Sunil Aravind Shanmugasundaram
Sunil Aravind Shanmugasundaram (MS’22) graduated with his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. Sunil was an integral member of the Stanford Table Tennis Club (STTC), representing Stanford University in the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) tournaments. Sunil, along with his teammates, contributed to the successful qualification of Stanford University to the NCTTA Championships in Austin. He oversaw the successful hosting of the NCTTA North California divisional tournament at Stanford University. He also managed the budget proposals and reimbursements as STTC's Financial Officer.
Sunil has always been passionate about table tennis. He received professional coaching from his home clubs, Deep Sports and Al Shabab Club, based in Dubai. He led his high school table tennis team, Gems Modern Academy in Dubai, as the team captain. Table tennis gave him a great platform to foster lifelong friendships and flourish both during his undergraduate period at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) and during graduate school at Stanford. Sunil served as the UTA Table Tennis Club President for over two years. He led UTA as the Team Captain at the NCTTA tournaments in the Texas Division, South Regionals, and the Championships in North Carolina. During his tenure as the UTA club President, Sunil led an administrative team of 5 executive officers and a club with 25 members.
Since he is very enthusiastic about table tennis, Sunil always strives to promote the sport and raise awareness among prospective members. Sunil will continue to support STTC’s mission of allowing Stanford students to play table tennis at an intercollegiate level. He has already marked his calendar to volunteer at future NCTTA events!
Matthew Lowe Dimon
Matthew Lowe Dimon (J.D.’22) graduated from Stanford Law School in June 2022. Matthew was a member of the Table Tennis Club since he began at Stanford in 2019, and he saw it go through many changes during his time in law school. When he joined, the club was on its last legs—it had not competed in NCTTA events for several years, and the club leadership was almost nonexistent. Not wanting to let the club go under, Matthew accepted the position of Vice President of the club halfway through the fall 2019 quarter. He became president the following year after the former president graduated. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Matthew struggled to keep the club going, especially during campus shutdowns, but he was extremely fortunate to meet wonderful players during the pandemic, including Sunil Aravind Shanmugasundaram (M.S.’22), Lucy Ma (M.D.’24 (expected)), and Teddy Solomon. Once the world began to recover and campus reopened, Matthew was eager to get the club back in shape. With the help of a new roster of enthusiastic teammates, Matthew was able to bring Stanford back to the world of NCTTA competitions, and he even brought the competition to Stanford at the NCTTA Northern California Divisional tournament. Matthew watched proudly as his teammates competed against strong players from all over the country, and he hopes that the club will continue to thrive for years to come.
Matthew fell in love with Table Tennis during his undergraduate years at UC Davis. He had always had a curiosity for the sport, in awe of the top players’ ability to hit the ball blisteringly fast in impressively athletic rallies. So, in his sophomore year of college, Matthew took a recreational table tennis class offered by his university. He was immediately captivated. Before long, Matthew was fully committed to the sport, staying up late to watch pro matches in real time, staying after class for private lessons with his coach, discussing strategy and equipment with anyone who would listen. While he did not compete at a high-level during undergrad, Matthew was excited to continue to play (and meet like-minded people) once he got to Stanford. He hopes that table tennis will continue to be an important part of his life.
