen in Long Island.Throughout his life he has always tried to help those around him and give back to his global community. Year after year,he strives to make a positive difference in the lives of others and for the betterment of humanity.


Dr. Saiful Islam

Dr. Saiful Islam is the President and Founding Principal of Saiful Bouquet Structural Engineers, one of the premierstructural engineering firms dedicated to building design in Southern California. It is one of the largest structuralengineering firms in Southern California with over 75 employees in 3 offices, including the main office in Pasadena, andbranch offices in San Diego and Orange County.

Dr. Islam received his Bachelor’s degree from BUET in civil engineering in 1983 and was awarded “University Blue”. Dr.Islam played for the Bangladesh National Hockey team in the 1998 Asian Games, and the 1992 Asian Cup, where he wasthe vice-captain, and was awarded the Best Hockey Player in the nation by Bangladesh Sports Writers association in1983. He went on to receive his Master’s and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland in 1987and 1988, respectively. Following his graduate studies, he did his post-doctoral research at Cornell University beforestarting his professional career in Southern California in 1989. Dr. Islam is a nationally recognized and published seismicdesign expert. His expertise includes performance-based seismic engineering, analysis and design related toearthquake/wind, and high-tech structural damping systems.

Dr. Islam was invited as a key-note speaker at the First Bangladesh Earthquake Symposium in Dhaka in 2005, where hepresented his paper entitled, “Earthquake Resistant Design and Retrofit Buildings: Lessons from the Front Lines.” He wasalso an invited panelist and speaker to present findings to the Real Estate Housing Association of Bangladesh on the“Performance of Buildings in Earthquakes: Lessons Learned” in 2001. In addition to being invited to discuss earthquakedesign at BUET and other local universities, Dr. Islam taught at BUET as a lecturer for 9 months.

Dr. Islam is professionally very active in the earthquake engineering community and has served on numerous task forcesand local/state technical committees. He is an active member of SEAOSC (Structural Engineers Association of SouthernCalifornia), where his involvement includes participating as a Past Chair on the Seismology Committee, Past Chair on theStructural Response Committee, and a current member of the Passive Damping, Existing Building, and Existing BuildingsNon-ductile Concrete committees.

Dr. Islam is currently licensed in 6 states. He has been at the helm of more than 20 award winning projects, including anaward for Most Outstanding Design Excellence from SEAOSC, and has led the design and analysis of over $12 billion innew building construction, both nationally and internationally. Dr. Islam is also very experienced in alternate projectdelivery approach such as design-build, Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), Public Private Partnership (P3), and LeanDelivery Approach. Some of his most notable recent projects include Metropolis, a billion dollar development consistingof multiple towers featuring a hotel, retail space, and residences, and a restaurant, and LAX Terminal 1, an over $500million Southwest Airline Expansion and renovation, including seismically retrofitting the existing building, revitalizedfaçade, new canopies, new terminal T2 connector, a new Security Screening Checkpoint (SSCP) building and theexpansion of the North Concourse. Some of Dr. Islam’s international experience includes the Georgetown School ofForeign Services and the Student Center in Education City, Qatar.

Dr. Saiful Islam along with his wife Lopa, have been actively involved in charity work in Bangladesh for many years. Hefounded a non-profit 501(c)(3) charity organization, called BACHAO (Bangladeshi American Charitable Organization),with help and support of other members of the Bangladeshi community.


Dr. Mahbub Hoque

Dr. Mahbub Hoque is the Division Chief of the Antennas and Spectrum Analysis Division of the Space & TerrestrialCommunications Directorate (S&TCD) in the U.S. Army’s Communications Electronics Research Development andEngineering Center (CERDEC), Fort Monmouth, NJ. As a Division Chief, Dr. Hoque leads his 100+ strong workforcededicated to providing engineering solutions in the areas of spectrum management and electromagnetics. The Divisionoperates in several critical technology areas, including the research, development, and engineering of new antennatechnologies; modeling and simulation to study and mitigate coupling issues between collocated antennas;metamaterial research and development; and various spectrum management initiatives, to include the development ofspectrum architectures and cognitive networks.

Prior to joining S&TCD in 2000, Dr. Hoque was a Director at Telcordia Technologies where he received 1996 BellcorePresidential Award for his work analyzing the impacts of radio interference on Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology.He has authored more than 70 publications and has chaired many sessions in various national and internationalconferences and symposiums.

Dr. Hoque received his PhD in Electrical Engineering (1983) from University College London, U.K. in electromagnetics andantennas and his BS in Electrical Engineering (1976) from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

Dr. Hoque was the founding president of AABEA New Jersey chapter and played significant roles in various AABEArelated matters. Dr. Hoque organized all AABEA CEC Technical Seminars during the AABEA Biennial Conventions, in NewYork, Washington DC, and Arizona for over the last ten years. In addition, Dr. Hoque secured funding from the FederalGovernment for Federal Job Fairs at the AABEA Biennial Conventions. These Job Fairs provided the opportunities tomany Bangladeshi Engineers and Architects as well as graduates from other disciplines to enter into Federal Jobs. Hisdedicated support enriched AABEA for many years.


Iqbal Z. Quadir

Mr. Iqbal Z. Quadir is a Professor of the Practice of Development and Entrepreneurship at Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT) and the Founder and Director Emeritus of Legatum Center at MIT. He is one of the Founders ofGrameen Phone in Bangladesh.

Mr. Quadir is a long-time champion of the critical role of entrepreneurship and innovations in creating prosperity in low-income countries. He is an accomplished entrepreneur who, more than two decades ago, saw the potential of mobiletechnology to transform low-income countries.

Mr. Quadir realized in the early 1990s that the ensuing digital revolution could facilitate the introduction of telephoneaccess throughout Bangladesh, including its rural areas. To make this vision a reality, he established a New York-basedcompany, Gonofone Development Corp (meaning “phones for the masses” in Bangla), and assembled a globalconsortium of Gonofone, micro-credit pioneer Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, and Norwegian telecommunicationscompany Telenor to create Grameen Phone. Grameen Phone is now Bangladesh’s leading telecommunications operatorproviding access to more than 50 million subscribers irrespective of their geographic location or economic standing.

From 2001-2004, Mr. Quadir was a Fellow and Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, focusing on the democratizingeffects of technologies in low-income countries. He co-founded the journal Innovations (MIT Press) and, in 2005, movedto MIT where he founded the Legatum Center in 2007. He founded Emergence BioEnergy to produce decentralizedenergy, and in 2010 co-founded Money in Motion, a start-up company to provide mobile phone-based banking services.He sits on the Advisory Council of the World Wide Web Foundation.

Mr. Quadir’s work and thinking has been cited in 70 books and profiled in publications including The Economist,the Financial Times, Forbes.com, and The New York Times. His writing has been published in the Financial Times, HarvardBusiness Review, Nature, Newsweek, Science, andThe Wall Street Journal. He received the prestigious Science, Educationand Economic Development award in Bangladesh and was listed as one of 125 Influential People and Ideas for the 125-year celebration of the Wharton School in 2006. He is the recipient of the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters fromSwarthmore College (2011), the honorary Doctor of Science from Case Western Reserve University (2011), and theRussell-Whitehead Business Humanitarian Award presented by the Business Humanitarian Forum Association (2012). Heholds both an MBA and an MA from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, and a BS with honors fromSwarthmore College.


Enamul Hoque

Mr. Enamul Hoque is the President and CEO of Hoque & Associates, in Phoenix, Arizona. Hoque & Associates providesgeotechnical consulting, materials testing, quality control, quality assurance, and environmental engineering services.Mr. Hoque is a well-respected civil engineer in the Southwestern United States, specifically in the Phoenix area. Some ofthe important Hoque & Associate projects are

Restoration of the Salt River Using an innovative approach for a 310 feet tall Airport Traffic Control Tower Foundation Handling difficult soil to construct one of the world’s largest sea ports in Iraq Utilizing innovative technologies encompassing biological and sustainable slope design for a roadway

embankment through a designated wetland in Arizona River bank stabilization utilizing sustainable technologies. Contributing to the establishment of one of the most modern geotechnical laboratories at one of the largest

public Universities of the country, ASU Providing assistance for EWB and educational facilities in third world countries.

Mr. Hoque is a known philanthropist and his generous gift has established the E.M. Hoque Geotechnical Laboratory inInterdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 2 at Arizona State University, one of the two largest universities in theUnited States. Mr. Hoque also established a women’s college in rural Bangladesh.

Mr. Hoque received multiple engineering and service awards, including the John C. Park Outstanding Civil EngineerAward, which was awarded to him in 2011 during American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Arizona Section’s annualmeeting. He was recognized for having contributed substantially to the status of the Engineering Profession based uponhis distinguished service in the field of Civil Engineering in Arizona.

Mr. Enamul Hoque is a long-time member of AABEA and served as the President of the AABEA Central ExecutiveCommittee for the 2011-2012 term. Previously, he served as the President-Elect of AABEA Central Executive Committeefrom 2009 to 2010.

AABEA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD :

Asad Hague

Mr. Asad Hague graduated with a B.Sc. Engineering (Electrical) degree from Bangladesh University of Engineering andTechnology (BUET) in 1967 and received his M.S degree in Electrical Engineering from Polytechnic University of NewYork. He was Chief Electrical Engineer of Foster Wheeler SPEC Corp. in New Jersey. His illustrious career concluded witha managerial position at Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts in Southern California.

Mr. Hague was first Vice President of Sher-e-Bangla Hall of BUET in 1964. He was Vice President of EngineeringUniversity Central Students Union (EUCSU) in 1966. He was also General Secretary of Athletics Club of BUET in 1965when he led the University Soccer team to national levels. Mr. Hague was one of the founders, the first GeneralSecretary (1977) and President (1978) of Bangladesh Society of New York. He served as Chief Election Commissioner of1997 General Election of AABEA Central Executive Committee. Mr. Hague is married to Dolly Hague, and they have a sonand a daughter both of whom are married. He has four grandchildren. Mr. Hague is currently living a retired life inHuntington Beach, Orange County, California with his wife.

The 2014 AABEA Biennial Convention Committee is proud to present Mr. Asad Hague a Lifetime Achievement Award forhis great engineering career, his immeasurable leadership contribution in Bangladeshi American professional engineercommunity, and his profound love and care in leading AABEA Southern California Chapter during his term as President ofthe executive committee in 1999-2000.

ETREPRENEURS MEET AND CHAT :

Engineered Living FlagellumBy Taher Saif, Ph.DProfessor,Mechanical Science and EngineeringUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Abstract

For the last few decades, engineering has produced marvelous machines and devices. With the increasing understandingof living cells, there are possibilities of developing biological machines where engineering precision meets the variabilityof life. Can order emerge from such variability and chaos? If so, then one can envision machines with unprecedentedcapabilities, as they would carry the footprints of the evolutionary journey of life. Here, we demonstrate an elementarybiological machine. A large family of micro-organisms such as bacteria and spermatozoa wags or twists hair-like flagellato swim. At this small scale locomotion is challenged by large viscous drag, and negligible inertial forces. The organismsmust generate time irreversible deformation of their flagella to produce thrust. Mimicking this strategy, we developed aself-propelled, microscale flagellar biohybrid swimmer by combining a unique fabrication and cell culture technique witha slender body hydrodynamics model [1]. Our swimmer consists of a PDMS filament shaped like a spermatozoon with ashort, rigid head and a long, slender tail on which cardiomyocytes are selectively cultured. The cardiomyocytes contractand bend the filament. The bending wave travels towards the tail end of the filament generating a fluid drag, which actsas a thrust to propel the swimmer forward against its longitudinal drag. The swimmer demonstrates the feasibility of aliving engineered machine at small scale that can be incorporated into more complex designs.

[1] Nature Communications, Jan 17, 2014, DOI:10.1038/ncomms4081

Dr. Taher Saif received his BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from Bangladesh University ofEngineering and Technology and Washington State University respectively in 1984 and 1986. Heobtained his Ph.D degree in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Cornell University in 1993.He worked as a Post Doctoral Associate in Electrical Engineering and the NationalNanofabrication Facility at Cornell University during 1993-97. He joined the Department ofMechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign during1997. He is curently the Gutgsell Professor in the department. His current research includestumor micro environment, mechanics of neurons and cardiac cells, development of biological

machines, and electro-thermo-mechanical behavior of nano scale metals and semiconductors. His research is supportedby the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health.

