The first sign of the impending crisis appeared on our ATL day celebrations in Chennai. Our chief guest was a professor who was working for a research foundation. The topic of his talk was on the challenges of Brain Modeling. I was assigned the task of welcoming the participants to the program and passing on the baton to my colleague who would then introduce the chief guest – I did and he did. Then the professor started talking. That talk opened my eyes – figuratively of course, for the temptation to close my eyes for a second was hard at fight with the inner voice chastising and later ridiculing me on how far I had moved away from science.
Word after word that the professor uttered sounded like nails on the coffin of my self-esteem. The first nail was ‘mitochondria’ and later RNA, synapses and so on and on. By the time he mentioned ‘Golgi bodies’ I was prepared to dig my own grave, get into the coffin after handing over the shovel to my friends in the room (Now don’t ask me how I could enter a coffin that had already been nailed. When a person is extremely disturbed, she tends to mix metaphors). Anyway, when the lecture finally ended after a seemingly never ending 1.5 hours, people in the room were comatose. Some looked like they had been attacked by Dementors while others merely saw the end of the speech as a chance to rush to the pantry to get coffee.
Little did I realize that my brush with science and technology had just begun!! One good thing that this talk did was to make me realize what I had been missing. I had once been in love with science – all parts of it and with time I had moved away from it completely.
The second bout of the attack occurred last week, when I was in Bangalore for the ATL day celebrations there. A few professors from MIT were coming down to talk about their research. The venue was full with over 100 people participating. These sessions were a little better and I could at least understand bits and pieces of what was happening, mainly due to 2 reasons:
a. The first speaker focused more on the applications of his research and although the title (The Inner Beauty of Computational Enhanced Systems) was intimidating, the talk was not. I consider attending a session of value, if I am able to ask at least one question at the end of it and I was able to ask one
b. The second speaker spoke more on market trends and although his topic (Driving Digital Transformation ) sounded like the talk was to do with technology, it was more like a Market Analyst talk.
These 2 talks had lessened my initial fear of attending the EmTech conference that was scheduled for the next 2 days. All the others in my team were attending the conference. I was initially a little worried of coming across as a complete fool while attending this conference , especially in the company of mostly Ph.Ds and veterans in the technology area (I don’t worry too much about being a fool, only about coming across as one!!).
However as I said, when I found that even professors from MIT are human (not that I ever thought they were inhuman, but you know what I mean), I decided, that come what may, I will attend this conference and ask at least one question in one of the sessions. I have had good practice in asking seemingly relevant questions on topics that I have no understanding off, merely by catching some keywords mentioned in the talk. This practice dates back to the time I attended Physics lectures in college and learnt to sleep with my eyes wide open. (Since this information will be presented in more detail in my autobiography, it is ok not to note this down for your reference).
A few in my team had attended the conference in the past and while there were some scattered memories of past sessions, the memory of the food served was fairly decent. The conference was to be held at ITC Gardenia and the food was supposedly good. What more motivation does a technology enthusiast like me need to attend it?
The conference was backed by MIT and so most speakers for the conference were from MIT. The morning’s session started with the welcome address followed by a talk by an MIT professor and no points for guessing that this was the same person who spoke at our office. It was amazing to watch the entire speech unfold before us. I could not believe what was happening. This was the talk on Digital Transformation and like a trained performer, the professor spoke the exact same words that he spoke in the talk at my company! Even the jokes and the sequence in which they appeared was exactly the same. I was thinking of how stand-up comedians like Russell Peters use the same routines everywhere they go. If you have watched it once, you have watched it a hundred times.
After the first few keynotes, the sessions were divided into 2 parts. One part was the innovations track and the other was the technology track. The focus this time was on Healthcare on day 1 and Energy on day 2. We attended a few sessions on both tracks and on both domains. There were also short (15 min) presentations by winners of the TR35 innovation awards sponsored by my company. These winners were mostly young innovators, who were mostly researchers, who had come up with innovative solutions in different streams. I saw the presentations by a few of these innovators.By now, my skin was sufficiently thickened and I had learnt to ignore the constant taunts of my inner voice. As a result, I was not thinking about what I had and had not achieved, but was genuinely happy and taken in by some of the innovations (those that I understood at least).
