AWARDS & RECOGNITION
2024 MEANT ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AWARD
MR. SHAWN SEBASTIAN
Shawn Sebastian is a top 1% senior at Lebanon Trail High School in Frisco, Texas. A varsity basketball and cross-country athlete, he earned Frisco ISD Cross Country All-Academic First Team honors.
Passionate about business and accounting, he placed Top 10 nationally in BPA Accounting, won 1st in Texas for DECA Entrepreneurial Case Study, and secured 1st place internationally in DECA’s ‘Disability is Diversity’ Challenge. His achievements also include the Presidential Volunteer Service Award and the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation’s Social Impact Leader of Tomorrow Award.
As Co-Founder & President of Angels Among Us, he raised $30,000 for pediatric cancer research across 40+ school chapters. A Texas Boys State delegate, Shawn plans to pursue Computer Science and Business to drive meaningful impact.
Passionate about business and accounting, he placed Top 10 nationally in BPA Accounting, won 1st in Texas for DECA Entrepreneurial Case Study, and secured 1st place internationally in DECA’s ‘Disability is Diversity’ Challenge. His achievements also include the Presidential Volunteer Service Award and the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation’s Social Impact Leader of Tomorrow Award.
As Co-Founder & President of Angels Among Us, he raised $30,000 for pediatric cancer research across 40+ school chapters. A Texas Boys State delegate, Shawn plans to pursue Computer Science and Business to drive meaningful impact.
2024 Engineer of the Year Award
MR. ARUN RAJAGOPAL
Arun Rajagopal is a technology leader with extensive expertise in networking, cloud services, and telecommunications. He currently heads the Enterprise and Cloud Services team at Reliance Jio, where he drives the development and deployment of platforms and services for Jio’s enterprise customers. He is responsible for building and managing technology platforms that support the connectivity and security needs of Jio’s business customers across India. He also leads the cloud application engineering team, overseeing the rollout of Jio’s wireline network services on its telco cloud. Arun drives the digital transformation of network services by migrating them to the cloud, while pioneering new products and services powered by AI and Machine Learning.
A visionary in service innovation, he holds an extensive portfolio of approximately 80 patents spanning wireless technologies, cloud services, and networking. His patents are widely cited and have made a profound impact on their respective domains.
Prior to his current role at Jio, Arun played a key role in shaping technology strategy at Sprint as part of the Office of the CTO, focusing on NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) architecture and long-term evolution plans for Sprint’s wireless network. Before that, he served as the Chief Network Architect at Reliance Infocomm, where he was responsible for the strategy, design, and architecture of Reliance’s global IP network spanning over 125 countries.
Arun and his wife, Anjana Unni, a talent management professional, have a daughter, Anika, who is a senior in Frisco ISD. Originally from Kozhikode, he graduated in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the Government College of Engineering, Kannur. Arun also has a master’s degree in Computer Engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station. He is an avid traveler, reader, and fitness enthusiast, and loves traveling the world to learn about local cultures and heritage. He holds a special place in his heart for Calicut biryani, porotta and beef, and is a forever evangelist for Calicut cuisine.
2023 MEANT ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AWARD
MR. SAYOOJ DINESAN
MEANT Academic Excellence Award for the year 2023 has been awarded to Sayooj Dinesan, son of Mr.Dinesan and Mrs.Suprabha Pariyacheri.