TECHNICAL ARTICLE :

Autonomous Living Machines:A New Frontier of Engineering

By Brian Williams, Sandeep Anand and Taher SaifMechanical Science and Engineering

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Summary

Living systems evolved through millions of years of evolution. Most systems are multicellular where many cells worktogether in synchrony to achieve objective functions. Engineering systems have traditionally been designed with non-living components. With the advances in genetic engineering, hybrid machines consisting of both living and non-livingcomponents are now conceivable. Here we present an example of such a living autonomous machine. It is a small-scaleswimmer made from a combination of beating cardiac cells and a soft scaffold. The cells interact with each other and thescaffold, and emerge into a machine with the objective function of swimming. The swimmer mimics the dynamicalbehavior of a flagellum. They are ubiquitous in nature used by bacteria and sperms. We envision that such machines canbe developed from neurons, muscle cells and scaffolds. They may be imbued with intelligence and memory for complexfunctionalities.

Vision

Over the last two centuries, engineering has produced marvelous machines that have transformed our societies. On theother hand, biological systems evolved over millions of years. During the last few decades, biological science andengineering have gained new insight on the underlying machinery of single living cells. We now have the capabilities tomanipulate cells and their functionalities. Genetic and stem cell engineering are becoming common knowledge. Withthese advancements it is possible to imagine biological machines where engineering precision meets the exquisitepower and variability of life. Can order emerge from such variability and chaos? Is it possible, for example, to take stemcells, differentiate them to the cells of our choice, train them to perform prescribed functions, bring them in contactwith engineered structures, and let the cells interact with these structures and themselves so that they emerge intoautonomous functional machines? Such machines may have unprecedented capabilities, as they would carry thefootprints of the evolutionary journey of life.

An example machine

We develop such an elementary functional living machine – a bio-hybrid swimmer (Figure 1, Williams, 2014). It emergesfrom randomly placed heart cells (cardiomyocytes) on a soft PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) structure with a head and a

tail. The head and part of the tail near the head are functionalized with an extracellular matrix, called fibronectin, for celladhesion. A mixture of cardiac cells and fibroblasts from rat heart are co-cultured randomly on the structure. The cellsattach on the tail near the head. The cardiomyocytes begin to beat and deform the tail. They begin to interact with eachother and self-organize to form a cluster where all the heart cells beat in synchrony (Chan 2012, Feinberg 2007). Thecluster behaves as a single actuator and bends the tail. The tail interacts with the fluid around it. The bending wavetravels towards the end and generates a fluid thrust. The thrust is the drag resistance of the fluid against the movingwave, similar to the drag resistance on a pencil that is moved transversely in a viscous fluid. Luckily the transverse drag is

higher than longitudinal drag. The fluid thrust or the drag against the propagating wave of our free swimmer propels theswimmer forward against the longitudinal drag. It is the same mechanism that a sperm employs to swim by wagging its

flagellum (Machin 1958, Purcell 1977, Brennen and Winet 1977).

We model the dynamics of the swimmer mathematically using theories of slender body hydrodynamics (Fig 2, Lauga andPowers 2009). The modeling was necessary to optimize the design of the swimmer. The predictions from the modelmatch the experiment closely.

Outlook

Needless to say, the current swimmer has no built-in intelligence. It cannot decide when to swim, when to stop. It canonly swim continuously forward or backward, since the heart cells can simply beat. We are replacing the heart cells by

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neurons and muscle cells. The neurons are the cells that make our brains. They also provide all our sensory abilities. Theidea is that the neurons on the swimmer will sense the environment and decide to stimulate the muscle cells of theswimmer. Only then the muscle cells can power the swimmer to swim, just as we walk when we decide to, powered by

the muscles of our legs. These swimmers can be trained to respond to specific signals. They may swim towards a specificdirection on an on-demand basis. If the swimmers carry drugs, they may be able to deliver the drugs by swimmingtowards the right target. This will avoid the wide distribution of the drugs all over the body with all the side effects. Sincethe swimmers have the muscle actuators, they might be able to perform microscopic surgeries as well. They may beemployed in non-medical sectors as well, for example, in environmental cleaning and detoxification. As we know, manybacteria provide a balance in the ecosystems around us, and within us.

We developed the swimmer as part of the National Science Foundation’s Science and Technology Center, titled,Emergent Behavior of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS). The center is formed by MIT, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Georgia Institute of Technology. The overall goal of the center is to develop and study biologicalmachines that can emerge from clusters of living cells.

References

Brennen, C. & Winet, H. Fluid mechanics of propulsion by cilia and flagella. Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 9, 339–398 (1977).

Chan, V. et al. Development of miniaturized walking biological machines. Sci. Rep. 2, 857 (2012).

Feinberg, A. W. et al. Muscular thin films for building actuators and powering devices. Science 317, 1366–1370 (2007).

Lauga, E. & Powers, T. R. The hydrodynamics of swimming micro-organisms. Rep. Prog. Phys. 72, 096601 (2009).

Machin, K. E. Wave propagation along flagella. J. Exp. Biol. 35, 796–806 (1958).

Purcell, E. M. Life at low Reynolds number. Am. J. Phys. 45, 3–11 (1977).

Williams, B. et al. A self-propelled biohybrid swimmer at low Reynolds number. Nature Communications, 5, Articlenumber 3081, Jan 17, 2014.

Free swimmer boundary conditions:

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AABEA CHAPTER REPORTS 2013-15 :

ARIZONA (AZ) CHAPTER: 2013-14

Ahsan HabibPresident

Dr. Rafiqul IslamCEC Representative

SOUTHEAST (SE) CHAPTER: 2013-14

Lutfur R. KhandakerCEC Representative


GREAT LAKES AND MICHIGAN (MI) CHAPTER: 2014-15

Monir ZamanPresident

Monir Zaman is a senior product engineer in General Motors Co. MechanicalEngineer by profession, has worked in various capacity and responsibility inautomotive chassis structures and manufacturing systems for over 15 years. Beforecoming to Michigan, he worked in Japan and Bangladesh in multiple private andsemi government corporations in important roles and positions. Mr. Zaman hasbeen working with General Motors for the last 16 years. He has a BSME degreefrom Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and a MSME degreefrom Texas Tech University.

Sadek RahmanPresident Elect

Sadek Rahman received B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Mechanical Engineering fromBUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1992 and 1995 respectively. He also received his M.S.in Mechanical Engineering (Computation Fluid Dynamics) from Texas TechUniversity, Lubbock, Texas, in 1996. Currently, he is a Manager - Design ScienceResponsible of the Aerothermal department at Chrysler Group LLC. He has writtenmany technical papers and attended international conferences. He is a member,technical session organizer and co-chair of the Society of Automotive Engineers(SAE). He is a Steering Committee Member of NAFEMS Stochastic Technical Group.He is a member of Chrysler Asian Network (CAN) Executive Committee.

Dr. Khwaja M.Rahman

Vice President

Dr. Khwaja M. Rahman received B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from BUET, Dhaka,Bangladesh, in 1987 and 1990 respectively, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from TexasA&M University, College Station, in 1992 and 1998 respectively, all in electricalengineering. Currently he is the technical lead of the electromagnetic machinedesign group of the General Motors (GM) Global Electrification division. He haswritten many journal papers and is co-inventor of several US patents.

Afroza AkhterExecutive Vice

President

Afroza Akhter is a mechanical engineer with extensive experience andmanagement skills and works for General Motors. As an engine performance andvalve train analyst, she is responsible for evaluate and troubleshoot enginecomponents to obtain maximum power and torque with minimum fuelconsumption. Afroza Akhter has a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from theBangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (1997) and M.Sc. inMechanical Engineering from the University of South Carolina (2000). She believesin hard work and dedication.

Abu AshrafGeneral Secretary

Abu Ashraf, graduated from Minnesota State University in 2002 with a B.Sc. inComputer Science and received his M.Sc. from Michigan Technological University in2004 specialized in software engineering. He joined General Motors as a freshgraduate and worked on entire software production lifecycle for various modules.He worked as a Project Manager in Brake Electronics group responsible for chassiselectronics and software for a number of programs. Currently, he is a SoftwareSME, responsible for GM’s software validation process. Abu is also actively involvedin other community associations and enjoy social services.

Hafiz RahmanTreasurer

Hafiz Rahman, A Mechanical Engineer currently working in Nissan Technical CenterNorth America in Farmington Hills MI in Body & Chassis Test Department. Workedin Body Design and CAE Department prior to the current position since joinedNissan in September, 2000. Prior to Nissan, worked for a year in Ford MotorCompany in its End of Line Testing through Cosworth Technology. Held an M.Sc inMechanical Engineering from the University of Houston in 1998 and a B.Sc inMechanical Engineering from BUET in 1988. After graduating from BUET, worked inBIT Khulna for a year, in Titas Gas Company for 2 years and in BTTB for 4.5 yearsbefore migrating to USA.

Mowli AhamedOrganization

SecretaryGolam MostofaExecutive Member

Tanzima MushtarinExecutive Member

Mohammad HasanExecutive Member

Ferdouse GhaziExecutive Member

Ferdouse Ghazi, born in a family of 7 other siblings in Khulna, Bangladesh in 1958.Moved to Dhaka in 1959 with parents and since then went to elementary schools inAzimpur. He went to Mirzapur Cadet College and stayed for 2 years when the warof Liberation took place and so transferred to school in Dhaka. He passed SSC fromUniversity Laboratory School and soon after, in 1975 went to UK for furthereducation. He passed his O-levels and A-levels from Southend College, Essex andfurthered his education in Mechanical Engineering at Queen Mary College,University of London in 1983. Received a research scholarship from Florida Instituteof Technology where, he created MINP solar cell with the help of HarrisSemiconductor. This was a research towards Master of Science degree in 1985Joined Rockwell International Automotive, in 1986 and worked on many TransHighway Heavy Automotive products. Joined GM in 1990 with Delco Electronics andmoved to Truck Engineering in 1991. he is a Lead Structural Design engineer andworked on 6 different all new vehicles.


NEW ENGLAND (NE) CHAPTER: 2014-15

PRESIDENT: Haris M. Awal, Ph.D., P.E., DBIA,LEED AP

PRESIDENT ELECT: Md. Nakib Uddin

GENERAL SECRETARY: Mohammad Haq (Sayem)

TREASURER: Muhammad S. Akbar

CULTURAL SECRETARY: Tanzina Faiz

CEC REPRESENTATIVE: Syed Mushtaque Ahmed (Raj),Ph.D.

EXECUTIVE MEMBERS: Shameem Ahmed Khan

Rehana Rahman (Shilpi)

Sharmina Zaman (Rita)

Noore Saba Hakim

Amira Quazi (Kitty)

Firoze A. Khan

AABEA-NE MOST RECENT ACTIVITIES:

1. Organized a science fair for children for various ages and rewarded kids for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. This fair wasvery well participated by children of various age groups.

2. Participated in Harvard University Conference on Bangladesh Garments Industry focusing on safety standards ingarment sectors.

3. AABEA-NE raised fund for the typhoon victims for Philippines and sent the money through CARE.4. Participated in programs for 21st February and also for Independence day organized by Bangladesh Association

of New England.5. AABEA-NE also recognized a few local members for their outstanding contributions and entrepreneurships.6. Taking a note from “A Call to Measurable ACTION” by Professor Shafik Islam, AABEA-NE is presently working on

creating a network of mentor-mentee relationships among professionals, entrepreneurs, incoming students, andyounger generations.

7. AABEA-NE is contacting local universities graduate and under graduate students to encourage them to form ayounger member AABEA-NE group and to organize focused activities to engage and energize youngergeneration.

