IIT-Bombay faculty overjoyed at alumnus taking over as Twitter CEO – Hindustan Times

Twitter’s announcement of their new CEO, 37-year-old Parag Agrawal gave cause for celebration to IIT-Bombay, his alma mater.

A student of the 2005 batch of the computer science department, Agrawal was one of the top students of his batch, say senior faculty members.

“A silver medalist from the computer science department, Parag was the typical topper -extremely organised and very well-behaved. He had all the qualities in him to excel in academics,” said professor Supratim Biswas, from the department of computer science and engineering (CSE), IIT-B.

The CSE department at IIT-B is one of the most sought after courses and some of the top JEE scorers have always managed to bag these seats. “To top among such high-scoring individuals requires a special calibre and Parag had it in him,” added Biswas. “It is no wonder that at such a young age he has earned this huge distinction.”

He obtained his B.Tech degree from IIT-B in 2005 and PhD in computer science from Stanford University in 2011. Prior to joining Twitter, Agrawal did research in large-scale data management with collaborators at Microsoft Research, Yahoo Research, and AT&T Labs.

On the alumni page of the institute, Parag has shared some memories from his time at IIT. “(I remember) working with friends to build shared storage and streaming services over the hostel intranet and spending time near Vihar Lake behind Hostel 4 with close friends,” he has been quoted.

“The significance of a university is often judged by the collective achievements of its alumni and the glory that they bring to their alma mater. Parag Agrawal is one such alumnus that IITB is proud of. The education and the ambience that IIT-B provided to Parag, not too long ago, helped in bringing out the best in him. With hard work and dedication, Parag has reached the top. Our congratulations to him and we hope that IIT-B can continue to produce such achievers,” said Subhashis Chaudhuri, director of the institute.