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| Home | Successful Indian
of the Month |
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| SUCCESSFUL INDIAN OF THE
MONTH |
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Rooma Nanda is currently in
the finance industry, working as a residential mortgage consultant. She has
over 10 years work experience with various corporates, such as, IBM and Yellow
Pages. Rooma has done her MBA from Sydney, and is passionate about learning on
a constant basis. This column is to highlight the achievements of
certain individuals who could be a source of inspiration for others. Email
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 Dr
Bhuvan Unhelkar (BE, MDBA, MSc, PhD; MACS) has 19 years of professional
Information Technology experience in consulting, training and product
development. Currently, as a Principal of MethodScience, Bhuvan brings to bear
his experience in modeling, process and quality related assignments for his
clients. His work is crucial in transforming many of his client organizations
to high quality component-based software development and integration. His
process and modeling skills have also been applied in large CRM implementation
and Data Warehousing projects. Bhuvan exhibits excellent business and
technical acumen, and applies both practical as well as research viewpoint, in
conducting his numerous successful assignments.
Bhuvan holds Doctorate from University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). His thesis
was titled "Effect of Granularity of OO Design in Modelling an Enterprise
and its application to Financial Risk Management", and was supervised by
Professor Brian Henderson-Sellers. His thesis discussion on IT strategic
planning, Methodologies and Processes, Enterprise Modelling and Sociological
issues in IT project management have also been successfully tried by him in
practical industrial work. Bhuvan is an Honorary Associate of UTS, where he
lectures in IT subjects (e-Business, OO) at Master's level and supervises
Masters Projects. He has also taught OO Information Systems at University of
New South Wales (UNSW) and tutored System Design at University of Western
Sydney (UWS).
His work has been published in Object Magazine, ROAD, Computerworld and CACM
journals, and as chapters in books including Developing Business Objects (SIGS
Publications, 1997), The OPEN Process Specification (Addison-Wesley, 1997) and
The Handbook of Object Technology (CRC Press, 1998). He has recently written a
book with Prof. Brian Henderson-Sellers titled OPEN modeling with UML,
Addison-Wesley, UK, May 2000. He is currently authoring Quality Assurance for
UML-based Projects, with Addison-Wesley, due late 2001. Earlier he had written
a book with CRC Press titled "After the Y2K Fireworks: Business and
Technology Strategies"which concentrated on survival and resurrection
strategies using object-oriented techniques for 'Y2K-hit' organizations.
On personal front, Bhuvan has worked in the Indian community in Australia. He
has been instrumental in bringing Indian artists on visit to Australia. He has
compeered on community radio, and has organized community events.
1) When did you arrive here in
Australia?
July 1986.
2) How do you compare present
scenario in Australia with the time when you first landed here. What are the
differences in opportunities, hurdles or people's attitude between then and
now? Above all, what was the perception of Indians then?
In 1986, there were very few Indians. Majority arrivals in that era were
either computing professional (like myself) or chefs. Before that wave of
migration of India, those who came here in 70s, were from medical field.
Indians within the major metropolis cities have always been recognized for
their hardwork, friendly manners and ability to understand and solve complex
IT problems. That image still continues in the new millenum. However, there
are many more cross-section of skills that Indians have now brought to
Australia. These include accounting, mining, etc.
3) Do you find Australia as
different from any other developed country? If yes, why & how?
The two major differences are that Australia is that less populous and far
away from the what the rest of the world would consider as center of the
world. It is far away from Europe as well as from USA. This provides
advantages in terms of quieter lifestyle, more space for everyone (including
on trains, movies and classrooms), relatively slow pace etc. However, things
take their own time to reach 'down under', especially in terms of IT field.
4) You have a specialization
in Object Oriented modeling. Was there any specific reason why you chose
Object Oriented modeling as your specialisation? What is the future of OO
language.
After the IT community produced large relational databases and systems, it was
obvious that quality and reuse both were suffering. Higher productivity could
be gained by using object-oriented techniques, and so also improved quality.
Furthermore, I got the support of Prof. Brian Henderson-Sellers, who agreed to
supervise my PhD. Hence Object-orientation, or Component-based modeling and
methodology, as the field would now be known.
5) Being a part time lecturer
at UTS, you must have come across quite a few Indian students who are here to
make their futures or fulfill their parents' dreams. In your opinion, do you
find them serious enough who would go back and implement what they have learnt
from here?
There are many sincere and hardworking students who come here, educate
themselves, and apply what they have learnt. However, it is vital for them to
get their priorities right. Some of them spend a lot of time working in hotels
and petrol pumps, and forget the main objective of their arrival. These
students sometimes suffer, as they don't get the grades. However, this should
not deter students from going out and doing some work, as dignity of labour is
high in Australia (as compared to India) and students will learn more than
just academics by working part-time. This should not be done at the expense of
studies though.
6) What is the secret behind
your success? What aspirations did you have as a child?
Extreme hardwork and deep respect for peers and elders who
have done things I would like to do. As a child, my professional aspirations
were to run my own company. Personal aspirations, as with every other kid in
India, to play cricket test match for India.
7) Was your career path all
planned or was it like one thing lead to another?
Planning, only roughly. My coming to Australia, doing my PhD, and running
MethodScience, all were a combination of some planning, some luck and lots of
blessings.
8) What qualities/values of
life would you like your students to adhere to?
Humility - ability to put your head down, and work hard is not
always easy.
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In the Previous Issues:
Anupam
Sharma
Vikrant Kapoor - Zaaffran Restaurant
Rashmi Mehrotra
Dr. Jagnnath Mazumdar
Naville Roach - Fujitsu
Australia
Dr Arapaut Sivaprasad -
WebGenie Systems
Suda Navada
Jeet Bindra - Caltex
Dr. Bhuvan Unhelkar
Safina Uberoi - My Mother
India
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