Authors and bylines – Academia effects ? December 17, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in contemplation, education, media.3 comments
In a comment to my post on why I am not too enthusiastic about anonymously authored blogs, Sudhir raises an interesting question, one that did not occur to me when I wrote the post. He asks:
I’m just left wondering if a persons identity has such an impact on a reader. I’ve never really given it any thought before! We probably cannot take anonymous bloggers too seriously because we cannot draw a mental picture of what they look like. Having said that I never seem to look for a journalists name in the newspaper even if i really enjoyed the content. Do you? just curious..
Yes, No and Sometimes.
“No” for news reports, “Yes” for analysis and opinion pieces that are either very moving or are on polarizing topics. And then there is an non-deterministic component that I will categorize under “sometimes” – where I look up for no particular reason. There are also times when it works the other way around – where you go scouting for articles by certain columnists and journalists. Too many to name they are, but as regular blog readers would know they are mostly from the NYTimes, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Hindu, Slate, Outlook, Livemint and The Pioneer.
So yeah, the identity matters. Why ?
I don’t know if this has got to do something with spending some time in academia/grad school where you talk of research papers and results in terms of the authors and groups/labs/locations and often over 15% of the paper content is “saying who said what before you say what you intend to say.” Any serious, life long academics want to weigh in on that ? 
What do you think ?
Superachievers – Attention parents !! November 20, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in education.6 comments
The 2008 Rhodes Scholars announced. Look through these profiles of these superachievers to get a picture of just how high the standards are.
I could not quite find too similar a list for the Indian scholars though. This is the best I could. (2007 winners)
Some more tidbits here.
She has a perfect academic record at MIT — A’s in all her courses, including linguistics and fiction reading — and plans to study immunology. Of course, she’s practically an expert already, having worked in six laboratories and designed a device that isolates white blood cells to better understand how the human body reacts to injury.
Thats Melis Anahtar at 21.
This section of Cecil Rhodes’ will is telling indeed.
My desire being that the students who shall be elected to the Scholarships shall not be merely bookworms I direct that in the election of a scholarship regard shall be had to (i) his literary and scholastic attainments (ii) his fondness of and success in manly outdoor sports such as cricket football and the like (iii) his qualities of manhood truth courage devotion to duty sympathy for and protection of the weak kindliness unselfishness and fellowship and (iv) his exhibition during school days of moral force of character and of instincts to lead and to take an interest in his school-mates for those latter attributes will be likely in afterlife to guide him to esteem the performance of public duties as his highest aim.
For the forever nitpicking, forever aggrieved ones, don’t fret, for here is what you were expecting
The words ‘manhood’ and ‘manly’ were removed when the law was changed to throw open the scholarships to both sexes.
Actually, I would interested in reading their parents’ profiles as well. Seriously, nothing sarcastic about it. I think parents have a big role to play here because this scholarship is not just about being brilliant or even a genius – its about doing lots of very different things and doing them well. I would think it is a totally different kind of achievement and wager that its also a rather poor predictor of Nobel Laureates (the hard sciences), Field Medalists (‘The Math Nobel’) and Turing Award winners (‘ The Computer Science Nobel’).
Assorted Links today October 14, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in America, assorted, education, people, politics, videos.add a comment
Most cheeky question yesterday on Mankiw Chacha’s blog :
Question to think about: If right-wingers are underrepresented in universities relative to the population and discriminated against by the left-wing majority, as Larry suggests, should there be affirmative action for right-leaning academics? It seems that, on principle, those on the left (who favor affirmative action to promote diversity and correct past injustice) should endorse such a university policy, and those on the right (who more often oppose affirmative action) would be against.
Weirdly, the comments section has been disabled for all posts on his blog.
~~~
You are probably familiar with the “XXXX for Dummies” series. Its interesting that last week I saw a “Doing Business in India” for Dummies book. It means something.
Somewhat on similar lines, the Financial Times has a section on this now.
…FT Business School series of online executive education courses, conducted in partnership with leading business schools. Five professors from the Indian School of Business, in Hyderabad, will deliver lectures on topics such as marketing, microfinance and mobile telephony in a country such as India.
You will probably need a free registration there to view the videos. Seen on the same page, they have an entire series of videos on these and other topics conducted, what appears to be, in partnership with several top B-schools.
~~~
Another atypical yet familiar, weird though not surprising, but a nevertheless interesting story about a 24 year old in Chicago. From Modern Love in NYTimes.
Teachers’ Day Greetings September 4, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in education.add a comment
To all my teachers, wherever you are. Or well, at each of these places to be precise. Or maybe just about any teacher, anywhere.
Update (9/12) : A related post from a teacher.
Leaving Pittsburgh – last day on Campus edition August 31, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in CMU, contemplation, education, image, landmark-post, reminisces-2000.9 comments
Note : Post was written on Aug 27th, 2007, posted only today.
Today is the first day of classes for several hundred students at Carnegie Mellon. For the last few days, I have seen them – the undergrads – walking down corridors, sometimes asking for directions, in cafes discussing courses, in bookstores buying text books ; I see on the lawn having barbecue parties amid music, games and getting-to know-each-other ice-breakers. And then yeah there are the graduate students too, though they appear to have no time for ice-breaker parties (yet), engaged more in search of funding, house-hunting and research advisors.
