Its taken me a while to realize this....but better late than never ..i found quite a bit of similarities between Industry and the academia. The calendar for a typical industry would look like hire, train, design, develop and sell your product. At each stage we have deadlines and targets. The academia has similar stuff - admit new students, teach them courses and get them engaged in research .. u might wonder well whats the output.. here it is -> lots of publications in renowned journals. The calendar of academia for any Prof is lined up with various conferences and workshops for that year and which ones to target for publishing research. Coming to targets -> masters students have fewer publishing requirements - typically 1 to 2, whereas PhD's cant graduate without at least 5 publications. Isnt this similar to giving a new joinee a small target and the people at the top a higher goal?
Academia runs like a corporate powerhouse too, with promotions for Professors based on their research output, number of students who graduate under them and so on.
It feels great to have experienced both sides of this equally for almost a year now!
I coin a new term here - the Duality of academia and industry.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Anubhav vikat ghetla
Today I really got to know the meaning of the Marathi proverb - "anubhav vikat ghyaycha asto". I wanted to try something fundu after my midterm, so walked straight to the most expensive on campus food court - Sbarro. Didnt want to eat the regular cheese pizza, neither wanted to try non-veg stuff - although all this is excellent at Sbarro! I ordered a "Spinach Strombolli" - just thought of Popeye the sailor man, thought of gaining some instant strength with this. But alas, it tasted horrible - i couldnt eat more than 2 morsels, the accompanying sauce was much better ..
At the end of day, I had shedded $5 (Rs.200 approx, cant resist this conversion even after 7 months in Amrika - passing thought -> cud have had a great Gujarati thali with sweet dish at Bhola near my house) and I remained hungry - thanks to Sbarro!
Lesson of the day -> u need to buy experiences , hope it is not that costly in the future!!
At the end of day, I had shedded $5 (Rs.200 approx, cant resist this conversion even after 7 months in Amrika - passing thought -> cud have had a great Gujarati thali with sweet dish at Bhola near my house) and I remained hungry - thanks to Sbarro!
Lesson of the day -> u need to buy experiences , hope it is not that costly in the future!!
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Live at Blacksburg
The last week has been pretty normal, life picking up after a week long Spring Break - a refreshing one indeed!
The weathers been good in general, with Amrus leaving no chance to wear skimpy clothes when Sun God is out.
My research continues at a slow pace.. i can best describe it as the TCP congestion window algorithm, where it grows exponentially until I reach a point where i am stuck (the congestion phase) and then I drop down to half of my original enthu, sometimes even forget about it for a day (like the TCP Tahoe)..a typical saw tooth curve!!
The Holi Hungama organized by ISA is the upcoming event this weekend - i really appreciate the organizers for finding time to do all this and keep the Indianness alive!
Midterms round the corner and i can smell that the questions are gonna be tough.. better get going and improve my throughput..
The weathers been good in general, with Amrus leaving no chance to wear skimpy clothes when Sun God is out.
My research continues at a slow pace.. i can best describe it as the TCP congestion window algorithm, where it grows exponentially until I reach a point where i am stuck (the congestion phase) and then I drop down to half of my original enthu, sometimes even forget about it for a day (like the TCP Tahoe)..a typical saw tooth curve!!
The Holi Hungama organized by ISA is the upcoming event this weekend - i really appreciate the organizers for finding time to do all this and keep the Indianness alive!
Midterms round the corner and i can smell that the questions are gonna be tough.. better get going and improve my throughput..
Friday, March 10, 2006
Ich lerne Java
I finally got the motivation to learn Java programming - our Networks project!
Socket pogamming in C was done ages back and I wanted some real take aways from the project besides learning about network parameters and its working. That drove me to explore Java APIs for networks - and they are amazing. Java beautifully has everything to make a programmers life easy - one liner statements (use Eclipse and u dont even need to type one line completely).
