From the beginning, IIIT is designed to be a residential campus. When we announced out B. Tech. Programme a couple of weeks ago, the foundation casting of the hostel was being done. There is no way the hostel will be ready by 1st Sept when classes will begin.
Parents of a lot of candidates called us about hostel accommodation. Our answer was that there is no hostel accommodation on the campus till 2nd Sem, but we are trying. We wrote a letter to the Government requesting them to allot a few flats. That request is still in progress.
Some parents of girls meanwhile argued that since they are not from Bhubaneswar, they will have a very hard time finding accommodation. They also raised the issue of security and safety. I completely agreed with them. I discussed the issue with Prof. Ajit K Das and Siddharth. We decided to scout for hostel accommodation in the City last weekend. While accommodation was available, the conditions were not satisfactory. IIIT can not lend its name to such accommodation. I told Siddharth to find alternatives.
Siddarth came up with a bright idea. The 3rd Floor of the Academic Building is ready but unfinished. We were not planning to use this space in the first year. Why not provide dormitory accommodation in the first semester in that space. We thought about it. The more we thought about it more we liked the idea. There are several plus points: safe and hygienic accommodation, no travel, etc.
It is not the same as providing our regular Hostel Accommodation but far better than staying in some shabby place in the city. We will provide a bed, table and a chair to the students. About 11 students will be accommodated in a room. We should be able to accommodate able to accommodate about 180 students.
I hope that the students and their parents will appreciate our efforts. In a few months the hostel will be ready and the Dormitory accommodation will be a thing of the past.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
My encounter with our First B.Tech. Student
Today, in my office a mother and a daughter came looking very dejected. They informed me that the girl has already taken admission in IIIT in the JEE counselling process. I was alarmed to see their dejected face. I wanted to know the reason.
The girl informed me that she came to know about the IIIT Fee after taking admission and found the fee very high. She wanted our help in any way. We tried to explain our fee structure and then wrote a letter to the JEE authorities requesting them to inform the students about our fee structure before they exercise their choice. I also requested the JEE authorities to give the girl one more chance to choose her institute and branch.
I joined for B.Tech. 30 years ago in IIT Kharagpur. The tuition fee was about Rs 200 year and I used spend about Rs. 250 a month on boarding and lodging. Looks very cheap today. My father who was a teacher used earn about Rs. 500 per month. The point is that Engineering education was very expensive those days inspite of near-zero tuition fees. After three years when my brother also took admission in Burla, nothing was left from the salary to feed our family.
About 10 years ago, I was the admission coordinator in XIMB. The institute decided to raise the fees to provide computers and other facilities to the students. I was not sure if the students will accept such a sudden hike. During the admission interviews, I tried to gauge the reactions of the students to this proposal. To my utter surprise, the typical reaction was that if it is going to improve the quality of the education, we will pay; we have not come here to cut cost but to get quality education.
Today, the earning capacity of the general public is a lot more. The middle class values education and hence is willing to spend if it means you get quality education. Look at the fees charged by the IIMs and craze to join these Institutes.
IIIT is a government Institute. The general perception is that in a Government Institute education should be free. Hence, some students and parents are surprised by our proposed fee structure.
IIITs operates with a different paradigm. The government funds us for the capital expenses like the Building etc. The revenue expenses are to be self generated. The faculty has be very good. You will not get good faculty unless they are paid well. The facilities have to be good. The atmosphere has to be eclectic and any visitor must experience inspired creativity in the campus. To achieve this, one needs finances. The finances may come from the Government or from the students. In case of IIITs, second option is chosen.
The students will get education which will be best in its class. We are confident that the time students will spend here will remain the high point of their life.
The girl informed me that she came to know about the IIIT Fee after taking admission and found the fee very high. She wanted our help in any way. We tried to explain our fee structure and then wrote a letter to the JEE authorities requesting them to inform the students about our fee structure before they exercise their choice. I also requested the JEE authorities to give the girl one more chance to choose her institute and branch.
I joined for B.Tech. 30 years ago in IIT Kharagpur. The tuition fee was about Rs 200 year and I used spend about Rs. 250 a month on boarding and lodging. Looks very cheap today. My father who was a teacher used earn about Rs. 500 per month. The point is that Engineering education was very expensive those days inspite of near-zero tuition fees. After three years when my brother also took admission in Burla, nothing was left from the salary to feed our family.
About 10 years ago, I was the admission coordinator in XIMB. The institute decided to raise the fees to provide computers and other facilities to the students. I was not sure if the students will accept such a sudden hike. During the admission interviews, I tried to gauge the reactions of the students to this proposal. To my utter surprise, the typical reaction was that if it is going to improve the quality of the education, we will pay; we have not come here to cut cost but to get quality education.
Today, the earning capacity of the general public is a lot more. The middle class values education and hence is willing to spend if it means you get quality education. Look at the fees charged by the IIMs and craze to join these Institutes.