President’s Message

We are pleased to see that 2014 AABEA Biennial “Entrepreneurship-Themed” Convention is being held byAAABEA Central Executive Committee in Association with AABEA-SC in Los Angeles on Saturday November 15,2014. We are expressing our sincere gratitude to the convention committee for their hard work to present uswith a memorable daylong program consisting of seminars, exhibitions, displays, youth programs, and speechesfrom entrepreneurs and technical experts. The technical seminar is rightfully loaded with a lot of contemporarytechnological breakthrough works in Energy/Power, Economic Trends/ Industrializations, Entrepreneurship/High-tech/Outsourcing and Infrastructure/Environment, and we sincerely hope we can take some of thesefeasible ideas to our beloved country to make the country technologically advanced like western world. We, theAABEA-NE chapter, are committed to provide any support as needed in this process. We wish the utmostsuccess of this convention and are very proud to be a part of this!


NEW YORK (NY) CHAPTER: 2013-14

AABEA CHAPTER REPORTS 2013-15:

SILICON VALLEY (SV) CHAPTER: 2013-14

Presidents Message

I would like to formally take this opportunity to thank the convention committee for putting together the biennialevent. I have had the privilege of being part of this organization in the capacity of a President for the Silicon Valleychapter for the past two years. Over the years I’ve observed significant growth in this organization and can personallyattest to the opportunities made available to AABEA members through empowerment, collaboration and networking.On behalf of current Executive Committee, I congratulate and commend our future executive committee members fortheir commitment in advancing our association to the next level of professionalism.

AABEA Silicon Valley will continue its dedication to the advancement of its members of Bangladeshi descent insucceeding with their respective professions via networking, social activities, continuing education seminars, workshops,and collaboration with other organizations. To demonstrate such commitment, in over the course of the last fewmonths our newly elected board members have exhibited exemplary leadership by expanding our chapters’membership base and overall enhancing our exposure in their respective industries.

Shak HossainPresident (2013-14)

Shak Hossain has outstanding entrepreneurial & organizational skills. He has many years ofprofessional experience in the areas of Software Development and Design. Most recently, he ran asuccessful outsourcing company in Bangladesh. He is currently working as technology advisor to a fewstartup companies focused into building the next generation of mobile applications, socialconnectivity and media. He has been involved in many other community & non-profit activities in theSan Francisco Bay area and Southern California. As one of most active members of the AABEA SiliconValley Chapter, he continually strives for bringing like-minded technologists and entrepreneurs topromote opportunities in Bangladesh. He has helped to organize a few high profile events incollaboration with TIE Silicon Valley and BASIS (Bangladesh Association of Software InformationSystems).

GM SolaimanPresident Elect

GM Solaiman received his BSEE from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology andreceived MSEE from University of Texas at Arlington. He is working as a design verification engineer inlatest SSD technology. For over a decade, he had pioneered in adopting different verificationmethodology in driving block, full-chip and SOC level verification for microprocessors and memorysub-systems over multiple generations and multiple product lines. His passion goes for researchingverification methodology and tools. He has been organizing community activities with a number ofnon-profit organizations, professional employee groups, and local schools in bay area. In his sparetime, he loves to do outdoor activity with kids. His favorites are swimming, hiking and biking.

Jahangir DewanCEC Representative

Jahangir Dewan is the co-founder, President and CEO of sBIT Inc., an IT start-up company in SiliconValley, USA. Recently, he has initiated 200MW Solar Power Plant in Bangladesh in collaboration with amajor US Solar Company, SunEdison. He has worked as Engineering manager in Motorola, TexasInstruments, NXP/Philips and AMD in the past. His research interests include eLearning, ContentSecurity, Digital Right Management (DRM), Physical Design of Application Specific Integrated Circuits(ASIC) and Design Automation. Jahangir is the recipient of UNINESCO Fellowship to Canada andAustralian CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) fellowship award.Jahangir’s educations include BSEE (CUET, Bangladesh) and MSEE (Concordia, Canada) and MBA(Cornell, USA) and PhD in Information Technology (Deakin University, Australia).

AABEA – Silicon Valley Chapter Activities

Round Table Discussion with US Ambassador to BangladeshDan Mozena on how expatriates can contribute to theInfrastructural Development in IT sector to prepare Bangladeshas the next destination for IT outsourcing. Dan Mozena is veryhopeful about the future of Bangladesh in IT industry.

Feb 2013

Seminar on Business and Investment opportunities inBangladesh Chaired by the Governor of the Bangladesh Bank

(Central Reserve Bank), Dr. Atiur Rahman and the Chairman ofthe Agrani Bank (Largest Commercial Bank) board of directors,

Dr. Khondoker Bazlul Hoque.

May 2013

Joint Conference with TIE, BASIS on Bangladesh NEXT –introducing Bangladesh Brand across the globe as nextemerging Economic Power in South Asia. This is now a yearlyevent to bring technologist and entrepreneurs to discuss andpromote Bangladesh to the Global Tech companies.

May 2013 & May 2014

US Bangladesh Technology Entrepreneurs Summit to bridge thegap between Bangladeshi IT companies and Bangladeshi owned

US companies. This event helped to bring Bangladeshicompanies under the visibility of Global investors as well as

promoting Bangladeshi IT companies to the US Market.

May 2013


SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (SC) CHAPTER: 2013-14

Mourshad A. HaiderPresident

Mourshad A. Haider, P.E is currently working for California Department ofTransportation. He graduated from Cal Poly, Pomona in ElectricalEngineering with emphasis on Power Engineering. He obtained his MS inMathematics and Statistics from Cal Poly Pomona. He has been a member ofAABEA since 1998. He has been teaching Mathematics and Science classes inseveral community colleges for 18 years. He has served this chapter as anexecutive member to the Central committee for the year 2009-2010. He is

married to Touhida Haider, P.E (also works for Department of Transportation) and blessed with twochildren, Tasnia Haider (Momo) and Tashfiq Haider.

Jabed MasudPresident-Elect

Jabed Masud is currently working at Geo Environ Consultants, Inc., ageotechnical and environmental engineering consulting firm. He is the founderof this firm and has been working since 1995. He received his BS degree in CivilEngineering from RUET, Bangladesh and obtained his Master's degree inEnvironmental Engineering from CSU, Fullerton. He is married to GulshanMasud and they have a son, Fahad Masud. At present, Masud resides inAnaheim Hills, California.

Ahammad Akbar KhanGeneral Secretary

Ahammad Akbar Khan was born and brought up in Dhaka, Bangladesh andcompleted his schooling from there. He came to USA in 1999 as aninternational student and graduated from Oklahoma City University with dualmajors in Information Technology (IT) and MBA in Marketing in 2002.Ahammad went back to Bangladesh and embarked on a teaching profession.He was a faculty member in Jahangirnagar University and East West Universityin Bangladesh where he taught IT and marketing in both undergraduate andgraduate levels before returning to USA. Currently, he is a Sr. Engineer at IBM

specializing in operating systems and virtualization technology. He is an expert in the field ofarchitectural design and implementation of IBM Power machine environment. Previously, he workedfor Hewlett Packard in the same field. Ahammad is married to Kamrun Islam and blessed with twobeautiful kids, Sahil Akbar Khan and Raina Sufia Khan living in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

Mahmuda AkftarTreasurer

Mahmuda Akhter is a Transportation Engineer working for the CaliforniaDepartment of Transportation (Caltrans) since 2008. Currently, she is workingin the Division of Design. She also worked in Encroachment Permits Division ofOperations. Mahmuda worked for several Consulting Engineering firms priorto coming to Caltrans. She received her MS degree in Civil Engineering fromKansas State University, Kansas. She is a registered Civil Engineer in California.Mahmuda currently resides in Highland, California with her husband MainulKhan and is proud mother of two boys, Aurnob and Aabir.

Azmal KhanMember

Azmal Khan is is a Sr. RF Manager for T-Mobile USA and responsible for theLos Angeles Market. After completing his Bachelor's in Electrical andElectronics Engineering from BUET in 1994, Azmal came to USA and finishedhis Masters from Louisiana Tech University and started his career in theWireless Industry as a Radio Frequency (RF) Engineer. Throughout his 14years in the industry he has worked for Pacific Bell Wireless, CingularWireless, and AT&T Mobility. Azmal loves to hang out with his friends andfamilies for outdoor activities and enjoys watching movies in his leisure time.He is married to Farzana Anwar (Product Engineer, Mindspeed Technologies)

and lives in Corona, California with their two lovely kids, Nushera and Nayab.

AABEA – Southern California Chapter Activities

Sadique HossainMember

Sadique Hossain received Bachelor of Science degree in Civil EngineeringfromBangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 1997 andMaster of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Texas Tech University in2000. He worked for Surface Water Modeling Center, The Louis BergerGroup, The Keith Companies, and Stantec Consulting before joiningCalifornia Department of Transportation in District 08, San Bernardino. Heis a registered Civil Engineer in the State of California. He is married toAysha Habib, also a registered Civil Engineer working for Caltrans District08 as Senior Transportation Engineer. They have two boys, Zarif and Zahin

Inauguration 2013:Oath of Executive Committee

Inauguration 2013:Rep. Gloria Negrete Mcleod, US Congress

Picnic 2013:Photo Session

Family Night 2013:Performance

Family Night 2013:Dinner

Arts and Science Fair 2014:Judging of Arts and Science Projects

Arts and Science Fair 2014:Winners


WASHINGTON, DC (DC) CHAPTER: 2013-14

Misu TasnimPresident

Mohammad MowlaPresident-Elect

Khairuddin FarhadTreasurer

Shahid Al AlamCEC Representative

Science Fair Science Fair Science Fair

Science Fair Science Fair Science Fair

TECHNICAL SEMINAR – ENERGY/POWER TRACK :

What can we learn from Ashulia and Savar? An Examination of Safety Issues forthe Planned Nuclear Power Plant at Rooppur*Mohammad Harunuzzaman, Ph.D.

The paper focusses on the safety preparedness of Bangladesh for the planned construction of the 2000 MW nuclearpower plant at Rooppur. To examine the issue, a “what if” analysis of two potential accident scenarios is performed,and its implications are discussed, given the current status of safety compliance and enforcement in Bangladesh.Recommendations are offered for addressing safety issues for the planned Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP).

In the first scenario, smoke is detected inside the control room. After activating a shutdown of the plant and alerting theemergency safety crew, plant operators proceed to leave the building. However, they are unable to leave the buildingas the exit doors are locked due to security reasons. However, the doors are supposed to open automatically duringemergencies to let the workers leave the premises and also allow the emergency crew to come in and respond to thesituation. The safety mechanism which would open the doors fails, because of some lapse in maintenance, which alsocauses the automatic fire detection and suppression system within the plant to fail. The fire disables the control circuits,causes a failure of the shutdown mechanism and the plant continues to operate. Also, the disabling of the controlsystem causes other malfunctions throughout the reactor and triggers an accident, which eventually leads to coredamage and a massive release of radioactivity. Due to inadequate preparation and high concentration of people living inthe vicinity of the plant, about one-quarter of the population is evacuated. The rest are exposed to high levels ofradiation that cause deaths, cancers and other debilitating diseases. Those living far from the plant are exposed tosmaller levels which could have long-term health effects. Most of the personnel inside the plant premises are eitherkilled or seriously injured by the fire and lethal doses of radiation. The environment and the ecosystem surrounding theplant suffer heavy radioactive contamination.

In the second scenario, a very small crack develops in one of the pipes in the primary coolant loop of a reactor. Whenthe reactor is shut down for routine maintenance and the plant equipment are inspected for any defects, the crack goesunnoticed because the inspections are less than thorough. When the reactor is re-started and continues to operate, thecrack gradually widens as the pipe is subjected to high temperatures and pressures. On a certain day, the crackbecomes large enough to start leaking water out of the reactor, triggers a so-called loss of coolant accident (LOCA), andeventually leads to core damage and a massive release of radioactivity. The ultimate consequences are the same as thefirst scenario.

The hypothesized scenarios are deliberately chosen to closely resemble the accidents that happened recently inBangladesh. The first scenario, with a fire as an initiating event has an analog in the big fire that burned down thegarment factory at Ashulia. The second scenario, with a small crack as an initiating event, has an analog in the collapseof the Rana Plaza building at Savar, where a big crack was observed prior to the incident. Failure to exercise duediligence, noncompliance with safety rules and other violations of safety standards led to the disasters at Ashulia andSavar. In the hypothesized scenarios at the RNPP, violations of safety standards are much smaller and the initiatingevents are much less glaring. Yet, they can lead to much greater consequences than what happened at Ashulia andSavar.

