Expect the Unexpected

I am not a great cricket fan. But I follow cricket occasionally. During the summer of 1983 world cup in England, I was at home. I had just completed Engineering and about join a Job in Mumbai. There was no TV in those days. We tuned to BBC to listen to the cricket commentary. West Indies was a force to reckon with. There were Clive Lloyds, Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge as Batsmen. They had 4 very dangerous fast bowlers. West Indies were unbeatable. But India beat them in the first encounter. Very unexpected. India was to beat Zimbawe easily. In the match against Zimbawe, India was 17 for 5. Then came Kapil's 175. India beat Zimbawe in the most unexpected way. India's victory in the finals was very unexpected. It was a low scoring game. Viv Richards was supposed to finish it single handedly. That was not to be. The guys who bet on India's victory - there were not many- has the unexpected joy of laughing all the way to the bank. That year West Indies visited India. We expected the series to be well fought. India lost every single match comprehensively.

The recent cricket matches are very unexpected. After IPL, India was to be superstar in 20-20 cricket. In the 20-20 world cup they were out in the first round. In the champions trophy, they were out in the first round. In a Series of matches before that India has a unenviable record.

In the world today the winner expects the unexpected. This is a contrarian view which opposes the view held by the majority. Consider the job market. A few years ago the job market was very bullish. The market for IT professionals was kissing the sky. In the last couple of years the job market has seen the bad times. What do you expect the job market to be in future. Th unexpected?

The Chief Minister Comes to IIIT

We wanted the IIIT campus to be inaugurated by the CM. He was there when the foundation was laid by the-then President APJ Abdul Kalam.

We had sent a proposal to his office. Initially, they gave us a date on 19th September with a lead time of about 5 days. We had to make the campus presentable. Our builder painted the Academic buildings. Efforts started to level the frontage. With the JCB and the road roller in action, the noise was enormous. The toilet on the second floor was made ready. Everybody swung into action. By 16th Sept I came to know that CM has postponed his visit. We kept it a secret and let the work progress rapidly. On 18th morning we revealed the CM's programme. The CM gave the date on 9th Oct.

There was Puja Vacation lasted about 10 days. Ajit went to Nainital for Vacation. As is my wont, I stayed at Bhubaneswar working on the new Website, Hibiscus, chaning the OS of all my computers to ubuntu, watching a few movies. I visited the campus every alternate day. The work had come to a standstill. Everybody went home for the vacations. I had a meeting with IT Secretary Pradipta Mohapatra. He was concerned about the arrangements. I assured him that every thing will be ready.

On Oct 5th the Institute reopened. We took stock of what needs to be done. The laundry list of things to do ran into about 3 pages. We divided the responsibility. Prashant, Sidharth, Debasis, Umakanta, Bishoyi and others were given tasks, deadlines, quality parameters to fulfil. Every one was one campus till midnight. We tried several permutations and combinations for our plans. Initially we planned refreshments for the guests. Later we changed it to lunch after discussing with Ashok Panda. We briefed the students about the details of the CM's Visit and shared our expectations from them. We had discussions with Prof. Tanutrishna who would be the anchor.

We had the Minister, MP, MLA, Chief Secretary on the guest list. We invited guests from the Academic community, Government, OCAC, IT Fraternity. We did a rehearsal the previous day.

There were goof-ups. The weather was very humid and hot. We wanted to put a couple of ACs for the guests of the dias. The event manager brought window ACs which could not be installed. Fortunately for us, the weather turned pleasant.

The function went on with clockwork precision. All the guests arrived in time. The CM arrived about 5 minutes late. We had the unveiling of the plaque. We discussed the the campus plan with the CM. He said that the devil lies in the details. He seemed happy with our campus but made a few comments. Why is the floor not polished. Why the campus is not green. He suggested that we take ideas from a landscape architect Mr. Shaw. He promised to give us another 17 acres of land we have requested.

I had shared the dias with the CM on a few occasions before. But, I never had discussions with him from such close quarters. The stakes were high. I was nervous.

The function went precisely as we planned. The MP Sri Patsani was very entertaining. The CS promised to make efforts to make IIIT an University. The CM shared that 9th was the birth day of Gopabandhu Das. It was a coincidence and I was not aware of that fact. The CM gave a pep talk to the students and the faculty. Others spoke with brevity. I gave the Vote of thanks. I spoke about the amount of coverage Orissa got in the last general elections and its coming of age. I shared the pencil story with the students. The function lasted less than an hour which was our estimated time. Even though we had arranged for some refreshment, the CM declined but requested the rest of the guests to have lunch with the students and faculty.

After the function was over many people complimented me saying the function went off well. I was feeling relieved. Most of the staff were tired and left a little early.

On 10th Oct, IT Secretary Mr. Pradipta Mohapatra called me and told that the CM was happy with organization and the conduct of the programme. He complimented him.

The Foundation Laying was the First important function. I was not with IIIT at that time. In fact there were no one with IIIT except Ajit who was the OSD. The CM's visit was next most important function. This function had the involvement of the faculty, staff and the students. I am happy that it went off well.