The irony then is that to me its the last day on campus. Done with my courses, research and pretty much everything expected of me, I walk around campus reminding myself that its going to be the last time for many months/years perhaps before I come back for a visit. Its going to be weird tomorrow when I walk up to meet the administrative assistant to surrender my college ID card, in the process losing pretty much all building permissions and other privileges that come with being a CMU student. I wonder why they need to do that – taking away something that is arguably the most valuable souvenir from our college days, something one had to be carried everywhere, everyday. Besides, my login account including email-ID and campus wireless network permissions die on Aug 31st, 2007. In all likelihood therefore this will be my last post from an IP address that goes 127.237.xxx.xx, the last from the Carnegie Mellon University network.
I have been here at CMU for barely 27 months. When I came here I was planning to be here for at least 5-6-7 years to get my Ph.D. Somewhere along the way I decided the drop plans of a Ph.D – its queer to say the least because when I started applying to US Graduate Schools, admission into the CMU Computer Science PhD program was something I would have given everything for. And now when there was nearly just that opportunity, I have decided to give it a pass and move on, albeit with the plans of a PhD not completely ruled out. Its amazing how things change that much in this little time.
Especially when the task of making it to the CMU program with full scholarship seemed totally unsurmountable. So much so that after one year of trying when funding finally came through, I wrote to a friend where I mention :
Why is this mail looking like such a hyperbole – replete with exaggeration of a past desperation and present fulfillment. If it indeed seems so, it is unfortunate. To an insider person like me, over 2 years of whose life have been spent in singular and mindless pursuit of this cause, whose several waking moments were occupied by an inadequacy and financial insecurity that this situation created, whom it taught, in a foreign land, some of the lasting lessons in handling ambiguity, pressure and humility, whose emails, letters, chats and conversations were surfeit with thoughts of these, some of whose relationships were built on or broken by this occupation and to whom it culminated in the greatest moment of sheer satisfaction involving 1 man, spanning 2 countries, over 3 years, across 4 cities and involving several direct and indirect contributors – it is no overstatement, it is just a fact of life.
Today though I feel at peace. Lot of good things have been happened in the past couple of months – graduated, got exactly the job I wanted, helped my parents to a very successful, worthwhile trip to the US, 3 conference publications went through and its been generally more peaceful since it was not really that hectic at work.
Of course, if I were doing my masters program all over again, I would do several things differently – read more research papers, spend more time on homeworks and submit them on time , pay more attention in some of the courses and develop a stronger social circle of geeks (and savants ?? and polymaths ?? 
) etc.
Overall, I am happy about the way things have turned out with my program, even about my decision to not immediately continue into a PhD program. I did not want to indifferently drift into the another 3-5 years commitment, nor did I want to be on cruise control and hurry myself into it. I now have a conscious discontinuity that will allow me to experience life as something other than a student (first since June 1985 I guess ), in a different place over 3000 miles away (albeit in the same country), working on similar but not quite similar problems, with a wholly different set of individuals, in a different (corporate) setup, with a substantially higher remuneration. In short, I am bringing about a complete overhaul in my ‘condition of life’.
Yet, there is sadness. I learnt a lot just being on campus at Carnegie Mellon and brushed shoulders with some great guys. 2 years there and I have come out a really different person.
Comparing this to other times of leaving school or college is called for. Mysteriously, leaving KREC meant pretty much nothing. As for Boston University, I mourned leaving Boston more than leaving BU . Leaving IISc was sad but anticipation of the unknown world was a compensation. Leaving Little Rock in 1999 (high school) and CMU will rank among those sad partings, but for entirely different reasons. Leaving Little Rock was about missing all those great times I had with that relatively large friends’ circle and the school, with its walls, grounds and buses, which was my home of 10 years. Leaving CMU is something which I may take a while to even describe to myself, a sadness that is intensely personal, one that has little to do with people out there.
On balance though, I now know its possible to be immensely happy and equally sad at the same time in a way that does not add up to zero (indifference). This is that one moment.
Assorted links again August 31, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in America, assorted, education, geo-politics.add a comment
Funniest movie review ever. Ever. Ever !! )
~~~
For several years now, I have seen and heard people mention about how IIMB ends up interviewing (and hence admitting) a rather different sample of students compared to the other IIMs. Very often there were those who only got an interview call from IIMB (not from L, K or I either). Not very surprising, now that we know that while IIMB does use Class X/XII criterion, IIMA does not. Well, we would of course to hear from the other 4 IIMs to be sure, but this puzzle will soon be unravelled.
~~~
From a NYTimes article on India’s growing defence might.
Determined to build a domestic arms industry, India is requiring foreign suppliers to make a sizable portion of any military goods in this country. In the case of the jet fighter contract, the successful bidder must produce goods worth half the contract’s value in India. So, the American companies have been busily pairing up with locals.
So far, most partnerships are little more than agreements to collaborate on future projects. In February, Raytheon and the electronics division of the Indian giant Tata Power signed such an agreement. The same month, Boeing signed an accord with an Indian engineering firm, Larsen & Toubro, to develop new projects. And Northrop Grumman has signed on with Bharat Electronics and Dynamatic Technologies, both of Bangalore, to investigate joint opportunities.
Very smart ! This is the advantage of being in a competitive market – with billions at stake, you are in a strong position to negotiate terms.
~~~
Oh, oh !