The above analysis indicates that safety practices have to improve significantly before the country takes on such anonerously safety-sensitive project as the RNPP. The achievable level of safety of a nuclear power plant (NPP) is

intertwined with safety practices and the general safety culture encompassing every form of technology and everysector of industry. Consequently, it is important to achieve a high level of institutional and technical competence insafety practices with non-nuclear technologies before one can achieve the desired level of safety preparedness for thesignificantly riskier nuclear power technology (NPT). Finally, there needs to be a well-crafted strategy that includes arigorous assessment of safety preparedness for an NPP and a concrete action plan to achieve the desired level ofpreparedness long before beginning construction of the RNPP.

* The paper is based on an article published in the Daily Star in Bangladesh. Please see,http://archive.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/how-far-is-rooppur-from-ashulia-and-savar/

Dr. Mohammad Harunuzzaman is an energy industry policy and planning specialist with 20 +years of experience in electric power and gas industries. His areas of expertise include load andprice forecasting, generation planning, economic and environmental regulation, engineeringreliability and safety analysis, and financial risk management. He published numerous policyreports and research papers, developed several software programs, and led a training seminaron the economics of nuclear power for a delegation of Chinese Nuclear Corporation officials in1997. Dr. Harunuzzaman has a M.Sc. in Physics from the Dhaka University and a Ph.D. inNuclear Engineering from the Ohio State University. He currently works as an energy industryconsultant in Columbus, Ohio.

Fossil Fuels in Bangladesh Energy Mix

Golam KabirWynnewood Refining, CVR Energy Inc., Wynnewood, OK

Abstract: About 160 million people live on a 56,977 square miles of area in Bangladesh. The country has had a rapidindustrial growth in last few decades. With the growth in population and industry there is an increasing demand forenergy. The main natural resource is gas, which is being used as major source of energy in the country. Gas is beingwidely used in power generation and fertilizer industries. In 2012, the country’s primary energy consumption consistedof an estimated 56% natural gas, 24% traditional biomass, 16%, oil, 3% coal and 1% hydropower/solar. (Source US EIA)

The proved reserve of natural gas is limited and gas production cannot keep up with the demand. The deficit inelectricity production is likely to increase due to the lack of natural gas supply to the power stations. The country willhave to buy petroleum products like diesel to substitute the natural gas to run the power stations. Other importantsectors that are using natural gas include domestic cooking and CNG for transportation vehicles.

About 65% of the total produced electricity of the country is based on gas-fired power plants. It is estimated thatBangladesh has a proven recoverable reserve of 16.12 TCF of natural gas (Source Petrobangla). With the current rate ofconsumption the country will run into a major gas deficit situation in just 3 years. If the growth in GDP is considered tobe 7% annually, the country needs about 26 TCF of natural gas to meet the demand up to 2025. With each MMSCF ofnatural gas production 1.5 bbl of condensate is produced. Condensate goes through a fractionator to produce about30% diesel and 70% gasoline. The country produces 4,500 bbl/d of oil and consumes about 22,0000 bbl/d meetingthrough import. (Source US EIA)

Bangladesh has signed production sharing contracts (PSCs) with some foreign oil companies for exploration andproduction of natural gas. The PSCs have been opposed by a number of citizen groups with the view that they aredetrimental to the national interest. Some have objected to awarding of blocks to International Oil Companies (IOCs)while others have expressed concerns on the terms. Through proper training and transfer of technology, Bangladeshiscientists, engineers and geologists can possibly meet the challenge of exploration and production (E&P), both onshoreand offshore. However, fearing a short-fall and citing lack of funds and technology, the government has awardedproduction sharing contracts (PSCs) to several international oil companies (IOCs) with a 70/30 split of the gas producedin favor of Bangladesh. The country buys the IOC’s share of natural gas with hard currency and sells it to the local marketat a discounted price. However, in case Bangladesh cannot buy the IOC’s share, IOC will have the option to export. At thesame time Bangladesh is planning to import natural gas through LNG.

With the settlement of maritime boundaries between the three neighboring nations by international court and withmajor gas discovery in the India and Myanmar side of the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh should seriously venture to exploreits offshore blocks.

Other major fossil fuel resource Bangladesh has is coal. The country has an In-situ proved reserves of 3.3 billion tons ofcoal mainly in northern part of the country. Through open pit coal mining about 90% of this amount could be produced.Only 40% can be produced through closed pit mining. However, coal mining is expensive and is an environment-degrading process. There will be degradation of water, soil, air and human health around the mining area. Moreover,the agricultural growth will be affected. Bangladesh will be requiring about 75 million tons of coal annually to generateabout 10 gigawatts of electricity from coal-based power plants. In other words, the country has about 10 years of stockof producible coal for power generation alone. But exploiting coal reserves, especially by open-pit mining, until theassociated adverse impacts are clearly understood and appropriate frameworks can be deployed to mitigate themshould not be undertaken. So, Bangladesh will have to import coal to meet the energy demand.

Bangladesh has only one 33,000 bbl/d oil refinery. The refinery was established in 1963 and it is now capable of meetingonly 40% of current fuel demand of the country. The country needs to build more modern refineries. The dieselproduced in the refinery has high sulfur content up to 5,000 PPM, whereas in the US sulfur limit is only 15 PPM.

Golam Kabir is a Chemical Engineer with broad technical training, quality assurance andmanagement background in Petroleum industry. He holds a M. Sc. degree in ChemicalEngineering from the Institute of Petroleum and Chemical Technology, Baku, Azerbaijan.Completed advanced production engineering course from A & I University, Texas. Lean six-sigma certified green belt. He is currently working for a company in Oklahoma, CVR Energy,as Chief Chemist. He oversees all activities of a refinery laboratory including productcertification and quality control of all products. Mr. Kabir has acquired extensive experiencein Bangladesh energy sector by working for Petrobangla over 8 years. He is a member of

Society of Petroleum Engineers and ASTM and is also a member of the coordination committee of the BangladeshEnvironment Network, BEN. He actively participates in energy related environmental issues of Bangladesh. He is amember of BEN’s Energy Panel and was a co-author of their 2006 report.

Rural/household Energy Sector- Role of small, distributed energy systems inaddressing Bangladesh energy challengesAhmed BadruzzamanInstitute for South Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Emai: [email protected]

Abstract: Bangladesh energy crisis is often formulated in terms of the much publicized electricity shortage, ignoring thefact that the country has two distinct energy sectors each with distinct primary energy sources and distribution systems.The urban/industrial/commercial sector relies on so-called modern marketed energy sources, mainly natural gas forelectricity generation. The rural/household sector is almost entirely dependent on traditional biomass fuels for cookingand on kerosene for lighting. On the distribution side, electricity and gas supplies utilize centralized distribution systemsreaching a limited population while traditional fuels rely on a distributed supply system impacting over 80% of thepeople. One complicating factor in energy planning is the uncertainty in the mix, traditional vs. modern, in the totalenergy consumption in Bangladesh. Using a 55/45 mix, it is estimated that in 2008, the country used approximately 800trillion BTU from modern energy sources and possibly another 977 trillion BTU drawn from traditional sources, such as,biomass. The mix is evolving with increased demand for modern sources, even in the rural/household sector. This inturn is increasing the demand for natural gas and electricity. The government has embarked on a plan to increase gasexploration, and use coal and nuclear for electricity generation. These will lead to expensive construction of pipelinesand transmission lines in a riverine country. Burning of coal and gas, the latter to a lesser extent, will raise the country’scarbon footprint. The question is: can a decentralized, distributed, small energy system in the rural/household energysector reduce the need for expensive and intrusive centralized energy systems, thereby helping to address the overallBangladesh energy crisis?

The answer is a definite yes. The presentation will discuss a two-component strategy for accomplishing this. Sincetraditional biomass fuels will continue to be a major component of Bangladesh energy consumption mix for a long time,improving their utilization by improved cook stoves (ICS), often by 50%, will be one component of the strategy. It willreduce the current pressure on gas supply for cooking while mitigating the deforestation and health risks from biomassfuels used in standard cook stoves. Biogas plants could be a lesser but important sub-component. Biomass fuel use isgenerally carbon-neutral and thus can reduce the carbon footprint relative to the increased use of fossil fuelspostulated. Bangladesh was an early adopter of ICS designed in the country but only with limited success till recently.Use of biogas plants has also been limited. Efforts are now underway by international organizations, such as the GlobalAlliance for Clean Cookstoves, to increase the use of ICS in developing countries utilizing western marketing strategiesand better designed ICS. The Alliance proposes to spend $5 Million dollars in Bangladesh on this project. In conjunctionwith improved biomass utilization, a greater use of distributed solar home systems will likely accelerate replacement ofkerosene for lighting. Both components of the strategy, however, face several challenges.

The presentation will review the current state of rural/household energy sector in Bangladesh, discuss the two-component strategy noted above, and associated challenges, technical and societal, and explore opportunities theyoffer. Key points will be illustrated with lessons learned from a distributed small energy systems project, encompassingICS, biogas plants, and solar home systems, which the author had motivated and mentored as a corporate socialresponsibility project by Chevron during 2010-2012 in their operations in a rural community in northeastern Bangladesh.

Ahmed Badruzzaman has spent over 35 years in technology research, development anddeployment for petroleum exploration and production, nuclear power generation, and smallenergy systems applicable to developing countries. Educated as a physicist in Bangladesh,Pakistan, and the USA, he earned a Ph. D. in Nuclear Engineering and Science from RensselaerPolytechnic Institute, Troy, NY in 1979. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at University ofCalifornia, Berkley, and a Consultant at Pacific Consultants and Engineers, where he consults forthe USDOE, industry R&D entities, and universities. During 1991-2012, he was a lead scientist

at Chevron. He previously led R&D at Sandia National Laboratories, Schlumberger-Doll Research, and Babcock & Wilcox.During 2001- 2009, he offered a graduate course in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at UC Berkeley, where healso mentored graduate students. He was a consultant to International Atomic Energy Agency during 2011-2012.Author of over 40 papers and two US patents, Dr. Badruzzaman is writing a textbook based on his Berkeley coursematerial and preparing a monograph on Bangladesh energy issues. He was elected a Fellow of American Nuclear Societyin 2004 and earned several petroleum industry technical awards. He has travelled worldwide to discuss his research; in2006-2007 he toured over 20 countries as a Distinguished Lecturer of Society of Petroleum Engineers. He is a formerVice-president of Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts (SPWLA), a past editor of their journal, Petrophysics,and a previous and a current Distinguished Speaker of the Society.

Dr. Badruzzaman chairs the Energy Panel of Bangladesh Environmental Network and was the principal author of their2006 report. He successfully led the recent effort to get UC Berkeley’s Bangla language course permanently endowed.He serves on the Executive Committee of the University’s newly-established Chowdhury Institute for BangladeshStudies.

Solar Inverter Market in Bangladesh: A Case Study

Jahangir DewanPresident and CEO, sBIT Inc., Silicon Valley, California

Abstract: Solar Energy sector in Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sectors. A large majority ofBangladeshi population lives in the village that is not connected to the utility grid. The Solar Home System (SHS) couldbe their prime choice to have electricity all the time. Most recently, we have thoroughly studied the Solar Home System(SHS) market and off/on grid solar inverter market in Bangladesh, its current status, importance and futureopportunities. Based on our studies, it is evident that the SHS market has a significant growth in Bangladesh for next fiveyears. This is due to the fact that there is huge gap of supply vs. demand on power. The market data suggest that there isabout 31% cumulative average growth (CAG) of solar market in Bangladesh for next five years. The average yearlymarket for SHS seems to be about $150 Million of which only 10-20% could be for solar inverter. In this presentation, wewill highlight market analysis and marketing strategies in detail especially for solar inverter business in Bangladesh. Themarketing strategy is primarily based on Product, Price, Place and Promotion, or “four P” analysis. This is based onmarket analysis data and growth patterns. Any provider can focus on the solar inverter market for grid-based SolarSystem with products and services geared towards professional, commercial market and utility scale market segmentswhere competition with the low cost local providers will be less evident.

