HlaMin

Author: Hla Min (Lifelong Learner)

  • March 13

    March 13

    by Hla Min

    Update : 31st October 2026

    1988

    Phone Maw
    • It was a sad and dark day for Burma.
    • It was a milestone in the struggle to restore democracy in the Golden Land.
    • Phone Maw (5th year Chemical Engineering student) was struck by a stray bullet. He passed away.
    Soon Kyaw invitation

    Celebrations

    • March 13 is observed as “Burma Human Rights Day” (e.g. in the City of Berkeley).
    • March 13 is known as “Phone Maw & Soe Naing” Nay နေ့
    • Soon offerings are made in their memory.

    2016

    • RITAA was formed on March 13, 2016

    2018

    • A huge vinyl with the RIT-YIT-YTU Alumni Association (RITAA) Logo was made available on March 13, 2018.
    • Thanks to Eric Foo for the photo and Mech Ko Lay for the vinyl copy.
    RIT-YIT-YTU Alumni Association

  • Down Memory Lane

    Down Memory Lane

    by Hla Min

    Update : 31st October 2026

    Jara, Byadi & Marana

    • Affected many Sayas, Sayamas and Alumni.
    • Several are Gone But Not Forgotten
    Saya Allen
    • Allen Htay (C) — RIT Alumni International, SPZP-2000
    Dr. Aung Gyi
    • Dr. Aung Gyi (C, Rector)
    U Aung Hla Tun
    • U Aung Hla Tun (Met) — HMEE
    U Ba Than
    • U Ba Than (M) — Double Dana
    U Ba Toke
    • U Ba Toke (M, MASU Rector)
    Dr. Chit Swe
    • Dr. Chit Swe (UCC Founder)
    H Num Kok
    • H Num Kok (C) — Saya of our sayas
    U Khin Aung Kyi
    • U Khin Aung Kyi (ChE, Rector)
    U Kyaw Tun
    • U Kyaw Tun (EE) — Saya of our sayas
    U Maung Maung Than
    • U Maung Maung Than (T, Rector)
    U San Tun
    • U San Tun (M) — BEA
    EE Sayas
    • EE Sayas — U Sein Hlaing, U Kyaw Tun, U Tin Swe, U Sein Win, U Thein Lwin, Dr. San Tint, U Soe Min, U Chin Way, U Nyi Nyi
    • see GBNF posts

    RIT Alumni International

    SF Bay Area Alumni Advisory Group
    Meeting
    • Saya Allen Htay (C58) — President; GBNF
    • Saya Dr. K C Chui (ChE63) — Past President, BEA; Moved to LA
    • Saya Dr. Nyo Win (M65) — Past President, BAPS
    • Saya U Maung Maung / George (ChE66) — (later) President, NorCal RITAA
    • Saya U Myat Htoo (C68) — TBSA; BADA; Co-emcee, SPZP-2000; (later) BOD Chair, NorCal RITAA; GBNF
    • U Hla Min / Lifelong Learner (EC69) — RIT Alumni Newsletter; Messenger
    • Benny Tan (M70) — Past President, BAPS; Co-chair, SPZP-2000; Multiple Golden Sponsor of SPZP
    • Saya U Thein Aung (Met72) — Mr. RIT68; Co-emcee, SPZP-2000; (later) Professional Nanny for grandkid
    • Maurice Chee (M75) — Past President, BAPS; Wore multiple hats for SPZP-2000; Book Drive for YTU; (later) VP, NorCal RITAA
    • U Khin Maung Zaw (EC76) — Designed and implemented first ex-rit website; Alumnus of Microsoft; Flew in from Seattle & Kirkland, Washington State to attend meetings and gatherings in SF Bay Area
    • Gordon Kaung (M83) — Mechanical Solutions; iNapa Winery (with Lillian); hosted RIT related gatherings; (later) President, NorCal RITAA

    Steeve Kay (U Thaung Sein, EC70, GBNF)

    Steeve (in the middle)
    • Multiple Golden Sponsor of SPZPs
    • Provided seed money for designing memorabilia to be given to sayas & sayamas attending SPZP-2000, commemorative T-shirts to the organizers and volunteers, and to raise fund by selling the surplus items.
    • Attended SPZPs in USA, Singapore and Yangon.
    With Steeve Kay (Ko Thaung Sein, EC70)
    • Around 2019, he had medical problems. He could not travel far, but continued conducting his business & philanthropy from home.
    • Multiple projects to implement (including writing books), but he finally succumbed to Jara, Byadi & Marana.
    • May he rest in peace.