Mr. Marshall’s sagging pants, a style popularized in the early 1990s by hip-hop artists, are becoming a criminal offense in a growing number of communities, including his own. Starting in Louisiana, an intensifying push by lawmakers has determined pants worn low enough to expose underwear poses a threat to the public, and they have enacted indecency ordinances to stop it.
Here is more :
Following a pattern of past fashion bans, the sagging prohibitions are seen by some as racially motivated because the wearers are young, predominantly African-American men. Yet, this legislation has been proposed largely by African-American officials.
From the Times.
~~~
An ex-teacher’s farewell note August 27, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in KREC, contemplation, education.7 comments
Staying on the NITK (KREC) topic, for several months now I have been hearing of “all kinds of politics going on at KREC Suratkal” and how the “college was going to dogs”. I had no real access to details but just heard isolated messages about some of the characters involved.
Just a while ago, I happened to visit this community on Orkut honoring Dr. P. Subanna Bhat, among the most admired, respected and loved faculty members at NITK, who after 24 years of service resigned from college, rather crest-fallen due to political machinations (partly targeting him) that appear to have driven the college from bad to worse. (Note: this has no effect on job placements or the overall ranking). One of the community members has put up his farewell letter online which I am reposting here.
A personal note by Dr. P. Subbanna Bhat, Professor, Dept of E&C Engg, on leaving NITK)
Dear friends,
Today (May 01, 2007), I have submitted my VRS papers to the Director, NITK with a request to be relieved from the service of NITK three months from now, on Aug 01, 2007.
In fact, for quite some time I was thinking of quitting NITK for good. It is a hard
decision, as I have lived 31 years of my life in this campus. It is in this Institute that I studied and it is here that I have spent more than two decades of my professional life (1+23 years). I have worked at all levels of faculty position (Asst. Lecturer, Lecturer, Asst. Professor, Professor, HOD, Senator etc), and I believe that God would be pleased with my devotion to duty and sincerity of purpose. I feel that I have made my contribution – along with others – to the quality of education in the Institute. I am leaving the Dept of E&C with a name and stature higher than what it was two decades ago. I have decided to terminate this association now, as I feel that one should live only as long as necessary and that my time is over. Though there are things to be improved on every front – that is always the case, in any Dept or Institute – now I should leave it to others to carry the torch.This Institute has been some kind of a Mother to me. I came here as a boy of 16 from my village (Aug 04, 1969) ; and grew up to be some kind of a professional, and spent 24 years as a faculty member. During this period I served her like a son – with all my heart – no matter who sat on the Chair. The ride was by no means smooth – primarily because I was rather naïve at dealing with the ‘authorities’ – and at least three times during this interval I was emotionally shattered 1990, 1998 and 2005). The first two instances were related to my professional aspirations, and he last of them was due to the happenings in the Institute – following the Govt. order sacking irectors of several NITs (March 23,2005) – over which nobody seemed to have had any control.
I confess that I am naïve even now, and am unable to cope with many developments. I visualize two (extreme) models of professionals : one that works for the Institute; and the other works for oneself – but often projects it as working for the ‘boss’. Each of us is a mix of both, in varying degrees. [Personally, I have a difficulty in projecting the first component – which is sacred activity – as the second !]. For a number of years, I remained rooted in the belief that recognition and reward would follow the first model. The consequence of this naiveté was a devastating emotional experience, which I could barely handle (Jan 1990). I interpreted it as a consequence of my ignorance of the etiquettes of dealing (supplication, genuflection etc.) with the ‘higher authorities’ ! Though the experience was intense, it did not change my character; and as a consequence, I had to undergo a second lesson – eight years later (Oct 1998) – planned and executed with great skill and aplomb! It caused me considerable distress; even so, I was able to retain my personal dignity and poise. However, it made me very sensitive to the ‘messages’ emanating from the Chair! The last of my major ordeals started about two years ago – the intensity of which was in direct proportion to my attachment to the Institute. My current decision to quit NITK, is partly an attempt to bring it to a close.
As an alumnus of this Institute, I wish that my Mother’s face shines brighter and becomes visible across the Globe. The NITK vision is to become a ‘world-class Institution’. Over the years, we have been hearing it (from the podium) – that NITK has the potential to achieve just that – which may be true – but I feel sad that I may not live long enough to see it happening. I feel that the achievement of NITK – or that of any other NIT in the country – during the first 46 years of their existence is far less that what other Institutes of repute – Harvard, Stanford, MIT, etc.- have achieved in comparable time frame s. When I seek the reasons for this impasse, I find two of them quite prominent:
The identity of an Institute is seen in the set of norms – declared, understood and observed – that serves as the Frame of reference for all those who work for the Institution. These norms may (or may not) be enshrined in the Vision & Mission statements – if they are, it is certainly helpful – but what is more important is that it should be enshrined in the traditions adhered and upheld by the Institute over a period.
Traditions are more forceful than the engraved (Vision & Mission) statements in the Book; for live traditions are intuitively understood and internalized by the people in the system. Healthy tradition of clearly defined norms applied uniformly without discrimination is the hard ground upon which Institutions are built; it is only on such ground that individuals feel comfortable that their contributions will be evaluated on merit, and they can hope for recognition and advancement on the basis of their contributions. It is the tradition of norms and values that provides a Frame of Reference upon which the delicate creeper of initiative leans and spirals upwards to finally bears fruits of achievement.