Jahangir Dewan is the co-founder, President and CEO of sBIT Inc., an IT start-up company inSilicon Valley, USA. He is the co-founder of sBIT Inc (IT Company), inVision Design Systems(Semiconductor IP), ISKool (an eLearing Company) and ECHO (a Non-profit organization in SiliconValley). He has initiated a 200MW Solar Power Plant in Bangladesh in collaboration with a majorUS Solar Company. He has been working in high tech industry for the past 20+ years at variouslevels of Management and Engineering. He worked for start-ups that made successful IPO (ISS,NPTest, PortalPlayer and Pixim) and Merger and Acquisition (M&A). He has worked asEngineering manager in Motorola, Texas Instruments, NXP/Philips and AMD in the past. Hisresearch interests include Solar Electronics, VLSI IPs, eLearning, Content Security, Digital Right

Management (DRM), Physical Design of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) and Design Automation. JahangirDewan has been leading the strategic initiatives of developing the Semiconductor and Software industries, universitycurriculums and Labs development in Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit Design (VLSI) in collaboration with Cadence (aUS leading Semiconductor Software Company) and development of Mobile eLearning platform in Bangladesh (throughhis co-founded start-up ISKool). Jahangir is the recipient of UNINESCO Fellowship to Canada and Australian CSIRO(Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) fellowship award. Jahangir Dewan’s education includesBSEE (CUET, Bangladesh) and MSEE (Concordia, Canada) and MBA (Cornell, USA) and Ph.D. in Information Technology(Deakin University, Australia). Jahangir Dewan was as past president of AABEA Silicon Valley Chapter and BABA (BayArea Bangladesh Association). Correspondence: [email protected]

TECHNICAL SEMINAR – ENTREPRENEURSHIP/HIGH-TECH/OUTSOURCING TRACK :

Bangladesh ICT Industry - Investment & collaboration opportunity for NRBsShameem AhsanA serial entrepreneur, Investor & President of Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services

Abstract: AT Kearney recently ranked Bangladesh as 26th Best destination for IT Outsourcing and number 1 destinationfor financial attractiveness. The NY Times called Bangladesh the "Next Economic Giant". Goldman Sachs has slatedBangladesh in the "Next Eleven" after the BRIC countries. Moody's and S&P 500 maintain a rating for Bangladesh onlybehind India. With 160 million people, 60% of whom are under the age of 30, Bangladesh is rapidly becoming a SouthAsian powerhouse. Recently world's largest Technology companies Samsung and Accenture opened up R & D and BPOcenter in Bangladesh.

Shameem Ahsan is an ICT entrepreneur and co-founded Akhoni.com Ltd., eGeneration Ltd.,Benchmark-eGeneration Ltd and Element 5 Ltd. He is Director of Agrani Bank Ltd., and thecurrent President of BASIS (Bangladesh Association of Software & InformationServices).Shameem has received “Best Young Entrepreneur of Bangladesh” award from thePrime Minister of Bangladesh at Dhaka Chamber of Commerce Business Award. He has beenawarded "Outstanding Young Person" by JCI. He has also been awarded as "Movers & Shakers ofICT Industry 2013" for his contribution to develop eCommerce sector in Bangladesh. He is the

member of Prime Minister's Digital Bangladesh Task Force to monitor and implement the vision of building DigitalBangladesh.

A Framework for Mobile eLearning (mLearning) and Content Authentication

Jahangir DewanPresident and CEO, sBIT Inc., Silicon Valley, CA 95014, USA, Email: [email protected]

Abstract: Mobile eLearning (mLearning) can create a revolution in eLearning with the popularity of smart mobile devicesand Application. However, contents are the king to make this revolution happen. Moreover, for an effective mLearningsystem, analytical aspects such as, quality of contents, quality of results, performance of learners, needs to beaddressed. This paper presents a framework for personal mLearning. In this paper, we have used graph-based modelcalled bipartite graph for content authentication and identification of the quality of results. Furthermore, we have usedstatistical estimation process for trustworthiness of weights in the bipartite graph using confidence interval andhypothesis test as analytical decision model tool.

Jahangir Dewan is the co-founder, President and CEO of sBIT Inc., an IT start-up company inSilicon Valley, USA. He has worked for Motorola, Texas Instruments, NXP/Philips and AMD inthe past. His research interests include eLearning, Content Security, Digital Right Management(DRM), Physical Design of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) and Design Automation.Jahangir is the recipient of UNINESCO Fellowship to Canada and Australian CSIRO fellowshipaward. Jahangir’s educations include BSEE (CUET, Bangladesh) and MSEE (Concordia, Canada)and MBA (Cornell, USA) and PhD in Information Technology (Deakin University, Australia).

Big-data PaaS (platform as a service): Analytics at your fingertips

Fuad Rahman, Ph.D.Founder and CEO, Apurba Technologies, Inc. Compliance Xpressware, Email: [email protected]

Abstract: Apurba is a software start up headquartered in the Silicon Valley with offices in England, Malaysia andBangladesh. We are all about creating Data Insight for our customers. Our flagship product, built on big-data processingplatform Hadoop, is known as Lyticas Analytics Platform or LytAP (pronounced "Light Up!). It is a platform to process,analyze and visualize large amount of data to create "actionable intelligence". A simple example is IRS evaluatingquarterly reports to Securities and Exchange Commission by a US public company to see how much of the profit itdeclared is kept overseas - so that they can assess a "real" tax summary for that company.

Fuad Rahman Fuad is a technologist who has worked in the Silicon Valley for the past elevenyears building and taking leading-edge software products to market. Most recently, as a VP ofProduct Development at KnewCo Inc., funded by GIV Venture Partners and Omni Ventures and aleader in content discovery and semantic targeting, he provided leadership in setting its strategicdirection and technology monetization. Before that, Fuad was the Research Team Lead atQuickSchools Inc., a leading innovator of cloud-based agile SaaS development platforms, wherehe was responsible for creating the product vision and establishing a customer-facing platform.

Fuad is a member of the Domain Steering Committee of the XBRL.US that oversees the development of taxonomies tomeet the business reporting needs of key markets in the United States.

Behind the Apps: Opportunities in Datacenters

Alimul HoqueSr. Application Architect, Intel, Email: [email protected]

Abstract: These days it is unimaginable to find someone who does not know what an App (mobile applications, cloudapplications, SaaS, PaaS etc) is. But what drives these applications and what tools and technologies lies behind theseapplications? The Datacenters! Yes, it is a growing trend in the consolidation of computing infrastructure and applicationinto large data centers. Many of these emerging cloud applications are complex combinations of multiple services withinthese datacenters. There are large scale applications such as “Facebook” require their own datacenters to process, storeand archive large amount of data. Datacenters are the conglomerates of cutting edge technologies in several disciplinesof engineering - Electrical, Mechanical, Embedded Systems, Distributed Computers Systems are a few of them.

Alimul Hoque is a Sr. Application Architect at Intel. He has been working with some cutting edgetechnologies in the areas of hardware and application design. He is a long time AABEA patronand former president of AABEA - Silicon Valley. After graduation from the Chittagong Universityof Engineering and Technology (CUET) with a degree in Electrical Engineering, he attendedUniversity of Massachusetts and earned his Masters Degree in Electrical and Electronics DesignTechnology. After graduation, he jointed Intel as an Application Architect. Most recently at Intel,he has been focused on the design and development of large-scale infrastructure (hardware and

software) development for cloud technologies.

TECHNICAL SEMINAR – INFRASTRUCTURE/ENVIRONMENT TRACK :

Computer Literacy Program Empowers Underprivileged Youths in Bangladesh

Mohammad FarooqueComputer Literacy Program Volunteer ([email protected]; www.clpweb.org)

In 2004, a few non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) living in New Jersey introduced the Computer Literacy Program (CLP)with the mission of bridging the digital divide that exists between an underprivileged student in rural Bangladesh and astudent from an affluent family in the nation’s capital, not to mention with a student from a developed country. CLP isan organized step towards bringing computer and information technology resources to underprivileged youths inBangladesh. The CLP sets up Computer Learning Centers (CLCs), trains teachers, provides students with hands-oncomputer literacy training, establishes Smart Class Rooms (SCRs), brings multi-media and computer-aided instruction tocomplement traditional lecture-based teaching, and supports building a “Digital Bangladesh” from the grassroots.

Computer Learning Centers: CLCs foster computer literacy by making computers and hands-on computer trainingavailable to students in rural Bangladesh. Every CLC is equipped with a minimum of four computers, one printer,Internet where available, other accessories and requisite furniture. In consultation with local computer scientists andeducators a curriculum was developed. A student’s manual, “Esho Computer Shikhi” (Let Us Learn Computers) in Bengaliwas published to implement that curriculum. Every student receives a copy of the manual at a nominal cost. Twoteachers from each CLC receive two weeks of intensive training from Dnet (CLP’s Bangladesh partner) professionals inDhaka.

The basic training includes introduction to the physical parts and operation of the computer, and use of Microsoft Word,Excel spreadsheet, and Paint programs. Students are also introduced to the world-wide web. Students in a batch of 8 to

10 (2 per computer) receive hands-on training free of charge for two hours a day, twice a week for ten weeks outsidenormal school hours to avoid interference with regular academic activities. The adjoining picture shows a typical CLCwhere students are busy at their computers under the supervision of an instructor. Students receive a certificate aftersuccessful completion of the training program. Since the teachers provide the computer instructions in addition to theirregular duties, each teacher receives honorarium of Tk 1000 after training a batch of students.

In 2005 the CLP started with setting up 20 computer Literacy Centers (CLCs). As of 2014 May, 254 Computer LiteracyCenters (CLCs) and 97 Associate Centers are operational in 56 of 64 districts of Bangladesh where students are receivinghands-on computer literacy training free of charge. Over 1.5% of all schools in the country now have a CLC.Approximately, 70% of these CLCs are in rural areas. As of 2014 May, these CLCs have trained over 85,000 students, 49%of those being females. Over the same time frame, the program has trained 588 teachers.

Smart Class Room (SCR): SCR initiative, launched in 2011, is an attempt to adapt the revolution in education and modeof instruction that has been set in motion by recent advances in computer, communication, and informationtechnologies. The SCR uses multimedia technology (with its ability to combine computers and voice, pictures, animation,

music, words, video, simulation and databases) to help students graspeducational contents and concepts better than what is possible by listeningto teachers only.

The resources of a CLC provide useful infrastructure for a SCR. In addition, aSCR (as depicted by an animation here) is equipped with a 32 or 42 inch LCDmonitor/TV with dedicated power supply and back-up solar power,educational CDs, and a laptop. In this initial phase of development lessonsfocus on: General Science, Geometry, English, and Geography. The contentsare available on CDs prepared by local experts to ensure students’familiarity with linguistic and cultural underpinnings. The CDs bring togethersight, sound, and animation to be played on the laptop and projected onthe widescreen monitor giving the students an exposure to multimedialearning. As of May 2014, the program has established 152 SCRs (locationsshown in the map) across Bangladesh. Teacher competency is a keycomponent to the successful implementation of technology in education.SCR initiative to date has trained 90 female and 510 male teachers.

The CLP initiatives have progressed in past ten years due to the dedicationof its volunteers and many generous donors who desired to make adifference at the their roots, which they left behind but fondly remember.This presentation is a brief account of the path the CLP has travelled andhow you can help sustain the undertaking.

Dr. Mohammad Farooque (1969 Chemical Engineering graduate from BUET, Bangladesh) is a fuelcell industry expert. He is the leading contributor to the development of the direct fuel cell (DFC)power plant. The unique ultra-efficient and ultra-clean DFC power plant that he helped to developis now being marketed in the USA, Europe and Asia. Farooque recently retired as Senior Vice-President and Discipline Fellow from FuelCell Energy, Inc. (Danbury, CT), but continues to serve asa Strategic Consultant with the company. He holds 39 US patents and over 100 publications in thefield; was awarded Electrochemical Society's New Electrochemical Technology (NET) Award in2009. He is also a 2014 recipient of the prestigious international Fuel Cell Award for outstanding

contributions to fuel cells. Farooque earned his Ph.D. ('77) in Chemical Engineering from University of Waterloo,Waterloo, Canada. His passion is with the unique Computer Literacy Program (CLP) empowering underprivileged youthsin Bangladesh.