    Best Friends Forever

    • 69ers meet monthly for breakfast at Taw Win Hnin Sni (Royal Rose).
    • There was a pause during the pandemic. About 20 members passed away (mostly due to Covid).
    • Annual Dinner gatherings at Panda, M3 and U Aung Min’s former office in PWD compound
    • Celebrated Anniversaries in 1999, 2009, 2014 and 2019.
    Pu Zaw Pwe in 2019
    Golden Jubilee of Graduation
    • They have gatherings to welcome 69ers from overseas. e.g. Daw Myint Myint (C69) hosted a lunch gathering at Kandawgyi Westin Park Hotel to welcome Daw Nyunt Nyunt Wai (Millie, T69).
    • During my visits, U Ohn Khine (M70) gave me rides to SPZP & HMEE-2012 meetings and selected 69er gatherings.
    With 69ers and Ko Ohn Khine (M70)

    SPZP-2016

    • Both the Saya Pu Zaw Pwe and the Alumni Reunion & Entertainment were held at the Gyogone Campus.
    • Free food was provided for breakfast, lunch and dinner to all attendees.
    • Kudos to the Organizers, Sponsors, Donors, Volunteers and Supporters for making SPZP-2000 unique & memorable.
    At SPZP-2016

    All Mech Gathering

    • U Thant Zin (M82, GBNF, son of Saya U Sein Shan) invited me to All-Mechanical Gathering held at Dolphin.
    • U Hla Win and Daw Mar Mar Yee were co-emcee at the event.
    At All Mech Gathering

    Sayas & Sayamas at SPZP

    U Tin U, Daw Khin Swe Aye (Emily), Daw Myint Myint Khaing at SPZP
    • U Tin U matriculated in 1946. He received BSCE from the University of Oregon and MSCE from Yale University. Upon his return, he taught part-time at the Civil Engineering Department at the RU Faculty of Engineering, University of Rangoon. He is the most Senior Past Captain of RUBC. He is the oldest of nine siblings. Two younger brothers Saya U Ba Than (Gold Medalist in 1948) and Dr. Myo Tint (3rd in Burma in 1952 Matric exam) have passed away.
    U Ba Than (Leftmost)
    • Daw Khin Swe Aye graduated with Physics Honors in 1962 along with Daw May Than Nwe (GBNF) and my elder sister Daw Khin Than Nwe. Sad to learn that she had vision impairment.
    • Daw Myint Myint Khaing is the daughter of Arzani Mahn Ba Khaing. She transcribed the interview tapes recorded by her spouse Saya Dr. Khin Maung Swe (Tekkatho Maung Thin Char, GBNF) for the book on Sayagyi U Ba Toke and his life journey. Sayagyi gave autographed copies of the book to U Ohn Khine and me. Sayagyi is a Phwa Bet Taw of Rangoon University and the First RU Students’ Strike in 1920. Sayagyi passed away on 2nd December 2020 (a few days short of his Centennial birthday).
    Book about Saya U Ba Toke
    Saya & children
  • SPZP-2004

    SPZP-2004

    by Hla Min

    Update : 31st October 2026

    Highlights

    • U Win Khaing (M75, GBNF) and his team (U Zaw Min, U Hla Win, …) are core Organizers of SPZP-2004.
    Hla Win (Right)
    • The event took place on December 26, 2004.
    • An earthquake that morning did not deter the attendees.