The highlight of day 1, was a talk by a person who had formerly worked in NASA. ‘Unassuming’ is the word that instantly springs to mind if I have to describe the gentleman. As he waited on the stage for a couple of seconds, he appeared perfectly ordinary and seemed to be one of those many people who talk in a dull monotone – the kind of voice that is perfectly suitable as a background for a post-lunch siesta, but definitely unsuited for a thought provoking conversation in a technology conference. All these thoughts and presumptions occurred before he even spoke a word. But the minute he started talking, he had the entire audience captivated. I have often felt, that great people are often very simple. This person was no exception. The audience were in love with him and his wonderful sense of sarcastic humour. He delivered most of the jokes with a deadpan expression, but what shone in between the jokes, was his passion for his city and the work he had done with the toughest collaborator of all – the local government and that made him better than Superman. While he listed out project after project he had rolled out for Bangalore – the motivation for each project, the work involved and the benefit of the project, we were mesmerized. At the end of his talk, the hall burst into applause and the talk received the longest ovation of the event.
Many of us decided to leave after this talk, even though another discussion with an eminent professor was announced. None of us wanted our high spirits to be disturbed after listening to that awesome speech. The next day started with another repeat speech. This one, by the person who spoke on Computational Enhanced Systems. I sort of slept through the session.
The rest of the sessions were alternatively very interesting- like the talk by a professor on cochlear implants and retinal implants and another towards the end about sensors- and not so interesting – and I would rather not mention the titles here.
My moment of achievement came during one of the sessions on Smart Energy. Since I had been reading about Smart Grids and Smart metering in the recent past, I was able to ask a question on how we were doing in India with regards to this technology. While one of the previous speakers thought I was being sarcastic (although I usually am, but he would not know that!!) and became defensive saying we had a lot of the necessary systems in place, the speaker from GE Energy, to whom this question was addressed, gave a more diplomatic (and to me very sensible) answer that since the Indian setup is very different from the rest of world, we may have to redefine Smart Energy to suit our country.
The day’s sessions wound up by 4:30 pm. We had used all the time given in between under the heading of networking to network within ourselves and getting to know each other better.
If I have to list down lessons learnt from this workshop, they would be as follows :
Word after word that the professor uttered sounded like nails on the coffin of my self-esteem. The first nail was ‘mitochondria’ and later RNA, synapses and so on and on. By the time he mentioned ‘Golgi bodies’ I was prepared to dig my own grave, get into the coffin after handing over the shovel to my friends in the room (Now don’t ask me how I could enter a coffin that had already been nailed. When a person is extremely disturbed, she tends to mix metaphors). Anyway, when the lecture finally ended after a seemingly never ending 1.5 hours, people in the room were comatose. Some looked like they had been attacked by Dementors while others merely saw the end of the speech as a chance to rush to the pantry to get coffee.
Little did I realize that my brush with science and technology had just begun!! One good thing that this talk did was to make me realize what I had been missing. I had once been in love with science – all parts of it and with time I had moved away from it completely.
The second bout of the attack occurred last week, when I was in Bangalore for the ATL day celebrations there. A few professors from MIT were coming down to talk about their research. The venue was full with over 100 people participating. These sessions were a little better and I could at least understand bits and pieces of what was happening, mainly due to 2 reasons:
a. The first speaker focused more on the applications of his research and although the title (The Inner Beauty of Computational Enhanced Systems) was intimidating, the talk was not. I consider attending a session of value, if I am able to ask at least one question at the end of it and I was able to ask one
b. The second speaker spoke more on market trends and although his topic (Driving Digital Transformation ) sounded like the talk was to do with technology, it was more like a Market Analyst talk.
These 2 talks had lessened my initial fear of attending the EmTech conference that was scheduled for the next 2 days. All the others in my team were attending the conference. I was initially a little worried of coming across as a complete fool while attending this conference , especially in the company of mostly Ph.Ds and veterans in the technology area (I don’t worry too much about being a fool, only about coming across as one!!).
However as I said, when I found that even professors from MIT are human (not that I ever thought they were inhuman, but you know what I mean), I decided, that come what may, I will attend this conference and ask at least one question in one of the sessions. I have had good practice in asking seemingly relevant questions on topics that I have no understanding off, merely by catching some keywords mentioned in the talk. This practice dates back to the time I attended Physics lectures in college and learnt to sleep with my eyes wide open. (Since this information will be presented in more detail in my autobiography, it is ok not to note this down for your reference).
A few in my team had attended the conference in the past and while there were some scattered memories of past sessions, the memory of the food served was fairly decent. The conference was to be held at ITC Gardenia and the food was supposedly good. What more motivation does a technology enthusiast like me need to attend it?