Enforcing Building Design Codes in Bangladesh withLimited Government ResourcesSukomal Modak, Ph.DStructural Engineering Software Developer, Computers and Structures, Inc., California, USASouren ModakStructural Engineer, Subastu Developments Ltd., Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract: By enforcing the building design codes throughout a country, it is possible to provide a safe built environmentfor its citizens.

Building design codes are essentially books of law compiled by groups of professional bodies comprised of architects,engineering professionals, fire safety professionals, building officials, professors, researchers, and possibly otherstakeholders. The first building design code in Bangladesh, named the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC 1993)was published in 1993. It was reissued in 2006 without modification.

Updating the design codes is an ongoing process. It is necessary for the following reasons: (a) new insights are available,(b) any possible grammatical or theoretical errors need to be fixed, and (c) new research worldwide provides morerefined information and better understanding about structural behavior, fire safety, seismic load assessment, wind loadassessment, use of space, and many other issues over the years. BNBC is in the process of being updated through arigorous process of review by practicing engineers and university professors. The updated version has been posted on itswebsite for public comment.

Building design codes are written in the form of sections of law. However, a code does not become law until it is enactedinto a law by the government’s legislative body or any other appropriate government authority. The BNBC has beenenacted into a law by a bill recently.

Enforcing building design codes essentially means that (a) a healthy livable building environment is created by aprofessional architect, (b) the structure is designed by a professional structural engineer, (c) the foundation informationis provided by a professional geotechnical engineer, (d) sanitation system is designed by an environmental engineer, (e)all designs are peer reviewed by another set of engineers, (f) electrical and other services are provided bycorresponding engineers or technicians, (g) all building code requirements are satisfied while designing, (h) constructionis ensured by a field engineer to match the design, (i) building usage permit is provided after construction is done perdesign, and (j) ensuring that the built environment is used as planned.

Unlike many developed countries Bangladesh government does not have enough resources and man-power to enforcebuilding codes across the country. Even the RAJUK does not have the required manpower to enforce the details of thebuilding codes in its jurisdiction --- Dhaka city. Even if the government had the manpower and resources forenforcement, the potential building officials would find the means to practice bureaucratic delaying tactics leading tomisuse of power and financial corruption. The delay in the approval process would not only harass the taxpaying citizensbut would also hamper the development process of the nation. Instead a better implementation model is proposed herebased on public-private partnership by outsourcing most of the details of the approval work to the private sector.

This paper focuses on the enforcement of building design codes based on public-private partnership in which thegovernment needs to setup building permit office at the UpaZilla, Municipality, or City Corporation (like RAJUK) levelswith minimal number of employees. A certified set of professionals from the private sectors would carry out the detailsof the compliance process. The government officials will take on the role of coordinators. The government needs to

setup bodies with the help of professional associations for the certification process. A lot of responsibilities will fall uponthe certified professionals. They will work privately as an extension of the government office and provide the requireddata in the construction process. The government officials will collect the relevant data and maintain it in a datarepository. The data collected as well as the information on the professionals’ activities on the constructed facilities willprovide transparency and accountability. Penalties for any violation by the professionals and the government officialsshould be enforced by law, thereby providing a check and balance.

The enforcement of building design codes based on public-private partnership would result in the followings:

(i) Will require minimum government resources.(ii) Will reduce red tape and bribery practice.(iii) Will engage the vast resource of engineering professionals into the development process.(iv) Will reduce the tyranny of government officials on the approval process as the owners and developers will

have their choice on hiring their engineering professionals.(v) Will increase the influence of science and engineering into the society.(vi) Will develop certified professionals of different varieties who in addition to developing the nation will be

available for foreign employment.(vii) Will reduce the dependence on the government for national development.(viii) Will improve the safety and reliability of the constructed facilities.(ix) Will improve the accountability of the respective professionals.(x) Will improve transparency of the system.(xi) Will attract foreign investment.(xii) Will result in a vibrant economy.(xiii) Will promote justice.

Dr. Sukomal Modak received his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from BUET in 1989 with distinctions:First Class First with Honors, Record Marks, and a gold medal. His superior academicaccomplishment earned him the Malik Akram Hossain Gold Medal, Fazlur Rahman KhanScholarship, and University Grants Commission Scholarship in Bangladesh. Subsequently heobtained masters' degrees in Structural Engineering from BUET in 1992 and Washington StateUniversity at Pullman in 1995. He received his Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from PurdueUniversity in 1997.

Dr. Modak served Bangladesh as a Lecturer of BUET for little over two years (1989--1992). After completing his Ph.D., hejoined Computers and Structures, Inc. (CSI) team as a Research & Development Engineer in 1997. Since then, he is one ofthe lead developers of computer software for structural and earthquake engineering at CSI. His current responsibilitiesand past accomplishments in implementing and maintaining all the building design codes from across the nations in CSIsoftware products make him one of the most well versed people in building design codes.

Dr. Modak has contributed to the state-of-the-art of computational structural mechanics --- mainly in algorithmdevelopment for computational structural dynamics. Thirty of his peer-reviewed structural engineering articles havebeen published in reputed engineering journals such as International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering,Journal of Structural Engineering (ASCE), Computers and Structures. He also has published his work in many peer-reviewed conferences papers, reports, and a book chapter. Dr. Modak has peer-reviewed papers for many engineeringjournals including International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, Journal of Engineering Mechanics,Journal of Structural Engineering, Journal of Infrastructure Engineering, International Journal of Earthquake Engineering,and International Journal of Solids and Structures.

Dr. Modak wants to use his science, technology, engineering, and mathematics knowledge for the development ofBangladesh. Currently he is interested in the following multi-disciplinary research areas: (a) Development of low-costhigh-quality housing for sustainable development with green technology. He is looking at reinforced sand-bag, bottle-confined partially-cemented sand-filled bricks, and bamboo treated with environment friendly preservatives asstructural materials. (b) Development of low-cost high-performance groundwater non-contaminating septic systemusing indigenous material for rural sanitation. (c) Improving evaluation systems in public examinations (JSC/SSC/HSC) inBangladesh to encourage fairness and competition. He is interested in the development of success-matrix for differentcomponents of the education system. Dr. Modak is an Executive Member of Bangladesh Development Initiative(www.bdiusa.org). He worked with other BDI members to organize several BDI conferences at Harvard and UC Berkeley.He can be contacted by his email at [email protected].

Souren Modak is a graduate of KUET (Khulna University of Engineering and Technology). He is apracticing structural engineer since 2002. Currently he is leading the structural engineering designdivision of Subastu Developments in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Souren Modak and Sukomal Modak arebrothers and research partners.

Electrical Energy Infrastructure of Bangladesh

Dr. Sadrul UlaUniversity of California, Riverside, California

Abstract: Electrical energy is one of the key ingredients for the modern economy, which require reliable and stableelectricity infrastructure. Developing power generation, transmission and distribution networks require hugeinvestments with long term committed planning, implementation and execution. A simple standard large power plantwill take between 5 to 15 years from initial planning to completion requiring: (1) long term commitment by the decisionmakers, and (2) sound fiscal management of very large project costs. Unfortunately, the situation prevailing inBangladesh for a very long time is woefully inadequate in these respects. As a result of inadequate electricityinfrastructure, mainly lack of generation capacities, is causing daily load shedding of between 4 hours in major cities to10 hours in rural areas. For example, on September 12, 2014, the peak demand was estimated to be 7,200 MWcompared to actual peak generation of 6,000 MW, resulting in a load shedding of 1200 MW. 700 MW of existinggenerators could not be utilized on this day due to natural gas shortage. It is ironic that in early part of this century,energy experts in Bangladesh and abroad were discussing the issue of “Bangladesh: Energy Exporter” (Please seeBloomberg Business Week , May 2001; The Economist; US Geological Survey: Tata Consulting Services; etc. of that time).

As a temporary solution to the electricity shortage, in year 2007-08 Bangladesh Government initiated a quick rentalpower procurement scheme buying oil-based power from private companies. Of all the increased production sincethen, 84% comes from these very expensive and inefficient plants of relatively small sizes. As there has not beensignificant addition to the grid of efficient larger plants, Bangladesh has recently extended the shorter term rental powerplant contracts to the year 2020.

In this presentation we will discuss existing electrical energy infrastructure of Bangladesh along with ongoing renewableand sustainable energy developments. The prospects and problems of the various energy resources of Bangladesh willalso be highlighted with special emphasis on appropriate fuel mix for electricity generation, whether natural gas, coal,oil, nuclear, solar, etc.

Dr. Sadrul Ula is the Managing Director of Winston Chung Global Energy Center, a new researchcenter at the University of California – Riverside, Bourns College of Engineering. He is also aResearch Faculty at the College of Engineering – Center for Environmental Research andTechnology (CE-CERT) and part of the Southern California – Research Initiative for Solar Energy(SC-RISE). He is working on research, development and outreach aspects of electrical energystorage, power transmission and distribution, smart grids, solar photo-voltaic (PV), solarthermal, concentrated PV (CPV) and concentrated solar (CSP), as well as wind energy. Between1982 and 2010, he was Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of

Wyoming. During 2004-05 he served as the Energy Advisor to the Governor of Wyoming, the largest energy producingstate in the country.

River System Restoration and Development along River Banks in Dhaka,BangladeshEnamul Hoque, P.E., D.GE. F.ASCEChandler, Arizona

Rivers and other water conveyance facilities in and around greater Dhaka area have been contaminated by hazardousand municipal solid wastes since historic time. Most of these pollutants are dangerous to human health and theenvironment. Some of these pollutants are generated and disposed by point sources; however, the majority of the solidwaste and some contaminants originate from non-point sources including airborne non-point source contaminantscarried to the streams by rainfall or by fog/dew during different times of the year/season. Furthermore, municipal solidwastes had been disposed of in the water bodies and the streets since the founding of the city as standard practice. Thestate of the environment of the rivers surrounding major metropolitan and industrial centers of Bangladesh are inconditions that could easily fall within the National Priority List (NPL) or superfund sites in the USA.

The rivers surrounding Dhaka, Tongi, and Savar areas namely Burigonga, Balu, and Turag Rivers have been contaminatedto such an extent that the water has a foul smell, which even affects the olfactory glands of nearby residents. Inaddition, the river bottom and river channel side slopes contain five to ten feet of accumulated waste materials.Contaminants may include non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), polychlorinatedbiphenol (PCB), and “priority” metals (Barium, Mercury, Cadmium, Chromium, Copper, Lead, Nickel and Silver amongothers) that are toxic to human beings. These priority contaminants are at such elevated levels that these havedestroyed the ecological balance and also the elevated level of total organic carbon has gone to such a high level thatnothing can survive in these waters during low flow time period.

The contaminated sediments and disposed wastes in the channels could be remediated in several ways: in-situstabilization, in-situ capping, and dredging and confined processing facilities, and by immobilization with fly ash andcement. In the last method, an added benefit may be gained by stabilizing the dredged sediments along both bankswithin certain sections of the river that are wide enough to accommodate flood flow. The dredged sediments maycreate banks and levees that could be capped with a permeable reactive barrier. The excess moisture may bedehydrated from the sediments in specially created confinements made out of barriers such as permeable reactive linersand geo-membranes. Additionally in places of the hard bank areas, the sediments may be mixed with ground stabilizingagents such as Portland cement and fly ash or other agents that will support roadways and other infrastructure projects.The channeled banks thus created would be suitable for developing multistory high density, upscale to low income,housing clusters. The dehydrated but contaminated and pre-settled sediment areas would be engineered to support 20to 40 story buildings with their own power units and sustainable infrastructure.

These buildings will have promenades, fire fighting systems, and recreational areas including swimming pools in some.The riverfront development would definitely attract people and the real estate value and profits accrued would pay forthe remediation of the contaminated sediments and treatment of non-point source contaminants. Furthermore, therecreational areas and the hard bank areas receiving in-situ stabilized contaminated sediments will have periodicretention basins with wetland plants that will act as phyto-remediators of the contaminants with least risk.

