Blog

by Hla Min

Updated : September 2026

Keynote from SPZP-2000

Mr. Chairman, my Sayas, my former colleagues, friends, RIT graduates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Before I begin to say anything, I would like to request you to take the word “RIT” as to stand not only for Rangoon Institute of Technology but also BOC College of Engineering and Faculty of Engineering, Rangoon University. I am using RIT only, just for convenience sake.

Having said that, it is with a chestful of emotions that I am standing before you, trying to say a few words appropriate and befitting to this important and joyful occasion. My overwhelming emotion is, needless to say, happiness – happiness which results from seeing my Sayas, my friends, my former colleagues, and RIT graduates alive and well, after so many years. My happiness is also mingled with a certain amount of pride: pride arising from the knowledge that we have fond memories and a sense of belonging and attachment to the good old institution as well as to one another.

We are fortunate that we could all gather here to exchange our life experiences, both good and bad, and to reminisce about our past when we were at RIT. While we are doing that, we all must have noticed that all of us have changed quite a bit since we last saw one another, at least physically, some more so than other. We all now have a few gray and also less hair, we have a few wrinkles on our face; maybe we also lost a few teeth and cannot see or hear as well as we did before. Some of us also lost the memory a bit and become forgetful about lots of things such as forgetting names for example. This, as we all know, is life and nature of things. Everything changes and nothing is permanent. Bur fortunately we still have our values. Our values such as respect and gratitude for the elders and teachers, caring of our respective children and family members, helping our friends, and attachment, and gratitude to the institution which nurtured us to meet the challenges of life, are still with us. They have not changed. This Saya Pu Zaw Pwe and reunion is a testimony to those values.

I must now pause and thank and congratulate the Organizing Committee for their untiring and selfless efforts to make this event possible and successful. This Saya Pu Zaw Pwe and RIT Alumni reunion is, as far as I know, once-in-a-life-time event. As far as I am concerned it is already a resounding success with the cooperation and great enthusiasm that I have seen. I hope this will be the beginning and not the last of our get-togethers. When my wife and I paid visits to Myanmar in 1996, 1997 and 1999 we had mini get-togethers with RIT Alumni. When I was here a few years ago we also got together with a few RIT Alumni. I understood that Saya U Aung Khin also had one mini get-together here some years ago. But these get-togethers were not on a grand scale as the one that we are having here now. However the spirit of camaraderie and friendliness among RIT Alumni mini get-togethers, was the same as the one that we find here now. If you look around you, you will find that all of us came here from different parts of the world, indicating the great attachment and respect that we all have for our old institution and also for one another.

While I was preparing for this speech, fond memories of the years that I spent as a student, as a teacher and later as Rector at RIT came flashing through my mind. Without going into details, I remember that all my teachers, including Saya Num Kock and Saya U Ba Toke who are here with us, were good inspiring teachers with kind hearts. When I became a teacher and later the Rector at RIT, I noticed that my colleagues were good and dedicated people who tried their best to teach what they had learnt from good Universities and Institutions abroad.

They made conscious efforts to raise the level of education at RIT so much that the students were fully occupied with classes, studies, projects, and homework. I have to mention here that my Sayas and my former colleagues were, and still are honest, compassionate, gentle and kind people. Within this context I would now like to take this opportunity to offer my humble apologies to my Sayas and colleagues for the wrong things that I may have done or said which might have hurt them in any way in the past.

As for the students, I remember that they were good, intelligent, and energetic students in general. Since I was also involved in extracurricular activities of the students, I had more interaction and gained more understanding of their needs and feelings. Like most of the other teachers I tried my best to be helpful to them not only in their studies but also in any other problems that they needed my help. Because of the compassion that I had shown for them they became more communicative, and listened to what I had to say most of the time. Like a breath of fresh air, the first batch of female engineering students were among us, I believe in 1958. So far as I remember they did as well as or some even better than the male students in their studies. I remember that as a teacher I felt very good and satisfied whenever some students did well in their studies or did well in their careers after they left school. These are fond memories that I still have with me about the students at RIT.