IIIT is a government Institute. The general perception is that in a Government Institute education should be free. Hence, some students and parents are surprised by our proposed fee structure.
IIITs operates with a different paradigm. The government funds us for the capital expenses like the Building etc. The revenue expenses are to be self generated. The faculty has be very good. You will not get good faculty unless they are paid well. The facilities have to be good. The atmosphere has to be eclectic and any visitor must experience inspired creativity in the campus. To achieve this, one needs finances. The finances may come from the Government or from the students. In case of IIITs, second option is chosen.
The students will get education which will be best in its class. We are confident that the time students will spend here will remain the high point of their life.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Remote Desktop
I have been a fan of Serverside computing for ages.
In XIMB and IIIT, we used thin clients using RDP protocol to access a windows server. It works really cool. It reduces our maintenance efforts to a great extent.
I always wondered if a Linux desktop can be shared in a similar fashion.
The common Xserver software available are not very elegant. In any case they do not give you a desktop.
I came across nomachine (http://nomachine.com) which permits a similar functionality as RDP. It has a free version of the software. I have been playing with by installing the server on a Ubuntu Box and the client on a Windows box. The performance is good.
In XIMB and IIIT, we used thin clients using RDP protocol to access a windows server. It works really cool. It reduces our maintenance efforts to a great extent.
I always wondered if a Linux desktop can be shared in a similar fashion.
The common Xserver software available are not very elegant. In any case they do not give you a desktop.
I came across nomachine (http://nomachine.com) which permits a similar functionality as RDP. It has a free version of the software. I have been playing with by installing the server on a Ubuntu Box and the client on a Windows box. The performance is good.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
AICTE Approval
Finally, we have got AICTE approval to start B.Tech. Programme. It is a milestone for IIIT Bhubaneswar.
Three years ago we made a promise to create an Institute of national Importance. For an Institute so young it was a grand vision. We laid the road map. Start M.Tech in 2007. Start Building the campus in 2008. Start B. Tech. in 2009. We have achieved each of these mile stones. Every one lent a helping hand. The Government of Orissa, AICTE, the contractor, our own faculty members, students and our staff have helped us in achieving this.
Now, we will go through the admission process for B.Tech. programme.
The tougher part starts now. The kids who will join us are to be moulded to be the among the best in the country. After the bureaucratic success, we are determined to achieve the real one that is create the best engineering brains for the country.
Three years ago we made a promise to create an Institute of national Importance. For an Institute so young it was a grand vision. We laid the road map. Start M.Tech in 2007. Start Building the campus in 2008. Start B. Tech. in 2009. We have achieved each of these mile stones. Every one lent a helping hand. The Government of Orissa, AICTE, the contractor, our own faculty members, students and our staff have helped us in achieving this.
Now, we will go through the admission process for B.Tech. programme.
The tougher part starts now. The kids who will join us are to be moulded to be the among the best in the country. After the bureaucratic success, we are determined to achieve the real one that is create the best engineering brains for the country.
Friday, May 29, 2009
M. Tech. Projects
Long ago, an M.Tech curriculum consisted of 3 Semesters. Two of them involved course work and the last one involved working in an industry environment.
Even the B. Tech. programme involved summer projects in the second and the third year.
Over the years the student community has grown exponentially. The companies find it hard to accommodate students in such large numbers as useful projects in such large numbers is a problem. Moreover, the students complain about lack of seriousness of the company for the summer project.
The other option is to work with an project with a research bend. Working with literature, addressing a problem of current interest would help a student to work towards Ph.D.
It is moot point to consider: whether a post-graduate student (especially a Computer Science Student) is doing justice to his education by working with an project in a company or working with an academic project.
If one wonders what can come out of an M.Tech. Project, consider Google's page rank technology which was an MS project.
My feeling is that in the absence of a worthwhile project from the industry, a project of academic nature will add a lot more value to the students.
Even the B. Tech. programme involved summer projects in the second and the third year.
Over the years the student community has grown exponentially. The companies find it hard to accommodate students in such large numbers as useful projects in such large numbers is a problem. Moreover, the students complain about lack of seriousness of the company for the summer project.
The other option is to work with an project with a research bend. Working with literature, addressing a problem of current interest would help a student to work towards Ph.D.
It is moot point to consider: whether a post-graduate student (especially a Computer Science Student) is doing justice to his education by working with an project in a company or working with an academic project.
If one wonders what can come out of an M.Tech. Project, consider Google's page rank technology which was an MS project.
My feeling is that in the absence of a worthwhile project from the industry, a project of academic nature will add a lot more value to the students.
Monday, May 18, 2009
A New Government in Place
Today, the sensex jumped 2000 points to hit the circuit breaker in Bombay. This was exuberance exhibited by the market to the new government about to be installed in Delhi.
Last election around the same time, the sesex shed about 25% or 1500 points to the news of the government being elected.
It is good news for everyone.