We have developed some preliminary drawings depicting the areas of the developments and wetlands that will be partof the project. These will be finalized once the project feasibility study and remedial planning is finalized. ManyBangladeshi sources have requested to use this model for the housing development in Dhaka. However, companies inBangladesh don’t yet exist that have the capacity to handle these projects.

The unique features of this project include,

Clean and navigable rivers surrounding the Capital City and with improved water quality

Reclamation of valuable land that has been eroded historically without compromising the navigability of thewaterways.

Development of multi-storied quality water front condominiums for sale.

Development of riverside promenades and park-like setting for improved aesthetic views of the city

Installation of own power plants and deep tube-wells to meet the water and power demand for this communityand sale of the excess power to the national grid

Development of modern passenger water transport surrounding the city to reduce the pressure on city roadtransportation and traffic gridlock

No investment required from the government; instead the government would receive a share from the profitgenerated by the sale of apartments.

We believe the project will cost Bangladesh over $5 billion. We further believe that state-of-the-art engineeringtechnologies to clean water ways, develop housing and introduce quick water transport system to easy daily traffic

can only be implemented by political will coupled with private developers with the necessaryknowhow.

Enamul Hoque obtained his B.S. in Civil Engineering from BUET in 1974 and his MS from the Civiland Environmental Engineering Department at Arizona State University in 1985. A Diplomat ofthe Academy of Geo-Professionals and Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Mr.Hoque is active in community activities in Bangladesh as well in the USA. He served as thePresident of AABEA during 2010-2012.

TECHNICAL SEMINAR – ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/INDUSTRIALIZATION TRACK :

Economic Growth and Industrialization in Bangladesh – The Future from a GlobalPerspectiveZaki EusufzaiDepartment of Economics, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, E-mail:[email protected]

Abstract: Bangladesh’s record of economic achievements in recent years has been impressive. The real GDP has grownat an average rate of 5.9% per year since 2000, resulting in a GDP per capita of US $870 in 2013 and a GDP per capitagrowth rate of 4.85% per year during 2010-13 (Sadiq, 2014). Bangladesh has also made a name for itself in the RMGindustry worldwide. It exported $24.49b of products in 2013-14 which is approximately 3% of the global textile market(Mansur, 2014) and in some instances has replaced China as the supplier of choice. The export of labor services alsogenerates substantial revenues for Bangladesh ($550b in 2013, according to the Bangladesh Bank) which in turn hasfacilitated higher investment and consumer spending.

Bangladesh’s domestic market is not big enough to be the main driver of economic growth. Thus Bangladesh remainsvulnerable to the vagaries of the global economy in achieving its industrialization and economic growth goals. Currentlythere is a debate going on among macroeconomists and policymakers as to future global growth rates, with one campenvisaging a long period of global growth stagnation (Summers, 2014). According to this camp, the world may be“entering an era of secular stagnation in which there is insufficient investment demand to absorb all the financial savingsdone by households and corporations….”

In this presentation I explore the implications of such a slowdown for Bangladesh’s growth and industrializationprospects. If faced with such a scenario, Bangladesh’s only choice is to become more competitive in order to increase itsmarket share vis-à-vis its competitors. While a number of the strategies suggested are for the government to implementeconomy wide (and are generally well known to policymakers and affected parties), I also suggest some strategies thatcould be followed by individual firms and businesses in order to increase productivity internally. Data (IFC, DoingBusiness, 2014; World Bank, Enterprise Surveys, 2014) show that Bangladesh has fairly large gaps compared to its rivalsin almost all aspects of running a business. While the magnitude of these gaps is disheartening, they also point to thepossibility of significant potential improvement pursuant to appropriate policies both at the government and the privatesector levels. I also consider the views of the other camp (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2014), mainly that the world is in fora sustained period of high economic growth in the near future. This view argues that “the digital revolution isaccelerating innovation, driving productivity and irreversibly transforming employment and the economy.” I explore theimplications for Bangladesh’s strategies in view of this alternate scenario. Surprisingly, it turns out that both thepessimistic and optimistic scenarios for global growth dictate similar responses for Bangladesh’s growth andindustrialization policies.

Dr. Zaki Eusufzai is an economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles wherehe teaches econometrics and international economics. He received his undergraduate degree ineconomics from Dhaka University and his Master’s and Ph.D. from the University of California atLos Angeles (UCLA). In connection with his research on Bangladesh, he has held visiting positions atthe Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in Dhaka, the Queen Elizabeth House at Oxford University, UKand at the World Bank in Washington D.C. He has also been a research fellow at the School ofPublic Policy, UCLA and a visiting professor at the Loyola Law School. Besides publications in

academic economics journals, he is also the author of a book on Bangladesh-India trade. Dr. Eusufzai has had a long

association with the engineering profession in Bangladesh. He grew up in the faculty housing at BUET, where his fatherwas a professor of Civil Engineering for a long time. His eldest brother and younger sister are also BUET alumni.

A Global Vision for the Industrialization of Bangladesh

Choudhury M. Shamim

Abstract: In the coming epoch Bangladesh will have to build knowledge industries. In the next one hundred years theglobal economy will be a knowledge based economy. The challenge will be to take existing and future knowledge andconvert them into products and services that all people will desire and buy. In this venture Bangladesh will facetremendous competition from North America, Europe, East Asia and India. She will thus have to choose certain nicheindustries that will focus on her strengths. Luckily, Bangladeshis are a cerebral and intellectual people. They understandthe importance of literacy and language. Their culture values education and knowledge. Poets, pundits and scholars arehighly regarded. The Bengalis in Bangladesh are also very egalitarian, advocating full political and social equality amongall people. Recent statistics has shown that more girls are going to school in Bangladesh than boys. Anyone who isyounger than 25 in Bangladesh, and that is more than half the population of the country, had always seen the head ofthe government to be a woman. Thus gender equality has been phenomenal and can be considered one of the strongestpoints of the nation. Bangladesh has also been very successful in achieving the Millennium Development Goalsadvocated by the United Nations. The target should be to achieve one hundred percent literacy and a very high level ofknowledge building and knowledge acquisition. This new knowledge coupled with the complete freedom to innovateand experiment will bring enormous success. The focus has to be on new industries that will be global in scope.Bangladesh will have to think globally and act locally as well as world-wide. The Bangladeshis have shown that they arevery receptive to new technologies and new ideas. Today there are Bangladeshis residing all over the world and moreare seeking new frontiers. They are competing with the best in the field and are holding their own. The hard challengewill be to take these new technologies and new ideas and fashion them into products and services that are of exportquality with an affordable price tag. The business and political leaders of Bangladesh will have to be super aware that infuture, existing industries will become obsolete and first time industries that never existed will take their place. Thecompetition will be in how quickly you can dump the current non-competitive industries and make fresh new start-ups.It may be heart-breaking to let traditional industries go bust, but there is no viable or practical alternative to this. Thebusiness and political leaders will have to be rational and mature and must work in tandem with each other. Many ofthese new start-ups will fail but some will surely prosper. While we should focus on niche industries that pertain to ourstrengths, we should also never be afraid to compete with the best in the world in whatever new field that may be. Theduty of the state and the government will be to provide excellent infrastructure that is not limited to high-speedcommunications and lack of bureaucratic hassles, but complete economic and business freedom.

Dr. Choudhury M. Shamim obtained his PhD in International Relations from the University ofSouthern California in 1987. He is Professor of Political Science at California State UniversityFullerton where he has been teaching since 1989. He started his teaching career as a Lecturer in theDepartment of International Relations at Dhaka University in 1978. In 1979 he became the DeputyDirector of the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies. The same year he was amember of the Bangladesh Delegation to the United Nations. At the UN General Assembly heserved as a delegate to the Special Political Committee and other committees like the Ad Hoc

Committee on the Indian Ocean. After returning from the UN, Dr. Shamim served as a Foreign Policy Adviser to thePresident of Bangladesh. In 1982 he received a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the School of International Relations,

University of Southern California. His PhD dissertation was titled “United States Foreign Aid and Third World VotingPatterns in the United Nations General Assembly.” Earlier in 1975 he received a Graduate Fellowship from the NormanPaterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, where he wrote an M.A. thesis onBangladesh Foreign Policy. Dr. Shamim has also served as the Director of the Model United Nations Program at theUniversity of California Riverside from 1991 to 1996. He has taught at the University of Southern California, CSUDominguez Hills, University of the South in Tennessee and Colby College in Maine before joining CSU Fullerton. Hisresearch interests include United Nations and Development Programs, International Relations of South Asia, BangladeshForeign and Economic Policy and Defense and National Security Studies. He has published many peer reviewed articlesin American and International Journals. He has written a number of book chapters ranging from Bangladesh politics andforeign policy to Iranian nuclear weapons. He has taught the course on Model United Nations at USC, CSUF and UCRsince 1987 and has taken his students to American conferences such as Harvard University and the UN in New York.Internationally, Dr. Shamim took his CSUF students to Germany and China. He lives in Chino Hills, California with his wifeand two children.

Improvement of Investment Climate in Bangladesh

Md. Mahmudur Rahman, Ph.D.Director General, Prime Minister’s Office, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Email: [email protected]

Abstract: The ardent goal of the present government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is to turn Bangladesh into amiddle income country. The vision aims to attain economic growth rate of 8% by 2015 (the end of Sixth Five Year Plan)and 10% by 2021. Obviously, the government will have to fix a host of things before this vision can be realized. Meetingthese ambitious growth rates would require a three pronged attack - economic, political and governance. First, to beright on the track of Vision – 2021, the share of industrial sector to GDP has to be raised from 30% in 2009 to 40% andshare of industrial employment needs to jump from 14% to 25%. That would warrant, inter alia, a second round ofgreen revolution in agricultural sector with scaled-up technology and its speedy spread and the maintenance of macro-economic stability.

There are four countries in South Asia: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka that have benefited from higher FDIinflow over the last several decades. Bangladesh has lagged behind compared to other three countries in attractingthese funds both in absolute level and as a share of GDP. Several hurdles – poor infrastructure, pervasive corruption anddisorder, underdeveloped financial markets, excessive regulations, and inadequate human capital may have createdlocational disadvantages for Bangladesh in attracting FDI vis-à-vis the other countries ("Foreign Direct Investment andInvestment Climate: Comparing Bangladesh with Selected Countries in South Asia", Rahim Quazi and Munir Quddus,Journal of Bangladesh Studies (JBS), Volume 11.1-1, Pages 1-12, 2009). Bangladesh has long suffered from hartals orgeneral strikes that have paralyzed large segments of the economy creating uncertainties. The risk elements – politicalinstability and conflict must be managed effectively. It is true that Bangladesh has begun to perform slightly better insome areas of governance. But corruption, delays in decision making, lack of property rights, procedural complexitiesetc. still go towards raising the cost of doing business. The economy of Bangladesh needs a quantitative as well asqualitative leap in growth rates to help generate productive employment and a decent standard of living for the people.

Dr. M. Mahmudur Rahman obtained his Ph.D. on ‘Good Governance and e-Governance:Combat Corruption in Bangladesh’ from the Department of Politics and Government of JahangirNagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He received his B.A. (Honors) and M.A. degree inEconomics from the University of Dhaka. Dr. Rahman is a member of Bangladesh Civil ServiceAdministration cadre and Joint Secretary of the Government. He now works as a DirectorGeneral in the Prime Minister’s Office of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh. He started hisprofessional carrier as an Assistant Commissioner & Magistrate. Dr. Rahman is an Economist

and has many books (115) in his credit on Socio-Economic related research and other different issues on literature andculture. He is also an economic analyst and columnist in English and Bengali dailies in his pen-name ‘Anu Mahmud’.