The soul of an Institute is its faculty – and its worth can be measured by the qualification, competence and commitment of its faculty members. The first of these parameters – the qualification – is the easiest to see. The second is more illusive – for judgment based on interviews and recommendations can be erroneous. The last parameter – commitment – may be person-specific to some extent, but to a large extent depends on the environment we create within the Institute. From a broader perspective, commitment of faculty is the most important parameter for an Institute, as a strong commitment can compensate for many other lacunae at various levels. For an Institution to grow and develop, it should create an environment where its own human resource feels comfortable, develops a sense of belonging, and feels motivated to take initiative to improve oneself and the Institute on a continuous basis. Such a policy has to have several components – decentralization (of responsibility as well as authority), a meaningful recognition-reward system etc. – but it can flourish only under a settled environment where norms – declared and understood – are applied uniformly without double standards.
If NITK has to evolve upwards into a ‘world class’ Institute, it has to have a paradigm (Frame of Reference), worthy of such an Institute. Qualitatively, KREC has achieved something noteworthy under its present model; but to achieve something more, it requires a paradigm – which can enthuse and motivate the faculty at a deeper level. I am deeply disenchanted with the present model; I do not wish to continue ploughing the same furrow as earlier, and keep reaping the same harvest as earlier ! I am sure of my ground on this; I have gone through the fire three times. Hence the decision to part.
The Institute is propelled by its own momentum. The joy or distress – even the presence r absence – of an individual like me, may not make much difference to the Institute; but it certainly makes a difference to me. I have spent 24 years of my life holding the Institute as the focus of my activities; now I wish to spend the remaining years on something more meaningful to my life. I am leaving the Institute with a strange mix of feelings – a quiet satisfaction and a stirring frustration – satisfaction on making the best effort at my station, and frustration because my achievement is neither significant nor concrete.
I wish to thank all my friends who made my life easier in the campus. Especially, those who shared my feelings at times of distress; those who lent clarity to my vision and support to my actions; and those who joined me in my prayers and worship.
#Note : The defining moment for the current decision came on March 17, 2007, when the Senate resolved to close’ the ‘bonafide certificate’ issue – without really resolving the basic questions that rise out of it. More than 20 months ago – on June 28, 2005, I had tabled a copy of a ‘bonafide certificate’ issued (to a foreign student, for the purpose of Visa extension) under the name and seal of director, NITK – requesting the Senate to ascertain whether the document was genuine or not. Under normal circumstances it would have taken less than 20 minutes to settle the issue. In this case however, the procession went on for 20 months : Enquiry by a Senate Committee, referral (deflection ) to the BOG (Oct 07, 2006), withdrawal (of the agenda) from the BOG (March 25,2006), re-entry of the agenda to the Senate (Nov 18, 2006), and finally the resolution ‘to close the matter’ (March 17, 2007) – without addressing the original question as to whether the document is genuine or not !
The 20–month long procession was useful: it enabled me to get a full and clear view of the NITK oaradigm – the emperor was on a high chariot, with very few clothes on – from all angles, at all levels! What is the message conveyed, when two top bodies of the Institute – the Board and the Senate – refuse to term a genuine document as ‘genuine’; and a violation as ‘violation’ ? A deliberate and calculated ‘violation’ – prompted by motives that could not be defended in public – further compounded by evasion and defiance (of the Senate (Enquiry) Committee) – was condoned without a word of disapproval; whereas my attempt at exposing such shenanigans was termed as ‘impropriety’ (BOG) ! [Great administrative skill was at play here: The health of the Administration is primarily the responsibility of the BOG – not of the Senate or the faculty. Even so, for all my efforts to expose the rot, the ‘boot’ was deftly placed on my back! That contain s a ‘message’ – my third lesson of the series!!]
If some friends are still hoping to build a ‘world -class’ Institution around this Model, I wish them well – but do not share their hope !
I was in the Electrical Department and as such was not Dr. Bhat’s student baring my participation in a 3-day course on Digital Signal Processing that he conducted at college. Yet, I feel for Dr. Bhat – in my 4 years in college and after, I am yet to hear a student make uncharitable statements about him (except that he was a bit too soft-spoken and his Vajpayee-sque pause in the middle of sentences (to teasingly stimulate thought perhaps) put some uninterested students to sleep during class hours)
Job application process in the US August 16, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in America, education.2 comments
A friend, a software engineer based in the US wrote in asking :
Since you recently started working, I was thinking you could answer my question better. How can I apply for jobs in the USA?
I of course wrote back and see that this information (much of which is common knowledge) may be relevant to just about anybody else. Hence I put this up here. If you have something to add, pls do.
* Look for positions using job search engines – http://www.indeed.com/ , http://www.simplyhired.com/ , http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/ , http://www.job-search-engine.com/
* Upload your resume on Monster.com, yahoo hotjobs
* Use zoominfo to find companies ( http://www.zoominfo.com/ ) – do a company search for a compnay you know and this site gives company details including competitors …so you can find other companies to apply
* Visit company websites (careers section), upload resumes + cover letters
* Since you are short on time, the best thing would be to talk to friends and ask them to forward your resume to their HR etc. ( the employee referral thing )
* See if you can find recruiting/head hunting firms ( for eg: http://www.analyticrecruiting.com/ is one for Quant. anal positions )
American Universities don’t really have a placement process (with a few exceptions) the way colleges in India do and hence the job search process is more unstructured.