The conference was backed by MIT and so most speakers for the conference were from MIT. The morning’s session started with the welcome address followed by a talk by an MIT professor and no points for guessing that this was the same person who spoke at our office. It was amazing to watch the entire speech unfold before us. I could not believe what was happening. This was the talk on Digital Transformation and like a trained performer, the professor spoke the exact same words that he spoke in the talk at my company! Even the jokes and the sequence in which they appeared was exactly the same. I was thinking of how stand-up comedians like Russell Peters use the same routines everywhere they go. If you have watched it once, you have watched it a hundred times.
After the first few keynotes, the sessions were divided into 2 parts. One part was the innovations track and the other was the technology track. The focus this time was on Healthcare on day 1 and Energy on day 2. We attended a few sessions on both tracks and on both domains. There were also short (15 min) presentations by winners of the TR35 innovation awards sponsored by my company. These winners were mostly young innovators, who were mostly researchers, who had come up with innovative solutions in different streams. I saw the presentations by a few of these innovators.By now, my skin was sufficiently thickened and I had learnt to ignore the constant taunts of my inner voice. As a result, I was not thinking about what I had and had not achieved, but was genuinely happy and taken in by some of the innovations (those that I understood at least).
The highlight of day 1, was a talk by a person who had formerly worked in NASA. ‘Unassuming’ is the word that instantly springs to mind if I have to describe the gentleman. As he waited on the stage for a couple of seconds, he appeared perfectly ordinary and seemed to be one of those many people who talk in a dull monotone – the kind of voice that is perfectly suitable as a background for a post-lunch siesta, but definitely unsuited for a thought provoking conversation in a technology conference. All these thoughts and presumptions occurred before he even spoke a word. But the minute he started talking, he had the entire audience captivated. I have often felt, that great people are often very simple. This person was no exception. The audience were in love with him and his wonderful sense of sarcastic humour. He delivered most of the jokes with a deadpan expression, but what shone in between the jokes, was his passion for his city and the work he had done with the toughest collaborator of all – the local government and that made him better than Superman. While he listed out project after project he had rolled out for Bangalore – the motivation for each project, the work involved and the benefit of the project, we were mesmerized. At the end of his talk, the hall burst into applause and the talk received the longest ovation of the event.
Many of us decided to leave after this talk, even though another discussion with an eminent professor was announced. None of us wanted our high spirits to be disturbed after listening to that awesome speech. The next day started with another repeat speech. This one, by the person who spoke on Computational Enhanced Systems. I sort of slept through the session.
The rest of the sessions were alternatively very interesting- like the talk by a professor on cochlear implants and retinal implants and another towards the end about sensors- and not so interesting – and I would rather not mention the titles here.
My moment of achievement came during one of the sessions on Smart Energy. Since I had been reading about Smart Grids and Smart metering in the recent past, I was able to ask a question on how we were doing in India with regards to this technology. While one of the previous speakers thought I was being sarcastic (although I usually am, but he would not know that!!) and became defensive saying we had a lot of the necessary systems in place, the speaker from GE Energy, to whom this question was addressed, gave a more diplomatic (and to me very sensible) answer that since the Indian setup is very different from the rest of world, we may have to redefine Smart Energy to suit our country.
The day’s sessions wound up by 4:30 pm. We had used all the time given in between under the heading of networking to network within ourselves and getting to know each other better.
If I have to list down lessons learnt from this workshop, they would be as follows :
- Great scientists are not always great talkers and vice-versa
- True greatness and simplicity usually go hand-in-hand
- Age has nothing to do with the ability to innovate and see new solutions to old problems
- Innovations are not necessarily life-saving or groundbreaking – they just need a fresh perspective to normal things – one of the speakers spoke about a new business venture that provides people with the ability to send money using the mobile phone. This has been implemented in many villages in the supposedly remote corners of Bihar.
- To many Indians, networking means talking to one’s own colleagues
- A speech cannot be (and should not be) a series of ‘sort-of’ and/or ‘like, you know’ interspersed with a few other words
- There is no shame in waiting in long queues for the dessert, especially when the food is free
- Indians who have spent a even a few months in America, speak with a heavier American accent than people born and brought up in the US
- Many women are extremely talented and can walk and sometimes even run with very high-heeled shoes
- I still have the capacity to sit and listen to a completely obscure topic and to try and understand at least parts of it
No comments:
Post a Comment