Category: HMEE

During our RIT days, there were eight Engineering Departments.

• Architecture
• Chemical
• Civil
• Electrical
• Mechanical
• Metallurgy
• Textile

Architecture

• Architecture courses were introduced in 1954.
• The first batch of graduates include U Myo Myint Sein (A58).
• U Khin Maung Thint and several foreign sayas taught the early courses.
• A Group photo of the first three batches (A58, A59, A60) was provided by Victor Pe Win (A60) and friends.

• U Tha Tun (GBNF) served as the first native Head of Department. U Than Tun (A65, GBNF) read Saya’s biography at the Architecture Association.
• U Myo Myint Sein succeeded U Tha Tun as Head. He retired as Professor.

Chemical

• Chemical Engineering courses were introduced in 1953 with Indian contract sayas.
• The first batch of graduates include Dr Hla Myint (ChE57).
• U Khin Aung Kyi served as the first native Head of Department.
• He later served as Professor and Rector.

Civil

• Civil Engineering is the first major/discipline offered in Burma.
• The early courses were taught at a building near RGH (Rangoon General Hospital).
• First native Civil professor : U Ba Hli (GBNF). He also served as Dean of Engineering.
• U Mya Han, Dr. Aung Gyi, U Min Wun, and Dr. Win Thein served as Civil Professors. Dr. Aung Gyi was promoted to Rector.

Electrical

• First native Electrical professor : U Sein Hlaing (GBNF)
• He taught until full retirement. He passed away a couple of years later.
• EE (Electrical Engineering) department offered EC (Electrical Communications, aka EcE, Electronics) and EP (Electrical Power) degrees.
• EC and EP later became full-fledged departments.
• First EC professor : Dr. San Tint (GBNF)
• First EP professor : U Sein Win (GBNF)
• At one time, the joint Mech/EE degree program was offered.

Mechanical

• First native Mechanical professor : U Aung Khin
• U Ba Than (GBBF) and U Kyin Soe served as Mech Professors
• First Head of Automobile Engineering sub-department : U San Tun
• First Head of Agricultural Engineering sub-department : U Tin Hlaing (GBNF)
• At one time, the joint Mech/EE degree program was offered.

Metallurgy

• U Thit (GBNF) served as the first native Head of Metallurgy Department.
• Dr. Saw Pru (GBNF), U Than Tin and Dr. Khin Maung Win (GBNF) are some early sayas.

Mining

• U Soe Khaw (GBNF) served as Part-time Lecturer and Head of the Mining Department.
• U Soon Sein (GBNF) succeeded U Soe Khaw as Full-time Lecturer and Head. He retired as Professor.

Textile

• U Maung Maung Than (GBNF) served as the first native Head of Textile Department.
• He later served as Professor and Rector.
• The first batch of graduates include U Shwe Yi (GBNF), Daw Tin Tin Ohn (GBNF) and Julie Han.

EE Association in 1965 – 66

President : Saya U Kyaw Tun
Vice President : Saya U Sein Aung
Secretary : Ko Shwe Win
Treasurer : Saya U Moe Aung
Auditor : Saya U Sein Maung

I served as a EC member.

Hlyat Sit Sar Saung

Patron : Saya U Kyaw Tun
Chief Editor : Saya U Moe Aung
Associate Editors : U Myo Myint, U San Oo, Daw Than Yi
Secretary : Ko Ye Win

I served as a member

EE Sayas

Professor : Saya U Sein Hlaing

One absentee

Three sayas in deputation

I wrote “A short and sad clip : EE Sayas” for the commemorative issue of Swel Daw Yeik Sar Saung for SPZP-2010

Captions
Burmese (in the mounted photos)
English (added by yours truly) in the Description of the photo

The commemorative issue of Swel Daw Yeik Sar Saung was published by Tekkatho Moe War (Saya U Moe Aung) and his team for SPZP-2010 held in Singapore.

Saya renamed my article as “A Short and Sad Clip : EE Sayas” and published it. It was really sad to have lost seven EE sayas (from the 20 or so sayas during our RIT days) at the time of the writing. Saya U Thein Lwin passed away a couple of years back (raising the GBNF count in the EE Sayas Group Photo to 8).

• U Khin Maung Myint (ChE71) and Daw Mai Khin Khin Nyunt (Rosie, ChE71) were among those who graduated from RIT in 1971.
• They shared the results published in Working People’s Daily
  
• The top students include
  Khin Maung Chit (Civil)
  Ne Win (Mechanical)
  Myint Htay (Automobile)
  Ma Nwe (Agriculture)
  Tin Than (Electrical Power)
  Tin Win (Electrical Communications)
  Nwe Ni Wai (Chemical)
  Saw Thant (Mining)
  Win Myint (Petroleum Production)
  Nyan Tun U (Metallurgy)
  Saw Orson (Architecture)
  Aye Aye Myint (Textile)
  

Bagyee Myat Myo Myint

• He is a Retired Deputy Chief Engineer of Burma Railways
• He designed Covers for RIT Annual Magazines and Commemorative Issues of Swel Daw Yeik Magazine
• He is a Pon Tu Expert

Birthday Gift for his spouse

• He gave the following drawing as a Birthday Gift for his beloved spouse.

