Raj Chowdhury

Raj Chowdhury
Native name রাজর্ষি চৌধুরি
Born (1983-07-08) July 8, 1983
Kolkata, India
Education Masters of Science
Alma mater Tufts University
Santa Clara University
Occupation Entrepreneur, author, inventor, investor
Known for Author of The Dark Secret of the Silicon Valley
Website www.rajchowdhury.com

Raj Chowdhury (Bengali: রাজর্ষি চৌধুরি; born July 8, 1983) is an American entrepreneur, inventor, venture capitalist, and writer. He is the author of the book The Dark Secret of the Silicon Valley, a story of an immigrant who becomes the partner of a venture capital firm in San Francisco. He is the co-founder of several high tech and web based companies. Chowdhury was research associate at MIT's Microsystems Technology Lab and earned an MS, MBA and other certifications. He is a member of Asha Silicon Valley chapter, a non-profit committed to the spread of education for children in emerging countries.

Early life and education

Chowdhury was born and raised in the city of Kolkata. He is the only child of Sukla Chowdhury, a former social worker and Joy Chowdhury, the owner of a construction company in India.

Chowdhury graduated from the School of Engineering at Tufts University.[1][2][3] There, he worked at the Human Robot Interaction Lab researching affective control and evolution interactions between effect and cognitive robots for human robot interactions, developing multi-scale agent based cognitive modelling architecture for complex robots.

During his graduate research, he worked at the Microsystems Technology Lab (MTL) at MIT in the field of MEMS, electronic and photonics devices and nanotechnology areas.[4] He was also a researcher at the Advanced Materials Processing Lab (AMPL) which fosters interdisciplinary research at the forefront of materials science.

Chowdhury attended The Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy, the oldest school in the United States dedicated solely to graduate studies in international affairs. He earned his MBA at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University.

Career

In 2005, he moved to San Jose, California, prior to that, he was in Boston. His first job in Silicon Valley was with Applied Materials.

Unification Energy

Chowdhury co-founded Unification Energy;[5] a company which provides charging station infrastructure for electric vehicles. In addition, Unification installs solar panels at residences and businesses to offset additional electricity demanded by electric vehicles.

Shop-a-Block

In 2010, Chowdhury co-founded Shop-a-Block.[6][7] This e-commerce venture became a profitable start up within nine months of inception.

Writing

Chowdhury authored the book The Dark Secret of the Silicon Valley,[8] which is a true story of an immigrant who worked his way up to become the partner of a well-known venture capital firm in San Francisco. The majority owner of the firm, a notorious Silicon Valley billionaire, who is also an early investor in Google and Facebook, starts to think of him as his wunderkind and shares with him his darkest secrets of financial trickery. The unique and aggressive techniques used by this billionaire, revealed in this book, is cringe inducing and would leave the reader baffled as to what lengths this man would go to see his money grow.

Inventions

Battery Replacement Unit

Inventors: Eashwer Kollata, MS; Chowdhury, MS[9]

Abstract

The size of the battery pack and their arrangement decides the amount of total power and the voltage they can deliver to run a vehicle. These battery pack can vary in size based on the required capacity and can become very heavy. Handling of these battery packs, moving them around, accessing the vehicle to replace them are all part of the design challenges for the operation of a successful battery replacement unit.

This invention is a complete end to end solution from when the vehicle enters the Battery Replacement Unit with a used (discharged completely or partially) battery pack and leaves with a charged battery pack based on the requirement of the driver. The communication with the driver is established at the user interface and business transaction is implemented. Along with the design aspects of the system, the invention gives a detailed operational sequence for the battery replacement unit.

Power Enhancing Device

Inventors: Chowdhury, MS; Sumit Patankar, MS[10]

Abstract

The setup comprises mounted piezoelectric element placed under one or multiple keys of the keypad of a portable device (such as a laptop computer or a cell phone), which converts mechanical energy of typing into electrical energy. The electrical energy is then used to charge the Li-ion (or other batteries) of the portable device by the accompanying circuitry.

Social cause

Chowdhury is a member of the non-profit, Asha[11] committed to the spread of education for children in emerging countries. He stewarded the After School Program at Gohaldanga village in West Bengal, India. The aim of the GRSV project[12] is to promote education, ethics, health care and economy among these socially backward communities of Gohaldanga and the surrounding 20 villages.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Wong, Peter (April 16, 2006). "PETER Y. WONG" (PDF). Tufts University. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  2. ↑ Ultrasonic Consolidation of Rapidly Solidified AZ91D Powders. Google Books (Tufts University). April 23, 2006. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
  3. ↑ Majumder, Sayan (September 24, 2006). "Raj Chowdhury". Interactive Resume of Raj Chowdhury. Chowdhury Foundation. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  4. ↑ Doumanidis, Haris (March 1, 2013). "Multiscale Manufacturing of Fractals" (PDF). Nano Hub Resources. Purdue University. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  5. ↑ Majumder, Sayan (December 2, 2014). "Unification Energy". Home. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  6. ↑ Kamenec, Kara (December 7, 2011). "ShopABlock to Launch "Style Blocks" – A New Social Commerce Feature". Daily Deal Media. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  7. ↑ Dhindsa, Simrat (March 10, 2012). "ShopABlock.com Shoppers Peek in to the Future of Slothful Shopping". PRweb. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  8. ↑ Bezos, Jeff (November 23, 2014). "The Dark Secret of the Silicon Valley: A Billionaire's Accomplice Confesses his Partner's Crimes". Amazon Prime. Amazon. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  9. ↑ Kollata, Eashwer (December 16, 2008). "BATTERY REPLACEMENT UNIT". Inventions by Raj Chowdhury. Chowdhury Foundation. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  10. ↑ Patankar, Sumit (March 12, 2008). "POWER ENHANCING DEVICE". Inventions by Raj Chowdhury. Chowdhury Foundation. Retrieved December 27, 2008.
  11. ↑ "Asha for Education: Bringing hope through education (Silicon Valley)". Asha Silicon Valley. October 10, 2014. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Gohaldanga Ramkrishna Sarada Vivekananda Seva Kendra". Gohaldanga Ramkrishna Sarada Vivekananda Seva Kendra (WEST BENGAL). August 5, 2013. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  13. ↑ Victor, Ron (June 1, 2008). "GRSV-After school program for Dalit and Tribal children". Vibha: A Brighter Future for Children. Retrieved December 26, 2014.

External links

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