As you probably know, I left RIT and Myanmar in 1977 to join UNESCO. I then migrated to Canada to join International Development Research Centre (IRDC) in 1981. For your information, IRDC is a Canadian Agency which funds research projects for development in the developing countries. I retired from IRDC in 1997. Looking back to the past, I must say that I spent the best years of my life at RIT, challenging and troubling at times, but on the whole happy and satisfied with the job that I was doing.

Now please let me take a few minutes of your time to share with you my thoughts, which I believe are some important elements of life. You might not agree with me to what I am going to say. At least, in that case, you might take them as food for your thoughts. If I sound like lecturing to you now, you must remember that the habit of a former teacher dies hard.
When I was young and immature. I had great admiration for people with high I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient). I also tended to think in those days that I was quite intelligent. After going through life experiences with ups and downs I became to realize that high Emotional Quotient (E.Q.) or emotional mastery is more important in life than high I.Q., to cope with adversities, disappointments, failures and sometimes even tragedies. No one that I know of, escapes the negative impacts of life in one form or another. If you have emotional mastery you can deal with and overcome these negative impacts and still get ahead in life and be relatively happy. One thing that can help us is to have optimism, hope and courage in life and to minimize the negative thoughts and creeping pessimism. It will be wrong to classify anything in life in opposites either in black or white. One can neither be fully optimistic nor fully pessimistic all the time. There is a gray area which is neither black nor white, and so long as the dominant part of this gray area is optimism, things will turn alright in the end. I read in one of the books long time ago that the Chinese word for “crisis” denotes both risk and chance (opportunity). A pessimistic person would tend to look at the crisis as the big risk and will despair and do nothing, whereas an optimistic person will look at it as a challenge and opportunity and will do something with courage and determination and overcome the crisis. He or she might fail in doing something. But without failures one will not know success. In short, although we will not be able to master the circumstances, and situations in life, we sure can try to master our thoughts and emotions to meet the challenges of life. Here are the spiritual sides of us or our respective religions might be helpful.

Now that I am getting old and getting inflicted with aches and pains here and there, especially when I get up in the morning, I begin to realize that the important part of my life is to keep myself in good health. There are lots of books and doctors telling us how to keep ourselves in good health. The simple gist of the whole message is to have some form of physical exercise or activity to keep our weights down; and to eat nutritious food and avoid or cut down fatty, sweet, salty and high cholesterol food which are harmful to our health. As you know, it is easier said than done. What I know is we do need to make conscious efforts to keep ourselves in good health by taking physical exercises and by eating nutritious and non-fattening food. One thing is for sure, if we are not in food health we will not be able to enjoy our success or good things in life, and we will be, relatively speaking, unhappy.

When I was young, my grandmother used to tell me to get ahead in life I would need luck, brain, and industriousness. She was right of course. But one important element in life that she missed telling me was to develop and have good social relationships will all the people that I would come across in life, including family members. No one can live and get ahead in life alone. Each one of us at some stages of our respective lives needed and got help from someone to move on with our lives. From my personal experience, I noted that one must be non-egoistic, not too aggressive, be polite, be helpful, and tries to understand and respect other person’s points of view, needs and feeling, to develop good social relationships. Here I would like to add that each of us can judge who is good, who is bad, who is untrustworthy, etc. and avoid bad people and associate with good people to the extent that each of us can.

Each one of us had twenty four hours a day and the one who can budget and manage his/her time day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year according to his priorities and short term and long term goals will get ahead in life better. One should use the time and even manipulate it and not waste it to achieve one’s short term and long term goals. One must also be patient if the short term and long term goals are not achieved in budgeted time. So long as the time is used and not wasted, one will reach his/her goads in due course.

I hope everyone present here will agree with me the importance of financial management at the personal or family level as well as at the business level. At the business level there are of course financial plans and budgets for the present as well as for the future. One should likewise have financial plans and budgets at personal/family level for the present and future, to spend, save and invest within one’s available means. As you know money is neutral. If you are wise, money will treat you well; and if you are foolish it will not stay with you for long. Like time, one’s hard-earned money should be used and not wasted.

The last thing that I would like to point out to you is the danger of complacency. If you own a business and if you are complacent after a certain level of success, your business will suffer, simply because you fail to keep up with the changes in the market conditions and because of the intense competition one faces nowadays. Likewise at the personal level we should be wary of complacency. We should try not to be complacent by improving ourselves and keeping ourselves busy mentally and physically. Life thrives on activity and activity is the proof of our existence. No one is perfect and there is always something that each of us can improve upon. If we do that, at least we will not be bored, and may achieve some fulfillment in life.