ဘဝလက်တွဲဖော် အိမ်သူသက်ထားရဲ့
မွေးနေ့အထိမ်းအမှတ်အဖြစ်
မာလာဆောင်သူဘဝကပုံလေးကို
ခဲခြစ်ပန်းချီနဲ့ပုံတူရေးပြီး
လက်ဆောင်ပေးလိုက်ပါတယ်။
မွေးနေ့ပေါင်းများစွာတိုင်
သက်ရှည်ကျန်းမာစိတ်ချမ်းသာပြီး
ကောင်းကျိုးလိုရာဆန္ဒများပြည့်ဝပါစေ။

Myat Myo Myint
(Bagyee Saya U Myo Myint)

• Set Hmu is used to refer to RIT (as in Set Hmu Tekkatho). It is used to refer to Mechanical Engineering (as in Set Hmu InGyinNiYa).

• It was founded by U Win Thein (M67, GBNF) in the 1964-65 Academic Year.
  
• The weekly newsletter was sold by volunteers [mostly along the corridors] for ten pyas.
  
• The Thadin Zin not only covered the news, but was a fertile breeding ground for poets, essayists, authors and cartoonists.
  
• I wrote a few short notes for the Thadin Zin using my pen name “Tekkatho Ga [Nge] Ga [Gyi] Na [Nge] Na [Gyi]”.
  
• I saw the dexterity with which U Win Thein cut the Stencil (also known Gestener and Wax paper) with his meticulous handwriting.
  
• During my visit to Yangon in 2012, I received a CD of Mechanical Newsletters (for 1968-69 to 1973-74). They were compiled by an alumni couple (U Kyaw Thein and Daw Than Than Mu).
  U Tin Maung Swe (Cartoon) and U Khin Maung Toe received copies for re-distribution to interested sayas and alumni.

Pioneer Sayas

• U Soe Khaw (GBNF) was part-time Lecturer and Head of Mining Engineering in 1954.
  
• U Soon Sein (GBNF) retired as Professor and Head of Mining Engineering.

Distinguished Alumni

• U Zaw Winn (Zin Yaw Gyi) and U Win Thein Zaw (Wai Lu), U Tun Htun (Magee Go Tha Ma) are authors and/or poets.
  
• U Aung Myint (Thamankyar Ko Myint) is an actor, guitarist, vocalist and studio recording / dubbing / production specialist

Group Photo from 1954

• The photo was posted by U Zaw Winn.

• Saya U Maung Maung (a) George (ChE66) served as the first President
• U Kaung Kaung Oo (a) Gordon (M83) is Past President
• U Aung Myint Oo (EC84) is Past President
• U Tin Maung Win (C86) is current President
  
• U Stanlislau (a) Stan (M67) served as the first Chairman of the Board of Directors
• Saya U Myat Htoo (C68) is the current BOD Chair
  
• Web site : run by U Tin Maung Win (C86)
• FaceBook page : run by U San Lin (M87)
• Evite : run by U Myint Swe (EP74)
• MailChimp : run by U Yu Ket (a) Edward Saw (EC85)
  
• Extremely low overhead / expenses (due to hosts, sponsors and donors)
• Awards (plaques, certificates)
• PR : NorCal RITAA pens
  donated jointly by U Edward Saw (EC85) and U Myint Swe (EP74)
• Committee to supervise NorCal RITAA Scholarships
• Ad hoc committees formed to address specific issues
  e.g. sharing of knowledge and expertise with alumni in Myanmar

AGM in 2018

• Soon offered to the monks at Mudita Shwe Kyaung
• Mohinga, desserts … for all attendees
• AGM meeting headed by Saya U Nyo Win (M65) and Saya U Myat Htoo (C68)
• U Nyunt Than (M84) acted as Master of Ceremonies.

• Saya U Myat Htoo (C68, Chair, Board of Directors) presented an Opening Speech
• He later handed out awards to Sponsors and Donors

• U Kaung Kaung Oo (a) Gordon (M83) and Daw Lillian (EC83) survived the raging fires in Napa, but they had to wait three weeks before returning to their “Home Sweet Home”. Due to 75 mph winds, a sizable percentage of the vineyards and homes took a heavy toll.
• They donated to the Scholarship Fund and also encouraged their 83 Classmates (U Kyaw Myint, Daw Ni Ni Sein …) to pledge or donate.

• Saya U Nyo Win accepted the award for Saya U Tin Maung Nyunt (M60).
• List of donors/sponsors is maintained by U Ko Ko Zin (M84) and U Myint Swe (EP74).