Social Networking and IIIT

One of the important features of Web 2.0 is social networking. So you have Orkut, linkedin Blogger etc.

I felt that Social networking is for individuals. Many use it with great effect. In NDTV Vikram Chnadra and Barkha Dutt use it in a very interesting manner.

Today, as I was generally surfing, I came across a many sites which use Twitter and Facebook. One such site was University of Michigan. U-M is one of the best university websites.

So I felt let IIIT tweet on twitter. IIIT website now has a gadget which gives summary of IIIT Tweets.

M.Tech. Project

Masters in engineering used to be a 3 semester course. Later it was changed to a 4 semester course.

In many institutes the last two semesters are used for a project. In our case we followed a system of 3 semesters course-work and one semester of project. In the 3rd semester there is Seminar component.

Depending on the career preference of a student, a student could do a research oriented project or a industry oriented project. Last year some of our students went to company projects while others did projects in the Institute.

When we started introspecting on this issue, we found that the quality of projects done in the company was below the standard we were expecting. Even some projects done in the Institute had quality problems.

Hence, this year we are planning to experiment with a new model. The seminar and the project will have some continuity. The seminar will be used for literature review, methodology review leading to a project proposal by end of the third semester. The fourth semester will be exclusively used for working on the problems contained in the project proposal.

The students can work on various project types: a. development of a business software, b. development of a technology, c. academic project etc. At the end of the project the deliverables will be a thesis and working paper or thesis and a software.

The project phase will have milestones mentioning the delivery expected at that point. We hope that this process will result in high quality thesis worth show-casing.

In essence, we will integrate the seminar and the project components and se

IIIT Gets Electrified (Literally)

We have been on the campus for more than a week. We managed to keep a fact very secret: IIIT did not have electricity connection. We were getting electricity from the Contractor's Generator. He had two generators. We were getting electricity round the clock with the help of these two generators. 

It is a very curious thing in India that very basic things are very hard to get. Getting electricity connection, gas connection, phone connection are some of the very challenging aspects for an Indian citizen.

We could not get electricity connection because CESU and BDA were disputing over right to use of a Electricity Pole. Even though we were ready in every aspect, this dispute led to the delay. We had to persuade many government agencies. Finally on 14th Sept, IIIT got electricity.

Since we are in a rural place, the quality and reliability of the electricity is doubtful. Hence, we have already ordered for a DG set to fully support us in case the electricity fails.

Now, IIIT needs to get electrified figuratively. The energy has to be derived from the faculty and the students. Hence, my blog on electrification of IIIT will continue...

Two days after the D Day

On 5th Sept I got a call from our dean while on my way to the campus. He said that the campus bears a pathetic look and we are about to welcome our new students. When I reached the campus, I rushed to the 3rd floor where the student will be accommodated. The workers were fixing the dadoes, grinding the marble floor, the taps and fittings were missing from the toilets.

The parents were donning a very worried look. When I started talking to them, they expressed their concern over the state of the hostel. I tried to passify them with assurances. I and Ajit got into project management mode and told the project people about our priorities.

By evening, the partitions were ready, the taps were fitted, the toilets were ready, one unit of the dormitory with 11 cots was ready. The worried look of the parents was slowing giving way to assuring look. I came back early as I was part of panel discussion on IT leadership.

On 6th, I reached the campus early. I went to the Hostel first. I met the girls. I asked if they had any problems. They said no problems. I felt relieved. The students and the parents who came were not having a concerned look of the previous day. One of the guardians who came and left the previous day and visited again on 6th was looking delighted and expressed his satisfaction at the pace at we have completed the hostel.

On 7th, we had the orientation programme. I along with the faculty addressed the Students and their parents in the really large hall in the 2nd floor. We addressed the parents separately. We briefed the student on academics, labs, hostel life, library etc. The students looked curious and keen. The parents looked satisfied.

I feel that gambling on asking the students to arrive on 5th September was a good idea. The energy, enthusiasm of our staff and workers was amazing when they saw the students on the campus. Their concern for the student's well being was something to witness.

FYI, 5th September was Teacher's Day.

The D Day is tomorrow

We had announced that the date for arrival of the students in the campus is 5th Sept. That day is tomorrow. The student strength will now jump six fold.

We have asked the faculty to report in the Gothapatna Campus on 25th. We started relocating from OCAC to Gothapatna since Aug 31. We had already informed OCAC about our relocation plans.

The D Day is imminent now. Are we ready to welcome our students tomorrow. The answer is a very big yes and a very small no.

While many of the things we planned are in place, there are a few loose ends. Even though we had placed orders well in time, vendors have generally failed us on the delivery deadlines. The contractor has done his best. But a few few activities are still pending.

All the activities are 95% complete and only 5% is remaining. But I wish 95% of the activities were complete and only 5% activities were remaining.

But I hope that in a few days we will complete 100% of our activities.

I am excited about the new chapter about to begin in IIIT.