    Reunion 2004 Home Page

    RIT Reunion & Saya Pu Zaw Pwe – 2004
    Yangon, Myanmar
    26th December 2004

    Morning : Saya Pu Zaw Pwe
    Date : Sunday, December 26, 2004
    Time : 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 am
    Place : Myanmar Convention Center (MCC)

    Evening : Dinner & Entertainment
    Date : Sunday, December 26, 2004
    Time : 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
    Place : Dusit Inya Lake Hotel

    Pu Zaw Pwe Office & Contact Office : United Engineering Co Ltd
    Corner of Wayzayantar Road & Yadana Road
    Thingangyun Township 11071
    Yangon MYANMAR

    Contacts :

    U Zaw Min (Mechanical 1975)
    U Hla Win (Mechanical 1975)
    Hotline : 571321/ 571877/ 571990/ 571995
    Fax : 571288

    Website :

    http://www.sayapzpygn.com/

    Email : zawmin@uegroup.com.mm

    SPZPs in Yangon

    • December 2004 — Third world wide SPZP
    • December 2012 — Sixth world wide SPZP
    • December 2016 — Seventh world wide SPZP
    • Due to the pandemic, the world wide SPZP scheduled for December 2020 was canceled

    Posts

    • Alumni Worldwide
    • Gatherings
    • M75
    • Noble Tradition
    • Pu Zaw Pwe
  • 2017

    2017

    by Hla Min

    Update : 31st October 2026

    Breakfast Gathering at Crystal Jade

    At Crystal Jade

    Welcome

    • Some 69ers hosted a breakfast gathering at “Crystal Jade” to welcome Ko Sein Myint (EP69, Singapore) and me.

    Farewell

    • They bade farewell to Ko Tint Lwin (M69), who had to go back to Singapore to take care of his elder brother Saya U Thein Lwin (EE) and Sayama Daw May Than Nwe (Joyce).

    Transportation

    • Ko Ohn Khine (M70 took me to the breakfast gathering.
    • During my visits, he also took me to meetings for SPZP-2012, SPZP-2016 & “History of Myanmar Engineering Education (HMEE)” Project.

    Attendees

    • Ko Shwe
    • Ko Tint Lwin (Daniel)
    • Ko Sein Tun
    • Ko Ohn Khine
    • Ko Myat Soe Lwin (Sai Hwet)
    • Ko Aung Min
    • Ko Myint Thein (Kabar)
    • Ko Sein Myint
    • Ko Win Maung (“Lake”)
    • Ko Aung Min — Chair of the 69er HCF and a core organizer for 69er gatherings.

    Breakfast at Taw Win Hnin Si

    • 69ers hold a monthly breakfast gathering at “Royal Rose Restaurant (Taw Win Hnin Si တော်ဝင်နှင်းဆီ)”.
    • Ko Aung Min (M69) & team gave me two mementos: a sports jacket and a Tee shirt with the 69er Logo.
    • Major donors to the 69er HCF (Health Care Fund) and the 69er Annual Dinner were also given commemorative Tee shirts.
    • Orders for the sports jacket and Tee shirt were taken from interested 69ers.
    • The group photo shows
    At Taw Win Hnin Si

    L to R : Ko Tin Aung Win (Oscar), Ko Ngwe Soe (Walter), Ko Myint Thein (Kabar), Ko Hla Min, Ko Tin Maung Aye, Ko Win Lwin, Ko Tin Tun

    EE69er breakfast gathering

    EE69er Gathering

    The group photo shows :

    • Standing : Ko Maung Maung, Ko Thein Swe, Ko Shwe
    • Seated : Ko Hla Min, Ko Than Hla (Cyril)
    • Ko Shwe is Treasurer for the 69er HCF and the EE 69er HCF.
    • Ko Maung Maung played volleyball at RIT. He is Joint Treasurer of the EE 69er HCF.

    At Winner Inn

    Winner Inn
    • The photo was taken at Winner Inn.
    • Saya Dr. San Hla Aung (C58) came to pay respect to Sayagyi U Ba Than.