Sayooj Dinesan is a high school senior attending Imagine International Academy of North Texas, an IB charter school in McKinney. He is the Valedictorian of his class. He is an aspiring cardiologist with a passion for research, medicine, and helping people. Sayooj is an avid researcher working in several microbiology and computational biology labs at both the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Dallas focused on cancer recognition and bacterial resistance. He has made 2 research papers for these projects. With a passion for medicine, Sayooj has volunteered at Medical City McKinney via the Junior Volunteer Program and shadowed several doctors. He was also selected for UT Southwestern’s prestigious Health Professions Recruitment and Exposure Program. Sayooj is an avid debater, competing at the Youth and Government state conference 4 times and winning the Dallas district conference once. He has a passion for filmmaking, winning honorable mention for the C-SPAN National Video Essay Competition. At school Sayooj has led several clubs, co-founding the Imagine STEM Club and being the treasurer of HOSA to spread his love for medicine and science. He has also led several initiatives and organizations to make a positive change on the community, working as an operations team member and interview committee member for Tutors for Change, a national organization that provides low-cost tutoring and founding Helping Healthcare Heroes, an initiative that raised over $800 for the Baylor Scott and White Hospital. He is a National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalist for his PSAT score and academic achievements. In the future, Sayooj hopes to continue his research and service endeavors and follow his passion for medicine and helping the community.
Sayooj Dinesan is a high school senior attending Imagine International Academy of North Texas, an IB charter school in McKinney. He is the Valedictorian of his class. He is an aspiring cardiologist with a passion for research, medicine, and helping people. Sayooj is an avid researcher working in several microbiology and computational biology labs at both the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Dallas focused on cancer recognition and bacterial resistance. He has made 2 research papers for these projects. With a passion for medicine, Sayooj has volunteered at Medical City McKinney via the Junior Volunteer Program and shadowed several doctors. He was also selected for UT Southwestern’s prestigious Health Professions Recruitment and Exposure Program. Sayooj is an avid debater, competing at the Youth and Government state conference 4 times and winning the Dallas district conference once. He has a passion for filmmaking, winning honorable mention for the C-SPAN National Video Essay Competition. At school Sayooj has led several clubs, co-founding the Imagine STEM Club and being the treasurer of HOSA to spread his love for medicine and science. He has also led several initiatives and organizations to make a positive change on the community, working as an operations team member and interview committee member for Tutors for Change, a national organization that provides low-cost tutoring and founding Helping Healthcare Heroes, an initiative that raised over $800 for the Baylor Scott and White Hospital. He is a National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalist for his PSAT score and academic achievements. In the future, Sayooj hopes to continue his research and service endeavors and follow his passion for medicine and helping the community.
2023 Engineer of the Year Award
MR. SUDHEER OMANAKKUTTAN
Continuing with the tradition of supporting the best talents in the field of Computer Science, Engineering and Technology, MEANT BOD 2023 has awarded Mr. Sudheer Omanakkuttan the ‘Engineer of the Year Award’.
Sudheer Omanakuttan is a Senior Financial Technology and Operations leader with more than 28 years of industry experience. Born in Kerala, Sudheer is an Electronic and telecommunication graduate of College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Sudheer currently is a Senior Vice President, Technology Executive at Bank of America leading Application Production Services and Engineering for Global Banking, with specific focus on Global Treasury Services. In this role he leads payments processing for both corporate and consumer with a daily volume valued at over 2 trillion USD. He co leads payments transformation efforts across US and LATAM. Sudheer also leads Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Practice driving innovative and automated solutions across technology operations. Sudheer has been with Bank of America for 19+ years holding various leadership roles in consumer and wealth management technology and has been part of several technology transformational programs. Bank of America is the number 2 financial services company in the world with technology and operations across all the globe and the number one investment Bank in
LATAM.
Before Joining Bank of America, Sudheer held technology leadership roles with UST Global both in India
and US. Prior to UST, Sudheer started his career with a startup based out of Silicon Valley CA.
Sudheer is an avid traveler, gardener and foodie. He has closely associated himself with various community outreach efforts. He leads various community outreach activities within Bank Of America as the North Texas Site leader and mentors diverse talent. Sudheer has served on the board for Cityhouse (www.cityhouse.org) a Plano based nonprofit. He is currently on the board of High Octavez /Karuna(www.highoctavez.org) whose Community Outreach efforts have made significant impact in both India and USA.
Sudheer is married to Aswathy Pillai who works at AT&T Dallas and has a daughter Anjali Sudheer a junior at University of Houston and Bharat Sudheer a sophomore at Frisco ISD.