With these remarks I now conclude my speech. May you all be successful and happy in life. May you have a pleasant stay in SF.

______________________________________________________________________________

Memories
__________________________________________________

After attending the 2nd year engineering class from June 1952 to September 1952, I went straight to MIT on a state scholarship to continue my studies . Saya U Min Wun and I went together to MIT and joined the academic session, starting from September 1952. We met Dr Freddie Ba Hli at MIT, who was already studying for his Ph.D in electronics or electrical engineering. He was one of the nicest and helpful persons that I have ever met in my life. He gave us briefings and guidance so that we were able to assimilate into the American education system and American way of life without any difficulty He also helped us with our home works when we had some difficulties in the beginning. I am forever grateful to him for his kind help. I am sure U Min Wun feels the same. Saya U Khin Aung Kyi, Saya U Sein Hlaing, U Percy Lao, U Win Htein, U Kyaw Min, Robin Aw, U Kyaw Thein, U Aung Kywe, U Aung Myint and U Sein Hla came to MIT for further studies at a later date. U Percy Lao later became Rangoon City Engineer (water and sanitation), U Win Htein who is an architect became a Rangoon City Building Engineer, and the late U Kyaw Min became a free lance architect [and also taught part-time at the Architecture department for some time]. All these three professionals taught some time at RIT. I do not know what happened to Robin Aw. The late U Kyaw Thein was an engineer at the Construction Corporation and later became a lecturer at the Civil Engineering Department at RIT. U Aung Kywe was a Director (water and sanitation) at the Construction Corporation. U Aung Myint became the Chief Architect at the Construction Corporation. U Sein Hla was an engineer at the Construction Corporation and later became the Registrar at RIT under Rector U Yone Moe. Later more batches of Burmese students came to MIT when I was no longer there. I am describing all these things to point out the fact that the standard of engineering education in Burma at that time was quite good. None of us had to go through the entrance examination to get into MIT. They trusted our grades and our education standard. Maybe the visiting Professor Horwood from MIT was quite impressed with the Faculty of Engineering and put a good word for us to the MIT admission authorities.

I will not go into details of the activities of all the various students’ associations, societies and clubs, as there were so many of them. But I would like to mention briefly about the hostel life, that I had experienced at that time. Every hostel had what we called a social and reading club . There was an adequate room reserved for this club at the ground floor of the hostel. In general, newspapers, popular magazines, a chess board, a carom board and a table tennis were provided so that the hostel students could read, play chess, play carom board, and play table tennis and socialize to get to know each other well. Even without the social and reading club, all the hostel students ended up knowing each other well sooner or later, as they met each other almost everyday at the hostel and at the dining hall. The hostel students were in general well behaved. I hardly saw the Warden or Hall Tutors at Ava Hall and Prome Hall, as there were very few student problems which needed attention of the Warden or Hall Tutors.

Based upon my experience, I feel that these extra-curricular activities and hostel life gave the opportunities to the students to broaden the knowledge of the different parts of Myanmar; and they also created a better understanding of the different culture, food, habit, dresses, dialects etc of the country. Most of the students developed life-long friendships through these activities which contributed to well-beings of these students throughout their lives. Sport activities also taught the students about hard work, cooperation, team work, competition, winning and losing. The extra-curricular activities also triggered, developed and enhanced the hidden talents of some of the students. These activities therefore formed part of the University education of the students, in addition to the education that they received from the classrooms. Another benefit of these activities was the bonding and a better understanding, which developed between the students and the teachers who were involved in these activities.

