Blog

Mechanical Sayas
by Hla Min

Updated : May 2025

Mech Sayas
- The photo was probably taken in the late 1980s.
- There were only two Sayamas among the 40 or so Mechanical Engineering Sayas & Sayamas.
The following sayas are GBNF
- U Maung Maung Than
- U Ba Than
- U Aung Than
- S. Arya
- U Khin Maung
- U Soe Lwin
- U Kyaw Sein
- U Tin Maung Oo
- Dr. Chan Nyein
- U Thein Tun Aung
- U Hla Thwin
- S Kyaw Aye
Comments
- The photo does not include U Tin Myint, Dr. Lu Aye and U Zaw Hein Kyaw — all M80. They were doing postgraduate studies in Melbourne, Australia.
- Dr. Jesse Htwe was in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2000, but she did not attend SPZP-2000.
- I met several Mech sayas at the SPZPs and Mech Gatherings (as Guest) in Yangon.
May 31, 2025
The power of Kabyar
- Saya U Moe Aung (Tekkatho Moe War) is a distinguished poet, writer, editor and publisher.
- He wrote for newspapers, magazines and journals.
- He has compiled and published some collections of his works.
- His mentor was Daung Nwe Swe (Laureate Poet).
- He served as an all-round volunteer for the publication of the Annual Magazine of RUESU (Rangoon University Engineering Students Union).
Chief Editor and/or Publisher
- RIT Annual Magazines
- Hlyat Sit Sar Saung (for RIT EE Association)
- Commemorative issues of Swel Daw Yeik Sar Saung for SPZP-2002, SPZP-2007, and SPZP-2010
- Commemorative issues of Swel Daw Yeik Magazine for Swe YaDu and SPZP-2016
The (hidden) power of Kabyar

Kabyar is animate

But [it’s life is] not just a [fleeting] morn

Kabyar is a weapon

But not for destroying the world

Kabyar is key

For liberation and independence

But not devoid of principles [and morals]

Kabyar has power

Hidden but efficient & effective

Like sharp-pointed spear-head

Can thrust into [the heart of] a power-maniac

Cause trembling, shivering, throbbing & anguished pain

Poem by Tekkatho Moe War (Saya U Moe Aung)

Translated by Hla Min
May 31, 2025
Gathering in New Jersey and Trip to Canada in 2018
by Hla Min

Updated : May 2025

East Coast Gathering

For the past several years, Ivan had hosted RIT-UCC gathering at his New Jersey home. The timing is chosen so that Sayagyi Dr. Aung Gyi and Saya U Soe Paing can attend the gathering to meet with their former students.

In June 2018, the special guests include Saya Dr. Tin Win and Daw Lily from Southern California, Saya U Aung Myint (who lives in Singapore and New Zealand) and Daniel Tint Lwin from Singapore. Ivan suggested repeating the Whirlwind Road Trip taken a few years back to visit Sayagyi U Aung Khin (in Windsor) and Sayagyi Dr. Aung Gyi (in Napean, Ottawa). This time there would be three cars.

Visit Sayagyi U Aung Khin

On 23rd June, 2018, the following visited Sayagyi U Aung Khin in Windsor, Canada.
- Saya U Tin Win (M62)
- Daw Lily Win (Khin Hta Yee, T72)
- Saya U Htun Aung Kyaw (ChE67)
- Saya U Aung Myint (M69)
- Ivan Lee (M69)
- Frederick Thet Gyi (M69)
- U Tint Lwin (Daniel, M69)
Paying respect to Sayagyi U Aung Khin

UAK 1

UAK 2

UAK 3
May 31, 2025
Tekkatho Moe War 3

Tekkatho Moe War (U Moe Aung)

So the saying goes…
“Once a Teacher, always a Teacher”
BUT, NOT for some, in some occasions, does it really exist

“ခံစားချက်ဝေဒနာ၏ ဟိုမှာဘက်ကမ်းသို့”

နှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာ
ငါ… မေတ္တာပေးခဲ့…။
ကာလများစွာ
ငါ… စေတနာ ဝေဖြာခဲ့…။
အချိန်များစွာ
ငါ… ပုံသွန်အောခဲ့…။
သိပ္ပံ ပညာ
ငါ… ဖြန့်ဝေခဲ့လည်း…။
မတ်တတ် ခုံစွန်း
ခြေ ပွန်းစားလည်း…။
မြေဖြူမှုန်လှေး
ခွံ့ကျွေးပါးစပ်၊ ခြောက်ကပ်ကပ်လည်း…။
ပေးဝေစွန့်လွှတ်
မချွတ်မချော်၊ လှော်ရင်း တုံ့နှေး
ကမ်းနှင့်ဝေးခဲ့၊ ဖြည်းလေး တက်ကျိုး
မမျှော်ကိုးခဲ့ ဘဝ၊ မေ့ကြပြီထင့်
ပြယ်လွင့်ခဲ့ ဘဝ၊ သတိရစေ
တောင်းဆုခြွေရင်း၊ ဝပ်စင်းပူဇော်
ငါ.. မမျှော်ဝံ့၊ ငါ.. စွန့်ခဲ့ပြီး
ရင်းနှီးခဲ့သမျှမူ၊ ပြန်မရယူစတမ်း
ခရီးလမ်းဆုံး အဝေးတိုင်တိုင်…။ ။

တက္ကသိုလ် မိုးဝါ
၂၁- ၁၂- ၂၀၁၈

May 30, 2025
Aung Zaw 7

May 30, 2025
Aung Zaw 1

May 30, 2025
Aung Zaw 5

May 30, 2025
Aung Zaw 4

May 30, 2025
Aung Zaw 3

May 30, 2025
M69er
by Hla Min

Updated : May 2025

The Mechanical Engineering Department had two sub-departments:
- Agricultural Engineering
- Automobile Engineering
Major Gatherings of 69ers

The 69er had several major gatherings:
- 30th Anniversary Gathering in 1999
- 40th Anniversary Gathering in 2009
- Golden Jubilee of Admission to RIT in 2014
- Golden Jubilee of Graduation in 2019
40th Anniversary Gathering in 2009

Group photos were taken at the gathering.

Several sayas and alumni in the Mech Group photo are GBNF.
- Saya S. Kyaw Aye
- Saya S. Arya
- Saya U Soe Lwin
- Saya U Han Tun
- Yi Pinn (Maung Maung Kaung)
- Soe Win
- Myint Sein
- Khin Maung Gyi
- Thein Maung
- Chit Pe
- Aye Lwin
- Myint Thein (Kabar)
- Tin Tun
Aung Min
- Chair, 69er Health Care Fund
  Maintains the 69er GBNF List
- Organizer, 69er Gatherings
- Organizer, Paying respect to Saya U Ba Than around Saya’s birthday (October 2nd).
- Photo taken at a gathering with Fred Thetgyi (M69)
Some M69ers

Aung Myint
- Taught at RIT and Singapore Polytechnic
- After retirement, resided mostly in New Zealand
Aye Lwin (GBNF)
- Secretary, RIT Annual Magazine
- Secretary, RIT Mechanical Engineering Association
- Attended 2015 RIT Alumni Reunion in Los Angeles
Charlie Aung (Chit Aung)
- MEHS Alumnus
- Brother : Stanley Aung (EE63)
Chit Pe (GBNF)
- Succumbed to COVID
Chit Po Po (GBNF)
- Rowed for RIT
- Harpist
Daniel (Tint Lwin)
- Attended SPZPs starting with SPZP-2000 in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA
- Organizer and Entertainer, Gatherings in Singapore (Thingyan, PZP)
- Guitarist ad Vocalist
- Retired Associate Professor, NTU
David (Myint Thein)
- Alumnus of St. Columban’s High School, Bhamo
- Member of RUBC (Cox: Dicky / Win Naing)
- MOGE
Dicky Tan (Win Naing, GBNF)
- Represented RIT in Rowing
- Passed away in Singapore
Frederick Thetgyi
- Moved to Philadelphia, USA
- Attended RIT-UCC Gatherings in New Jersey
- Drove most of the trip to Canada and East Coast of USA (organized by Ivan)
- President of MASTAA
Hla Kyaing
- Represented RIT in Swimming and Water Polo
- Had a consulting / contracting firm in the SF Bay Area
Htay Aung

