Aravind Melligeri
Dr. Ajay Prabhu
Aravind Melligeri is co-founder and Board
Member of QuEST Global. He obtained his
bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering
from the Karnataka Regional Engineering
College. He subsequently obtained a master’s
degree from Pennsylvania State University.
Aravind has been conferred with the National
Institute of Technology Karnataka Alumni
Excellence award.
Dr. Ajay Prabhu is the COO of QuEST
Global. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in
Electronics and Communication Engineering from the Karnataka Regional Engineering
College. He went on to complete his MS &
Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts
in the USA. Ajay’s research work on very high
frequency amplifiers was recognized with an
award from the IEEE Microwave Society Fellowship and he holds two US Patents.
Quest
Could you please take a walk down
the KREC memory lane for us?
Ajay Prabhu: I almost did not make it to
KREC. I was interested in being an E&C
engineer (inspired by my uncle who was
an E&C engineer). The few E&C seats
were gone in seconds. I walked out of
the admissions room and luckily for me,
a ‘senior’ sitting outside the admissions
room asked me, “Which branch did you
get?” and added, “Take whatever branch,
and after the first year you get a chance to
switch the branch.” I took Metallurgy and
switched to E&C after the first year. I have
fond memories of Dr. Subbanna Bhat,
who was an excellent lecturer. I was one
of the few (possibly the only one) students
to love the Electromagnetics course! Dr.
Govardhan Reddy went out of his way to
offer the Microwave Engineering elective
that I lobbied hard for. I had to gather a
minimum of 10 students for the University
to offer the elective. I succeeded. I went on
to pursue my PhD in this esoteric field.
Aravind Melligeri: The four years at KREC
were some of the best times of my life,
beginning with hazing (aka ragging), which
we considered a crucial part of building
relationships with seniors and understanding the challenges that lay ahead in our
journey. In today’s business parlance, they
were our advisors to succeed in the college
(the first three months were essentially our
fees that we would pay today for an advisor
if we were entering a new business). If I
remember correctly, I finished four years
of engineering without spending a dime to
buy books, as we built relationships with
our seniors who would hand over books
and notes, lock, stock and barrel to us.
An Interview with
Aravind Melligeri
and
Ajay Prabhu
In terms of faculty, Prof. Appukuttan was
the friendliest, most devoted and knowledgeable teacher I have seen. He saw his
students as friends and would go above and
beyond to help them succeed in the goals
they set out for.
AP: Aravind and I grew up together in
Hubli in North Karnataka. We went to
the same KBS-16 (Kannada Boys School)
from 1st to 7th grade. Aravind is my best
friend from childhood. At KREC, this
friendship got a lot stronger. In the 2nd
year of engineering, there was a revolution
in campus where non-locos took over the
student union. Aravind was my campaign
manager. Throughout the four years, Aravind was my finance manager. He would
remember how much money I owed and to
whom! He is excellent with numbers. When
we went to the US for MS in 1990, India
The Shoreline
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