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The alumni remember

S. MUTHIAH

Alumni associations are, sadly, not a major part of Indian college culture nor are they great contributors to their alma maters. A rather more-active-than-usual alumni association is that of the College of Engineering, Guindy, which was founded in 1925. Its founder-president, who also served as its Founder-Secretary, was G. Nagarathnam Iyer, the first Indian principal of the college. The seed he planted has now grown into one of the more active alumni associations in India. If nothing else, it remembers Founder's Day every year - at least from the 210th anniversary that it marked in 2004. It was during its 212th celebrations recently that I caught up with the Association.

Remembered on the occasion was Michael Topping, the Chief Marine Surveyor of Fort St. George, who was responsible for founding what is the oldest technical school of the modern era outside Europe. The Survey School opened in Fort St. George on May 17, 1794, with eight students. It became the Civil Engineering School in 1858 and the College of Engineering in 1861, moving in the process from Fort St. George to the Observatory to the Khalsa Mahal of Chepauk Palace before settling down in its own premises in Guindy in 1920.

Topping's contribution to Madras - and India - are numerous. The "first full-timemodern professional surveyor in India", he surveyed much of the seas off the Coromandel Coast, persuaded amateur astronomer William Petrie to gift his equipment to Government and Government to accept it set up India's first modern observatory in Nungambakkam, and got Government to establish the Survey School to enable him to get the surveying assistance he required. The Observatory was established in 1792 and Topping, already the Chief Marine Surveyor and Superintendent, Survey School, agreed to his being appointed as the Company's Astronomer. In time, Petrie's assistant, John Goldingham, was to head the School and the Observatory, but what he built on were the foundations laid by Topping.

I don't know whether the College of Engineering remembers Topping or Founder's Day, but I'm delighted to find the college's Alumni Association doing so ... besides conducting an active programme for its members throughout the year.

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