Phase II kickoff successful

We're pleased to share with all of you that the Phase II of Project Embryo has been kicked off successfully.

Since this semester started on Aug 1, we have organized 3 sessions

1. MS/Phd - Overview of Higher Studies (Sagnik Nandy from Bay Area)
2. MBA Admissions - ISB (Subramanian K from Bangalore)
3. MBA Admissions - IIMs (Madhurjya Banerjee from Bangalore)

The response has been overwhelming - with 150-200 students attending each session. Each session was 60-90 mins including QnA

Here is a photo of the classroom as we could see here
http://www.bitsembryo.org/images/lectures/2006_08_12_msphd_sagnik.jpg

Project Goals:

1. Short Term: The short term goal for this semester is to conduct 25 lectures in various topics (list is on the website). We're working with Prof Banerjee and the Embryo Club on-campus to schedule these lectures.

2. Medium Term: (a) The core part of the project is to conduct video-conferencing lectures from all over the world. We're planning to iron out all operational issues and set a process in stone during this semester. (b) We're also building up a bigger team, specially on campus, to help run the project. (c) We plan to get the word out there to all alumni through publications like Sandpaper and encourage them to contribute

3. Long Term: Bring alumni much closer to the students and faculty, and we hope this interaction will lead to sharing of knowledge and experience, and collaborative research projects.

We are thankful to all the alumni who have agreed to spend their valuable time to talk to advise students. We also wish to thank Prof Banerjee, Stueti, Virendra and Embryo Club team at BITS for a great execution at the BITS end. We also wish to thank Prof Maheshwari and all Deans and BITSAA BODs for their help, encouragement and support.

We hope that with our combined efforts, we'll bring the trio - alumni, students and faculty - much more closer.

-Shashi

BITSAA video during orientation

Not many years back... orientation... a panel used to sit on a dias, make their way into the new comers' mind... last year a step forward was taken... ppts were arranged.... year 2006 a video made it's way into the auditorium, first of it's kind for any official reasons.
when we entered the audi, there was this long session of Q&A, on asking around about the video presentation, the students said that it would be next. So the one-liner mentioned in the orientation notice worked and they did sit for that.
the 18 min video had a short intro by GSu (Dean SWD), "a video to portray initiatives by BITS Alumni who are already famous and who are going to be famous".
the video started smoothly...about 400 junta present in the audi was glued to it, inspite of the already 1 1/2 session from 2.30PM.
then came the glitch. the audio and video just matched the context and not the lips of the speaker, for the whole of the video. but we can say that the excellent audio clarity covered it all. the video content was well sequenced, intros were crisp and catchy.
the best part of the video was "Proud to be a BITSian".... ofcourse the end..'purani jeans......'
On asking some students after we came out, they seemed to be very enthued about BITSAA activities, some said, "they are now very enthued and proud to be a part of this family and would definitely look forward to be a part of the activities". Few felt that this whole issue was about connecting BITSians.
All in all...a great show!!!!!!!

--
Stueti

Micro Multinationals

My first experience with globally distributed teams was when I was working as the tech guy for researchers in the Design Group at Stanford. The DIDET project aimed to integrate technologies to enable students to participate in globally distributed team-based design engineering projects.

My second experience with globally distributed teams has been while leading Embryo. In a span of a 3 months, this fascinating project has brought together more than 25 BITSians across 6 timezones to deliver lectures on emerging topics to BITS students. Working in a core team spread across the globe has its own challenges, but it also has its own fun. The execution of Embryo is an example of a micro multinational - a small group of motivated, people physically distant but connected to each other by technology working towards a common goal. The team , no doubt, has done a fantastic job!

The most interesting thing I have learnt from this project is how fondly BITS Alumni everywhere feel about BITS Pilani and how motivated they are to help BITS grow. The idea of sharing knowledge and experience in a live conference with juniors has struck a cord with many. In the Ist semester 2006-07, we're setting the tone with 25+ lectures, and hope to do more in the coming semesters.

Shashi
http://www.bitsembryo.org

Sweet are the fruits of success

After the initial success of live streaming of BITSAA-SVC panel discussion a month back, it was time for doing just exactly why embryo was formed for - conduct lectures. Encouragements from BITS faculty, especially Prof Rahul Banerjee and the GLs we got permission to conduct lectures for CS/IS and Mech junta on Sunday. The green signal spurred off the volunteers both here and at Pilani, arranging rooms, getting audience, testing technologies etc. etc.