    Sayagyi U Ba Toke

    U Ba Toke
    • The photo was taken at Sayagyi U Ba Toke’s house.
    • Daw Thynn Thynn (Pansy, ChE74, daughter of Sayagyi) sent a car to Winner Inn to pick up Saya U Ba Than, Saya U Tin Htut (M60) and me.
    • U Ba Than pays respect to Sayagyi U Ba Toke at least once every year.
    • Sayagyi U Ba Toke is a “Phwa Bet” of Rangoon University and the First RU Students’ Strike in December 1920.
    • Sayagyi has eight children (of which two passed away), many grandchildren and some great grand children.

    At Dhammananda Vihara

    Half Moon Bay
    • Ko Sein Myint’s daughter and son-in-law offered soon to the resident monks of the Dhammanda Vihara, Half Moon Bay (in Northern California, USA) for the first birthday of their daughter.
    • Ko Sein Myint has five children and four grand children.
    • Attendees include Ko Tin Myint (John Lee, M69) and Ma Lyo Kyin Sein (Mabel Lee, T69).

    Updates

    U Ba Toke, U Ba Than, U Thein Lwin, Daw May Than Nwe, Kabar, Ko Thein Swe & Ko Tin Myint are now GBNF.

  • Prominent Doctors

    Prominent Doctors

    by Hla Min

    Update : 30th October 2026

    ဆရာဝန် / ဆရာ (တချို့)

    • Dr. Thane Oke Kyaw Myint co-founded “Alumni of Myanmar Institutes of Medicine”
    • He wrote about selected sayas, colleagues and junior doctors.
    TOKM 1
    TOKM 2

    ဦးမောင်မောင်စိန် U Maung Maung Sein

    • Surgeon
    • Rector
    • Spouse : Bohmu Dr. Daw Thein Myint
    Mg Mg Sein

    ဦးထွဋ်ဆိုင် / Harry Saing

    • Pediatric Surgeon : Second Lead for the operation of Ma Nan Soe & Ma Nan San
    • Professor at Hong Kong University
    • Scholar athlete — Rowing, Hockey, Cricket, Soccer, Track & Field
    • Past Captain, Gold & Coach of RUBC
    • ARAE Champion in 1958 (for Coxless Pairs) and 1960 (for Coxed Fours)
    Harry Saing

    ဦးမြဦး U Mya Oo

    U Mya Oo

    ဦးခင်မောင်စိန် U Khin Maung Sein

    U Maung Maung Sein

    ဦးထွန်းသင် U Tun Thin

    U Tun Thin

    ဦးဖေဝင်း U Pe Win

    U Pe Win

    ဦးဘချွန်း U Ba Choon

    U Ba Choon

    Credit

    • Alumni of Myanmar Institutes of Medicine
    • Dr. သိန်းအုပ်ကျော်မြင့် Thane Oke Kyaw Myint

    Related Posts

    • Early Doctors
    • Paulian Doctors
  • Structure and Usage

    Structure and Usage

    by Hla Min

    Update : 30th October 2026

    Scrabble

    Synonym

    • Synonyms are words which have almost the same meaning for the given context.
    • Since some words have multiple meanings, one must specify the meaning associated with a synonym.
    • Dictionary, Thesaurus, Lexicon and Vocabulary are synonyms.
      Their usage depends on the context. In general, Lexicon is a body of knowledge (or dictionary) of Latin and Greek.
      At one time, Lexicon is a card game where players create words and score points. It was superseded by Scrabble.

    Antonym

    • Antonyms are words which have almost the opposite meaning for the given context.
    • Since some words have multiple meanings, one must be careful of the meaning associated with an antonym.
    • For example, Love and Hate are antonyms.
    • In Pali, the antonyms of Lobha (Greed), Dosa (Anger or Hatred) and Moha (Ignorance of Delusion) are Alobha (Non-greed), Adosa (Non-hatred) and Amoha (Non-ignorance or Wisdom).

    Homonym

    • Homonyms are words which sound the same.
    • Examples
      air, heir
      rain, rein, reign
      throne, thrown
    • A puzzle based on homonyms :
      “What is the difference between the Prince of Wales and a cricket ball?”
      The Prince of Wales is heir to the throne. A cricket ball is thrown to the air.