A good stock market improves consumer confidence and consumer spending. This helps the companies to sell more, raise more funds, and generally do good business. Good business helps IT companies to sell their services. That results in a booming market for IT professionals. That is good news.
However, this election is remarkable in many ways. The EVMs are a huge success. The results were declared in about half a days time. In the past, it used to take days for declaring the results. Pronnoy Roy used to excel the analysing the data slowly. The new media such as Internet, SMS, Voice mails were are used extensively by the parties. However, BJP which used it more extensively than any other party had to bite dust. It just shows that the message is more important than the medium. In this elections, many old guards lost. Perhaps the citizens are asking for a young leadership.
I hope that the exuberance spreads to other parts of the society and economy and the cheers come back to the millions.
Last election around the same time, the sesex shed about 25% or 1500 points to the news of the government being elected.
It is good news for everyone.
A good stock market improves consumer confidence and consumer spending. This helps the companies to sell more, raise more funds, and generally do good business. Good business helps IT companies to sell their services. That results in a booming market for IT professionals. That is good news.
However, this election is remarkable in many ways. The EVMs are a huge success. The results were declared in about half a days time. In the past, it used to take days for declaring the results. Pronnoy Roy used to excel the analysing the data slowly. The new media such as Internet, SMS, Voice mails were are used extensively by the parties. However, BJP which used it more extensively than any other party had to bite dust. It just shows that the message is more important than the medium. In this elections, many old guards lost. Perhaps the citizens are asking for a young leadership.
I hope that the exuberance spreads to other parts of the society and economy and the cheers come back to the millions.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Oracle and Sun Merger
After many days of rumours of IBM and Sun merger, we hear the news that Oracle will take over Sun.
It is amazing how iconic technology companies just fail to do business and eventually survive. I can think of Digital Equipment Company (DEC) which along with IBM, Unisys etc started the computer revolution. Among many products they had worth mentioning are, Operating System VMS, PDP Mini computers, Alpha Superfast microprocessors. When the PC revolution started, they lost market and were taken over by Compaq. It is unimaginable for me that Compaq a PC box seller would take over a true technology company like Digital. Compaq was a great marketing company but hardly a great technology company. Then, HP took over Compaq. Digital technologies are now part of HP. However, one finds no information of VMS, Alpha, or Digital Unix. All these products have been laid to rest.
Sun is a special company as one of its founders was Vinod Khosla, an Indian. In many ways it resembles Digital. It has its own microprocessor - Sparc, its own OS - Solaris, its own Hardware etc. Interestingly, Sun has promoted Java - the most popular development platform. Sun did amazigly well during the DotCom Boom. It had acquired Staroffice and started open source project Open Office. It has acquired Mysql, a popular and formidable database. However, one of the problems of Sun was anti-Microsoft stance. Scott McNealy wanted to kill Microsoft. Many of the Sun's projects were designed to be Microsoft Killers not revenue earners. Someone commeneted IBM made more money out of Java than Sun. How Ironic!
There is raging debate on implication of Suns acquition on its Open Source Projects specially MySql and Open Office. My feeling is that MySql will not be killed. In India, we had the case study of Coca Cola acquiring Thumsup. Thumsup still survives after nearly 20 years of acquition. If Oracle tries to kill MySql, it will assume a new avatar and survive.
However, there are lessons to be learnt from Sun travesty. More on these lessons another day.
It is amazing how iconic technology companies just fail to do business and eventually survive. I can think of Digital Equipment Company (DEC) which along with IBM, Unisys etc started the computer revolution. Among many products they had worth mentioning are, Operating System VMS, PDP Mini computers, Alpha Superfast microprocessors. When the PC revolution started, they lost market and were taken over by Compaq. It is unimaginable for me that Compaq a PC box seller would take over a true technology company like Digital. Compaq was a great marketing company but hardly a great technology company. Then, HP took over Compaq. Digital technologies are now part of HP. However, one finds no information of VMS, Alpha, or Digital Unix. All these products have been laid to rest.
Sun is a special company as one of its founders was Vinod Khosla, an Indian. In many ways it resembles Digital. It has its own microprocessor - Sparc, its own OS - Solaris, its own Hardware etc. Interestingly, Sun has promoted Java - the most popular development platform. Sun did amazigly well during the DotCom Boom. It had acquired Staroffice and started open source project Open Office. It has acquired Mysql, a popular and formidable database. However, one of the problems of Sun was anti-Microsoft stance. Scott McNealy wanted to kill Microsoft. Many of the Sun's projects were designed to be Microsoft Killers not revenue earners. Someone commeneted IBM made more money out of Java than Sun. How Ironic!
There is raging debate on implication of Suns acquition on its Open Source Projects specially MySql and Open Office. My feeling is that MySql will not be killed. In India, we had the case study of Coca Cola acquiring Thumsup. Thumsup still survives after nearly 20 years of acquition. If Oracle tries to kill MySql, it will assume a new avatar and survive.
However, there are lessons to be learnt from Sun travesty. More on these lessons another day.
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