Whats the P-SOP ? August 5, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in contemplation, education.add a comment
I wonder what use college essays/Statements of Purpose (SOP) are. In other words, what is the purpose of the statement of purpose (P-SOP) ? Especially given that you can always hire someone to do that for you. And people do. For something like $80.00 per essay in this particular case from Jay Matthews. (Jay Matthews is from the Washington Post and in columns titled “Class Struggles” writes used to write on American Education, mostly regarding high school and after.)
Why do educators still persist with these essays ? If an essay is well-written, what really does it say about the applicant ? That she/he has a great story to tell ? Stories often not verifiable ? That the applicant has excellent command over the English language ? Or knows someone who does ? As with several other measures, these essays have a good purpose – they are pretty much the only part of the application where the applicant does not merely fill blanks with factual details and so it gives her/him some control, perhaps helping them stand out. But as with several other policies, we have to judge them by their results rather than the intention behind them.
Over the last 10 years, I have worked with over 40 essays – where ‘working with’ could mean helped draft/edited/reviewed and in some cases written in full. This is mostly helping friends, or friends of friends or in a scant few cases, juniors from college I have never known. They have ranged from applications for American grad schools to Indian B-schools to American med schools. In all but perhaps 4 cases, there was an existing draft which is somewhat changed – sentences reconstructed, cases of poor grammar edited, inappropriate/out of place words (out of the GRE wordlists) replaced by simple ones. I have now gotten (perhaps long gotten) to a point where I would puke at another request for working on the SOP. But each time I tell myself that this is the last SOP I am working with, I am proved wrong.
I don’t think this is a principled stand I am taking up – I am just numbed looking at a SOP and nothing seems new enough or innovative. Now imagine admission officers who read thousands of SOPs every year. Most SOPs are rehashes of previous SOPs, or some sample college essay ripped from the web. Most of these sample SOPs that I have read out of mere curiosity seem too good to be true, giving admission officers exactly what they expect to see, or rather what we think they expect to see. I have known people who have spent over 2 weeks drafting their essays – some kind of an iterative software design where you want to incorporate every little change that every friend-reviewer wants.
What discriminatory power then does a SOP exhibit ? I hope someone (or more than one ) who has (have) been on admission committees in US graduate school or IIMs or just about anyone knowledgeable reads this post and has comments to offer.
While I wrote this post, I was reminded of my own graduate application days in 2003. I wrote my SOP in 2 sittings, got it reviewed by 2 people ( one of who said no changes were required). It was okay and it turned out the way it did – part mushy, part geeky – because a few sentences are from a letter to a friend. For 3 years now it has been a part of a zipped archive ( along with a few other SOPs and other material) that is the firs thing I send to friends who ask for help with application process (I then solicit specific questions, if they don’t find what they want in the archive). The SOP has gone to so many that its almost pretty much in the public domain. But never mind I thought, I will put it up myself.
Related Link : Previous post on the topic.
To IISc with love July 31, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in KREC, education, india, reminisces-2000.2 comments
( that’s IISc - for those who may not know )
An quick-and-dirty letter to a friend from January 2003. I will just let you read it, produced here verbatim ( but for protecting identity of the recipient ) and hence you will have to forgive those dots.
I have come to love IISc….its seems like a romantic so far untragic classic. There is so much freedom here man. When I talk of discipline..its not something that is imposed..nobody is bothered about when and how I do things…. I have the keys to the lab….I can use any machine that is free…infact most of the time I am working on the main server…..I can go sit and chat with anyone who’s willing to anytime. I can use the phone without anyones permission as long as it is a local call…..
I spent my new year day in a party called together by some Ph.D guys….that involved professors and other students…it was something different…These are people who are learned ….with achievements in their field and its nice to brush shoulders with them….Some of them are really eccentric…I must agree…I am treated like a human being…a socially and intellectually responsible individual who is doing something serious…..which may not benefit the institution but it does benefit him…Its a true celebration of learning in its most virgin forms….and I havent seen this anywhere…..I dont deny that there may be better places than IISc…(not in India though)…but this is the best I have seen…..
On Jan 10th….I stayed at the IISc lab…just had some enthu….and stayed overnight…..was alone in that building….it was a new experience…just imagine man…this is the amount of faith that they put in you…..
It was great interacting with the students there…the Ph.D the tech guys….some of these are guys with good perspectives…..I actually came to know more about what reserach is like….what kind of effort it entails….perhaps this brought one of the bigger revelations that I have had here…yeah ..just the feeling that I am capable of reserch……that I can hang on long enough….that when you love your work…its not work anymore. I am beginning to feel it in a totally different way…..
Its a fresher mind…..free of most disturbances that would bug us at KREC. Somehow cant imagine being so much at peace with that place…although i will miss KREC once I leave…..it will be because of MY four years life spent there….and a few people i met …not because the [lace itself was great. On second thoughts it may be tough for any UG school to have the atmosphere that a research kind of place like IISc does…primarily because a UG school especially in India consists of any tom dick and harry who had a momentary lapse of reason during the post class XII period…!!….A research oriented place attracts people who are really motivated and believe me….THAT makes all the difference….
I am having thoughts of continuing in IISc as a research assistant for a year from June….if they are paying…Funds are scarce and it could be tough…but I would rather do something in my field ( DSP) that adds to my resume than hang around in Wipro ( VLSI ). Am not very sure ….but yeah……its on top of my mind right now…..