After getting my Bachelor degree in Cvil Engineering in 1955 and my Master degree in Civil Engineering in 1956 from MIT, I worked for Engineering Companies for a year, which involved both design and fieldwork in engineering construction projects. I then came back to Rangoon in 1957 to join the Civil Engineering Department as an Assistant Lecturer. I was promoted to become a Lecturer in 1958 and became also more or less Head of the Civil Engineering Department. The policy in place at the University of Rangoon under the Ministry of Education at that time stated that a teacher/ any person could become a lecturer / professor only if he/ she had a post graduate degree. Sayagyi U Ba Hli was the Professor of Civil Engineering and Dean of the Faculty at the same time. U Aung Khin was Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department, U Sein Hlaing was Head of the Electrical Engineering Department, U Khin Aung Kyi was Head of the Chemical Engineering Department, U Soon Sein was Head of the Mining Engineering Department, U Thit was Head of the Metallurgy Department, and U Maung Maung Than was Head of the Textile Engineering Department. I think Mr Johnson was Head of the Architecture Department. I do not remember who was the Workshop Superintendent at that time. We were quite happy as we had new facilities near the Prome road in addition to the B.O.C College of Engineering building. These new facilities comprised of a tall administrative building (with offices, conference/meeting rooms, library), classrooms, lecture theaters, laboratories , offices for the teaching staff and a small assembly place under the copper dome roof in the corner of the campus. The dome roof looked like a turtle back, and pretty soon this new campus became known as “turtle dome /leik khone” campus. After our arrival from USA, UK etc, the foreign teachers under contract were let go, as we gradually replaced them, except for a few teachers from UK or USA. I could recall Prof. Neale? in Electrical Engineering Department, Mr Redpath and Mr Skelton in Mechanical Engineering Department and Mr Johnson and Mr Nagler in Architecture Department.

As a young teacher I was surprised and pleased to see a few pioneering female engineering students (not more than ten) at the Leik Khone campus. They and their parents overcame the social uneasiness and they decided to study engineering/architecture to become lady engineers /architects. I do not know exactly when they first joined the 1st year engineering class; but It was one of the important turning points in the history of engineering education.

As young teachers, most of us were struggling to learn how to teach effectively at the beginning. I noticed that we were teaching about 15 to 20 hours per week which included lectures, laboratory and drawing classes. The contact hours of learning for the students remained the same as the time when I was an engineering student i.e. about 30 hours per week. The passing grade for the students also remained the same. i.e. 40% for each subject and 50% average for all the subjects combined. The medium of teaching was still in English. The laboratory and workshop facilities were quite good and adequate for the student population that we had. But the library looked quite small when I compared it with the library that they had in MIT, although it had a few good engineering books and journals. I felt that it needed a lot of investment to become a top notch engineering library.

It was with enthusiasm and hope that most of us were busy trying to build up our respective departments and trying to improve the engineering education in general. While we were busy, Professor and Dean U Ba Hli retired some time around 1961, and in place of U Ba Hli we had a succession of temporary Deans, Professor of Chemistry U Po Tha, Professor of Geology Dr Tha Hla, and Professor of Physics Dr Maung Maung Kha for about 6 months. The Faculty of Engineering also had to move to a new campus in Gyogone in 1961. Before our relocation to Gyogone, the Faculty of Engineering was one of the Faculties of the University of Rangoon. The academic and administrative related policy decisions were made by the Senate and Administrative Council of the University of Rangoon respectively so as to maintain and improve the standard of education of all its Faculties, including the Faculty of Engineering.

As you all know, Gyogone campus was built with the aid of Russia; and I understood that the Government of Burma paid back the cost in rice. I do not know whether it was true or not. In any case it was and still is an impressive looking campus. The buildings accommodated classrooms, laboratories and workshop, big assembly hall with a movie projector, library, offices for the administrative and teaching staff,and student hostels. There were also houses for all the staff, dining and kitchen facilities, small medical clinic, and open space for sport activities. All the buildings, houses etc occupied and still occupy a large area in a compound.

By Sayagyi U Aung Khin

Update : September 2026

I have chosen 1950 as the start of my recollections regarding the state of higher learning in the field of engineering because I was admitted to the Faculty of Engineering, Rangoon University, in June of that year. Also, Sayagyi U Ba Hli started his first year as Dean of Faculty of Engineering, having transferred from Government Technical Institute at Insein. The requirement for admission was 50% aggregate in Intermediate of Science Examination and there was no limit to the number admitted. There were about 75 students in my First Year, which included fresh admissions, repeat students and a few New Course transfers. I should explain that New Course transfers were those who signed up for the 5-year condensed degree course after matriculation offered in the previous years and which was scrapped in the year of my admission. When I started on my engineering course, it was of four years’ duration, at the end of which the degree of Bachelor of Science (Engineering) was awarded.Since I was a student as well a teacher of engineering, I will attempt to present my perspective of Mechanical engineering education from both sides.

