Alumni Shamala Chickamenahalli and Chandan Das are Indian-born electrical engineering students who met on the UK campus in the mid-1990s. Shamala received her Ph.D. and Chandan earned his master’s degree in 1995. After graduation, they married and began successful careers in the United States. They currently work for Intel and live in Phoenix with their twin son and daughter.

Shamala and Chandan recently opened a library in Chandan’s hometown of Goalpara, Assam, India. The Chandan Shamala Library is their way of giving back to a community that has fallen into socio-economic decline. It opened with 550 books and has the capacity to hold 6,000 books total. In addition, they are offering crafts, drama and music classes to children in the community. Long-term, they hope to make health exams available to the public through their facility.

For more information on how these two alums are making an impact, visit www.chandanshamalalibrary.org