Htay Aung
- Burma Selected in Water Polo (1969 SEAP Games)
- Secretary, RIT Swimming and Water Polo
  Won Gold medal for 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m and Crosslake
- Spouse: Than Than (Asian Games Champion)
Ivan Lee (Khin Maung Oo)
- Life time Platinum for Bridge
- Major Donor, 69er Health Care Fund
- Golden Sponsor, SPZP-2000 and SPZP-2007
- Host, RIT-UCC Gatherings in New Jersey
- Founder and CEO, MASTAA
- Organized two trips to Canada to pay respect to Saya U Aung Khin and Saya Dr. Aung Gyi
Kenny Wong
- 6th in Burma in the Matriculation of 1963
- Moved to California
  Worked briefly in Malaysia as Engineer and Missionary
Khin Maung Aye
- Pen name: Maung Hmutt
Khin Maung Gyi (GBNF)
- Succumbed to Covid
Khin Maung Lay
- Need info
Khin Maung Tin
- Taught at RIT and Maritime University
Khin Than Myint Tin (Margaret)
- Represented RIT in Track and Field
- Selected RIT Luyechun
- Spouse : Kyi Win
Kyaw Nyunt (GBNF)
- Member of RIT Tennis Team that won the Inter-Institute Trophy
Kyi Win (Chan Nyein)
- Spouse : Khin Than Myint Tin
Kyin Lwin
- He is now GBNF
Mehm Aye Chan (Ohn Maung)
- Taught at RIT
- Seafarer
- Company/Agency for Seafarers
- For his 80th birthday, hosted the 69er Breakfast Gathering and donated K10 Lakhs to 69er HCF
Myat San
- Need info
Myint Aung
- Nickname: Minthagyi
Myint Sein (GBNF)
- Member, RIT Badminton Team that won the Inter-Institute Trophy
Myint Swe
- Need info
Myint Thein (Kabar, GBNF)
- Organizer, 69er HCF
Nay Win (GBNF)
- Alumnus of PPBRS and MEHS
- Taught at a Polytechnic in Singapore
Saw Law La Htwe
- Need info
Sein Tun
- Seafarer
Sein Win
- Need info
Soe Win
- Need info
Than Hlaing
- Need info
Than Myaing
- Musician (Violin)
Thein Maung (GBNF)
- Succumbed to Covid
Tin Aung Win (Oscar)
- Organizer, HIC Zoom Meeting
- Photo taken at Graduation with his father
Tin Htut (Harry)
- Pen name: Mon Yu
- Hobbies; Music, Tai Chi
Tin Htut
- Seafarer
Tin Maung Lay (GBNF)
- Moved to California
- Worked for assignments in Middle East
Tin Myint (John T Lee, GBNF)
- Luyechun for 4th BE
- Represented RIT in Table Tennis
- Spouse : Lyo Kyin Sein (Mabel)
Tin Shein
- Represented RIT in Chinlon
Tin Tun (GBNF)
- Old Paulian (SPHS63)
- Secretary, RIT Thaing Association
- Taught to seafarers
Walter (Ngwe Soe)
- UTC
- Guitarist
Win Htein (GBNF)
- Helped run his family business (e.g trucking)
Win Lwin
- Secretary, RIT Hiking and Mountaineering Association
- Represented RIT in the All Institutes Expedition to Sarameti.
Ye Kaung
- Need info
Yi Pinn (Maung Maung Kaung, GBNF)
- Entrepreneur in Dawei
- Spouse succumbed to Covid
- A year later, he succumbed to Covid
May 30, 2025