In the first and second years of study, the students had to take courses basic to Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, namely, Geometric, Machine and Building Drawing, Building Construction, Electrotechnology, Heat Engines, Surveying and Workshop. In addition, The Mathematics Department of Rangoon University was responsible for teaching Statics and Dynamics. Only in the third year were the students get to choose their line of engineering, civil,electrical or mechanical. So began my first year classes at the BOC College building. Actually, the first classes started every morning at 7am at the Mathematics Department where we were taught Statics and Dynamics by Dr. Sarkar till 9am. He was an extraordinary teacher and remembers every student by his roll number. Then we began the long trek to BOC College for rest of the classes of the day. Usually, lecture classes preceded before we spend the afternoon in the drawing room, laboratories, survey field or workshop.

The full-time staff of the faculty consisted of Dean and Professor of Civil Engineering Sayagyi U Ba Hli, Lecturer in Civil Engineering Sayagyi Mr. Jaidka, Lecturer in Electrical Engineering Sayagyi U Kyaw Tun, Assistant Lecturer in Civil Engineering Sayagyi Mr. H. Numkok and Superintendent of Workshop Mr. J. P. Law. Part-time lecturers were recruited to meet the goal of satisfying the requirements of the syllabus in each of the three disciplines. First and second year students were taught Building materials and construction by Sayagyi Mr. Jaidka, Electrotechnology by Sayagyi U Kyaw Tun ably assisted by Laboratory technician U Ba Sein in the laboratory, Heat Engines by part-time lecturer U Aung Than, Chief boiler inspector and Drawing by part-time lecturer and later on by Sayagyi Mr. Numkok when it came to Building drawing. Workshop program involved spending one term in each of the four shops, namely, machine, fitting, carpentry and blacksmith. Mr. J. P. Law made sure that students get hands-on experience in the use of tools. He stayed on for one year and was succeeded by U Aung Gyaw. Sayagyi U Ba Hli considered that technically challenged environment required students to be practical and workshop experience as well as summer practical training was essential. First year examination was a relatively easy hurdle for most students whereas the Second year examination was a lot harder and a career make or break event. I managed to get past the hurdle and found myself in the Third year to pursue my choice of Mechanical engineering in June of 1952. There were about twelve of us, all hoping to be an Assistant Engineer holding a civilian job, or a Leutenent in B.E.M.E. who were on army stipend, upon graduation. Third year courses included Heat engines, Theory of machines, Machine design, Electrotechnology, Strength of materials, Hydraulics, Metrology and Industrial management. We finally had a full-time staff in mechanical engineering. He was Mr. Khetrapal who came over from B.O.C. as an Assistant lecturer and he took care of all mechanical engineering subjects. In addition, Sayagyi Mr. Chelk Ping Lee came over from Directorate of Technical education to join the Electrical engineering staff and taught us Electrotechnology. Industrial Management was taught by a contract lecturer from India. We also had a U.S.Visiting professor and he taught us Strength of materials and for the first time we were introduced to the American quiz system of teaching.

About that time, the University focused its attention to modernizing and increasing the number of disciplines in the Faculty of Engineering by upgrading the staff as well as sending state scholars to the U.S. for future staffing. Sayagyi U Kyaw Tun was sent on deputation for post-graduate studies, followed by selection of several state scholars from among the engineering students. The first two were Sayagyi Dr. Aung Gyi and Sayagyi U Min Wun, earmarked for Civil engineering, followed by Sayagyi U Pu and me for Mechanical engineering, Sayagyi U Khin Aung Kyi for Chemical Engineering, Sayagyi U Maung Maung Than for Textile engineering, Sayagyi U Sein Hlaing and Sayagyi U Tin Swe for Electrical Engineering, Sayagyi U Kyaw Min for Architecture and Sayagyi U Thit for Metallurgy. We formed the initial group and other sayas were sent abroad for further studies in succeeding years as opportunity arose. I was instructed to leave for the U.S. in late December of 1952 to be in time for the start of the spring semester. So ended my exciting years at the Faculty of engineering and my classmates gave me and Sayagyi U Pu a farewell tea at the Sun Cafe to send us on our way.