Fast forward one month, yesterday it felt awesome. I gave my first research talk to BITS students - an audience which was thousands of miles sitting in a familiar remote corner of earth. Undergraduates, MEites and some professors (Dr. Kodali) sat and heard and saw me over internet, and asked questions. I could see them too! The lecture went off without any major hitch. It was an awesome feeling, standing on the other side of class, virtually and sharing my ideas and experiences with them. Cool.

If my note got you inspired to contribute - do visit www.bitsaa-svc.org/embryo/ you will be amazed by what the synergy between a bunch of enthued alumni and encouraging BITS Faculty can do for students at BITS.

Shilpa
97A4

Embryo project showcased at BITSAA - Silicon Valley Reunion

We were looking to launch the Embryo project with a bang. The choice of event couldn't have been better - 7th Annual Reunion of BITSAA – Silicon Valley Chapter. Featuring a panel discussion on "Power of the BITSAA network for the BITSian Entrepreneur".

We decided to stream this event *LIVE* to Pilani. We floated the idea around and it was very well received. Prof. Rahul Banerjee provided some guidance and appointed Virendra Nirban from BITS faculty as PoC.

Several dry runs later, we were confidant to publicize the event. CEL at BITS did a good job of motivating students to attend the event at 7:30 in the morning with just one day to go for APOGEE inaug!

Seeing is believing - was the right phrase to describe the day of reunion. 230 alumni across the Bay Area communicating video conferencing live with a classroom full of students at Pilani!

Moving forward, we would like to iron out the remaining technical issues and make this concept scalable. Our aim is to enable any alumni in any corner of the globe to communicate live to Pilani.

Watch out for this space for more updates. This project is going to change the way teaching is done at BITS, Pilani!

Mayur Shah
97B5A3XXX

Launching Embryo

I am Shashikant 97A7093. I graduated from BITS almost 4 and a half years back – which actually seems like a pretty long time right now, but interestingly I can still remember my new wing downstairs facing mess, and the pramod redi, and IPC, and the saraswati mandir, and the “other mandir” i.e. the meera bhawan as clearly as if it were yesterday.

What I’m going to tell you today is a new concept that some of us alumni are envisioning for you guys on campus to try and introduce you to cutting edge research topics in different areas.

We graduated from BITS – some of us went for MS and PhD, some others went for MBA. I myself worked for a year or so at INSEAD in France, then did my MS in computer science from Stanford, and am leading the research team in a startup right now. All of us have gained expertise in different areas during these years – artificial intelligence, GPS, internet search, six sigma, optical networks, finance and what not, and we’re looking into our future.

But frequently, when we get together and talk about the good old days, we feel that one of the most important things that was lacking for us in BITS was knowledge about the cutting edge research in the different fields. We all played hard and worked hard, but more or less, we studied and worked on moderately old technology or on what was available. When we went to grad level programs, we were suddenly exposed to a whole gamut of new fields of study. And many a time we wonder – how great it would have been if we had known these things while at BITS! Maybe we would have selected out BE projects better. Maybe we would have apped to higher universities because of better projects. Basically, we would have had a better idea of what our interests are earlier in life.

We don’t want our sidie’s undie’s id-pop’s great grand son having to face the same difficulty again. So, some of us got together and decided to do something about it. We thought we could try and share all the knowledge that we have gained here with you guys through the medium of small talks – video or powerpoint. Every week or so, one of us would talk about his research area, his university, or his experiences. We would also collect these talks and put them up on the BITS intranet where you guys can access it whenever you want to. Most of these are intended for 3rd yearites and psenti-semites, but there is nothing stopping a zesty 2nd yearite from starting early.

This is the project that we’re calling “Embryo”. We’re calling it embryo because we think our talks will act as seeds, which, when its your turn to do research, will grow into tall trees and lead to pushing the frontiers in these fields.

What we will do for you is to give you a high level view of a broad research area in a field – e.g. web search in computer science. What we will not do for you is to teach the topics in detail and bore you like a prof. What we expect from you is that if you have interest, you follow up the topic, research the net, and take up a project with one of your profs at BITS.

So wish you all the best guys, and hope you find this stuff useful.

http://www.bitsembryo.org

Shashi
97A7