Sudheer Omanakuttan is a Senior Financial Technology and Operations leader with more than 28 years of industry experience. Born in Kerala, Sudheer is an Electronic and telecommunication graduate of College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Sudheer currently is a Senior Vice President, Technology Executive at Bank of America leading Application Production Services and Engineering for Global Banking, with specific focus on Global Treasury Services. In this role he leads payments processing for both corporate and consumer with a daily volume valued at over 2 trillion USD. He co leads payments transformation efforts across US and LATAM. Sudheer also leads Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Practice driving innovative and automated solutions across technology operations. Sudheer has been with Bank of America for 19+ years holding various leadership roles in consumer and wealth management technology and has been part of several technology transformational programs. Bank of America is the number 2 financial services company in the world with technology and operations across all the globe and the number one investment Bank in
LATAM.
Before Joining Bank of America, Sudheer held technology leadership roles with UST Global both in India
and US. Prior to UST, Sudheer started his career with a startup based out of Silicon Valley CA.
Sudheer is an avid traveler, gardener and foodie. He has closely associated himself with various community outreach efforts. He leads various community outreach activities within Bank Of America as the North Texas Site leader and mentors diverse talent. Sudheer has served on the board for Cityhouse (www.cityhouse.org) a Plano based nonprofit. He is currently on the board of High Octavez /Karuna(www.highoctavez.org) whose Community Outreach efforts have made significant impact in both India and USA.
Sudheer is married to Aswathy Pillai who works at AT&T Dallas and has a daughter Anjali Sudheer a junior at University of Houston and Bharat Sudheer a sophomore at Frisco ISD.
2020/2021 MEANT ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AWARD
MS. NAVYA RAMAKRISHNAN |
MEANT Academic Excellence Award for the year 2021 has been awarded to Navya Ramakrishnan, daughter of Mr.Ramakrishnan Kanhiroten and Mrs.Asha Ramakrishnan.
Navya Ramakrishnan is a high school senior attending Plano Senior High School. She is an aspiring computer scientist with hopes of being involved in research combining computer science and neuroscience. For her high school research projects, she was named as a Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar and an International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) Finalist. She published three research papers in international journals. She is also a three-time Grand Prize winner in the Texas Junior Academy of Sciences and Texas Junior Science and Humanities Symposium competitions combined. She is a National Merit Scholarship Finalist for her PSAT score and academic achievements. |
2016 Engineer of the Year Award
Mr. BG Kumar
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Continuing with the tradition of supporting the best talents in the field of Computer Science, Engineering and Technology, MEANT BOD 2016 has awarded B.G. Kumar the ‘Engineer of the Year Award’.
BG is a mobile industry veteran and recognized leader in the telecommunications and software industry, with nearly 25 years of experience leading both start-up companies and large publicly traded companies. As President of Mitel's Mobile Division, BG brings his leadership experience, extensive knowledge of the mobile industry, technical expertise, and strong customer relationships to the mandate of expanding Mitel's leadership in the mobile market. |
2016 MEANT Academic Excellence Award
Ms. Nikita Vicas
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MEANT Academic Excellence Award for the year 2016 has been awarded to Nikita Vicas, daughter of Mr. Vicas Nedumpillil and Mrs. Resmi Vicas.
Nikita is a 12th grade student at the Coppell High School and has demonstrated her capabilities excelling in academic areas and extra-curricular activities. She has won several awards at the state and national levels. |
2015 Engineer of the Year Award
Mr. Manoj Balraj
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Continuing with the tradition of supporting the best talents in the field of Computer Science, Engineering and Technology, MEANT BOD 2015 has awarded Mr. Manoj Balraj the ‘Engineer of the Year Award’.
Manoj Balraj is Co-founder and President of Experion Technologies, recognized as one among the 50 fastest growing software companies in India. We wish Manoj all the best in his endeavors! |
2015 MEANT Academic Excellence Award
Mr. Rohit Nair
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MEANT Academic Excellence Award for the year 2015 has been awarded to Rohit Nair , son of Mr. Pramod Nair and Ramya Unnithan.
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