Draft:Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta Foundation

Biography

Rahul Mehta, along with his siblings, founded the Mehta Family Foundation in 1996 to advance initiatives in education and healthcare worldwide.

The Bhupat & Jyoti Mehta Family Foundation was established in 2001 to give back to the family's homeland of India through educational and research programs, developing into a global collaboration for higher education.

Early Life and Education

Rahul Mehta immigrated to Houston in 1980 to obtain a computer science degree from the University of Houston, a program that was not available in India at that time. He began as a chemical engineering major but expanded his studies to include computer science and business courses.

Mehta continued his education through the Philanthropy Workshop, where he studied strategic philanthropy, and later at Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, focusing on personal finance, investment, estate planning, tax planning, accounting, and trust management.

Business Career

Prior to establishing the foundation, Rahul Mehta built a successful career in the technology industry, founding his first software company while still a senior at the University of Houston. This company, Software Interfaces (which developed products including SQLASSIST and PRO*Reports), was later acquired by Platinum Technology.

Mehta went on to found three more successful startups without external funding: NuView I (ManageX) which was acquired by HP, NuView II (ClusterX) acquired by Veritas, and NuView III (StorageX, FLM, MyView) acquired by Brocade Communications Systems.

Philanthropic Work

Recognition

In the inaugural issue of 'The Philanthropist,' Rahul Mehta was featured in an article titled "Pioneering Pathways: Institution Building and Catalyzing Talent for India's Technological Transformation." The article explored both his personal journey since arriving in the United States and the vision that drives his philanthropic work in cultivating intellectual talent in emerging technology fields in India.

Mehta Family Foundation

The Bhupat & Jyoti Mehta Family Foundation (MFF), located in Houston, Texas, was established by Nisha, Rahul, Jainesh and his wife Mamta, and Dharmesh and his wife Archana to honor their parents, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta, from Mumbai, India.

Regarding his philanthropic work, Mehta has stated: "After decades of hard work in technology and business, I have been rewarded with invaluable experience and resources. The question for me now is, 'how should I use my time, talent, and treasure to do the maximum good for the most people with my time left on the planet?'"

The Bhupat & Jyoti Mehta Family Foundation has supported more than 100 organizations that advance access to healthcare and education over its more than 20 years of operation. While the foundation has initiatives worldwide, its primary philanthropic focus is on Houston, Texas, and India.

Educational Initiatives in India

The Mehta Family Foundation's projects include the Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, the Mehta Family Center for Engineering in Medicine at IIT Kanpur, and the Mehta Family School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at IIT Guwahati.

In 2021, the Bhupat & Jyoti Mehta Family Foundation and the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee established the Mehta Family School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, marking MFF's fourth new school in India.

In July 2024, the foundation expanded its educational initiatives with the establishment of the Mehta Family School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at IIT Palakkad. This school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs and is projected to produce an impressive 200 B.Tech, 240 M.Tech, 25 Masters, and 40 Ph.D. graduates over its first five years.

The Mehta Family School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at IIT Palakkad began welcoming students in July 2024, with the first batch of BTech DSE and MTech DS students joining that month.

The Mehta Family School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at IIT Guwahati offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees, with the school expected to graduate more than 1,200 students over a 10-year period.

These educational initiatives aim to address pressing societal challenges through emerging technologies, with the schools developing curricula that combine state-of-the-art teaching, research, and technology development.

The foundation currently works with 5 Indian Institutes of Technology across India, supports 6 Schools in Data & Health Sciences, and impacts approximately 1,400 students, including 800 undergraduates and 600 PhD students.

MFF CARE Program

A significant initiative of the foundation is the Mehta Family Foundation Collaborative for Academic and Research Excellence in India (MFF CARE), which enriches the Indian education and research ecosystem by facilitating long-term collaborative relationships between Indian and American organizations.

The MFF CARE program connects leading international academics and university administrators with Indian institutions to build new schools and degree programs in emerging fields of technology, focusing on developing infrastructure, curriculum, and faculty necessary to create world-class educational programs.

Rice University Partnership

In 2020, the Mehta Family Foundation played a pivotal role in establishing a historic partnership between Rice University and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK). Rice became the first American university to have a physical presence in India through the Rice-IITK Research Center.

Regarding this partnership, Rahul Mehta stated: "As a team, Rice and IITK, two world-class institutions, have the potential to improve their quality, reach, and impact and develop greater and more diverse solutions to problems in our world today. We are honored to have been a part of crafting this relationship."

In April 2023, Rice University and the Mehta Family Foundation established the Mehta Rice Engineering Scholars Program, which enables Indian students to study at Rice for three to six months in fields including advanced materials, quantum science, energy and sustainability, data sciences/AI, and biological sciences.

University of Houston Support

The Mehta Family Foundation has maintained strong ties to the University of Houston, funding the Mehta Family Community Pavilion and supporting renovations of the Graduate School of Social Work building.

In 2014, the Mehta family provided support to establish the Mehta Family Engineering Research Center on the ground floor of the University of Houston's Multidisciplinary Research and Engineering Building. This center houses the University's High Performance Computational Center, five wet labs, the Mass Spectrometry Lab, and various other facilities.

In recognition of the supportive environment they encountered at UH, the Mehta family, along with UH engineering graduate Durga Agrawal and his wife Sushila, made significant contributions to the $51 million Multidisciplinary Research and Engineering Building, which began construction in fall 2014 with occupancy scheduled for 2016.

Reflecting on their experiences at UH, Jay Mehta stated: "UH gave us the environment, our parents gave us the values and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time." He added that their father "spent his last penny to send his four children here."

Board Positions

Mehta has served on the board of several nonprofit organizations, including DePelchin Children's Center, Ronald McDonald House, and Bo's Place. He also serves on the Engineering Leadership Board at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering and on the Board of the Kinkaid School.

Media Coverage

Indian Media

In October 2017, the New Indian Express reported on the inauguration of Block 2 of the Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences at IIT Madras, with Rahul Mehta in attendance. This facility houses important research centers including an Animal House and the National Cancer Tissue BioBank.

According to The Arunachal Times, the Memorandum of Understanding between IIT Roorkee and the Mehta Family Foundation to establish the Mehta Family School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence was signed in September 2021 by IIT Roorkee Director Ajit K Chaturvedi and Rahul Mehta, in the presence of K VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India.

News18 reported that Rahul Mehta stated during the IIT Roorkee partnership announcement: "AI-driven technologies are rapidly transforming our world. Academic collaborations like this one between international faculty and IIT Roorkee will produce individuals poised to address such ongoing global challenges as climate change, resource sustainability, and security."

The Financial Express and BW Education covered the May 2022 signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between IIT Guwahati and the Mehta Family Foundation to establish the 'Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology', which aims to offer Master's and PhD programs in Health Sciences and Technology.

Indian news outlets reported that the Mehta Family School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at IIT Guwahati would admit its first batch of B.Tech students through the JEE in the academic year 2021-22, with IIT Guwahati Director T.G. Sitharam noting that the school would "bridge the gap of highly skilled personnel that exists in these emerging fields."