I don’t know if there is much to add to that except some background
This was in the middle of my month long work in Dec 02-Jan 2003. For those of you who know me, I went back to the same lab for another year ( July 2003-Jun 2004 ) to work with Dr. T.V. Sreenivas at the ECE Department as an honorary research assistant with the explicit purpose of building research credentials. In the meantime I applied for graduate programs in the United States ; my work with Prof. Sreenivas at IISc ( 2 international conference publications ) may have made all the difference in securing admissions and scholarship for graduate studies. And I shall be immensely grateful to the IISc/”Tata Institute” (as its better known, at least among BTC bus conductors ) and my professor for the opportunity.
Criteria for IIMs July 27, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in education, india, reminisces-1990s.4 comments
I like it when an independent body or the judiciary is able to arm twist a government body into doing what it would otherwise have never done. Here is an example -
But how well you do in CAT — after you have been shortlisted which means you have made it to at least the top 10% of all applicants — makes up only a fifth of your final score when it comes to securing an IIM admission. In fact, it’s your Class X and Class XII results that account for more — 25% of the final score; your Bachelor’s degree 15%. The factor with the maximum weightage is your performance in group discussion (GD), GD summary and personal interview — 35%. The balance 5% depends on work experience and whether you have taken a “professional course”.
Such details have been revealed for the first time by the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore which conducted the CAT last year after it was forced by the Central Information Commission to do so last fortnight. This direction came after 22-year-old visually challenged woman Vaishnavi Kasturi, was first refused information by IIMB. The institute declined to give details until the CIC intervened.
What are the possible reasons for not having done this earlier ? Or more generally under what circumstances should an education institution not lay down the criterion on which they admit students ? It would make sense if it is possible to ‘game’ the system by doing well on their criterion and nothing else.
For example, the IITs have been forced to change their exam patterns over the years because they believed that coaching is playing too much of a role and that selection procedure does not throw up the right pool of candidates. For the record, I have not followed this issue well enough to say if the current pattern has gone any distance towards solving the problem.
But in this particular case, it is unforgivable that they were not willing to reveal even the various factors that do matter. (perhaps even without stating the relative importance of each – much like US college/grad school admissions). This matters if a candidate who for some reason did not do well in Class X wants to improve his chances by focusing his energies accordingly. I know one might argue that a good candidate is good anyday and so one must always try to do his/her best irrespective of which factor is more important. But that would only be an artificial system because in the real world we are always faced with having to prioritize and fill gaps when we encounter them. By the way, I now have a feeling this might even deter some who did not do well in X, XII and their Bachelors to not even attempt the CAT ( with an eye on the IIMs at least).
I remember preparing for the IITJEE in the late 90s and not ever knowing what was the likely cut off – what mattered, what did not, whether one of the papers was more important, whether the number of attempts were a factor, there was no information about what branches you are likely to get at what rank and which IIT. Thinking back it might seem silly and its always silly for us ’somewhat’ grown ups to sermonize on how one must not study with the end in mind and just enjoy the process. It is also not funny for 17 year old planning out his time it really is not. And this only encouraged rumors and these rumor-monger flourished.
Also I don’t think its fair to weigh one’s Class X marks on similar footing as Bachelor’s degree scores. Further, how do they reconcile the not-so-standard grading systems across different colleges/schools/levels ?
Of course, I don’t want the IIT/IIM system to end up like this. Not everything should be laid out to such level of detail that you can game the system. But I am glad we are seeing what we are.
P.S : Prof. Abinandanan, a faculty member at IISc has been covering these and other higher education related issues on nanopolitan. I would be keen to hear his views on this.
Computer Science – reflections July 11, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in contemplation, education, littlerockers, reminisces-1990s.2 comments
2 sentences that baffled me today :
1. Web search engines have become fixtures in our society, but few people realize that they are actually publicly accessible supercomputing systems, where a single query can unleash the power of several hundred processors operating on a data set of over 200 terabytes.
Thats coming from Randy Bryant, Dean, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
2. The year 2004 was the first year that human beings produced more transistors than grains of rice (~10 quintillion).
From Ed Lazowska, University of Washington and Chair, Computing Community Consortium
Reading more such facts and looking through the abstracts of the talks here you get feel for something that computer science is about and where it is going. And there is nothing like having an idea about the history of the field as well where it is going and where the medium term challenges lay (something to which I cannot make a claim). And then of course there is a need to make a distinction between Computer Science and Software Engineering (I am not talking about new programming languages).
Consider our Chemistry class in Class XI back in Little Rock, Brahmavar. We were taught Dalton’s model of the atom and then the next class we would told something was wrong with it and then Rutherford came along whom Bohr proved wrong and then great Max Planc along with other quantum physicists (which included Bohr himself) proved it all wrong or incomplete. It was amusing to see that much of the quantum theory developed even before the neutron was discovered (in 1934). I remember thinking what was point of learning about everything that was already proven wrong and incorrect. That science is a thought process rather than a mere set of facts or theories was something that missed me.
I am interested in education and make no secret of it. No, not just in the process of educating myself, but in looking back critically at my own education from primary school in early 90s. As a Computer Science student in high school and secondary school, our idea of the field of the Computer Science was rather limited – the science was often confused with programing and technology. I don’t know if things are too different today.