I returned in early part of 1956, having obtained the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mechanical engineering, the latter being an essential qualification for promotion to lecturership. Sayagyi U Ba Than had returned earlier from England and Sayagyi U Ba Hli got him working during summer holidays on various tasks such as supervising installation of new laboratory equipment, in preparation for the opening of the new school year. I was appointed as an Assistant lecturer in June. In the three years I was away, rapid and vast changes had taken place. Academically, engineering disciplines increased from three to seven, additions being Chemical engineering,Textile engineering, Mining engineering and Metallurgical engineering. Architecture department was also added to the Faculty. Staffing of the expanded fields of engineering as well as existing ones involved hiring contract teachers from India.Furthermore, additional staffing was provided by Columbo Plan donor countries in the form of visiting lecturers. On the physical side, a brand new complex was built fronting Prome Road by Taylor Woodrow Construction Company, consisting of an assembly hall, known as “Leik Khone”, administrative building and teaching blocks housing drawing rooms, lecturer theatres, classrooms and laboratories. Civil, Electrical and Mechanical engineering departments and Architecture department were located in the new complex. More importantly, Mechanical engineering department benefitted when Colombo Plan aid was channeled to provide laboratory equipment to various departments. A new Applied Mechanics laboratory located in the Mechanical wing was acquired. More modern equipment was added to the Strength of materials laboratory located in the new laboratory block. Heat engines laboratory recieved an educational Gas turbine unit along with other engines hooked up for testing.

I started my teaching career, for which I was earmarked when I was sent abroad for advanced studies, at a time of transition. The Mechanical engineering department had a staff of contract teachers from India and visiting lecturer Mr. W. Redpath from United Kingdom. Workshop Superintendent was Mr. V. Simon. Sayagyi U Ba Hli assigned me to teach First Year Drawing and First Year Heat Engines. Also, I was to assist Mr. Redpath in conducting the Heat Engines laboratories for the Third and Fourth Year students. The number of students admitted to the Faculty had been growing over the years and the size of the First Year Heat Engines class was about 150. Drawing classes were split into sections and limited to about 40 students each. The following year Sayagyi U Pu returned and later on Sayagyi U Ko Ko Gyi joined the staff. However, the contract teachers were leaving and the slack was taken up by the collective effort on the part of all of us. At the same time, attention was directed at modifying the syllabi of various departments to correspond with specialization in the practical field. Decision was made to introduce courses pertinent to a particular field of specialization at earlier stages, split some courses into component specialties or replace with more appropriate course. Subject of Mechanisms was introduced in the Second year. Heat Engines for First and Second years was renamed Thermodynamics to cover fundamental concepts and for senior years was split into Internal Combustion Engines and Refrigeration and Air Conditioning. Fluid Mechanics replaced Hydraulics. Corresponding expansion of staff was taking place with Sayagyis U San Tun, U Tin Hlaing, U Tun Shwe joining the staff. All of them, along with Sayagyi U Ba Than, were sent abroad later for advanced studies.

In the late 1950’s, we learned that Soviet Union would make a gift of a complete and fully equipped Institute of Technology to be built at Gyogon with skilled and semi-skilled Burmese workers of Public Works Brigade together with Soviet Specialists. The Soviet Union would also provide lecturers in special fields as needed. It was decided that the Faculty of Engineering would be moved to the new location and reconstituted as a separate educational facility at the same time preserving the existing engineering education format and of six years duration with high school matriculates entering the First Year. It was realized that more drawing and laboratory space was required to accommodate the large classes entering the system. So three more buildings were added to the original design and where Mechanical Engineering and Architecture Departments were located. Thus Rangoon Institute of Technology was created as a pre-eminent place of higher learning in the country. Sayagyi U Yone Mo was the first Rector of the Institute. This is where I will end my recounting of events past, sometimes vague, with the dawn of a new decade and hope that it might help those wanting to know the humble beginnings of mechanical engineering education in a place called Myanmar. All of us who taught at, studied or graduated from or otherwise associated with the Institute remember it as a special place and fondly refer to it as R.I.T.