The outcome - faster development cycle and GodCatch ends up learning Java, adding one more arrow to his resume.
Its the feel good factor, i "finally" have "synchronized" with the "thread" called Java!
Friends - happy coding!
Socket pogamming in C was done ages back and I wanted some real take aways from the project besides learning about network parameters and its working. That drove me to explore Java APIs for networks - and they are amazing. Java beautifully has everything to make a programmers life easy - one liner statements (use Eclipse and u dont even need to type one line completely).
The outcome - faster development cycle and GodCatch ends up learning Java, adding one more arrow to his resume.
Its the feel good factor, i "finally" have "synchronized" with the "thread" called Java!
Friends - happy coding!
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Techie wars
Every morning in Seattle, Bill Gates awakens. He has only one thought on his mind: To be able to earn faster than the fastest competitor - Google. If he cannot, then he will be eaten.
Every morning in California, Larry Page awakens. He has only one thought on his mind: To be able to earn faster than the fierce competitor - Microsoft. If he cannot, he will be eaten.
Whether you choose to be with Microsoft or Google is of no consequence. It is enough to know that with the rising of the sun, you must code and earn. And you must code better and earn more than you did yesterday or you will die (ur job will be Banglored).
"This is the race of money."
Every morning in California, Larry Page awakens. He has only one thought on his mind: To be able to earn faster than the fierce competitor - Microsoft. If he cannot, he will be eaten.
Whether you choose to be with Microsoft or Google is of no consequence. It is enough to know that with the rising of the sun, you must code and earn. And you must code better and earn more than you did yesterday or you will die (ur job will be Banglored).
"This is the race of money."
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Spring Break
Hurray! its time for Spring break - which means half of the semester is gone..can u believe it!
U ask me plans for the break - definitely not Florida again, though this is the ideal time to be sun basking and bird watching on Miami beach. For me, the break will be much better than the Thanksgiving one I had in Fall, when there were 3 courses and 2 projects due and lots of other stuff like writing a paper on my research, etc.
This ones surely a bit relaxed - might plan a cricket match with desis in Blacksburg, plan to go to my favorite research space VBI - its a lot of fun when all friends like Lele ( i actually call him "aho Lele" bcoz he is a typical Mumbaikar), our annadata - Seth (aka HokieSam aka Sameer Tupe) - who has made VBI his first home due to thesis overload or shud I call hotel with eatables like chakli, khakra, wafers, donuts, etc specially from his India trip) and Farid, Kash and Aseem who hang around occasionally. As you all might have imagined, I am the one disturbing all these guys by dropping in to say hi and eating up their precious time by talking nonsense.
Other plans include doing a Networks project, thesis and Advanced systems paper reading. Hope to spend a decent break in Blacksburg and hope i dont have to spend the summer here ( those who know me will get this)!
Enjoy Hokies!
U ask me plans for the break - definitely not Florida again, though this is the ideal time to be sun basking and bird watching on Miami beach. For me, the break will be much better than the Thanksgiving one I had in Fall, when there were 3 courses and 2 projects due and lots of other stuff like writing a paper on my research, etc.
This ones surely a bit relaxed - might plan a cricket match with desis in Blacksburg, plan to go to my favorite research space VBI - its a lot of fun when all friends like Lele ( i actually call him "aho Lele" bcoz he is a typical Mumbaikar), our annadata - Seth (aka HokieSam aka Sameer Tupe) - who has made VBI his first home due to thesis overload or shud I call hotel with eatables like chakli, khakra, wafers, donuts, etc specially from his India trip) and Farid, Kash and Aseem who hang around occasionally. As you all might have imagined, I am the one disturbing all these guys by dropping in to say hi and eating up their precious time by talking nonsense.
Other plans include doing a Networks project, thesis and Advanced systems paper reading. Hope to spend a decent break in Blacksburg and hope i dont have to spend the summer here ( those who know me will get this)!
Enjoy Hokies!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)