    Idiom

    • is usually a phrase whose meaning is not obvious
    • gets the meaning accepted due to usage over time
    • is a linguistic device
    • During my middle school days, one of my uncles gave me books (including “A Book of Idioms”). From the book, I learned that “the hand that rocks the cradle” stands for “a mother”.
    • “Rain cats and dogs” is an idiom which means “Rain heavily”. In this example, the idiom uses a metaphor.
    • No one knows the root of the idiom “kick the bucket” meaning “dies”. Someone guessed that a man being hanged by a rope might kick a bucket.
    • Idioms should be used sparingly. If you combine two idioms mentioned above and say “The hand that rocked the cradle kicked the bucket” you might receive LOL (Laughing Out Loud).
  • Kin Mg Yin, Myo Myint, Khaing Tin

    Kin Mg Yin, Myo Myint, Khaing Tin

    by Hla Min

    Update : 30th October 2026

    • This post honors three အနုပညာရှင် with multiple talents.
    • U Kin Maung Yin graduated with Architecture in 1960. He is also a Movie Director, Modern Art Proponent and a Teacher.
    • U Myo Myint graduated with Mechanical Engineering in 1974. He is a Painter (Oil & Water Color), Portrait / Pon Tu expert, Designer of Magazine Cover and a Cartoonist. He passed away recently.
    • U Khine Tin graduated with Civil Engineering in 1976. He is also a Teacher, Designer of Magazine Cover, Movie Director and Actor.

    ဦးခင်မောင်ရင် (ပိသုကာ 1960, ကွယ်လွန်)

    * အချိန်ပိုင်းဆရာ

    * မော်ဒန် ပန်းချီ Modern Art

    * ရုပ်ရှင်ဒါရိုက်တာ

    ဦးမျိုးမြင့် (စက်မှု 1974, ကွယ်လွန်)

    * စက်မှုတက္ကသိုလ်မဂ္ဂဇင်း၊ စွယ်တော်ရိပ်မဂ္ဂဇင်း Cover Design

    * ပုံတူ — ရေးဆွဲ ပြီး လှူ

    * ကာတွန်း

    * အင်ဂျင်နီယာ၊ မီးရထား (ငြိမ်း)

    ဦးခိုင်တင် (မြို့ပြ 1976, ကွယ်လွန်)

    * ပန်းချီ ခိုင်တင်

    * စက်မှုတက္ကသိုလ်မဂ္ဂဇင်း Cover Design

    * ဆရာ

    * ရုပ်ရှင် — သရုပ်ဆောင်၊ ဒါရိုက်တာ

  • Aung Myint

    Aung Myint

    by Myint Thin

    Update : 30th October 2026

    • There are several RIT69ers named Aung Myint.

    Aung Myint (M69)

    Education & Work

    U Aung Myint (3rd Standing)
    • U Aung Myint (Bassein)
    • Son of U Maung Thwe & Daw Lay
    • Gradated with Mechanical Engineering degree from RIT in 1969
    • Joined the Institute as an Instructor in 1970
    • Received Masters degree in Fluid Mechanics from UK in 1974.
    • Worked as Assistant Lecturer at RIT till 1980, when he left for Singapore.
    • Lectured at Singapore Polytechnic until retirement.

    Family

    Aung Myint 2
    • Spouse : Daw Khin Nwe Aye
    • Two daughters
    • Elder studied at Medical Trinity College at Dublin, UK
    • Younger studied Neuroscience at University of Otago, New Zealand

    Update

    • After retirement, he shared his residence in New Zealand and Singapore.
    • He loves painting.
  • Burma Volleyball Selected

    Burma Volleyball Selected

    by Hla Min

    Update : 30th October 2026

    မြန်မာ ဘော်လီဘော လက်ရွေးစင်

    The Burma Selected Volleyball team won Gold Medal at several SEAP (South East Asian Peninsula) Games.