In fact I don’t consider myself much of a CS person, nor infact an EE person. Hence for those who still don’t know what I am talking about, this entry will be useful. (Try finding the word “C++”/”Java” on that page )
On being different July 1, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in America, education, india.4 comments
Daphne Merkin’s apprehensions about her daughter, who through high school is seen taking stands and making decisions that involve breaking away from prevailing trends, swimming against the tide. I like this paragraph :
Although as a culture we bemoan the perils of groupthink, it can be very cold once you move beyond the circle of warmth that is the reward for adding your voice to the collective chorus. We celebrate loners and visionaries, but we tend to do so only after the fact, when the class nerd who sat by himself in the lunchroom ends up writing a best-selling software program. Defiant individualism is fine if it succeeds, but for every misfit who becomes a Charles Bukowski or R. Crumb there is one who becomes Jeffrey Dahmer or the Unabomber. Striking up a different tune has always come with certain costs, beginning with ridicule and ending with social ostracism. A famous loner of a British poet once noted that “our virtues are all social” and that there is always the lurking possibility that what you stand for on your lonesome is nothing more than “a compensating make-believe.”
Not because this in any way relates to a personal experience, which in fact was quite the opposite.
I find it a certain paradox about America – in the land where individuality is valued most, I think everyone’s effort to be different ends up with everyone moving lock in step. For instance, I imagine whether girls that hate the pink color have a tough time in American schools 
.
From my experience, being different in India costs you your relations with the authorities – whether at school or with adults in the family/neighborhood. However, peer groups are more accommodating of mavericks. I wonder that in America it is the opposite – mavericks are seen by authorities as someone with promise, while they are viewed as a threat to one’s own popularity by peers.
Not an expert on the topic, really appreciate your opinions.
Arguing for an un-education system March 28, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in education.2 comments
I was walking past a book rack in the Carnegie Library when my eyes fell upon a 2565 page thick book on the topic : “Heart”. Hats off to you Cardiologists. Will all my knowledge on any single topic fit into 2565 pages ?
~~~
I somersault and turn to this post by Bryan Caplan.
But three decades of experience, combined with two decades of reading and reflection, have convinced me that our educational system is a big waste of time and money. Practically every politician vows to spend more on education, and as an insider, I can’t helping asking “Why? Do you want us to waste even more?”
Most people who criticize our education system complain that we aren’t spending our money in the right way, or that ideologues-in-teachers’-clothes are leading our nation’s children down a dark path. While I mildly sympathize with some of these complaints, they often contradict what I see as the real problem with our educational system: There’s simply far too much education going on. The typical student burns up thousands of hours of his time learning about things that neither raise his productivity nor enrich his life. And of course, a student can’t waste thousands of hours of his time without real estate to do it in, or experts to show him how.
We in India have the same complaints about our education system although the two countries have very different systems. So if Bryan is right, does it mean that the only characteristic that American and Indian systems share is their irrelevance and distance from reality ?
Staying on the topic, David Friedman provides what he calls the unschooling alternative.
There are a number of alternatives to the conventional model. The one we have chosen is unschooling–leaving our children free to control their own time, learn whatever they find of interest. I sometimes describe it as throwing books at them and seeing which ones stick. In our case the sticky ones included The Selfish Gene (my daughter at about 12), How to Lie With Statistics (both kids), How to Take A Chance (a popular book on probability theory, of especial interest to my son, at about ten, because of his interest in role playing games), and lots of fiction, much of it intended for adults.
No doubt they will end up not knowing several of the things on the standard curriculum–as will many of those subject to it. But my son has learned more history and geography from books and computer games than he would have in elementary school history classes–and avoided the fatal lesson that learning things is boring work, to be avoided whenever possible. My daughter has some catching up to do in math before she is ready for college–but both kids regard solving two equations with two unknowns (and integer solutions) as an entertaining puzzle.
“throwing books at them and seeing which ones stick”, do I love that expression !
This ofcourse raises other issues – schools provide a way to socialize, get children used to staying away from their parents, imbibe certain discipline – getting to a certain place in time, doing things on time etc. – which are valuable skills. Ofcourse some of these may be taught at home, but it might be too much trouble. I think in some sense schooling is parents’ way of out-sourcing some part of their children’s upbringing to people who have a comparative advantage in doing it. Outsourcing has become a bad word I know, but I think for technical, practical and social reasons, it is hard to expect parents to spend all their day for years together teaching their child a whole lot of things.
So like someone who is not really sure of what he wants, I try to take the middle path. – while I may not go all the way down Friedman’s path, I think some of his ideas are worth …er.. stealing
Delog’s coffee and other economics blogs June 3, 2006
Posted by Sharath Rao in blogging, economics, education, people.add a comment
After the bragging I did here, for a while now I have been meaning to make a long post. No, I really was – its not like how a friend you havent called for months calls you and you without sparing a moment, confidenctly say, “Oh ! I was just about to call you”. I dont know why I said what I did so far, because this is going to be one of the shorter posts.