In his professional carrier Dr. Rahman has led the Bangladesh delegate in the International Book Fair, Kolkata (India) in2008 & 2009 and presented the keynote paper in the seminar on ‘Bangladesh Day’ organized by the Bangladesh DeputyHigh Commission, Kolkata on the issues – Books for peace in SAARC Region in 2008 and Flow of Modern BengaliLiterature: context to Bangladesh in 2009. Dr. Rahman also presented the following papers: (a) Public PrivatePartnership (PPP), Problem & Prospect in Bangladesh at a seminar organized by the Dhaka School of Economics inDhaka, Bangladesh; (b) ‘Books for Friendship’ in the Bangladesh Book Fair held in Kolkata (India) from September 26 toOctober 02, 2013; (c) ‘Bangali Literaturist and Readers on 30 September, 2013 in Bangladesh Book Fair held in Kolkata(India); (d) “Secular Nazrul: Context of Mass Song” organized by the Writers Foundation, Bangladesh (keynote speech);

(e) Investment Climate Improvement in Bangladesh, in Japan under a training program of JICA; (f) Keynote paper in aSeminar on 3rd country visit (Indonesia & Vietnam), organized jointly by Prime Minister’s Office and JICA in PMO onAugust 19, 2014.

Dr. Rahman lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh with his wife and two children. His elder child is studying in UCLA, Los Angeles,California in (EEE) Engineering. His wife serves as a Member of Bangladesh Public Service Commission.

NOBAYON: A New Agenda for a New Bangladesh

Shafi A. Khaled

Abstract: Bangladesh needs a new political vision and corresponding organization and planning to reflect its new reality.The political themes of pre-1947 and pre-1971 eras are no longer valid. I suggest that a socio-economic emancipationshould be at the heart of the next generation’s political agenda. Bangladesh is simply an industrially aspiring country –an IAC! In its first phase, Bangladesh needs to go flat out with resource conserving, inter-group synergy promoting,appropriate technology driven, market expanding, and profit sharing bid for achieving self-sustained industrialized statusin about 30 years. This time span is not only possible but also critical for a nation headed toward a population of 235mby 2050. Such a status has been achieved in a similar time frame by China, South Korea, and Taiwan. The window ofopportunity is limited with dozens of countries in Asia, Africa and South and Central America competing toward such anend. The ideology of the current political agenda is counter-productive. Even the secular role model nation, India, hasnever been so tough on its majority values as the today’s party in power. The last successful leftist secularization modelwas Vietnam. Without a conflict of that proportion, Bangladesh will neither become secularized nor achieve peace forproper industrialization. It is too late for having such a conflict in Bangladesh. To say that the end game of 1971 wasprecisely this is patently false and wishful reading of history. Besides, this desired alteration of the being of Bangladesh’s90% majority is unnecessary. However, if by secularism we mean equal opportunity, accountability and transparency forall historical population groups, then there is no problem. Secularism cannot mean the end of religiosity forBangladeshis. To the extent today’s political agenda makes Bangladesh lose critical decades, it is a-intellectual, adisservice and a crime.

Our socio-political agenda cannot broach any compromise in terms of selfishness, corruption and inefficiency. Everysecond has a price. That is how focused we must be! The Rule of Law must be revived. That will be merciful.Meritocracy must substitute all forms of nepotism, favoritism, etc. Essentially, there are three legs to this idea –vocational education for the at-risk, indigent rural high school youth for either self-employment or industrialemployment; profit sharing industrial undertaking for achieving industrial viability; and process-based industrializationthrough exploiting economies of scope, relying on adaptive technology, bringing importers and producers of industrialgoods into co-ownership, and mining the opportunities available in locating and instituting constant returns to scaleindustries, etc. Experiences of countries such as Japan (Keiretsu), Taiwan (high growth rate with high equity), SouthKorea (high schools for mechanics and electricians), Sweden (market expansion in countries not colonized by England orFrance to achieve scale economies), Brazil and Argentina (failure to avoid feudal economy related blunder of the 1970sand 1980s), Silicon Valley (sweat capital and venture capital driven innovations), Bangladesh (Drug policy of the 1980’sleading to breakthrough in the Pharmaceutical sector, Grameen Bank’s collateral-free group lending, elastic demandsfaced by Bangladesh’s private universities and multi-storied housing industry, trader-producer face-off - the collapse ofthe boutique industry in the face of mushrooming mega-mall’s import policy), South East Asia (China-Vietnam-Indonesia-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore-Hong Kings’ FDI bonanza and how they block FDI inflow to other IACs), India(Y2K problem solution and the consequent high-value added software service inroad into the western economy), WTO

(globalization policy and how it stymies industrialization in IACs), etc. underlie the strategy chalked out in thispresentation.

Bangladesh can and must grow annually at about 13% rate for about 32 years to achieve the same level ofindustrialization status that was achieved by Taiwan and South Korea between 1985-1990 at which point all foreign aidinflow to them was halted. This is an underestimate, however. Thus, in that period, if annual inflation rate andpopulation growth rates are, respectively, 5% and 1.8%, then the per capita real growth rate would have to be about 6%for Bangladesh to achieve self-sustained industrialization in 32 years flat. Let us have a political framework that makes itpossible.

Dr. Shafi A. Khaled completed BSS and MSS in Economics from the Dhaka University; and Ph.D. inBusiness & Economics (University of Minnesota). Worked for Business and Non-Profit enterprisesand for Academia. Ex-MSA President at University of Minnesota; Ex-Director of Social Affairs and Ex-Director of Education at the Islamic Center of Minnesota; Ex-Director of Development & Relief atNorth American Bangladeshi Islamic Community; and Executive Secretary of Muslim CommunityOutreach that, since November 2000, has provided cooked food once monthly to 120-185mainstream guests; and participated in Katrina Youth Relief Team led by wife (Ex-Director of ISNAYouth). Professional contributions: Model Foreign Direct Investment to Developing Countries;

Model Industrialization Process; Vocational Education for Rural Youth; Portfolio Determination of a Zero-InterestFinancial System Entity (ZIFS); and Profit-Loss Contract Formation under ZIFS (Conference Best Paper Award recipient atDurham University, UK in March, 2014). Social Science contributions: Modern Parenting for Immigrants; Organizing &Managing the Weekend Parochial School; and Avoidance and Alleviation of Addiction: A Non-Denominational ModularApproach for Mainstream Population. Published 4 books of poems. Write extensively on World issues. Hobbies:Cooking & Gardening. Married 35 years with 3 grown-up sons, 2 daughters-in-law and 2 grandsons. Currently residentof Minnesota and teaching at Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minnesota.

A Nation is known by the Goods it produces: Nature of Industrialization

Ashraf AliBangladesh Development Initiative (BDI), Pennsylvania and Washington& Manager, The Boeing Company, Phone: 425-373-4013, E-mail: [email protected]

Introduction: All nations produce goods and services of one kind or another. However, it is the kind of goods that anation produces sets it apart from other nations in generating wealth. A nation’s wealth can be gauged by its per capitaincome (PCI). The PCI of the nations of the world varies from a mere couple of hundred US$ (e.g., Malawi or Burundi) toover one hundred thousand US$ (e.g., Norway or Luxembourg). Bangladesh, with her ~ US$800 per capita income ranks24th from the bottom among 182 countries listed in the World Bank report (~year 2012: World Bank data).

A study shows a per capita income of around US$8000 is needed to ensure a decent living (Development Issues ofBangladesh-II, UPL, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2003). It means Bangladesh will have to increase her per capita income ten foldsto get there, that is, to become a so-called middle-income country. At the current 6% growth rate, it would takeBangladesh about 40 years to reach US$8000 per capita income level or 34 years at 7% growth rate! It suggests aneeded shift from the current production paradigm if we are to accelerate the growth rate and thus shorten thatduration.

Current Production Paradigm and Low Per Capita Income: Obviously Bangladesh per capita income is commensuratewith the current dominant production paradigm. For example, the garment industry, characterized as “the backbone ofBangladesh’s industrial sector and 80% of total exports, surpassed $21 billion last year, 18% of GDP” (The CIA WorldFactbook). The minimum wage for a garment worker was 3000 taka ($38) per month, which was recommended to beraised to 5300 taka ($68) per month or $816 per year by the wage board in November 2013 (“Bangladesh Takes Step toIncrease Lowest Pay” By Jim Yardley, November 4, 2013, The New York Times). Bangladesh readymade garment (RMG)industry has existed for more than thirty years and is not expected to increase the national per capita income in asignificant way in its current form. The average schooling of a Bangladesh RMG worker is less than 7 years and as suchthe value addition in this industry has remained low.

Another example is the remittance from overseas Bangladeshis, which was $15 billion (13% of GDP) in 2013. Foreignremittances do not add domestic value because they are not directly connected with the production of local goods. Thethird example can be drawn from the non-government organization (NGO) activities, which add very low value. On thecontrary, NGO activities create effective demand for high value added finished and intermediate products such as cellphones, computers, medicine powders, other complex chemicals, etc. that are imported from rich countries, especiallyNGO sponsors. Other dominant sectors of Bangladesh economy can be cited as examples where average value additionto the goods produced in those sectors would be appropriate for the national per capita income of around $800.

Possible Path Forward towards Higher Per Capita Income: There are examples how a number of countries of the worldhave in recent years ascended economic ladder and has reached middle-income status and gone beyond. The newlyindustrialized countries (NICs) of Asia have now gone beyond the middle-income status. The so-called second-generation Asian NICs such as China and Malaysia have recently become middle-income countries. Most of the NICs,except Hong Kong, developed their economies under state control and heavy protectionism. The latest examples areChina and Malaysia. Mahathir Mohamad picked key heavy industries and erected high wall of protection around them.Malaysia's HICOM (Heavy Industries Corporation of Malaysia) drive began in 1981. Mahathir Mohamad for examplepicked the automobile Proton Saga as the pivotal national enterprise and imposed 300% import tax on imported cars.

The World Bank initially characterized the experiments of these command economies as failures. (The Lessons of EastAsia: An Overview of Country Experience, Danny M. Leipziger and Vinod Thomas, A World Bank Publication, The WorldBank, Washington, D.C., October 1993). However, despite poor reports from the World Bank, all these Asian countriesbecame successful. The question is: would this state-controlled command economy model be appropriate forBangladesh? The answer may be “no” because Bangladesh may not have the political clout at this time to implementsuch a model.

The second option is for Bangladesh to enter into special partnership with the developed countries. For example,Bangladesh can partner with the developed countries that sell garment machineries to Bangladesh and plan to produceselected spare parts. The plan can be based on a five to ten year project in which Bangladesh would conduct neededresearch and development to produce these spare parts to the international standard and specifications. Some privatecompanies of Bangladesh already produce these parts but these parts are not properly engineered. The objective wouldbe to properly engineer these parts so higher local values are added to these products. The current ship-building activityis another example, which is currently nothing but an assembly operation without much value addition. Can Bangladeshnegotiate with the real designers of these ships and undertake the design and analysis tasks of a selection of parts ofthese ships? …….

Dr. Ashraf Ali, a former Lecturer of BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh (1979-1981), has written a book onadvanced engineering on Boundary Element Methods published by Taylor & Francis/Balkema ofThe Netherlands. He has written about forty papers in engineering, a half of which werepublished in peer-reviewed engineering journals such as International Journal of Solids andStructures, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, Journal of EngineeringMechanics (ASCE), Journal of Acoustical Society of America, and so on. Dr. Ali has peer-reviewedpapers for the engineering journals: International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering,Engineering Mechanics (ASCE), and International Journal of Solids and Structures. His research

areas of interest include finite element and boundary element methods, hyperelasticity, random vibrations andstructural dynamics, infinite elements, structural stability, acoustics and structure-acoustics coupling, explicit dynamics,and so on. Dr. Ali established Bangladesh Development Initiative (BDI) in 1988 and was its founding President. He hasedited two books on the development issues of Bangladesh, both published by UPL, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dr. Ali is aneditorial board member of BDI's Journal of Bangladesh Studies (JBS). He established the Seattle chapter of AABEA(American Association of Bangladeshi Engineers and Architects) in 1998 and was its founding President. He is a life-longmember of AEDSB (Association for Economic and Development Studies on Bangladesh). Dr. Ali is interested in promotingthe production of value-added commodities in Bangladesh such as capital, intermediate and durable goods withdomestic R&D component. In Dr. Ali's opinion, this is the only way Bangladesh can aspire to become a middle-incomecountry in the foreseeable future.

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