    SEAP Games ရွှေတံဆိပ်ရှင်
    Gold Medal Winners

    • 1961 Kyaw Nyunt (Captain)
    • 1969
    • 1975
    • 1977
    • 1979
    • 1983 Khin Maung Win (Captain)
    Volleyball 1
    Volleyball 2
    Volleyball 3

    Credit: U Tun Mra, U Kyaw Thiha

  • MET / MAT

    MET / MAT

    by Hla Min

    Update : 30th October 2026

    Terms

    • Metallurgy
    • Metallurgical Engineering
    • Material Science

    U Thit (GBNF)

    U Thit
    • Was studying Mechanical Engineering when he was offered to study MET at Lehigh University in the US.
    • Completed BS & joined Faculty as Assistant Lecturer
    • Received MS from Melbourne University
    • Became Lecturer & Head of Metallurgy Department
    • Taught “Materials and Processes” in our 2nd BE class. He would throw chalk at the noisy student(s).
    • Moved to Australia.
    • Sent condolences via the RIT Alumni Newsletter when Saya Allen Htay (C58) passed away. He was a bit senior to Saya Allen during their high school in Yegyaw.
    • Wrote a brief history of the Metallurgy Department for HMEE project. He suggested other Met sayas to cover more (after he left RIT).
    • Attended selected Reunion and PZPs in Yangon.

    Dr. Saw Pru (GBNF)

    Dr. Saw Pru
    • He succeeded U Thit as Head of Department
    • Ko Thein Ngwe (ChE76) posted an article about “လူဝင်စား” It mentioned that Saya chose to be reborn as a son of his nephew Ko Khin Aung Shwe.

    U Than Tin

    • He studied in US.
    • Acting Head of Department
    • After teaching for several years, he moved to USA
    • I spoke with him briefly before SPZP-2000. He was then working on a book.
    • Dr. Tin Win said that U Than Tin moved from East Coast to Los Angeles

    Dr. Khin Maung Win (GBNF)

    Dr. Khin Maung Win
    • B.Sc. from Mandalay University
    • Worked at Mandalay U and later at UBARI in Rangoon.
    • Went on a government scholarship to USA to get his MS and PhD in Metallurgy.
    • Joined RIT Met
    • Later became DG of Technological Agricultural and Vocational Education.

    U Aung Hla Tun (GBNF)

    U Aung Hla Tun 1
    HMEE
    U Aung Hla Tun 2
    • Retired as Associate Professor
    • Published two books
    • Won National Literary Award for his first book.
    • Chief Editor of RIT Annual Magazine
    • He & his team published the History of Myanmar Engineering Education book in 2012. U Ohn Khine (M70) and I compiled the CD supplement for the book.
    • Saya led HMEE-2012 & HMEE-2018 projects.

    Some Senior Sayas

    U Pe Win
    • U Pe Win : Professor and Rector
    U Tin Maung Nyunt
    • U Tin Maung Nyunt (Met70) : Retired as Professor.
    Victoria Simon
    • Daw Victoria Simon (Met70) : Retired as Professor. Her father was Workshop Superintendent.
    Win Kyaw
    • U Win Kyaw (Met71) : Rowing; Moved to Ministry of Mines in 1982
    Thein Aung 1
    Thein Aung 2
    • U Thein Aung (Met72) : Mr. RIT in 1968; SPZP-2000 (co-emcee, Associate Editor); Contributing Editor, BAPS Newsletter; Lawrence Berkeley Lab
    Nyunt Htay
    • U Nyunt Htay (Met73) : High school Luyechun, Poet, Chief Editor of Mudita Myanmar)

    Miscellaneous

    • U Win Kyaw, U Thein Aung & U Nyunt Htay had a micro-reunion at 2015 RIT Alumni Reunion in Los Angeles and at the iNapa Winery Lunch & Dinner hosted by Gordon Kaung (M83) and Lillian Kaung (EC83).
    • U Nyunt Htay hosted a Dinner for U Win Kyaw, U Ye Myint and me during my visit to Yangon (from Nov 2019 to Jan 2020). He also gave me the Kabyar book (by five RIT sayas / alumni) and the Mudita Sar Saung (which featured the kabyars of him and Saya U Moe Aung).

    Younger sayas and sayamas include Dr. Naing Naing Aung (Met91, who organized seminars).