History

CONCEPTION

Our Society started with a phone call from Mohan Jethwani to Sital Daryanani in July 1981. It was then shaped and formed by a group of about 30 visionary and farsighted engineers and architects of Indian origin who met in September 24, 1981 in the City University Graduate Center's student cafeteria on West 42nd Street.
INCORPORATION

The Constitution and bylaws were adopted on June 16,1982.The Incorporation papers, signed by Messrs. Sital Daryanani, Sham Malhotra, Harshad Lakhani, Nick Massand an Mohan Jethwani, for a Type B Corporation filed in August 1982 with the secretary of the State of New York, pursuant to Section 201 of the Not-For-Profit Corporation Law. The Certificate of Incorporation, approved on November 12, 1982 by the Honorable Stanley Parness, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, First Judicial District, was filed with the NYS Secretary of State on December 20, 1982. The Internal Revenue Service granted the Federal Income Tax exemption under section 501(c)(3) on July 9 1985. The Exemption from the State Sales Tax was granted on August 13, 1985.

MISSION

• To provide mutual assistance to improve educational skills of the Society's members
• To enlighten the public at large by publicizing our contributions in engineering and architectural disciplines in Metropolitan area
• To advance understanding between the people of different ethnic and social heritages
• To create a mutually beneficial network

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Although they are too many to enumerate, the crown jewel of the SIAEA's accomplishments was its success in reversing the State Comptroller's allegations that our engineers working with Transit Authority lacked "communication skills", and is exemplified by the fact today the TA's Chief Engineer is our member (Mysore Nagraja). Further the SIAEA worked strenuously, and successfully, to reverse the City's policy of recognizing only the ABET-accredited undergraduate degrees, and fought the City's efforts to deny Building Inspector positions to Green Card Holders. The City's Building Department, too, is currently headed by our past president, Satish Babbar.