Check this one out. Brad Delog is a Berkeley economist who was a top ranking official during a part of Clinton years. He has started this series Morning Coffee videocast as he calls it, probably paraphrasing FD Roosevelt’s radio fireside chats during his presidency years. In his first videocast here , he mentions the reason he wants to go about this – “in the attempt to raise the level of economic debate, to inform and entertain, to teach you something that you ought to know, to help to recreate the missing public sphere of rational discourse about our collective destinies ( pauses ..drinks coffee…), and also to drink coffee !! ”
I like the idea. I am getting access to free economic, public policy education/awareness from one of America’s top economists. I know its probably not as prestigious as being enrolled in a Berkeley economics program but thats the whole point. We need to create centers of excellence of knowledge and creativity like the research universities but their purpose is not practise to exclusivity. We need branding – but we must promote a brand not by creating a artificial scarcity shortage ( which, by the way, is exactly what is happening in case of IITs and IIMs in India ) but by promoting excellence and providing a vibrant research atmosphere.
Lets make knowledge as universally accessible as we possibly can. The MIT Opencourseware and the MIT Videos are two excellent examples of this. These, however are instances where the individual faculty members have to spend time making this feasible. In the former case, existing course materials etc. are made available to the general public for free. Why does Delog want to do it ? Why would he spend time maintaining the blog, recording these chats when there is no apparently monetary benefit – many of these blogs have no ads – and even if there are, with a limited audience consisting of academicians and policy wonks perhaps, these ads are unlikely to generate any significant revenue to justify the use of their time. And its not just Delog, but other blogs I frequent – Greg Mankiw at Harvard ( one of the best economics blogs ! ), Nobelist Gary Becker at Chicago among others who are also faculty members at elite universities maintain a blog – why do they do this ?
This post from Prof. Mankiw partially answers this question.
How to make an utter fool of yourself April 27, 2006
Posted by Sharath Rao in KREC, education, rant.1 comment so far
I discovered this recently – well, I rather saw someone discover it for himself just a while ago would be a better way to put it.
Go here to know how the USENET community can be so unforgiving of newbees who arent careful enough to follow time honored conventions ( like reading the manual ) or trying out something before asking for help.
The reason I quote it here is that I get mails very often from friends, acquaintances and friends/acquaintances of acquiantances some who I havent ever met and am unlikely to ever meet. ( Some of these I resolve never to want to meet once I read their mail, I will mention why later on) . These are mails asking for some help/information/tips etc. about applying for graduate school/review SOPs/ask about universities to apply etc.
And this is how I handle the issue. Over the years I have maintained an archive of mails I received and replied to and collated enough material of my own and my typical approach is to send that material through email first and then solicit questions. This is simply in going with the philosophy of a FAQ - that lots of people tend to have similar questions and that we can go quite a length solving the problem by just seeing how others have solved similar problems.
Understandably, people still have specific questions that dont find a place in that material that I am more than happy to take. Sometimes however, I am surprised people return with questions that are not inane by themselves but that can be easily googled for. Now dont get me wrong – I have been involved in several application processes and its been a pleasure helping people. Sometimes however, you get a feeling that your ’services’ are abused. Here are some of the most unanswerable or not-wanting-to-answer type of questions I have received -
“Should I do a MS or PhD ? “
“Whether Indian foods are available in City X ?”
“Can you give me a list of faculty members who are working in area X in University X ?”
To put on record my frustration I would like to quote from a mail I wrote a while back -
….with this is that most ppl ask u questions as if they have the right to do it – they do it without doing any background research on their own – to save their time and waste ours……they ask open questions…ask stupid questions …ask vague questions….ask long essay type questions …
i strongly recommend that their questions be
1. specific
2. backed by some research done by themselves
3. reasonable – if they are reasonable enuf, they know what questions are reasonable.
in other words…we gotta be the last resort – not the first casualty….!
The internet has thrown up a vast array of sources and they should be made use of. And its not just me – several graduate students host a separate section on their website – either providing advice or just ranting about why they cannot – mostly for above reasons.
This is an excellent one.
And this is another.
Needless to clarify, the purpose of this post is obviously not to discourage my good friends with whom I go to considerable length ( and even getting emotionally involved in their issues ) or even to genuine well-meaning and *reasonable* individuals. Those who matter will understand this, and those who dont understand, well, dont matter.
Kudos Rajat ! April 18, 2006
Posted by Sharath Rao in education, india, people.add a comment
Rajat Gupta is one man to appreciate. He knows a thing or two ( and more ! ) about institution building. This man built up one up – the ISB – from scratch and is on the way to another.
Personally, I have no patience with people who attempt to cover up their selfishness and/or incompetence with their disguised/cultivated cynicism.
Some excerpts from his interview with Shekhar.
I was admitted to the IIM, but I went to Harvard because I had the best jobs coming out of IIT and had an admission in IIM. About Harvard, it was one of the best business schools in the US and everybody said there you can’t get any financial aid and can’t get an admission without experience. But it so happened that they not only gave me admission but also gave me full financial aid. I didn’t have any money to go. I remember the job offer I had was at ITC. Haksar was the chairman at the time and I sent him a letter saying I can’t join. He said nobody has turned us down so you have to come and explain why you can’t join. He’d sent me an air ticket to come to Calcutta. That was my first flight in my life. I told him, look, either I join you or I can go to Harvard Business School. And he said, go to Harvard Business School, he was a graduate himself.
Here he talks about our socialist mentality – which basically says – the cake is fixed and forever – we can only make smaller and smaller pieces from it until none is left.
I don’t believe you can solve it by quotas. I believe in expanding the opportunity, expanding the supply. If there were 10 times more IITs or IIMs, there will be opportunity for everyone.
